AWS VPC Peering Connections using the AWS UI

Dec 3, 2024Mosin Pathan

This article will guide you through creating and managing VPC peering connections within the AWS Management Console, covering concepts and practical steps for traffic routing between your Virtual Private Clouds.

AWS VPC Peering Connections

Introduction

This article explains how to create and manage VPC peering connections within the AWS Management Console. We'll cover the concepts behind VPC peering and provide practical examples of how to configure traffic routing between your Virtual Private Clouds.

VPC Peering Connections: Concepts and use cases

VPC Peering allows you to connect two Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) within the same AWS account or different AWS accounts. This enables communication between the resources in each VPC without traversing the public internet, thus improving security and performance.

Do You Know?

VPC Peering is a cost-effective solution for communication between your VPCs, significantly reducing data transfer costs compared to using transit gateways.

Use Cases:

Connecting development and production VPCs.
Sharing resources (like databases) across multiple VPCs.
Connecting VPCs in different AWS regions.

Steps to create VPC Peering Connection in the AWS Management Console:

Navigate to the VPC Management Console.
Select the first VPC.
Go to the "Peering Connections" section.
Choose "Create peering connection".
Select the second VPC (Requester VPC).
Accept the peering request in the second VPC.

Managing traffic routing between VPCs

After creating a VPC Peering connection, you need to configure the route tables in each VPC to enable communication. This involves adding routes that direct traffic to the peered VPC.

Important Note:

Ensure your security groups allow communication between the resources in the peered VPCs. Without appropriate security group configurations, traffic will be blocked even after setting up routes.

Steps to Configure Routing Tables:

In both VPCs, locate the relevant route tables.
Add a new route in each route table that directs traffic to the peer VPC's CIDR block.
Use the peering connection ID as the target.

Illustrative example of route configuration: (Replace placeholders with actual values) Route Table 1 (VPC A): Destination CIDR block - 10.10.10.0/24, Target - pcx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Peering Connection ID) Route Table 2 (VPC B): Destination CIDR block - 172.16.0.0/16, Target - pcx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Peering Connection ID)

Avoid This:

Avoid using overlapping CIDR blocks in your peered VPCs. This can lead to routing conflicts and connectivity issues.

Summary

VPC Peering provides a cost-effective and secure way to connect VPCs.
Proper routing table configuration is crucial for successful communication between peered VPCs.
Security group rules must permit traffic flow between resources.
Use AWS documentation and console for detailed instructions.

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