Introducing CloudWatch Metrics for AWS Direct Connect Virtual Interface BGP Health and Prefix Count

This article announces three new CloudWatch metrics for AWS Direct Connect virtual interfaces to monitor BGP session health and prefix counts natively.

• VirtualInterfaceBgpStatus metric reports BGP session state (1=up, 0=down)
• VirtualInterfaceBgpPrefixesAccepted tracks prefixes accepted from on-premises network
• VirtualInterfaceBgpPrefixesAdvertised tracks prefixes advertised from AWS to on-premises
• Eliminates need for custom Lambda functions or API polling for BGP monitoring
• Enables proactive alarms before prefix limits are exceeded
• Detects silent route withdrawals and unexpected routing changes
• Available across all three VIF types: private, public, and transit
• Metrics updated every 5 minutes at no additional cost

These new metrics simplify Direct Connect monitoring by providing native CloudWatch integration for BGP health and route visibility, reducing operational complexity and detection time for network issues.