Adding a cross-account (VPC only) connection

You can request virtual connections to networks in other IBM Cloud accounts for Direct Link gateways that indicate the Provisioned status.

Only one pending request is allowed per gateway. To create more requests, you can cancel the pending virtual connection request or wait for it to be accepted. Connection requests expire if not accepted within 72 hours.

Follow these steps to connect networks owned by different accounts:

1. Click the Direct Link name in the table to show its details, then click Add connection in the Virtual connections section.

2. On the Add connection page select Request connection to a network in another account.

3. Type the VPC CRN of the cross-account network.

   To get the CRN of a VPC, click Menu > Resource List from the IBM Cloud console. Expand VPC infrastructure to list your VPCs. Then, click the row of the VPC, copy the CRN to the clipboard, and paste it in the Direct Link window.

4. Type the name of the network connection, then click Add. The network connection shows in the gateway account with the Pending approval status.

5. The network (VPC) owner's account shows the gateway in View only mode. From the network (VPC) owner's account, go to the Direct Link dashboard and click the gateway name in the table.

6. In the Virtual Connections section, see Action required to view the incoming request. Click Accept to accept the network connection request. Then, click Accept to confirm.

7. When you change back to the original account, the status of the virtual connection changes to Ready, indicating that the network request was accepted.

The gateway account owner (or the network account owner) can delete the virtual connection. If the network owner deletes the virtual connection, the gateway owner sees the connection status as Detached. The gateway owner can delete the detached virtual connection from the gateway.