Table of Contents

Order and configure your VirtualPNI to a third-party provider

Joseph Thorwest Updated by Joseph Thorwest

What this covers

Use this guide when you want to connect your network to another company — for example a partner, customer, or supplier — instead of connecting two of your own Access ports.

Your side of the connection is the A-Side; the other company's side is the B-Side. You order the service and configure your own side; the other company configures theirs. The VirtualPNI goes live once both sides are configured.

You can connect to a foreign port in two ways:

  • Access ↔ Access — a Layer 2 connection between your Access port and the partner's Access port.
  • Access ↔ Cloud ROUTER — a Layer 3 routed connection between your DE-CIX Cloud ROUTER and the partner's Access port.

On the B-Side, the partner always configures an Access port — regardless of whether your A-Side is an Access port or a Cloud ROUTER.

What does "discoverable" mean?

A company can mark one of its Access ports as discoverable. A discoverable port is shown in the DE-CIX portal, so that other customers can find it and request a VirtualPNI to it — you select the company and the port from a list instead of having to obtain their port details first.

What this does — and does not — mean:

• The connectivity is delivered entirely over the DE-CIX platform. There are no cross-connects to order and no physical coordination between the two sites — we provision the connection between the two endpoints for you.

• The other company still has to configure their side. Selecting their port lets you place the order; it does not configure their end. They must add their own technical configuration (Access port, encapsulation and VLAN) before the service goes live.

• You may still need to talk to each other. Discoverability makes finding the port and ordering the connection self-service — it does not replace agreeing on the connection itself, such as commercial terms or the VLAN and IP addressing you want to run over it.

Both endpoints on your own account? See Order and configure your VirtualPNI between your own resources.

Can't find the company you are looking for?

The portal only lists ports that have been explicitly made discoverable. A network can be connected to DE-CIX and still not appear here — if you know your partner is on our platform, ask them to make one of their ports discoverable.

Looking for potential partners? The Connected Networks list on the DE-CIX locations page shows every network present at each location.

Prerequisites

  • For an Access ↔ Access connection: one Access for your A-Side (see also Create a new Access).
  • For an Access ↔ Cloud ROUTER connection: a Cloud ROUTER for your A-Side (see also Overview Cloud ROUTER).
  • The company you want to connect to has made one of their Access ports discoverable.
Would you like to make one of your own Access ports discoverable, so that other customers can find it and request a connection to you?

This is not yet supported in the portal. Please get in touch with our customer service — we will set it up for you.

Steps

  1. Login to our portal and click on Add Services either on the dashboard or the Service overview page.
  2. Select Add VirtualPNI Service.
  3. On Who owns both endpoints?, select Third-party B-Side and click Next.
  4. Search for and select the partner account.
  5. From that provider, select a discoverable port — each is shown with its metro area and data center.
  1. Click Next.
  2. On the configuration screen, the following information is required:
    1. B-Side Location: Already pre-filled and locked to the partner's port (shown with a lock icon and a note naming the partner).
    2. A-Side Location: Choose the metro area for your side.
    3. Service name: A name to recognise this service by.
    4. Purchase order: Your optional internal Purchase Order reference.
    5. Bandwidth: Drag the slider (10 Mbit/s up to 10 Gbit/s).
    6. Contract duration: Pick a term; the price updates to match your selection.
  1. Click Next.
  2. Review the order summary, optionally add a confirmation email address, and place the order.
  1. The portal provisions the service and shows progress. When it finishes you'll see "Your VirtualPNI has been created". Click on Next.
  2. On "How do you want to connect?", choose how your A-Side connects to the partner's port:
    1. Select Access ↔ Access for a Layer 2 connection and continue with Configure an Access ↔ Access connection as A-Side.
    2. Select Access ↔ Cloud ROUTER for a Layer 3 routed connection and continue with Configure an Access ↔ Cloud ROUTER connection as A-Side.
    Click Next.

Configure an Access ↔ Access connection as A-Side

You configure only your own side — the B-Side is managed by the partner. For your A-Side:

  1. Select the Access Port. The list only shows ports in that side's metro area.
  1. Set the encapsulation. It's determined by the Access port you choose:
    1. A Dot1Q configured port uses Dot1Q and Untagged automatically.
    2. A QinQ configured port lets you choose Dot1Q, QinQ or Untagged.
  2. Enter the VLAN:
    1. Dot1Q: A single VLAN ID (1–4094).
    2. QinQ: An Inner VLAN ID (C-Tag) and an Outer VLAN ID (S-Tag), each 1–4094.
  3. Click Review, check the details, and confirm.
The partner is responsible for their side of the connection. Coordinate any B-Side changes with them.

Configure an Access ↔ Cloud ROUTER connection as A-Side

With this option your A-Side is your DE-CIX Cloud ROUTER, giving you a Layer 3 routed connection to the partner's Access port. You configure only your own side — the B-Side is managed by the partner as an Access port.

  1. Select Access ↔ Cloud ROUTER and click Next.
  2. On the Configure VirtualPNI connection screen, provide the following:
    1. Choose your Cloud ROUTER: Select the Cloud ROUTER that should terminate this connection.
    2. External reference: A name to recognise this configuration by.
    3. Cloud ROUTER IP Network: The BGP IP of your Cloud ROUTER with subnet mask (we recommend a /30; a /32 cannot be used).
    4. BGP Neighbor IP Address: The BGP IP of the partner's side.
    5. BGP Password (optional).
    6. BGP Neighbor ASN: The partner's ASN.
    7. BFD: We recommend leaving this set to "yes", as it improves connection stability.
    8. AS Override: Enable this if both sides use the same ASN and would otherwise reject each other's routes. See AS Override for Cloud ROUTER connections for details.
  3. Click Submit.
Please note: After you submit your A-Side configuration, the service state is requested. At this point there is nothing more for you to do — the partner (B-Side) now has to configure their Access port. Once they do, the service goes live and switches to production. You will currently be informed by DE-CIX customer service as soon as the B-Side has been established.
Changing the connection later

• On your A-Side, you can change the configuration from Cloud ROUTER to Access. To change a configuration, delete the existing configuration entry and create a new one.

• If the partner (B-Side) moves the connection to a different Access, this is service-impacting for you and will be announced as a maintenance window.

Accept a third party connection as third party provider (B-Side)

A third-party connection only goes live once the partner accepts it by configuring their side. This applies to both Access ↔ Access and Access ↔ Cloud ROUTER connections — on the B-Side you always configure an Access port. There is no separate accept or decline button — acceptance happens through configuration:

  1. Once the requesting party (A-Side) has placed the order, the VirtualPNI appears in the portal as an unassigned service on the Services overview page. Click the unassigned service to open its modal, then click Edit to go to the service detail page.
  2. On the service detail page, the B-Side shows No configuration. Click Add Configuration to open the configuration modal, then select your Access Port, set the encapsulation, enter the VLAN, and click Review to confirm.
  3. Once you submit your B-Side configuration, both sides are configured and the VirtualPNI becomes active. Until then, the A-Side sees the B-Side as awaiting, and the service stays incomplete.

Need help? Get in touch with our customer service.

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