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Connection Redundancy

In addition to deploying redundant Fabric ports, when creating connections using Equinix Fabric, consider the following recommendations to take advantage of Equinix Fabric's underlying network architecture.

For Layer 2 services, Equinix Fabric is transparent to Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) protocol. If you want to run BFD across a Layer 2 connection, set your timers as shown:

  • Intra-metro - 100ms x 3 = 300ms
  • Intra-region - 300ms x 3 = 900ms
  • Inter-region - 500ms x 3 = 1500ms

Point-to-Point Connections​

Equinix Fabric adheres to an availability SLA of 99.9% for a single connection. A redundant connection, where a connection that is considered part of the same service is created on a primary port and another on a secondary port, has an availability SLA of 99.999%.

For more detail on our SLA please see Equinix Fabric Product Policy.

Connecting Your Assets​

Ensure that your originating port (a-side) and your destination port (z-side) are of the same group. To create redundant connections between ports:

  • First, create a connection on a primary port and select a primary port for the destination port.
  • Then, create a connection on a secondary port and select a secondary port for the destination.

Connecting to a Global CSP​

When creating a connection to a global Cloud Service Provider (CSP) like AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle, IBM, Alibaba, etc, you select the a-side group the port you are connecting from resides in. Fabric will automatically create the connection using the CSPs presence in the same group.

For example, if you create a connection from your primary port then the connection terminates on another primary port facing the CSP. Similarly, if you create a connection from your secondary port, the connection terminates on a secondary port facing the CSP. If available, you can create redundant connections to a CSP that creates both connections from your primary and secondary ports to primary and secondary ports facing the CSP.

For further best practices on architecting for resiliency that are provider-specific, refer to Connecting to a Cloud Service Provider. Or one of the examples below:

Connecting to Other Fabric Customers​

When connecting to another Fabric customer or service profile, the other customer should take care to accept your incoming connection request on a port that is of the same port priority as the origin. If you request a connection from a primary port, they should ensure to establish the connection on their primary port. Connections should be built primary to primary and secondary to secondary.

Multipoint Networks​

The SLA for connections to multipoint networks is 99.9% for single connections to the network. A redundant connection to a network where the connection is created on both primary and secondary ports, has an SLA of 99.999%.

Although E-LAN and E-Tree networks themselves are neither inherently primary or secondary, if you want to achieve the highest possible level of availability and resiliency, it is recommended that you create two discrete networks, and create connections exclusively on primary ports or primary Network Edge devices into the one and similarly connections exclusively on secondary ports and secondary devices into the other.