Route Analyzer vs. Reachability Analyzer vs. Network Access Analyzer

This article was written by Bill Junidez Liad, a Cloud and DevOps Engineer based in the Philippines. Bill is dedicated to expanding his cloud expertise and has extensive experience in Web Application Development and Amazon Web Services (AWS). He currently holds three AWS Associate certifications.

In network management and security, understanding data flow within your network is crucial. Thankfully, AWS provides three essential tools for this purpose: Route Analyzers, Reachability Analyzers, and Network Accessibility Analyzers. Each tool serves a distinct function that aids in analyzing and optimizing network infrastructure. In this article, we will explore the differences between these analyzers and their use cases and briefly discuss other related tools like the IAM Access Analyzer.

Analyzers at a Glance

Let's begin by illustrating the differences between these three analyzers with a table:

Route Analyzer

Route Analyzer is a feature in AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager that allows you to confirm that your Transit Gateway route table configuration will function as intended before routing live traffic. This tool enables you to validate the current Transit Gateway setup and diagnose routing issues that may cause disruptions in your global network.

Rules for Route Analyzer

• Analyzes routes exclusively for Transit Gateway route tables, not for VPC route tables or customer gateway devices.
• Transit Gateways must be registered to your global network beforehand.
• Does not analyze security group rules or network ACL rules.
• Returns information for the return path only if it can successfully retrieve information for the forward path.

Valid Use Cases

Validating Configuration

Route Analyzer assists in validating Transit Gateway route table configurations. It analyzes network paths between a specified source and destination, providing information about connectivity between components. It can validate both existing and new Transit Gateway route table configurations, ensuring the setup is correct before permitting live traffic on the network.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting network issues between your AWS Transit Gateways can be challenging. This is why Route Analyzer was introduced—to quickly diagnose and resolve network disruptions.

Reachability Analyzer

Reachability Analyzer can test connectivity between resources in your VPCs. It provides hop-by-hop details for the path between the source and destination resources when they are reachable. If the destination is not reachable, it can also identify which component is blocking the path.

The Reachability Analyzer provides the shortest path when multiple routes exist between the source and destination. To use the Reachability Analyzer, the resources must be either in the same VPC or in different VPCs connected via VPC peering or a transit gateway. It can also analyze up to two transit gateway route tables; for more than two, you should use Route Analyzer instead.

Valid Use Cases

• Address connectivity issues resulting from misconfigurations.
• Confirm that your network setup matches your intended connectivity.
• Automate the validation of connectivity goals as your network configuration evolves.

Network Access Analyzer

Network Access Analyzer examines network paths between AWS resources and utilizes network access scopes to generate findings from this analysis. It helps identify unintended network access to your AWS resources and any network paths that do not align with your requirements.

Network Access Scopes are the criteria you define to generate findings from the analysis. MatchPaths entries specify the types of paths you want to see in the findings, representing potential security compliance violations. ExcludePaths are used to omit legitimate network paths that you do not want to appear in the findings.

Essentially, Findings are paths that align with your MatchPaths entries but do not match your ExcludePaths entries in your Network Access Scopes. These findings represent potential security risks and are the focus of our attention.

Valid Use Cases

• Improve your network's security posture: The Network Access Analyzer assists in identifying unauthorized network access that may not meet your security and compliance standards, allowing you to take corrective actions to bolster network security.
• Demonstrate compliance adherence: The Network Access Analyzer helps you provide evidence that your AWS network meets your specific compliance requirements.

Related Analyzer: IAM Access Analyzer

Although not explored in detail in this article, IAM (Identity and Access Management) Access Analyzer is noteworthy. This tool focuses on evaluating AWS Identity and Access Management policies to ensure they follow security best practices. It offers three key capabilities:

• Identifies resources shared with external identities, which can include another AWS account, a root user, an IAM user or role, a federated user, an AWS service, or an anonymous user.
• Validates IAM policies during their creation or updates.
• Generates IAM policies based on activities recorded in AWS CloudTrail logs.

In summary, selecting between Route Analyzer, Reachability Analyzer, and Network Access Analyzer depends on your particular network management and security needs. Each tool has a distinct role and should be incorporated into your network management strategy to enhance performance, ensure connectivity, and strengthen security. Tools such as IAM Access Analyzer can also extend your security measures into the cloud, providing comprehensive protection for your digital assets.

* This newsletter was sourced from this Tutorials Dojo article.