Manual Chapter : Using ALG Profiles

Applies To:

Show Versions

BIG-IP LTM

17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.5, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.10, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1

Using ALG Profiles

Overview: Using the FTP ALG Profile to Transfer Files

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) application layer gateway (ALG) profile enables you to transfer files between a client and server. The FTP ALG profile supports both active and passive modes, where data connections are initiated either from an FTP server (active mode) or from a client (passive mode). You can transfer files using the FTP protocol by configuring an LSN pool, configuring an FTP profile, and then assigning the LSN pool and FTP profile to a virtual server. The FTP protocol is described in RFC 959.

Task summary

About the FTP profile

The

File Transfer Protocol

(

FTP

) profile enables you to transfer files between a client and server, using FTP connections over TCP. The FTP application layer gateway (ALG) supports the FTP protocol's active and passive modes, where data connections are initiated either from an FTP server (active mode) or from a client (passive mode).

You can configure the FTP profile settings, as needed, to ensure compatibility between IPv4 and IPv6 clients and servers, to enable the FTP data channel to inherit the TCP profile used by the FTP control channel, and to use a port other than the default port (

). Additionally, when used with Application Security Manager™ (ASM™), this profile enables the BIG-IP system to inspect FTP traffic for security vulnerabilities by using an FTP security profile.

FTP Control Channels

Once established, the FTP control channel remains open throughout the FTP session. The FTP control channel and the FTP data channel must both originate from the same IP address.

FTP Data Channels

active mode

, the FTP server initiates data connections. A client informs the server as to what port the client is listening on, and the server connects to the client by using that port.

In this example, an LSN pool is configured with a translation IP address and prefix length of

10.33.1.0/24

. The virtual server is configured with an FTP control port using a wildcard address and a specific port:

0.0.0.0:21

. The FTP data port is configured to use port

. The configured translation mode uses the values of the respective port range.

Translation mode	Port range
NAPT	2000-3000
DNAT	2000-2200
PBA	2000-2150

passive mode

, the FTP client initiates data connections. The FTP server informs the client as to what port the server is listening on, and the client connects to the server by using that port.

In this example, an LSN pool is configured with a translation IP address and prefix length of

10.33.1.0/24

. The virtual server is configured with an FTP control port using a wildcard address and a specific port:

0.0.0.0:21

. The FTP data port is configured to use port

. In this example, the configured translation mode uses the values of the respective port range.

Translation mode	Port range
NAPT	2000-3000
DNAT	2000-2200
PBA	2000-2150

Creating an LSN pool

The carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) module must be enabled with the appropriate settings before you can create large-scale NAT (LSN) pools.

LSN pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the Configuration area, for the

Persistence Mode

setting, select

Address

Address Port

For the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

If your pool uses deterministic mode, ensure that any address ranges you enter as a member do not overlap another member's prefix address ranges. For example, the address and prefix

10.10.10.0/24

overlaps

10.10.10.0/23

Click

Finished

Creating an FTP profile

You can configure a file transfer protocol (FTP) profile on the BIG-IP system that transfers files, either in an active or passive mode, and logs related messages.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

ALG Profiles

FTP

The FTP screen opens and displays a list of available FTP ALG profiles.

Click

Create

Type a name for the profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a parent profile.

Select the

Custom

check box.

Select the

Translate Extended

check box to ensure compatibility between IPv4 and IPv6 clients and servers when using the FTP protocol.

The default is selected.

Select the

Inherit Parent Profile

check box to enable the FTP data channel to inherit the TCP profile used by the control channel. The check box is clear by default.

If this setting is disabled, the data channel uses FastL4 (BigProto) only.

In the

Data Port

field, type a number for an alternate port.

The default value for the FTP data port is

Click

Finished

An FTP profile is configured on the BIG-IP system that transfers files, either in an active or passive mode, and logs related messages.

