ANS-C01 Direct Connect Redundancy Practice Question
A company is setting up AWS Direct Connect with a 1 Gbps dedicated connection. They want redundant connectivity with automatic failover. What is the most cost-effective way to achieve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume that a VPN backup over the internet is the most cost-effective redundancy option, but the exam tests that for dedicated connections, physical diversity is required to maintain consistent performance and meet SLAs. A VPN over the same connection (option B) or multiple VLANs (option A) do not provide true physical redundancy.
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 a second Direct Connect connection at a different location and configure BGP.
Achieving true redundancy with automatic failover for AWS Direct Connect requires physically diverse connections. A second Direct Connect connection at a different location, combined with BGP routing (e.g., using AS_PATH prepending or MED for traffic engineering), ensures that traffic automatically fails over if one connection goes down. While a VPN over the internet (option D) might seem cost-effective, it introduces variable latency, potential bandwidth constraints, and additional data transfer costs, making it less suitable for consistent performance and automatic failover in a dedicated connectivity context. Therefore, provisioning a second Direct Connect connection is the most cost-effective approach that meets the requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a single connection with multiple VLANs.
Why it's wrong here
Using a single connection with multiple VLANs does not provide physical redundancy; a single failure would still take down all VLANs. Incorrect.
- ✗
Use a single connection with a VPN over the same connection for redundancy.
Why it's wrong here
A VPN over the same Direct Connect connection uses the same physical path; it does not provide diverse failover. Incorrect.
- ✓
Provision a second Direct Connect connection at a different location and configure BGP.
Why this is correct
A second Direct Connect connection at a different location with BGP provides true physical redundancy and automatic failover. This is the correct and most cost-effective choice among the options.
- ✗
Provision a single Direct Connect connection and use a VPN over the internet as backup.
Why it's wrong here
While a VPN over the internet offers a different path, it incurs variable latency, bandwidth limits, and internet data transfer costs, making it less cost-effective and reliable for consistent failover performance compared to a second Direct Connect.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on ANS-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company has a Direct Connect connection with a private virtual interface (VIF) to a VPC. They want to add a second Direct Connect connection for redundancy. What is the MINIMUM number of virtual interfaces required to achieve active-active failover for the VPC?
easy- A.Two transit virtual interfaces (one on each connection)
- B.One private virtual interface and one transit virtual interface
- ✓ C.Two private virtual interfaces (one on each connection)
- D.One private virtual interface
Why C: For active-active failover to a VPC using Direct Connect, you need at least two private virtual interfaces (VIFs), one on each Direct Connect connection. This allows both connections to be used simultaneously for traffic load balancing, and if one fails, the other can carry all traffic. Option C is correct because it specifies two private VIFs. Option A (two transit VIFs) is incorrect because transit VIFs connect to a Direct Connect Gateway, not directly to a VPC. Option B (one private and one transit) is incorrect because transit VIFs do not provide direct VPC connectivity, and mixing types does not help. Option D (one private VIF) lacks redundancy.
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.