Add tunnel interfaces for firewalls

Tunnel Interfaces allow routing information to be used to determine the correct VPN tunnel to use in route-based VPNs.

Any traffic that is routed to a tunnel interface and allowed by Access rules is automatically sent through the tunnel to the peer endpoint defined in the Route-Based VPN Tunnel element. Tunnel interfaces are only used in route-based VPNs.

You can optionally add IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to a tunnel interface. Tunnel interfaces can only have static IP addresses. Any IP address can be added to a tunnel interface, even if the same IP address is used on another interface or as a loopback IP address. Adding an IP address to a tunnel interface allows you to define the source IP address of traffic sent from the NGFW Engine itself. For example, an IP address is recommended to provide a source IP address for dynamic routing daemons, for IGMP proxy, and for Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse-Mode (PIM-SM) configuration. If no IP address is added to the tunnel interface, the source IP address for traffic sent from the NGFW Engine is automatically selected. The selection is done according to the Bypass Default IP Address setting in the loopback interface configuration for the NGFW Engine.

The mapping of tunnel interfaces to physical network interfaces on the NGFW Engine is done automatically based on the routing configuration.

For more details about the product and how to configure features, click Help or press F1.

Steps

Right-click an NGFW Engine, then select Edit <element type>.
Browse to Interfaces.
Select Add > Tunnel Interface.
Configure the settings.
Click OK.
If you want to add a source IP address for traffic sent from the engine node, add IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses to the tunnels.
If you do not want to add IP addresses, select system communication roles for firewall interfaces to define how the source IP address for traffic sent from the engine node is selected.
Click Save and Refresh.

Tunnel Interface Properties dialog box (Firewall or Virtual Firewall)

Use this dialog box to configure properties of Tunnel Interface for Firewalls and Virtual Firewalls.

Option	Definition
General tab
Tunnel Interface ID	Select the ID for the Tunnel Interface. The Tunnel Interface ID is automatically mapped to the physical network interface on the engine according to the routing configuration.
Zone (Optional)	Select the network zone to which the interface belongs. Click Select to select an element, or click New to create an element.
Comment (Optional)	A comment for your own reference.

Option	Definition
QoS Mode (Optional)	Defines how QoS is applied to the link on this interface. If Full QoS or DSCP Handling and Throttling is selected, a QoS policy must also be selected. If Full QoS is selected, the throughput must also be defined. If the interface is a Physical Interface, the same QoS mode is automatically applied to any VLANs created under it.
QoS Policy	(When QoS Mode is Full QoS or DSCP Handling and Throttling) The QoS policy for the link on this interface. If the interface is a Physical Interface, the same QoS policy is automatically selected for any VLANs created under it. Note: If a Virtual Resource has a throughput limit defined, the interfaces on the Virtual NGFW Engine that use a QoS policy all use the same policy. The policy used in the first interface is used for all the interfaces.
Interface Throughput Limit	(When QoS Mode is Full QoS) Enter the throughput for the link on this interface as megabits per second. If the interface is a Physical Interface, the same throughput is automatically applied to any VLANs created under it. The throughput is for uplink speed (outgoing traffic) and typically must correspond to the speed of an Internet link (such as an ADSL line), or the combined speeds of several such links when connected to a single interface. CAUTION: Make sure that you set the interface speed correctly. When the bandwidth is set, the NGFW Engine always scales the total amount of traffic on this interface to the bandwidth you defined. This scaling happens even if there are no bandwidth limits or guarantees defined for any traffic. CAUTION: The throughput for a Physical Interface for a Virtual NGFW Engine must not be higher than the throughput for the Master NGFW Engine interface that hosts the Virtual NGFW Engine. Contact the administrator of the Master NGFW Engine before changing this setting.

Option

Definition

QoS Mode

(Optional)

Defines how QoS is applied to the link on this interface.

If Full QoS or DSCP Handling and Throttling is selected, a QoS policy must also be selected. If Full QoS is selected, the throughput must also be defined.

If the interface is a Physical Interface, the same QoS mode is automatically applied to any VLANs created under it.

QoS Policy

(When QoS Mode is Full QoS or DSCP Handling and Throttling)

The QoS policy for the link on this interface.

If the interface is a Physical Interface, the same QoS policy is automatically selected for any VLANs created under it.

Note: If a Virtual Resource has a throughput limit defined, the interfaces on the Virtual NGFW Engine that use a QoS policy all use the same policy. The policy used in the first interface is used for all the interfaces.

Interface Throughput Limit

(When QoS Mode is Full QoS)

Enter the throughput for the link on this interface as megabits per second.

If the interface is a Physical Interface, the same throughput is automatically applied to any VLANs created under it.

