Setting up site-to-site on AWS Virtual Gateway
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Setting up site-to-site on AWS Virtual Gateway


Note: If your device/service supports SHA256 and DH group 14, it is recommended to use these settings instead.

Please note, the choice between Transit Gateway or a simple Virtual Gateway depends on your AWS architecture. If you are not sure, we encourage you to visit AWS's official documentation.

Configuring the tunnel in the AWS Console

  1. Go to the VPC section in the AWS Console

  2. Under Services, scroll down to Networking & Content Delivery and select VPC

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  1. Under the left menu Virtual Private Network (VPN) section, go to Customer Gateways

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  1. Select Create Customer Gateway

  2. Select static routing

  3. Fill in the IP Address of your NordLayer dedicated server

  4. Select Create Customer Gateway. A message should display indicating the gateway was created successfully

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Configuring a virtual private gateway

If you already have a virtual private gateway attached to your VPC, skip this section and continue at Creating a virtual private network connection.

  1. Go back to Services, scroll down to Networking & Content Delivery, and select VPC

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  1. On the left side, under Virtual Private Network (VPN) select Virtual Private Gateways

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  1. Select Create Virtual Private Gateway

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  1. Type the name of the gateway (for example US_HQ)

  2. Select ASN as Amazon default ASN

  3. Select Create Virtual Private Gateway

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A message should display indicating that the virtual Private Gateway was created successfully.

  1. Select the newly created gateway and select Actions; on the context menu select Attach to VPC

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  1. From the drop-down menu, select the VPC and select Yes, Attach

Creating a virtual private network connection

  1. Under Virtual Private Network (VPN) in the left menu, go to** Site-to-Site VPN Connections**

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  1. Select Create VPN Connection

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  1. Enter the name tag (for example EU_Office)

  2. Select the created Virtual Private Gateway

  3. Under Customer Gateway, select Existing

  4. Select the Customer Gateway that you have created

  5. Under Routing Options, select Static

  6. Fill in the following Static IP Prefixes: 10.6.0.0/20

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  1. Under Tunnel Options leave the default values as-is

  2. Select Create VPN Connection

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In this page you can also select the inside subnets that you would like to connect via the tunnel.

  1. A message should display indicating that a VPN Connection Request was created successfully

Configuring the routing rules to the default gateway

  1. Select the VPC section in the AWS Console and enter the Route table associated with your VPC

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  1. For the Route Tables menu option, select the routing table that is associated with the VPC you have created for the tunnel

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  1. Select Edit and add the new static routes for the subnets below:

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Fill in 10.6.0.0/20 at the destination field and your new VPN Gateway ID as the target (it will appear under the subcategory Virtual Private Gateway).

  1. Select Save

In case have a customized security group associated with your VPC:

Allow incoming connections from NordLayer local network within your security groups: Configure your AWS security groups to allow all traffic from NordLayer (10.6.0.0/20) or allow only special traffic using the port or services from these sources.

Collecting the tunnel configuration from the AWS Console

  1. Return to Site-to-Site VPN Connections and select Download Configuration

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  1. Fill in the following details:

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Examining the configuration file, you may notice that AWS has created two separate tunnels for the same VPN connection, NordLayer utilizes both of them.

Please note, our support team will need this configuration in order to complete the site-to-site tunnel configuration.

Ending note:

In order to finalize the site-to-site setup on our end, we will need the following information:

  • Full StrongSwan configuration file generated from the AWS portal;
  • Remote subnet and mask of the AWS network VPC that you would like to have remote access to (via site-to-site connection).

You can provide all of these values to us securely via privnote.com

We can also provide our public PGP key for email or file encryption.

Note: In case you are experiencing different results, make sure that you have you carefully gone through all the steps. Having said that, in case the issue persists please feel free to contact our 24/7 customer support team.


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