Accessing a VPC over Two Direct Connect Connections Terminated at Two Locations Through Static Routes (Virtual Gateway)

Overview

Your on-premises data center can access a VPC in the same region through two Direct Connect connections, a virtual gateway, and static routes. The two connections work in active/active and load balancing mode and can automatically switch over in the event of a failure, eliminating single points of failure.

Resource and Cost Planning

The following table describes the resource planning in the best practice.

Process Flowchart

In this scenario, the on-premises network connects to the VPC over two connections that are terminated at two locations in the same region, and static routes are used to route traffic between the on-premises network and the VPC.

Step 1: Create a Connection

1. Go to the Connections page.
2. In the upper left corner of the page, click and select a region and project.
3. Click Create Connection. Configure the following parameters:
   • Region: CN-Hong Kong
   • Connection Name: dc-connect1
   • Location: Hong Kong-Sha Tin
   • Port Type: 1GE
   • Leased Line Bandwidth (Mbit/s): 100

   Configure other parameters based on service requirements.

4. Submit the request for review.
5. Contact the carrier for cabling after your request is approved.
6. Confirm the cabling on the console after the cabling is complete.
7. Confirm the Direct Connect configuration and complete the payment.
8. Wait until the Huawei Cloud construction is complete and the status changes to Normal.

Repeat the preceding steps to create another connection named dc-connect2 and select HK-Sai Kung-Mobile as the location.

Step 2: Create a Virtual Gateway

A virtual gateway is the core gateway for a Direct Connect connection to access a VPC. Two Direct Connect connections share one virtual gateway for load balancing.

1. Go to the Virtual Gateways page.
2. Click Create Virtual Gateway.
   Key configuration parameters:

   • Name: vgw-test
   • VPC: Select the target VPC.
   • Local Subnet: 192.168.0.0/16
   • BGP ASN: 64512 by default

   Configure other parameters based on service requirements.

3. Click OK and wait until the status changes to Normal.

Step 3: Create a Virtual Interface

Create a virtual interface for each connection and associate them with the same virtual gateway for dual-connection load balancing.

1. Create virtual interface vif-test1.
   1. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Direct Connect > Virtual Interfaces.
   2. Click Create Virtual Interface.

      Key configuration parameters:

      • Name: vif-test1
      • Virtual Interface Priority: Preferred
      • Connection: dc-connect1
      • Gateway: Virtual gateway
      • Virtual Gateway: vgw-test
      • VLAN: 30
      • Bandwidth (Mbit/s): 100
      • Local Gateway (Huawei Cloud): 10.0.0.1/30
      • Remote Gateway (Customer): 10.0.0.2/30
      • Routing Mode: Static
      • Remote Subnet: 10.1.123.0/24

      Configure other parameters based on service requirements.

   3. Click Create Now.
2. Create virtual interface vif-test2.

   Repeat the creation process and modify the following parameters:

   • Name: vif-test2
   • Connection: dc-connect2
   • VLAN: 32
   • Local Gateway: 10.0.0.5/30
   • Remote Gateway: 10.0.0.6/30
   • Remote Subnet: 10.1.123.0/24

   Retain other parameters the same as those of virtual interface vif-test1.

Step 4: Configure On-Premises Routes

Configure two equal-cost static routes on the on-premises gateway. (A Huawei-developed device is used as an example here.)

# Point to the Huawei Cloud gateway of Direct Connect connection dc-connect1.
ip route-static 192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 10.0.0.1
# Point to the Huawei Cloud gateway of Direct Connect connection dc-connect2.
ip route-static 192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 10.0.0.5

After a Direct Connect connection is created in self-service mode, the Direct Connect gateway on Huawei Cloud automatically delivers routes from the cloud to the on-premises network.

Testing Connectivity and Load Balancing

1. Use the ping command to test the connectivity.

   In the on-premises data center, ping the private IP address of the ECS in the VPC to test the connectivity.

   ping 192.168.1.100

2. Test load balancing.
   • Linux: traceroute 192.168.1.100
   • Windows: tracert 192.168.1.100

     Run the command multiple times. Check that the next hops are 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.5, respectively, to confirm that dual-connection load balancing is working.

3. Test failover.

   Manually disconnect one connection and continuously perform ping tests. Check whether traffic can be quickly switched to the other connection, and services are not interrupted.

Helpful Links

• For details about how to troubleshoot connection faults, see Network and Connectivity and Routing.
• For common problems about establishing network connectivity using Direct Connect, see Leased Line.
• For common problems about Direct Connect interconnection, see Interconnection with the Cloud.