AWS directconnect documentation change
Summary
Updated maintenance documentation with terminology changes (Partner → Third-party), expanded security justifications for maintenance, clarified notification processes, and emphasized resiliency best practices.
Security assessment
The changes explicitly mention addressing security vulnerabilities as part of maintenance activities and add 'security' to AWS's service commitments. However, there is no evidence of addressing a specific security vulnerability or incident. The updates improve security-related documentation by emphasizing security as a maintenance driver.
Diff
diff --git a/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/dx-maintenance.md b/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/dx-maintenance.md index e19f8dacf..860032792 100644 --- a//directconnect/latest/UserGuide/dx-maintenance.md +++ b//directconnect/latest/UserGuide/dx-maintenance.md @@ -5 +5 @@ -Planned maintenanceEmergency maintenancePartner maintenanceMaintenance event preparationMaintenance event postponement +Planned maintenanceEmergency maintenanceThird-party maintenanceMaintenance event preparationMaintenance event postponement @@ -9 +9 @@ Planned maintenanceEmergency maintenancePartner maintenanceMaintenance event pre -AWS Direct Connect has to perform maintenance on our endpoints to ensure service availability. Direct Connect maintenance is divided into two types - **planned** and **emergency**. +AWS Direct Connect is committed to ensuring service security, availability, and scalability. To maintain these standards, periodic maintenance is required on the hardware network devices. Direct Connect maintenance is divided into two types - **planned** and **emergency**. @@ -11 +11 @@ AWS Direct Connect has to perform maintenance on our endpoints to ensure service -AWS Direct Connect performs maintenance events on the hardware network devices to ensure service availability and security. Maintenance events include addressing hardware issues and security vulnerabilities, performing device migrations to comply with standards, fixing defects, and delivering new features. By following the practices described in Maintenance event preparation, you can better prepare your Direct Connect environment to avoid disruptions during maintenance events. If you have a non-resilient network setup or a single connection, you'll see connectivity losses between your on-premises network and AWS resources. +These maintenance events include addressing security vulnerabilities, hardware issues, performing device migrations to comply with standards, fixing defects, and delivering new features. By following the practices described in Maintenance event preparation, you can better prepare your Direct Connect environment to avoid disruptions during maintenance events. If you have a non-resilient network setup or a single connection, you’ll experience an interruption in connectivity between your on-premises network and AWS resources. @@ -13 +13 @@ AWS Direct Connect performs maintenance events on the hardware network devices t -Direct Connect sends email notifications about planned and emergency maintenance events to the email address associated with the AWS account that owns the Direct Connect connection or virtual interface resource. If you're using a Direct Connect Hosted Connection with one of the Direct Connect partners, email notifications are sent to both you and the partner account about the maintenance event. You can also add additional email addresses to receive notifications. See [Update the alternate contacts for your AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/manage-acct-update-contact-alternate.html) for more information. +Direct Connect sends email notifications about planned and emergency maintenance events to the email address associated with the AWS account that owns the Direct Connect connection or virtual interface resource. If you’re using a Direct Connect hosted connection with one of the Direct Connect Delivery Partners, email notifications are sent to both you and the partner account about the maintenance event. You can also add additional email addresses or distribution lists to receive notifications. See [Update the alternate contacts for your AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/manage-acct-update-contact-alternate.html) for more information. @@ -21 +21 @@ Direct Connect sends email notifications about planned and emergency maintenance - * Partner maintenance + * Third-party maintenance @@ -32 +32 @@ Direct Connect sends email notifications about planned and emergency maintenance -Planned maintenance events involve network upgrades such as operating system and configuration patching on hardware device endpoints that are required to improve availability and deliver new features. +Planned maintenance events involve network upgrades such as operating system patching and configuration updates on hardware device endpoints that are required to improve availability and deliver new features. @@ -34 +34 @@ Planned maintenance events involve network upgrades such as operating system and -Maintenance events are scheduled at least 14 days in advance of the planned event, and are typically scheduled for a four-hour window during low-traffic hours for the Direct Connect location where the device endpoint resides. This window provides ample time, since maintenance activities are usually completed well within that four-hour timeframe. However, there might be rare cases where, due to unforeseen circumstances, the timeframe might need to be extended. +These maintenance events are scheduled 14 days in advance and typically occur during a four-hour window in low-traffic hours at the Direct Connect location where the device endpoint resides. Maintenance activities usually complete before the full four-hour window expires and you’ll receive a notification once work is complete. In rare cases where unforeseen circumstances require extending the maintenance window, we'll send a separate notification with the revised completion estimate. @@ -36 +36 @@ Maintenance events are scheduled at least 14 days in advance of the planned even -Using the following schedule, the initial notification and reminder email notifications are sent to the AWS account that created the resource: +Using the following schedule, the initial notification and reminder notifications are sent to the AWS account that owns the resource: @@ -53 +53 @@ In addition, - * Receive email notifications in your monitoring or ticketing system by integrating with AWS Health. To integrate AWS Health, see [Monitoring events in AWS Health with Amazon EventBridge](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/health/latest/ug/cloudwatch-events-health.html) in the _AWS Health User Guide_. + * Receive notifications in your monitoring or ticketing system by integrating with AWS Health. To integrate AWS Health, see [Monitoring events in AWS Health with Amazon EventBridge](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/health/latest/ug/cloudwatch-events-health.html) in the _AWS Health User Guide_. @@ -60 +60 @@ In addition, -Under rare circumstances, a planned maintenance event might not happen as scheduled. Should