Question

Difficulty: HardHybrid and Multi-Account Network Connectivity Design

A financial technology corporation is designing a hybrid network architecture to connect its on-premises core banking systems to a multi-account AWS environment. The AWS footprint consists of 3030 spoke VPCs in the `us-east-1` Region, containing applications that require high-throughput, low-latency access to the on-premises database.

The network architecture requirements are:
- A 10 Gbps10\text{ Gbps} AWS Direct Connect (DX) connection via a Direct Connect Gateway (DXGW) serves as the primary path.
- A Site-to-Site VPN connection over the internet serves as the backup path.
- Under normal operating conditions, all traffic between the spoke VPCs and the on-premises data center must utilize the DX connection.
- If the DX connection fails, traffic must fail over automatically and bidirectionally to the Site-to-Site VPN.
- On-premises clients must resolve the domain names of AWS resources hosted in a Route 53 Private Hosted Zone (PHZ) associated with a centralized Shared Services VPC.
- The design must minimize administrative overhead and ensure high availability of outbound internet traffic from the spokes.

A Solutions Architect deploys an AWS Transit Gateway (TGW) in `us-east-1` and attaches all spoke VPCs to it. Which of the following configuration strategies should the Solutions Architect implement to meet these requirements?

  1. A
    Attach the DXGW and VPN to the TGW. Configure BGP on the customer gateway to advertise a more specific subnet prefix over the VPN connection and a summary prefix over the DX connection. Deploy Route 53 Resolver Inbound Endpoints in the Shared Services VPC, and associate the PHZ with all spoke VPCs and the Shared Services VPC. Deploy a single NAT Gateway in one Availability Zone of the Shared Services VPC and direct all spoke outbound internet traffic to it.
  2. B
    Connect the spoke VPCs directly to the DXGW using private virtual interfaces (VIFs). Attach the Site-to-Site VPN to the TGW, and configure the spoke VPCs' route tables with a default route pointing to the TGW as the backup path. Associate the PHZ only with the Shared Services VPC. Deploy a single NAT Gateway in the Shared Services VPC to handle all outbound internet traffic from the spokes.
  3. Attach both the DXGW (via a transit Virtual Interface) and the Site-to-Site VPN to the TGW. Configure BGP to advertise the same on-premises network prefix over both paths. On the customer gateway, configure BGP local preference to prioritize the DX path. Deploy Route 53 Resolver Inbound Endpoints in the Shared Services VPC, configure on-premises DNS to forward queries for the AWS private domain to the inbound endpoints, and associate the PHZ with the Shared Services VPC and all 3030 spoke VPCs. Deploy redundant NAT Gateways across multiple Availability Zones in a centralized Egress VPC attached to the TGW.Answer
  4. D
    Attach both the DXGW and the VPN to the TGW. Configure static routes in the TGW route table for the on-premises prefix pointing to the DXGW attachment with a lower administrative distance, and another pointing to the VPN attachment with a higher administrative distance. Create a PHZ in the Shared Services VPC, do not associate it with the spoke VPCs, and configure on-premises DNS forwarders to point directly to the VPC resolver IP address of `169.254.169.253169.254.169.253` over the DX connection. Deploy redundant NAT Gateways in a centralized Egress VPC.

Answer

The correct strategy attaches both the Direct Connect Gateway and the Site-to-Site VPN to the Transit Gateway, advertising the same on-premises prefix over both paths while configuring BGP local preference on the customer gateway to prefer the Direct Connect path. Private Hosted Zones must be associated with the Shared Services VPC and all spoke VPCs, with Route 53 Resolver Inbound Endpoints deployed in the Shared Services VPC. Highly available outbound connectivity is achieved using redundant NAT Gateways in a centralized Egress VPC.
The correct configuration uses BGP route propagation over both Direct Connect and VPN with identical prefixes. AWS Transit Gateway automatically prefers the Direct Connect Gateway path over the Site-to-Site VPN path for identical prefix advertisements. To steer return traffic, BGP local preference is configured on the customer gateway. Private DNS resolution is enabled by associating the Private Hosted Zone with all spoke VPCs and utilizing Route 53 Resolver Inbound Endpoints in the Shared Services VPC for on-premises client queries. Redundant NAT Gateways across multiple Availability Zones in a centralized Egress VPC ensure highly available outbound connectivity.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Configure BGP routing on the Transit Gateway and customer gateway.
Both the DXGW and VPN attachments are configured, and identical on-premises prefixes are advertised over both. The Transit Gateway automatically selects the DX path due to default path preference (Direct Connect is preferred over VPN for identical routes), and the customer gateway selects the DX path using BGP local preference.
Establishes a resilient, high-bandwidth primary connection with automatic bidirectional failover to the VPN without manual intervention.
2
Configure hybrid DNS resolution and associate the Route 53 Private Hosted Zone (PHZ).
The PHZ is associated with all 3030 spoke VPCs and the Shared Services VPC. Route 53 Resolver Inbound Endpoints are deployed in the Shared Services VPC, and on-premises DNS servers are configured to forward queries to the inbound endpoint IPs.
Enables both on-premises clients (via inbound endpoints) and AWS workloads in all spoke VPCs to resolve the private DNS names.
3
Deploy and configure centralized egress via redundant NAT Gateways.
NAT Gateways are deployed in multiple Availability Zones in a centralized Egress VPC attached to the TGW, with TGW routes directing internet-bound traffic from the spokes to this VPC.
Ensures highly available and cost-optimized outbound internet connectivity without introducing single points of failure.

Key Concept

Designing highly available hybrid connectivity with automatic routing failover, cross-account private DNS resolution, and resilient centralized internet egress in a multi-account AWS environment.
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