BOVPN Virtual Interface Load Balancing with
OSPF
Example configuration files created with — WSM v11.10 Revised — 5/22/2015
Use Case
In this configuration example, an organization has networks at two sites and uses a branch office VPN to connect the two networks. To increase the total throughput between sites and to make their VPN connection more fault-tolerant, they want to set up a second VPN tunnel between the two sites, and load balance connections through both VPN tunnels.
This configuration example is provided as a guide. Additional configuration settings could be necessary, or more appropriate, for your network environment.
Solution Overview
A BOVPN virtual interface provides a secure VPN tunnel for traffic between the networks protected by two Firebox devices. You can configure a second BOVPN virtual interface to send traffic through a second external interface. This configuration
How It Works
OSPF supports ECMP (equal cost multipath) load balancing. If multiple routes to the same destination have an equal route metric, OSPF uses ECMP to evenly distribute traffic across multiple routes based on source and destination IP addresses, and the number of connections that currently use each route. In this example configuration, two BOVPN virtual interfaces are configured between two Firebox devices. Each VPN uses a different external interface. The two devices use OSPF to exchange information about routes to their local networks through both tunnels. Because the point-to-point connections through each tunnel have the same metric, OSPF load balances traffic through both tunnels with equal priority.
With this configuration:
n Each Firebox uses OSPF to propagate routes to local networks through both BOVPN virtual interfaces.
n When both VPN tunnels are available, OSPF uses ECMP to load balance connections through the two VPN tunnels. n If one external interface or one tunnel goes down, OSPF automatically sends all traffic through the other BOVPN tunnel.
Example
To illustrate this use case, we present an example of an organization that has Firebox devices at two locations: one in Hamburg, and another in Berlin. This example shows how to set up two VPN tunnels and load balance traffic through both tunnels with equal priority.
Topology
Network Configuration
The IP addresses for each site in this configuration:
Firebox Interface Berlin Hamburg
External-1 IP address: 192.0.2.1/29 Default GW: 192.0.2.6 IP address: 192.0.2.9/29, Default GW: 192.0.2.14 External-2 IP address: 203.0.113.1/29 Default GW: 203.0.113.6 IP address: 203.0.113.9/29 Default GW: 203.0.113.14 Trusted network 172.16.100.0/24 172.16.101.0/24
The details of each configuration file are described in the next section.
Example Configuration Files
For your reference, we include example configuration files with this document. To examine the details of the configuration files, you can open them with Policy Manager. There are two example configuration files, one for each location in the example.
Configuration Filename Description
Berlin.xml Berlin Firebox
Hamburg.xml Hamburg Firebox
Configuration Explained
Multi-WAN Configuration
The Hamburg Firebox has two external interfaces, External-1 and External-2, and one trusted interface.
Both Firebox devices are configured to use the Routing Table multi-WAN method. The multi-WAN method controls load balancing for non-IPSec traffic routed through the external interfaces. The multi-WAN settings do not enable load balancing of IPSec traffic through the tunnel. The load balancing of traffic through the tunnel is a function of OSPF, as configured in the subsequent section.
In this example multi-WAN configuration, each Firebox uses the external IP address of the peer device as a ping link monitor target for each external interface. The ping target is not required, but we recommend that you configure a reliable link monitor target any time you configure multi-WAN.
VPN Configuration
The example configurations contain two BOVPN virtual interfaces for VPN connections between each site. To see the BOVPN virtual interfaces:
1. Open the example configuration file in Policy Manager. 2. Select VPN > BOVPN Virtual Interfaces.
Each device has two BOVPN virtual interfaces. Each BOVPN virtual interface is named to represent the location of the remote device, and which local external interface it uses.
BOVPN Virtual Interfaces
Each Firebox has two BOVPN virtual interfaces. The Berlin Firebox has two BOVPN virtual interfaces:
n BovpnVif.Hamburg-1 — Uses the External-1 interface n BovpnVif.Hamburg-2 — Uses the External-2 interface
The Hamburg Firebox has two BOVPN virtual interfaces: n BovpnVif.Berlin-1 — Uses the External-1 interface n BovpnVif.Berlin-2 — Uses the External-2 interface
VPN-1 Configuration on the Berlin Firebox
On the Berlin Firebox, BovpnVif.Hamburg-1 uses the external interface External-1 to connect to the remote gateway at the Hamburg Firebox.
In the Gateway Settings tab:
n The Local Gateway ID is set to the IP address of the local External-1 interface, 192.0.2.1 n The Interface is set to External-1.
n The Remote Gateway IP Address and ID are both set to the IP address of the external interface on the Hamburg Firebox, 192.0.2.9.
To configure dynamic routing through a BOVPN virtual interface, you must assign virtual interface IP addresses in the VPN
Routes tab.
In the VPN Routes tab, the virtual IP addresses are set to: n Local IP address: 10.0.10.1
n Peer IP address: 10.0.10.3
For this example, the virtual interface IP addresses used for both tunnels are all in the 10.0.10.0/24 subnet. This subnet is used in the OSPF configuration to define a point-to-point network.