Configuring a CGNAT iRule

You create iRules to automate traffic forwarding for XML content-based routing. When a match occurs, an iRule event is triggered, and the iRule directs the individual request to an LSN pool, a node, or virtual server.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

iRules

The iRule List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a 1 to 31 character name, such as

cgn_https_redirect_iRule

In the

Definition

field, type the syntax for the iRule using Tool Command Language (Tcl) syntax.

For complete and detailed information about iRules syntax, see the F5 Networks DevCentral web site (

http://devcentral.f5.com

Click

Finished

You now have an iRule to use with a CGNAT virtual server.

Creating a virtual server using an FTP ALG profile

Virtual servers are matched based on source (client) addresses. Define a virtual server in order to reference an FTP profile and LSN pool.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Virtual Servers

The Virtual Server List screen opens.

Click

Create

The New Virtual Server screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the virtual server.

From the

Type

list, retain the default setting

Standard

For the

Destination Address/Mask

setting, confirm that the

Host

button is selected, and type the IP address in CIDR format.

The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is

10.0.0.1

10.0.0.0/24

, and an IPv6 address/prefix is

ffe1::0020/64

2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64

. When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a

/32

prefix.

The IP address you type must be available and not in the loopback network.

In the

Service Port

field, type

or select

FTP

from the list.

From the

Protocol

list, select

TCP

From the

Protocol Profile (Client)

list, select a predefined or user-defined TCP profile.

From the

Protocol Profile (Server)

list, select a predefined or user-defined TCP profile.

From the

FTP Profile

list, select an FTP ALG profile for the virtual server to use.

For the

LSN Pool

setting, select the pool that this server will draw on for addresses.

Locate the Resources area of the screen; for the

Related iRules

setting, from the

Available

list, select the name of the iRule that you want to assign and move the name to the

Enabled

list.

This setting applies to virtual servers that reference a profile for a data channel protocol, such as FTP or RTSP.

Click

Finished

The custom CGNAT virtual server appears in the CGNAT Virtual Servers list.

Creating an FTP ALG logging profile

You can create an application layer gateway (ALG) logging profile, and associate it with one or more FTP ALG profiles, to allow you to configure logging options for various events that apply to high-speed logging (HSL) destinations. A logging profile decreases the need to maintain a number of customized profiles where the events are very similar.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Logging Profiles

ALG

The ALG logging profiles screen opens.

On the Main tab, click

Local Traffic

Profiles

Other

ALG Logging

The ALG Logging screen opens.

Click

Create

The New ALG Logging Profile screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the logging profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.

For the Log Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

For the Log Settings area, select

Enabled

for the following settings, as necessary.

Setting	Description
CSV Format	Generates log entries in comma-separated-values (csv) format.
Start Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
End Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
Start Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
End Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
Inbound Transaction	Generates event log entries of ALG messages triggered by an inbound connection to the BIG-IP system.

Enabling the

CSV

check box affects splunk logs because IP addresses are shown as

ip,port,rtdom

instead of

ip%rtdom:port

. Do not mix log types and only use standard syslog formats.

Click

Finished

Configuring an FTP ALG profile

You can associate an FTP ALG profile with a log publisher and logging profile that the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

ALG Profiles

FTP

The FTP screen opens and displays a list of available FTP ALG profiles.

Click the name of an FTP profile.

In the Log Settings area, from the

Log Publisher

list, select the log publisher the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

If you configure a log publisher, you must also configure a Logging Profile.

If you configure a log publisher to use multiple logging destinations, then, by default, all logging destinations must be available in order to log to each destination. Unless all logging destinations are available, no logging can occur. If you want to log to the available logging destinations when one or more destinations become unavailable, you must set the

logpublisher.atomic

db variable to

false

From the

Logging Profile

list, select the logging profile the BIG-IP system uses to configure logging options for various ALG events.

If you configure a Logging Profile, you must also configure a Log Publisher.

