Amazon Web Services – Checking VPN Tunnel Status

In this article, we will look into what to check if traffic is not passing over your VPN. These steps are going to be different depending on whether you’re using a static VPN or a BGP VPN.

Follow the below steps to check the status of your VPN:

Step 1: First thing you want to do is sign into your AWS console. Once you’re on the service page scroll down to the VPC service and click on it. This will bring you to the VPC console.

Step 2: Next go to the left-hand side and scroll down to the VPN connections click on your VPN connection.

Step 3: Click on the Tunnel Details tab. Here make sure that the status is UP. This indicates that phase one and phase two is established and you should be able to pass traffic at this point.

Now let’s take a look at what to check when you’re using a BGP VPN. 

Step 1: For a BGP VPN go ahead and sign in to the AWS console. Once on the AWS service page navigate to the VPC console.Once on the VPC console go ahead and scroll down to the VPN connections and click on them.

Step 2: Select your VPN, go down to the Tunnel Details tab. Here you want to see the status is UP and that you see multiple BGP routes.

If you see this you should be able to pass traffic. Regardless of whether you’re using a static VPN or a BGP VPN  you want to go and verify that the routes are in fact showing up in your VPC route table

Step 3: To do this go through the route tables link on the left-hand side select your Route Tables. 

Step 4: Now go down to the Route Propagation tab. Here you want to ensure that route propagation is enabled.

Step 5: Once that’s done go to the Routes tab, you should now see your on-premise route showing up in the VPC route table.