The throughput is for uplink speed (outgoing traffic) and typically must correspond to the speed of an Internet link (such as an ADSL line), or the combined speeds of several such links when connected to a single interface.

CAUTION:

Make sure that you set the interface speed correctly. When the bandwidth is set, the NGFW Engine always scales the total amount of traffic on this interface to the bandwidth you defined. This scaling happens even if there are no bandwidth limits or guarantees defined for any traffic.

CAUTION:

The throughput for a Physical Interface for a Virtual NGFW Engine must not be higher than the throughput for the Master NGFW Engine interface that hosts the Virtual NGFW Engine. Contact the administrator of the Master NGFW Engine before changing this setting.

Option	Definition
Tunnel tab
Tunnel	The selected Route-Based VPN Tunnel element. Click Select to select an element, or click New to create an element.
Tunnel Properties	The details of the selected Route-Based VPN Tunnel element.
Name (Optional)	The name of the tunnel.
Enabled	When selected, the tunnel is enabled.
Tunnel Type	Specifies the protocol used in the tunnel. GRE — Generic Routing Encapsulation. This tunnel type is compatible with gateways from most vendors. IP-IP — IP in IP. This tunnel type is for use with third-party gateways that only support IP-IP. SIT — Simple Internet Transition. This tunnel type is for use with IPv6 addresses. VPN — This tunnel type negotiates IPsec tunnels in the same way as policy-based VPNs, but traffic is sent into the tunnel based on routing. Note: For the VPN tunnel type, tunnels between all endpoints of both gateways are automatically created.
Encryption (Not when Tunnel Type is VPN)	The encryption mode for the tunnel. Transport Mode — The tunnel uses IPsec in transport mode. Tunnel Mode — The tunnel uses IPsec in tunnel mode. No Encryption — The tunnel is not encrypted. CAUTION: This option defines a tunnel in which traffic is not protected by a VPN. The No Encryption option is recommended only when you create tunnels entirely within protected networks or you are testing and troubleshooting routing and connectivity.
VPN Profile (Optional) (When Tunnel Type is VPN) (When Encryption is Transport Mode)	The VPN Profile element that defines the settings for authentication, integrity checking, and encryption for the tunnel. Note: Settings in the VPN Profile that do not apply to route-based VPN tunnels, such as IPsec Client settings, are ignored. Examples of available profiles: VPN-A Suite — The tunnel uses the VPN-A Suite VPN Profile element. The VPN-A Suite VPN Profile contains the VPN settings specified for the cryptographic suite “VPN-A” in RFC 4308. iOS Suite — The tunnel uses the iOS Suite VPN Profile element. The iOS Suite VPN Profile element contains only iOS-compatible encryption algorithms and protocols. Click Select to select an element. VPN-A Suite is selected by default.
Edit (When Tunnel Type is VPN) (When Encryption is Transport Mode)	Allows you to use pre-shared key authentication for the gateways involved in the tunnel. Note: The pre-shared key must be long and random to provide a secure VPN. Change the pre-shared key periodically (for example, monthly). Make sure that it is not possible for outsiders to obtain the key while you transfer it to other devices.
VPN (When Encryption is Tunnel Mode)	The policy-based VPN that provides the encryption for the tunnel. Click Select to select an element, or click New to create an element.
Tunnel Options section
PMTU Discovery (All tunnel types except VPN)	When selected, enables path MTU (PMTU) discovery. Select this option if you use dynamic routing and want to automatically determine the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) size on the network path to avoid IP fragmentation.
TTL (Optional) (All tunnel types except VPN)	Specifies the initial time-to-live (TTL) value that is inserted into the encapsulation header of packets that enter the tunnel. This setting is needed when dynamic routing is used. You can usually use the default value. The default TTL value is 64.
MTU (Optional)	Specifies the maximum transmission unit (MTU) value that defines the largest unit of data that can be transmitted without fragmenting a packet. Set the MTU size as large as possible, but not so large that it causes packets to be fragmented. You can usually use the default value.
Tunnel Group (When Tunnel Type is VPN) (When Encryption is Transport Mode)	Select the Tunnel Group to put the tunnel in. You can monitor the status of grouped tunnels in the Home view. By default, new tunnels are included in the Uncategorized group, which is a system Tunnel Group element.
Use GRE Keepalive (When Tunnel Type is GRE and Encryption is No Encryption)	When selected, the NGFW Engine sends keepalive packets at the specified interval to check that the GRE tunnel is still functioning. If the NGFW Engine does not receive a reply after the specified number of packets, the GRE tunnel is considered to be down. Period — The interval (in seconds) at which keepalive packets are sent. The default is 10 seconds. A value of 0 means that the NGFW Engine only replies to keepalive packets from other devices, but does not send keepalive packets itself. Retry — The number of packets after which the GRE tunnel is considered to be down if the NGFW Engine does not receive a reply. The default is 3 packets. Note: To use GRE keepalive, the router to which the NGFW Engine is connected must support GRE keepalive.

