Designing High Availability for AWS Direct Connect
A company is designing a hybrid network connecting an on-premises data center to AWS via AWS Direct Connect. The company requires high availability and wants to avoid a single point of failure. Which design meets these requirements?
Quick Answer
The answer is to provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations. This design eliminates any single point of failure because a single Direct Connect location, even with multiple virtual interfaces or VLANs, shares the same physical infrastructure and carrier facility; if that location goes down, all connectivity is lost. By using two separate locations, you achieve true geographic redundancy, allowing traffic to automatically fail over to the healthy connection via BGP routing and AWS’s built-in path selection. On the AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty ANS-C01 exam, this concept tests your understanding of resilient hybrid networking—a common trap is assuming that multiple VIFs on one connection provide high availability, but they do not protect against location-level failures. Remember the memory tip: “Two locations, no single point of failure; one location, one point of failure.”
⚠ Common exam trap
AWS often tests the misconception that multiple VIFs or VLANs on a single Direct Connect connection provide redundancy, but they do not eliminate the physical single point of failure of the connection itself.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations.
Provisioning two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations eliminates any single point of failure. This design ensures that if one connection or location fails, traffic can automatically fail over to the other connection, meeting the high availability requirement. A single Direct Connect connection, regardless of the number of VIFs or VLANs, remains a single point of failure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Provision a single Direct Connect connection with multiple virtual interfaces (VIFs).
Why it's wrong here
A single connection is a single point of failure, even with multiple VIFs.
- ✗
Provision one Direct Connect connection with two VLANs to separate production and non-production traffic.
Why it's wrong here
This still relies on a single physical connection.
- ✗
Use a single Direct Connect connection and a VPN backup over the internet.
Why it's wrong here
While a VPN provides backup, the primary connection is still a single point of failure.
- ✓
Provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations.
Why this is correct
Two connections at different locations provide physical diversity and high availability.
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Variation 1. A company is designing a hybrid network connecting on-premises data centers to AWS via AWS Direct Connect. The company requires high availability with multiple connections. Which design ensures that a failure of a single Direct Connect location does not impact connectivity?
medium- A.Provision a single Direct Connect connection with a large bandwidth.
- ✓ B.Provision two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations.
- C.Provision two Direct Connect connections at the same AWS Direct Connect location.
- D.Provision one Direct Connect connection and one AWS Site-to-Site VPN as backup.
Why B: Deploying two Direct Connect connections at two different Direct Connect locations ensures that a single location failure (e.g., power outage, fiber cut, or facility issue) does not affect connectivity. This design provides geographic redundancy, meeting the high availability requirement by eliminating a single point of failure at the Direct Connect location level.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This ANS-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the ANS-C01 exam.