Virtual Interfaces

5 minutes 5 Questions

A virtual interface (VIF) is a component of AWS Direct Connect that allows customers to create VLANs on their Direct Connect connection. By creating a VIF, customers can partition their Direct Connect connection into multiple, separate, and isolated connections to different AWS services or VPCs. There are two types of virtual interfaces: private VIFs and public VIFs. Private VIFs enable access to a specific VPC, while public VIFs provide access to AWS services accessible over the public internet such as Amazon S3, Amazon EC2 instances with Elastic IPs, or AWS Marketplace.

Virtual Interfaces on AWS Direct Connect

What is it?
A Virtual Interface (VIF) on AWS Direct Connect is a Elastic Network Interface (ENI) that you can attach to your AWS Direct Connect connection. AWS Virtual Interfaces are critical because they allow for the transmission of data between your network and AWS. They can be configured as public or private.

Why is it important?
VIFs are essential in providing secure, private connectivity between AWS and your on-premise datacenter, office, or co-location environment, which reduces network costs, increases bandwidth, and provides a more consistent network experience compared to Internet-based connections.

How it works?
VIF uses VLAN tagging, so that multiple VIFs can share the same connection. This allows you to use the same connection to access public resources (such as objects stored in Amazon S3) using public IP address ranges, and private resources (such as Amazon EC2 instances) using private IP address ranges.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Virtual Interfaces
1. Understand the difference between public and private VIFs. A private VIF is for accessing your VPC, while a public VIF can access public AWS services.
2. Remember that you can share a single connection to AWS across multiple VIFs.
3. Be aware that you must associate a Direct Connect gateway or a Virtual Private Gateway (for private VIFs) and a Direct Connect Gateway (for transit VIFs) with your VIFs.
4. Make sure you know that VIFs use VLAN tagging to separate traffic.

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Question 1

You are configuring an AWS Direct Connect connection, and you need to allow access to your Amazon S3 buckets via the Direct Connect link. What type of Virtual Interface should be created?

Transit Virtual Interface Public Virtual Interface Private Virtual Interface VPC Interface Endpoint

Correct Answer: Public Virtual Interface

A Public Virtual Interface allows access to Amazon S3, as it exposes AWS public services over the Direct Connect connection. Private Virtual Interfaces connect to private VPC IP address ranges, and Transit Virtual Interfaces connect to Transit Gateways.

Question 2

You have a VPN connection and a Direct Connect connection between your data center and your VPC. What will happen in the case of a Direct Connect link failure?

AWS will automatically provision a new Direct Connect link Traffic will be dropped and no failover occurs VPC resources will be inaccessible until the Direct Connect link is restored Traffic will fail over to the VPN connection

Correct Answer: Traffic will fail over to the VPN connection

In case of a Direct Connect link failure, the traffic will fail over to the VPN connection assuming that both the Direct Connect and VPN connection use the same BGP Autonomous System Number (ASN) and appropriate route preferences are configured.

Question 3

A company requires a high-speed, dedicated network connection between their on-premises data center and multiple VPCs in their AWS account. Which AWS Direct Connect component must be created for each VPC?

Public Virtual Interface Private Virtual Interface Transit Virtual Interface Global Accelerator

Correct Answer: Private Virtual Interface

A Private Virtual Interface allows the connection to use private VPC IP address ranges and connects the on-premises data center to multiple VPCs in the same AWS account. Public Virtual Interface is for connecting to AWS services via public IP addresses, and Transit Virtual Interface is used for Amazon VPC Transit Gateways.

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