Connecting Many Sites With A Vpn Concentrator

Domain expertise for consolidating multi-site connectivity with an AWS Site-to-Site VPN Concentrator: a transit gateway attachment that gives 5 Gbps of aggregate bandwidth shared across many remote sites, with endpoints in two Availability Zones. Covers the deployment profile the Concentrator fits, the transit-gateway-only and BGP-only constraints, the per-site work that remains, and the cost comparison against per-site connections.

Does not cover sizing one connection’s throughput (the choosing-tunnel-bandwidth reference) or the general connection build (the creating-a-site-to-site-vpn-connection reference), though each site’s connection follows that build. Use this reference when the customer has many low-bandwidth sites, not one high-throughput site.

Execute commands using the AWS MCP server when connected (sandboxed execution, audit logging, observability). Fall back to the AWS CLI otherwise. Pass --region {region} matching the transit gateway.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Workflow
• Decision: is a Concentrator the right fit
• Transit-gateway-only and BGP-only constraints
• Per-site work remains
• Cost comparison
• Troubleshooting
• Procedure
• Security Considerations
• Additional Resources

Workflow

To consolidate many sites, confirm the deployment fits the Concentrator profile, create the Concentrator on a transit gateway, then create one VPN connection per site against it. See the Procedure section below.

The procedure covers:

• Checking the site count and per-site bandwidth against the Concentrator profile
• Creating the Concentrator on an existing transit gateway
• Creating one BGP VPN connection per site, each with a unique CIDR block
• Surfacing the console link to verify

Decision: is a Concentrator the right fit

Constraints:

• You MUST check the site count and per-site bandwidth against the profile (25+ sites, 50 to 100 Mbps each) before recommending a Concentrator
• You SHOULD recommend individual connections or Large tunnels when the customer has few sites or a single high-throughput site

Transit-gateway-only and BGP-only constraints

The Concentrator is a transit gateway attachment only, so it does not work with a virtual private gateway, and connections on it must use BGP routing; static routing is not an option.

Constraints:

• You MUST confirm the customer has (or will create) a transit gateway; the Concentrator cannot attach to a virtual private gateway
• You MUST state that connections on the Concentrator require BGP routing, so the customer’s devices must support BGP
• You SHOULD surface both constraints before the customer starts, so the gateway and routing decisions are made correctly the first time

Per-site work remains

The Concentrator shares one attachment, but each remote site still needs its own VPN connection and its own customer gateway, and every site must use a unique CIDR block to avoid routing conflicts across the shared attachment.

Constraints:

• You MUST make clear the consolidation is at the attachment and bandwidth level, not “one connection to configure”
• You MUST enforce a unique CIDR block per site to avoid routing conflicts
• You SHOULD track which sites have been provisioned and confirm each site’s connection is created, so no site is accidentally omitted from the rollout

Cost comparison

A Concentrator bills per hour for the attachment plus a smaller per-connection charge. It is cheaper than a full 1.25 Gbps connection per site only when there are enough low-bandwidth sites to amortize the attachment cost.

Constraints:

• You MUST walk the customer through the comparison against per-site connections, based on their actual site count
• You SHOULD NOT assume consolidation is always cheaper; below the break-even site count, per-site connections cost less

Troubleshooting

Customer asks to use a Concentrator without a transit gateway

The Concentrator requires a transit gateway. If the customer only has a virtual private gateway, they must create a transit gateway first (Transit-gateway-only constraints).

A site’s connection rejects static routing

Concentrator connections require BGP. The device must support BGP (Transit-gateway-only and BGP-only constraints).

Routing breaks across sites

Two sites use overlapping CIDR blocks. Give each site a unique CIDR block (Per-site work remains).

Concentrator costs more than expected for few sites

Below the break-even site count, per-site connections are cheaper. Reconsider the fit (Cost comparison).

Monitoring the Concentrator and its connections

Use the monitoring-and-troubleshooting-tunnels reference for setting up CloudWatch alarms and VPN logs on the Concentrator’s connections.

Procedure

Overview

This procedure confirms the deployment fits the Concentrator profile, creates the Concentrator on a transit gateway, creates one BGP VPN connection per site with a unique CIDR block, then surfaces the console link to verify.

Parameters

• region (required): The AWS Region of the transit gateway.
• transit_gateway_id (required): The existing transit gateway to attach the Concentrator to.
• site_count (required): The number of remote sites.
• per_site_bandwidth (required): The bandwidth each site needs.
• sites (required): Per site, the customer gateway IP, the customer gateway BGP ASN, and the unique CIDR block.

