Troubleshoot layer 1 (physical) issues - Amazon Direct Connect
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Troubleshoot layer 1 (physical) issues

If you or your network provider are having difficulty establishing physical connectivity to an Amazon Direct Connect device, use the following steps to troubleshoot the issue.

  1. Verify with the colocation provider that the cross connect is complete. Ask them or your network provider to provide you with a cross connect completion notice and compare the ports with those listed on your LOA-CFA.

  2. Verify that your router or your provider's router is powered on and that the ports are activated.

  3. Ensure that the routers are using the correct optical transceiver. Auto-negotiation for the port must be disabled if you have a connection with a port speed more than 1 Gbps. However, depending on the Amazon Direct Connect endpoint serving your connection, auto-negotiation might need to be enabled or disabled for 1 Gbps connections. If auto-negotation needs to be disabled for your connections, port speed and full-duplex mode must be configured manually. If your virtual interface remains down, see Troubleshoot layer 2 (data link) issues. Depending on the Direct Connect endpoint serving your connection terminates, auto-negotiation might need to be enabled or disabled accordingly.

  4. Verify that the router is receiving an acceptable optical signal over the cross connect.

  5. Try flipping (also known as rolling) the Tx/Rx fiber strands.

  6. Check the Amazon CloudWatch metrics for Amazon Direct Connect. You can verify the Amazon Direct Connect device's Tx/Rx optical readings (both 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps), physical error count, and operational status. For more information, see Monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch.

  7. Contact the colocation provider and request a written report for the Tx/Rx optical signal across the cross connect.

  8. If the above steps do not resolve physical connectivity issues, contact Amazon Web Services Support and provide the cross connect completion notice and optical signal report from the colocation provider.

The following flow chart contains the steps to diagnose issues with the physical connection.

Troubleshoot Amazon Direct Connect