Click

Finished

Overview: Using the TFTP ALG profile to transfer files

The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) profile enables you to configure the BIG-IP system to read and write files from or to a remote server. The TFTP application layer gateway (ALG) profile is associated with a UDP port

virtual server so that a listener is established for incoming TFTP traffic. This allows the protocol to operate across the BIG-IP system. You can transfer files using the TFTP protocol by configuring a TFTP profile, configuring an LSN pool, and then assigning the TFTP profile and LSN pool to a virtual server. The TFTP protocol is described in

RFC 1350

About the TFTP ALG profile

The

Trivial File Transfer Protocol application layer gateway (TFTP ALG)

provides connection management for TFTP. The TFTP profile is configured on a UDP port

virtual server. The profile opens a server-side listener so that responses from the server can be returned to the client across the BIG-IP system. ALG logging can be configured on the profile.

Creating a TFTP ALG profile

You can configure a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) on the BIG-IP system to read and write files from or to a remote server.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

ALG Profiles

TFTP

The TFTP screen opens and displays a list of available TFTP ALG profiles.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

ALG Profiles

TFTP

The TFTP screen opens and displays a list of available TFTP ALG profiles.

Click

Create

The New TFTP Profile screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the TFTP profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.

For the Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

In the Settings area, for the

Idle Timeout

list, type a number to specify the number of seconds after a connection is eligible for deletion; when the connection has no traffic. The default value is 30 seconds.

For the Log Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

In the Log Settings area, from the

Log Publisher

list, select the log publisher the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

If you configure a log publisher, you must also configure a Logging Profile.

logpublisher.atomic

db variable to

false

From the

Logging Profile

list, select the logging profile the BIG-IP system uses to configure logging options for various ALG events.

If you configure a Logging Profile, you must also configure a Log Publisher.

Click

Finished

Creating an LSN pool

The carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) module must be enabled with the appropriate settings before you can create large-scale NAT (LSN) pools.

LSN pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the Configuration area, for the

Persistence Mode

setting, select

Address

Address Port

For the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

If your pool uses deterministic mode, ensure that any address ranges you enter as a member do not overlap another member's prefix address ranges. For example, the address and prefix

10.10.10.0/24

overlaps

10.10.10.0/23

Click

Finished

Creating a virtual server using a TFTP ALG profile

Virtual servers are matched based on source (client) addresses. Create and define a virtual server that references an TFTP profile and LSN pool.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Virtual Servers

The Virtual Server List screen opens.

Click

Create

The New Virtual Server screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the virtual server.

From the

Type

list, retain the default setting

Standard

In the

Destination Address/Mask

field, type the IP address in CIDR format.

The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is

10.0.0.1

10.0.0.0/24

, and an IPv6 address/prefix is

ffe1::0020/64

2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64

. When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a

/32

prefix.

In the

Service Port

field, type

or select

TFTP

from the list.

From the

Configuration

list, select

Advanced

From the

Protocol

list, select

UDP

From the

TFTP Profile

list, select an TFTP ALG profile for the virtual server to use.

For the

LSN Pool

setting, select the pool that this server will draw on for addresses.

Click

Finished

Creating a TFTP ALG logging profile

You can create an application layer gateway (ALG) logging profile, and associate it with one or more Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) ALG profiles, to allow you to configure logging options for various events. A logging profile decreases the need to maintain a number of customized profiles where the events are very similar.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Logging Profiles

ALG

The ALG logging profiles screen opens.

Click

Create

The New ALG Logging Profile screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the TFTP profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.

For the Log Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

For the Log Settings area, select

Enabled

for the following settings, as necessary.

Setting	Description
CSV Format	Generates log entries in comma-separated-values (csv) format.
Start Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
End Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
Start Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
End Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
Inbound Transaction	Generates event log entries of ALG messages triggered by an inbound connection to the BIG-IP system.

Enabling the

CSV

check box affects splunk logs because IP addresses are shown as

ip,port,rtdom

instead of

ip%rtdom:port

. Do not mix log types and only use standard syslog formats.

Click

Finished

Overview: Using the SIP MRF ALG Profile

A carrier-grade network address translation (CGNAT) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) application layer gateway (ALG) configuration, using message routing framework (MRF) functionality, enables SIP communication and associated media flow to cross an address translation boundary.