this occur, we'll send an updated notification on the cancellation and will reschedule the event in the future following the same process as above. +Under rare circumstances, a planned maintenance event cannot happen as scheduled. Should this occur, we'll send a cancellation notification and will reschedule the event in the future following the same process as above. @@ -64 +64 @@ Under rare circumstances, a planned maintenance event might not happen as schedu -Emergency maintenance events are initiated on a critical basis to resolve service impacting failures or unplanned network impairments that pose a risk of imminent endpoint failure. Taking immediate action is necessary to restore the affected endpoint to a healthy state. +Emergency maintenance events are initiated on a critical basis to prevent imminent service impacting events or resolve impairments which have already resulted in a disruption to connectivity. In such cases, taking immediate action is necessary to restore the affected endpoint to a healthy state. @@ -66 +66 @@ Emergency maintenance events are initiated on a critical basis to resolve servic -During an emergency maintenance event, Direct Connect will inform you with as much lead time as possible, but can some times be sent with very short notice. Maintenance windows are typically scheduled for up to two hours, but this time can be extended if mitigation of the issue requires additional action, such as replacing hardware. Along with the initial email notification, you'll receive additional email updates if there are any delays to the maintenance window. +While we strive to provide advance notice whenever possible, some situations may require maintenance to start immediately. You will receive notifications when emergency maintenance is scheduled or underway, and again when it is completed. @@ -68 +68 @@ During an emergency maintenance event, Direct Connect will inform you with as mu -## Direct Connect Partner maintenance +These events typically occur during a two-hour window at the Direct Connect location where the device endpoint resides. Maintenance activities usually complete within this window. In cases where unforeseen circumstances require extending the maintenance window, such as hardware replacement, we’ll send a separate notification with the revised completion estimate. @@ -70 +70 @@ During an emergency maintenance event, Direct Connect will inform you with as mu -In addition to AWS maintenance events, your Direct Connect Partner might follow a regular maintenance schedule as well. Direct Connect Partners receive planned maintenance event notifications from AWS so that they can plan their own maintenance schedules without any overlap. AWS does not have visibility into a Partner's maintenance activities, so you'll need to check with them for their own schedule. +## Third-party maintenance @@ -72 +72 @@ In addition to AWS maintenance events, your Direct Connect Partner might follow -If fiscally feasible, AWS recommends using two different Partners in different Direct Connect locations to minimize the risk of Partner maintenance windows overlapping. +Beyond AWS initiated maintenance events, your Direct Connect Delivery partner or network service provider who is providing network connectivity from your on-premises to the Direct Connect location might perform maintenance activities. Direct Connect Delivery partners receive maintenance event notifications from AWS so that they can plan their own maintenance schedules to avoid overlap. AWS does not have visibility into a partner’s maintenance activities, so you’ll need to check with them for their scheduling process, notification methods, and best practices. @@ -80 +80 @@ Using maximum resiliency, connections are spread across at least two Direct Conn -During a planned maintenance event, Direct Connect prevents traffic to and from the connection endpoint undergoing maintenance. Configuring maximum resiliency forces traffic to use your redundant connections. This allows for more seamless network traffic re-routing without the need for manual intervention if maximum resiliency were not configured. Alternately, you might choose to control traffic re-routing between redundant connections during the maintenance windows by using local preference Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) communities. For more information about BGP communities, see [Routing policies and BGP communities](./routing-and-bgp.html). +During a planned maintenance event, Direct Connect drains traffic to and from the connection endpoint undergoing maintenance and forces traffic to use your redundant connections. This allows for more seamless network traffic re-routing without the need for manual intervention if maximum resiliency were not configured. Alternately, you might choose to control traffic re-routing between redundant connections during the maintenance windows by using local preference Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) communities. For more information about BGP communities, see [Routing policies and BGP communities](./routing-and-bgp.html). @@ -82 +82 @@ During a planned maintenance event, Direct Connect prevents traffic to and from -If you don't use maximum resiliency on your Direct Connect connections, you should plan on a service interruption during the maintenance window. +Configuring your Direct Connect environment with the maximum resiliency model helps ensure your business is not impacted during maintenance events and infrastructure failures. When properly implemented and tested, you typically do not need to take any actions for these maintenance events. @@ -84 +84 @@ If you don't use maximum resiliency on your Direct Connect connections, you shou -### Maximum resiliency validation +### Resiliency validation @@ -86 +86 @@ If you don't use maximum resiliency on your Direct Connect connections, you shou -If you've configured maximum resiliency, regularly validate that your traffic routes through one of the redundant virtual interfaces when a virtual interface is out-of-service. Regular proactive testing can help identify and resolve any potential issues before they impact production workloads during a real failure scenario or maintenance event. This will ensure greater confidence in the reliability of your network during a maintenance event. Use the AWS Direct Connect Failover test to validate the resiliency of your redundant connections. For the steps to use the AWS Direct Connect Failover test, see [Direct Connect failover test](./resiliency_failover.html). +If you’ve configured your Direct Connect environment to be resilient, regularly validate that your traffic routes through other redundant connections when a connection is out-of-service. Regular proactive testing can help identify and resolve any potential issues before they impact production workloads during a real maintenance event or failure scenario. This will ensure greater confidence in the reliability of your network during a maintenance event. Use the Direct Connect Failover test to validate the resiliency of your redundant connections. For the steps to use the AWS Direct Connect Failover test, see [Direct Connect failover test](./resiliency_failover.html).