VPN-1 Configuration on the Hamburg Firebox
On the Hamburg Firebox, BovpnVif.Berlin-1 uses the external interface External-1 to connect to the remote gateway at the BerlinFirebox.
In the Gateway Settings tab:
n The Local Gateway ID is set to the IP address of the local External-1 interface, 192.0.2.9. n The Interface is set to External-1.
n The Remote Gateway IP Address and ID are both set to the IP address of the external interface on the Berlin Firebox,
192.0.2.1.
A Local IP address and Peer IP address are configured in the VPN Routes tab. These IP addresses are used in the OSPF configuration to define a point-to-point network. These IP addresses must be the opposite of the addresses configured for this tunnel on the peer Firebox.
In the VPN Routes tab, the virtual IP addresses are set to: n Local IP address: 10.0.10.3
n Peer IP address: 10.0.10.1
VPN-2 Configuration on the Berlin Firebox
The second BOVPN virtual interface on each device is configured very similarly, except that the gateway endpoints specify the second external interface, External-2, and use the IP addresses of the second external interface on each device as the local and remote gateway endpoints.
In the Gateway Settings tab:
n The Local Gateway ID is set to the IP address of the local External-2 interface, 203.0.113.1 n The Interface is set to External-2.
n The Remote Gateway IP Address and ID are both set to the IP address of the external-2 interface on the Hamburg Firebox, 203.0.113.9.
In the VPN Routes tab the virtual IP addresses are set to: n Local IP address: 10.0.10.4
n Peer IP address: 10.0.10.2
VPN-2 Configuration on the Hamburg Firebox
In the Gateway Settings tab:n The Local Gateway ID is set to the IP address of the local External-2 interface, 203.0.113.9 n The Interface is set to External-2.
n The Remote Gateway IP Address and ID are both set to the IP address of the external-2 interface on the Hamburg Firebox, 203.0.113.2.
Dynamic Routing Configuration
In the example dynamic routing configuration:n The router-id is set to the IP address of the trusted interface.
n All interfaces are passive except the two BOVPN virtual interfaces, bvpn1 and bvpn2.
n Each Firebox announces 10.0.10.0/24, the subnet used for the point-to-point networks through each tunnel. o The local and peer IP addresses for both BOPVN virtual interfaces fall within this subnet.
n Each Firebox announces its own trusted network: o The Berlin Firebox announces 172.16.100.0/24 o The Hamburg Firebox announces 172.15.101.0/24 Dynamic routing configuration on the Berlin Firebox:
router ospf
ospf router-id 172.16.100.1
! exclude all but bvpn virtual interfaces passive-interface default
no passive-interface bvpn1 no passive-interface bvpn2
! which networks are announced in OSPF area 0.0.0.0 ! bvpn Point-to-Point networks
network 10.0.10.0/24 area 0.0.0.0 ! Trusted network
network 172.16.100.0/24 area 0.0.0.0
Dynamic routing configuration on the Hamburg Firebox: router ospf
ospf router-id 172.16.101.1 ! exclude all but bvpn interfaces passive-interface default no passive-interface bvpn1 no passive-interface bvpn2
! which networks are announced in OSPF area 0.0.0.0 ! bvpn Point-to-Point networks
network 10.0.10.0/24 area 0.0.0.0 ! Trusted network
Dynamic Routes
After the configuration is saved to the two Firebox devices, the routes propagate through the tunnel to each device. With this configuration, each device has two routes to the remote trusted network. Both routes have the same metric, and each uses a different virtual interface. After the tunnels are established between the two devices, you can see the learned routes in the Status Report.
Routes on the Berlin Firebox
The IPv4 Routes section of the Status Report on the Berlin Firebox shows the two routes to the trusted network on the Hamburg trusted network, one through bvpn1 and one through bvpn2.
Routes on the Hamburg Firebox
On the Hamburg Firebox, the IPv4 Routes table shows two routes to the trusted network of the Berlin Firebox.
Monitor VPN Load Balancing
In Firebox System Manager you can monitor the load balancing through the two VPN tunnels. The images below show an example of what the load balancing looks like when monitored from the Berlin Firebox.
On the Traffic Monitor tab, you can see that both VPN tunnels are used for connections from different clients.
On the Front Panel tab you can monitor the traffic statistics for both VPN interfaces to see the traffic load balanced through both tunnels.
About this Configuration Example
This configuration example is provided as a guide. Additional configuration settings could be necessary, or more appropriate, for your network environment.
For complete product documentation, see the Fireware XTM WatchGuard System Manager Help or Fireware XTM Web UI
Help on the WatchGuard website at:http://www.watchguard.com/help/documentation/.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Companies, names, and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.
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Complete copyright, trademark, patent, and licensing information can be found in the Copyright and Licensing Guide, available online at:http://www.watchguard.com/help/documentation/.
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