The SIP ALG profile provides the ability for subscribers to make and accept calls, and to store private contact information with a corresponding translated address and port. The lifetime and idle timeout for this entry differs from the flow that created it, enabling the entry to live after the flow expires. The SIP ALG uses the translated IP address and port to uniquely identify a subscriber, and to accept that subscriber's incoming calls. To enable this functionality, the LSN pool must pick an endpoint that is not reserved for the SIP ALG connections, and update the endpoint reservation time.

For calls between subscribers, a BIG-IP device can hairpin media; however, it must not hairpin SIP signaling. Instead, the BIG-IP device must always deliver SIP signaling to an external proxy.

Additionally, for communication between subscribers, a BIG-IP device supports NAT44, NAT64, 464XLAT, and DS-Lite translation.

Finally, the SIP ALG profile supports media flow between a caller and callee.

SIP MRF ALG call scenarios include the following:

Internal to internal calls, with SIP signaling through the proxy

External to internal calls

Internal to external calls

Internal to external calls through NAT64

Calls through DS-Lite tunnels on the internal network, including the following:

DS-Lite subscribers on different tunnels with the same name and IP address

DS-Lite subscribers on different tunnels with the same name and different IP addresses

DS-Lite subscribers on different tunnels with different names and the same IP address

A SIP MRF virtual server must include both a SIP session profile and a SIP router profile. The SIP session profile provides a protocol-specific configuration, and the SIP router profile specifies the static-route configurations.

The SIP Session profile and SIP Router profile are only available for use with a Message Routing virtual server.

Task summary

About the SIP session profile

SIP session profile

, assigned to a message routing virtual server, processes ingress and egress messages in accordance with the profile configuration. Multiple SIP session profiles can be assigned to a virtual server, as necessary, to manage SIP messages. Each SIP session ALG profile includes settings for the message size, message header count, and message header size.

About the SIP router profile

SIP router profile

, assigned to one or more message routing virtual servers, specifies an operation mode, static routes, traffic group, and connection mirroring, as well as session, media proxy, registration, and logging parameters.

For virtual servers that use a SIP router profile in an application layer gateway (ALG) operation mode, the SIP router profile binds the virtual servers together; however, routes are not configured. Instead, the local address of the originating flow is used as the remote address of the outgoing connection.

Creating a SIP session profile

Create a SIP session profile to define how the BIG-IP system processes SIP messages, including the data the system uses to persist SIP connections.

On the Main tab, click

Local Traffic

Profiles

Message Routing

SIP

The SIP transport config list screen opens.

On the menu bar, click

Session Profiles

The Session Profiles list screen opens.

Click

Create

The New SIP Session Profile screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the SIP session profile.

From the

Persist Key

list, select the value the system uses for persistence of a SIP session. The options are:

Option	Description
Call-ID	The system uses the value in the Call-ID header field in the SIP message.
Custom	The system uses the value of a custom key specified in an iRule.
Src-Addr	The system uses the originating IP address in the SIP message.

From the

Persist Type

list, select one of these options:

Option	Description
Session	Persistence is enabled.
None	Persistence is disabled.

In the

Persist Timeout (seconds)

field, type the number of seconds before a SIP session persistence record expires.

Click

Finished

Creating a SIP ALG router profile

You can create a SIP router profile with mirroring functionality for a SIP ALG firewall configuration.

If you do not want to configure mirroring functionality, you can configure a virtual server to use the default settings provided in the preconfigured

siprouter-alg

profile.

On the Main tab, click

Local Traffic

Profiles

Message Routing

SIP

The SIP session profiles list screen opens.

On the menu bar, click

Router Profiles

The Router Profiles list screen opens.

Click

Create

The New Router Profiles screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the router profile.

In the Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

From the

Operation Mode

list, select

Application Level Gateway

To use connection mirroring, configure the

Traffic Group

setting.

Clear the

Inherit traffic group from current partition / path

check box.

From the list, select a traffic group, such as,

traffic-group-1

Changing traffic groups, with Connection Mirroring enabled, drops all mirrored connections and loses all persistence data. If you change traffic groups, mirroring must restart.