Option	Definition
Advanced tab (All optional settings)
Override Engine's Default Settings	When selected, the default settings of the NGFW Engine are overridden.
SYN Rate Limits	Default — The interface uses the SYN rate limits defined for the NGFW Engine on the Advanced Settings branch of the Engine Editor. None — Disables SYN rate limits on the interface. Automatic — This is the recommended mode if you want to override the general SYN rate limits defined on the Advanced Settings branch of the Engine Editor. The NGFW Engine calculates the number of allowed SYN packets per second and the burst size (the number of allowed SYNs before the NGFW Engine starts limiting the SYN rate) based on the NGFW Engine’s capacity and memory size. Custom — Enter the values for Allowed SYNs per Second and Burst Size.
Allowed SYNs per Second	Defines the number of allowed SYN packets per second.
Burst Size	The number of allowed SYNs before the NGFW Engine starts limiting the SYN rate. We recommend that you set the burst size to be at least one tenth of the Allowed SYNs per Second value. If the burst size is too small, SYN rate limits do not work. For example, if the value for Allowed SYNs per Second is 10000, set the value for Burst Size to at least 1000.
Enable Log Compression	By default, each generated Antispoofing and Discard log entry is logged separately and displayed as a separate entry in the Logs view. Log Compression settings allow you to define the maximum number of separately logged entries. When the defined limit is reached, a single antispoofing log entry or Discard log entry is logged. The single entry contains information about the total number of the generated Antispoofing log entries or Discard log entries. After this log entry, the logging returns to normal and all generated entries are once more logged and displayed separately. Log Compression is useful when the routing configuration generates a large volume of antispoofing logs or the number of Discard logs becomes high. For each event type, Antispoofing or Discard, you can define: Log Rate (Entries/s) — The maximum number of entries per second. The default value for antispoofing entries is 100 entries/s. By default, Discard log entries are not compressed. Burst Size (Entries) — The maximum number of matching entries in a single burst. The default value for antispoofing entries is 1000 entries. By default, Discard log entries are not compressed.
Set to Default	Returns all changes to the log compression settings to the default settings.

IP Address Properties dialog box (Single Firewall Tunnel interface)

Use this dialog box to define the properties of a Single Firewall's tunnel interface IP address.

Option	Definition
IPv4 Address or IPv6 Address	Enter the IPv4 address or IPv6 address.
Network Settings
Netmask (IPv4 only)	Automatically populated IP address or netmask length (1–32). This value can be changed if needed.
Prefix Length (IPv6 only)	Check the automatically filled-in prefix length and adjust it if necessary by entering a value between 0–128.
Network Address	The network address is automatically filled in.
Broadcast IP Address (IPv4 only)	The broadcast IP address is automatically filled in.
Comment (Optional)	A comment for your own reference.

IP Address Properties dialog box (Firewall Cluster's Tunnel interface)

Use this dialog box to define the properties of a Firewall Cluster's tunnel interface IP address.

Option	Definition
Cluster Virtual IP Address	Enter the common IP address for all nodes in the cluster.
IPv4 Address	Enter the IPv4 Address.
IPv6 Address	Enter the IPv6 Address.
Comment	Add a comment to the IP address.
Contact Addresses
Default	Used by default whenever a component that belongs to another Location connects to this interface.
Dynamic	Used when interface has a dynamic contact address.
Exceptions	Opens the Exceptions dialog box.
Node Dedicated IP Address	Enter a dedicated IP address for each node.
Node ID	Shows the number assigned to the node.
Node	Displays the name of the node.
IPv4 Address	Enter the IPv4 address.
IPv6 Address	Enter the IPv6 address.
Contact Address	Enter the IP address that components belonging to another Location use to connect to the interface. Double-click the Contact Address cell to open the Exceptions dialog box and define the Default contact address.
Comment	Adds a comment to the IP address.
Network Settings
Netmask (IPv4 only)	Automatically populated IP address or netmask length (1–32). This value can be changed if needed.
Prefix Length (IPv6 only)	Check the automatically filled-in Prefix Length and adjust it if necessary by entering a value between 0–128.
Network Address	The Network Address is automatically filled in and cannot be edited.
Broadcast IP Address (IPv6 only)	The Broadcast IP Address is automatically filled in and cannot be edited.

Resolve IP Address From DNS Name dialog box

Use this dialog box to resolve an IP address from a DNS name.

Option	Definition
DNS Name	The DNS name that you want to resolve.
Resolve	Select to display a list of IP addresses that the DNS name resolves to. Note: The IP addresses are resolved by the computer running the Management Client.
IP Address	Select the IP address that you want to use.