Describe FastConnect

Contents

  1. 1 Summary
  2. 2 Reference
  3. 3 FastConnect Overview
  4. 4 Connectivity Models
  5. 5 FastConnect
  6. 6 FastConnect Demo
  7. 7 FastConnect Redundancy Best Practices

Summary

A FastConnect is a dedicated connection between customer premise and an OCI data centre.

Reference

FastConnect Overview

FastConnect Overview says:

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect provides an easy way to create a dedicated, private connection between your data center and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. FastConnect provides higher-bandwidth options, and a more reliable and consistent networking experience compared to internet-based connections.

There are two (2) types of peering:

  1. Private extends on-premises network to OCI using a physical connection.
  2. Public allows access to public-facing resources in OCI without traffic passing the Internet.

Connectivity Models

There are three (3) models for connecting to OCI using FastConnect:

  1. Oracle Partners have an existing relationship with Oracle that allows the partner to terminate network connections within OCI data centres.
  2. Third-Party Provider require an letter of authority (LOA) to enter the OCI data centre in order to terminate a network link there by placing network equipment and links.
  3. Colocation is where the customer provides their own equipment and link into an OCI data centre. A LOA is required for data center access. This works best if the customer already has a presence at the data centre.

The last two (2) are called FastConnect Direct.

FastConnect

FastConnect is a dedicated and private physical connection bewteen on-premises and OCI. Benefits are:

FastConnect location is at an Oracle datacentre. A Metro area has multiple FastConnect locations within a geographical region.

Oracle Partners and Third Party Providers are network service providers. Oracle Partner has integrated with Oracle in a FastConnect Location.

Co-Location is where customer has a cage at a FastConnect location into which the customer puts their edge servers.

Cross-connect is the physical aspect of FastConnect, whereas virtual circuit is its logical aspect. Cross-connect is the cable that connects the customers premises with the FastConnect location. To expand capacity, a Cross-Connect Group of multiple cross-connects may be needed.

A virtual circuit can be public or private. Public virtual circuit allows connection to public resources in OCI without going via the Internet. Private virtual circuit requires the use of a DRG for peering between on-premises and a VCN in OCI. A virtual circuit is an isolated network path.

BGP session is an exchange of routing information between autonomous systems.

BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection) verifies connectivity between devices (does not exchange routing information). BFD is used to detect failures between adjacent networks.

Oracle Edge consists of a physical device in an Oracle cage at a FastConnect location, and a logical device. The cross-connect is terminated by the physical device, and the virtual circuit is terminated by the logical device.

LOA (Letter of Authorisation) allows a third-party provider to gain access to a FastConnect location so as to lay a physical cable. LOA is also needed for co-location.

FastConnect Direct is done through either Third-Party provider or Co-Location.

No egress data transfer charges.

FastConnect Demo

Under Customer Connection in OCI Console, choose connection type from one of:

For FastConnect Partner,

  1. Choose type of virtual circuit:
    • Private
    • Public
  2. Choose type of traffic to be sent to on-premises network:
    • All traffic
    • Only IPSec traffic
  3. Need DRG
  4. Select provisioned bandwidth from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps
  5. BGP IP addresses
    • Customer side (/28 to /31)
    • Oracle side

FastConnect Redundancy Best Practices

For FastConnect redundancy, Oracle provides

  • Multiple partners for each region
  • Multiple physical connections between each Oracle partner and Oracle (for a given region)
  • At least one FastConnect location for each region

Need multiple edge devices spread across multiple FastConnect locations.

Oracle handles:

  • Redundancy of physical connection between partner and Oracle
  • Redundancy of routers in FastConnect locations

Customer handles:

  • Redundancy of physical connection between existing network and Oracle partner