Constraints for parameter acquisition:

• You MUST ask for the site count and per-site bandwidth upfront to confirm the fit
• You MUST confirm a transit gateway exists or will be created

Steps

1. Confirm the fit

Constraints:

• You MUST confirm credentials with aws sts get-caller-identity
• You SHOULD recommend ephemeral IAM role-based credentials (instance profile, SSO session, or assumed role) rather than long-lived IAM user access keys for running these commands
• You MUST check site count and per-site bandwidth against the profile (25+ sites, 50 to 100 Mbps each)
• You SHOULD recommend individual connections or Large tunnels instead if the deployment does not fit

2. Create the Concentrator

Constraints:

• You MUST create the Concentrator on the existing transit gateway. It provisions two endpoints, one per Availability Zone:

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  aws ec2 create-vpn-concentrator --transit-gateway-id {transit_gateway_id} --region {region}

• You MUST capture the concentrator ID from the response

3. Create one VPN connection per site

Constraints:

• You MUST create each site’s customer gateway and a BGP VPN connection against the Concentrator, with a unique CIDR block per site. Per site, create the customer gateway, then the connection against the transit gateway the Concentrator is on, supplying two TunnelOptions objects so both tunnels use strong options:

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  aws ec2 create-customer-gateway --type ipsec.1 --public-ip {site_customer_gateway_ip} \
    --bgp-asn {site_customer_gateway_asn} --region {region}
  aws ec2 create-vpn-connection --type ipsec.1 --customer-gateway-id {site_customer_gateway_id} \
    --transit-gateway-id {transit_gateway_id} \
    --pre-shared-key-storage SecretsManager \
    --options "StaticRoutesOnly=false,TunnelOptions=[{Phase1EncryptionAlgorithms=[{Value=AES256}],Phase2EncryptionAlgorithms=[{Value=AES256}],Phase1IntegrityAlgorithms=[{Value=SHA2-256}],Phase2IntegrityAlgorithms=[{Value=SHA2-256}],Phase1DHGroupNumbers=[{Value=14}],Phase2DHGroupNumbers=[{Value=14}]},{Phase1EncryptionAlgorithms=[{Value=AES256}],Phase2EncryptionAlgorithms=[{Value=AES256}],Phase1IntegrityAlgorithms=[{Value=SHA2-256}],Phase2IntegrityAlgorithms=[{Value=SHA2-256}],Phase1DHGroupNumbers=[{Value=14}],Phase2DHGroupNumbers=[{Value=14}]}]" \
    --region {region}

• You MUST use --pre-shared-key-storage SecretsManager on all create-vpn-connection calls to store PSKs in AWS Secrets Manager so they are not returned as plain text in APIs like describe-vpn-connections; this incurs a small additional Secrets Manager cost per secret

• You MUST set strong tunnel options (AES-256, SHA-256 or higher, Diffie-Hellman group 14 or higher) rather than the AES-128 / SHA-1 / DH group 2 minimums

• You MUST supply two TunnelOptions objects, one per tunnel, since every connection has two tunnels; a single-element array leaves Tunnel 2 on the weak AES-128 / SHA-1 / DH group 2 defaults

• You MUST NOT use static routing; Concentrator connections require BGP

• You MUST confirm no two sites share a CIDR block

4. Confirm and surface the console link

Constraints:

• You MUST confirm the Concentrator and each site’s connection report the expected state

• You MUST present the VPN Concentrators console link, filling {region} from the request, and tell the customer to open it and confirm the Concentrator and attached connections:

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  https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/home?region={region}#SiteToSiteVpnConcentrators:

Example

Example input

Example output

Troubleshooting

See the Troubleshooting section above for common issues (attachment failures, static routing rejection, overlapping CIDRs, cost).

Security Considerations

A Concentrator multiplies the number of tunnels and secrets the customer manages on one shared attachment, so per-site authentication and isolation matter more than for a single connection.

Constraints:

• You MUST treat tunnel pre-shared keys (PSKs) as secrets: never pass them on the command line or store them in plaintext, store them in AWS Secrets Manager, and rotate them periodically; where the device supports it, recommend certificate-based authentication with AWS Private Certificate Authority instead of a static PSK. Use a distinct key per site rather than reusing one key across sites
• You MUST enforce a unique, non-overlapping CIDR block per site, since overlapping CIDR blocks across the shared attachment both break routing and let one site reach another’s prefixes
• You MUST set strong tunnel options (AES-256, SHA-256 or higher, Diffie-Hellman group 14 or higher) rather than the AES-128 / SHA-1 / DH group 2 minimums
• You SHOULD set up monitoring by following the monitoring-and-troubleshooting-tunnels reference, which covers CloudWatch tunnel-state alarms, VPN logs, and CloudTrail audit logging
• You MUST enable encryption at rest on all log destinations (KMS on the CloudWatch Logs log groups holding the VPN/tunnel logs, and SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS on the S3 bucket holding the CloudTrail logs) since these logs can carry sensitive tunnel and connection details

Additional Resources

• Introducing AWS Site-to-Site VPN Concentrator for multi-site connectivity (AWS Networking & Content Delivery Blog) (opens in a new tab)
• AWS Site-to-Site VPN quotas (AWS Site-to-Site VPN User Guide) (opens in a new tab)
• AWS VPN Pricing (opens in a new tab)