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How do I prepare for maintenance on my Direct Connect connection?
I received a notification that my AWS Direct Connect connection is scheduled for maintenance. I want to prepare for this downtime.
Resolution
Direct Connect maintenance periods can last from minutes to hours. To prepare for scheduled maintenance and minimize network disruption, complete the following actions.
Review the maintenance notification
Review the maintenance details to understand the impact of the scheduled downtime and determine which resources are affected.
- Check AWS Health Dashboard and email for maintenance details
- Identify affected connections and virtual interfaces
- Assess impact on applications and services
Choose a backup strategy
Before maintenance begins on your Direct Connect connection, take one of the following actions:
Request a redundant or backup Direct Connect connection or implement AWS Site-to-Site VPN as a backup.
It's a best practice to redirect traffic to an alternative circuit before Direct Connect maintenance. To prevent production traffic disruption, set up one of the backup options before the scheduled maintenance period. You can also use the AWS Direct Connect Resiliency Toolkit to perform a failover test to verify the resiliency of your connections.
Improve resilience
To make your network more resilient, use redundant Direct Connect connections.
Set up multiple connections at the same colocation site:
- Ensure continuous availability throughout maintenance
- Provide automatic failover capability
Set up connections at geographically distinct sites:
- Safeguard against site-wide issues
- Support disaster recover
For more information about how to request a new Direct Connect dedicated connection, see Request an AWS Direct Connect dedicated connection.
Use a VPN backup for Direct Connect
Configure a Site-to-Site VPN as a failover for your Direct Connect connection to improve network resilience. Confirm your minimum bandwidth requirements before you create a VPN backup. Site-to-Site VPN typically offers lower bandwidth than Direct Connect.
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