- A
Create two Direct Connect gateways, each attached to a separate Transit Gateway, and advertise the same prefixes via BGP.
Enables automatic failover using BGP path selection.
- B
Use one Direct Connect connection as primary and the other as standby with static routes.
Why wrong: Static routes do not provide automatic failover.
- C
Connect both Direct Connect connections to the same Virtual Private Gateway (VGW) and enable BGP.
Why wrong: Single point of failure at the VGW.
- D
Use a VPN connection over the internet as a backup for the Direct Connect links.
Why wrong: Not a Direct Connect redundancy solution.
Question 370 of 1,705
Direct Connect Redundancy with Multiple Connections and Direct Connect Gateway
This ANS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of network implementation. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is migrating on-premises workloads to AWS using AWS Direct Connect. The company has two Direct Connect connections from different providers for redundancy. Which configuration ensures seamless failover with automatic traffic rerouting?
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
✓
Create two Direct Connect gateways, each attached to a separate Transit Gateway, and advertise the same prefixes via BGP.
Option A is correct because using two Direct Connect gateways, each attached to a separate Transit Gateway, with the same BGP prefixes advertised from both connections enables active-active or active-passive failover via BGP path selection (e.g., AS_PATH prepending or MED). This design ensures automatic traffic rerouting if one connection fails, as BGP withdraws the failed path and the remaining path takes over without manual intervention.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create two Direct Connect gateways, each attached to a separate Transit Gateway, and advertise the same prefixes via BGP.
Why this is correct
Enables automatic failover using BGP path selection.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use one Direct Connect connection as primary and the other as standby with static routes.
Why it's wrong here
Static routes do not provide automatic failover.
- ✗
Connect both Direct Connect connections to the same Virtual Private Gateway (VGW) and enable BGP.
Why it's wrong here
Single point of failure at the VGW.
- ✗
Use a VPN connection over the internet as a backup for the Direct Connect links.
Why it's wrong here
Not a Direct Connect redundancy solution.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume both Direct Connect connections must terminate on the same Virtual Private Gateway (VGW) for redundancy, but AWS does not support multiple Direct Connect connections to a single VGW, making the dual Direct Connect gateway and Transit Gateway design the correct approach.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, BGP multipath and prefix advertisement from two separate Direct Connect gateways allow the Transit Gateway to install both paths in the routing table, with BGP attributes (e.g., local preference, AS_PATH length) determining the active path. In a real-world scenario, if one Direct Connect provider experiences an outage, BGP withdraws the affected prefixes, and the Transit Gateway automatically switches to the remaining path within seconds, ensuring minimal packet loss. This design also supports load balancing across both connections when configured with equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this ANS-C01 question test?
Network Implementation — This question tests Network Implementation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create two Direct Connect gateways, each attached to a separate Transit Gateway, and advertise the same prefixes via BGP. — Option A is correct because using two Direct Connect gateways, each attached to a separate Transit Gateway, with the same BGP prefixes advertised from both connections enables active-active or active-passive failover via BGP path selection (e.g., AS_PATH prepending or MED). This design ensures automatic traffic rerouting if one connection fails, as BGP withdraws the failed path and the remaining path takes over without manual intervention.
What should I do if I get this ANS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
3 more ways 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 uses AWS Direct Connect with a private VIF to connect to a VPC. They also have a VPN connection as a backup. How should they configure BGP to ensure that the VPN is only used when Direct Connect fails?
hard- A.Use a lower local preference on the Direct Connect BGP session
- B.Use a lower AS path prepend on the VPN BGP session
- ✓ C.Use a higher local preference on the Direct Connect BGP session
- D.Use a higher MED on the VPN BGP session
Why C: Local preference is a BGP attribute used to influence outbound traffic from an AS. By setting a higher local preference on the Direct Connect BGP session, the router will prefer that path over the VPN session. When Direct Connect fails, the BGP session goes down, and the VPN route becomes the only available path, ensuring seamless failover.
Variation 2. A company is using AWS Direct Connect to connect its on-premises network to a VPC via a private virtual interface (VIF) attached to a virtual private gateway (VGW). The company wants to add redundant connectivity using a second Direct Connect connection from a different provider. The network team proposes using a Direct Connect gateway (DXGW) with two private VIFs from different connections, each attached to the DXGW. The DXGW will be associated with the VGW. Which THREE steps are required to complete this configuration? (Choose three.)
hard- A.Add routes to the VPC subnets' route tables pointing to the Direct Connect gateway.
- ✓ B.Associate both private virtual interfaces with the same Direct Connect gateway.
- ✓ C.Associate the Direct Connect gateway with the virtual private gateway.
- ✓ D.Advertise the on-premises prefixes over both BGP sessions to enable active-active or failover.
- E.Create a separate virtual private gateway for each Direct Connect connection.
Why B: To implement redundant Direct Connect connectivity using a Direct Connect gateway (DXGW), the correct steps are: associate both private virtual interfaces (VIFs) with the same DXGW (B), associate the DXGW with the virtual private gateway (VGW) (C), and advertise the on-premises prefixes over both BGP sessions to enable active-active or failover (D). Option A is incorrect because route tables in VPC subnets must point to the VGW, not the DXGW directly. Option E is incorrect because only one VGW is needed per VPC; separate VGWs would not provide the desired redundancy and would complicate routing.
Variation 3. A company uses AWS Direct Connect with a private VIF to connect to a VPC. The VPC has a virtual private gateway (VGW). The on-premises network uses BGP to advertise routes. The company wants to ensure high availability by using two Direct Connect connections from different providers. Both connections terminate at the same Direct Connect location (same AWS device). The company configures two private VIFs, each with a separate BGP session, and attaches both to the same VGW. However, when one connection fails, traffic does not fail over. What is the most likely cause?
hard- ✓ A.Both Direct Connect connections are on the same AWS device, creating a single point of failure
- B.The same BGP ASN is used for both VIFs, causing route conflict
- C.The MTU size is mismatched between the VIFs
- D.The allowed prefixes for the VIFs do not include the on-premises subnets
Why A: If both connections terminate at the same AWS Direct Connect location and same device, they share the same physical infrastructure. A failure at that location would affect both. True high availability requires connections at different locations. Also, BGP configuration may not have proper failover. The most likely cause is that both VIFs are on the same device, so a single point of failure exists. Option B (BGP ASN) is wrong because same ASN is allowed. Option C (allowed prefixes) would cause routes not to be accepted. Option D (MTU) would not cause complete failover failure.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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