Aws Direct Connect introduces CloudWatch metrics for BGP monitoring

AWS Direct Connect has introduced three new Amazon CloudWatch metrics specifically designed for monitoring virtual interfaces (VIFs), enhancing the visibility into the health of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) sessions and route counts. This advancement allows network engineers and operations teams managing hybrid cloud connectivity to monitor BGP sessions directly through CloudWatch, eliminating the need for custom solutions or API polling.

The introduction of these metrics addresses crucial monitoring challenges that previously necessitated the use of custom Lambda functions or on-premises network management tools. The VirtualInterfaceBgpStatus metric provides insights into the state of BGP sessions, facilitating the detection of session failures. Meanwhile, VirtualInterfaceBgpPrefixesAccepted tracks the prefixes from on-premises networks, enabling proactive alerts before reaching prefix limits that could result in BGP sessions entering an idle state. Additionally, VirtualInterfaceBgpPrefixesAdvertised monitors the routes AWS advertises to networks, aiding in the validation of configuration changes and the detection of silent route withdrawals that could disrupt traffic even if BGP sessions remain active.

These metrics are available for private, public, and transit virtual interfaces across all commercial AWS Regions. Users can integrate these metrics with CloudWatch alarms, dashboards, and Amazon SNS for comprehensive BGP monitoring. This integration reduces the mean time to detect network issues and simplifies operations for multi-region and disaster recovery architectures. For further information about AWS Direct Connect, visit here.