The traffic group for the virtual address and mirrored attribute are overwritten by the attached router profile.

Select the

Connection Mirroring

check box.

For connection mirroring to properly function, this device must be a member of a device group.

In the

Mirrored Message Sweeper Interval

field, type the milliseconds for the frequency of the mirrored message sweeper.

Click

Finished

A SIP router profile appears in the Router Profiles list.

Creating an LSN pool

The carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) module must be enabled with the appropriate settings before you can create large-scale NAT (LSN) pools.

LSN pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters. You can configure the following types of LSN pools:

NAPT

Deterministic

PBA

SIP ALG LSN modes and networks

A carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) application layer gateway (ALG) configuration supports certain large-scale NAT (LSN) modes and network configurations.

Supported SIP ALG LSN modes and network configurations
NAT Mode	Supported Network Configurations
NAPT	NAT44 NAT64, 464XLAT DS-Lite
DNAT	NAT44
PBA	NAT44 NAT64, 464XLAT DS-Lite

Creating a NAPT LSN pool

The CGNAT module must be provisioned before LSN pools can be configured.

Before associating a LSN pool with a log publisher, ensure that at least one log publisher exists on the BIG-IP system.

Large Scale NAT

(LSN) pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the

Description

field, type a description.

Select

NAPT

for the pool's translation

Mode

Click

Finished

Your NAPT LSN pool is now ready and you can continue to configure your CGNAT.

Creating a deterministic LSN pool

The CGNAT module must be provisioned before you can configure LSN pools.

Large Scale NAT

(LSN) pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

For the

Mode

setting, select

Deterministic

for the pool's translation.

Note that deterministic mode does not support

DS-lite

tunneling or

NAT64

From the

Log Publisher

list, select the publisher that includes the destinations to which you want to send log messages.

In the Configuration area, for the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

If your pool uses deterministic mode, ensure that any address ranges you enter as a member do not overlap another member's prefix address ranges. For example, the address and prefix

10.10.10.0/24

overlaps

10.10.10.0/23

For deterministic mode, the

Backup Member List

must have at least one member, so type an address in the

Address/Prefix Length

field and click

Add

Click

Finished

Your deterministic LSN pool is now ready, and you can continue to configure your CGNAT.

Creating a PBA LSN pool

The CGNAT module must be provisioned before LSN pools can be configured.

Before associating a LSN pool with a log publisher, ensure that at least one log publisher exists on the BIG-IP system.

You configure

Large Scale NAT

(LSN) pools for the CGNAT module to use in allowing efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the

Description

field, type a description.

For the

Mode

setting, select

PBA

for the pool's translation.

Note that PBA mode for DS-lite is same as for NAT44, except that all clients behind the DS-Lite tunnel are managed as one subscriber. Port block limits are in accordance with each DS-lite tunnel.

For the

Port Block Allocation

setting, specify your preferred PBA configuration.

In the

Block Size

field, type the number of ports designated for a block.

In the

Block Lifetime

field, type the number of seconds before a port block times out.

If you type a timeout other than

, you can also specify a

Zombie Timeout

. A

Block Lifetime

value that is less than the

Persistence Timeout

value minimizes the number of zombie port blocks. The default value of

specifies no lifetime limit and indefinite use of the port block.

In the

Block Idle Timeout

field, enter the timeout (in seconds) for after the port block becomes idle.

Typically, you want to use a

Block Idle Timeout

value less than the

Persistence Timeout

value, to minimize the number of zombie port blocks.

In the

Client Block Limit

field, type the number of blocks that can be assigned to a single subscriber IP address.

In the

Zombie Timeout

field, type the number of seconds before port block times out.

zombie port block

is a timed out port block with one or more active connections. The default value of

specifies no timeout and an indefinite zombie state for the port block, as long as connections remain active. A value other than

specifies a timeout expiration, upon which existing connections are terminated, and the port block is released and returned to the pool.

In the Configuration area, for the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

Click

Finished

Your PBA LSN pool is now ready, and you can continue to configure your CGNAT.

Configuring a SIP virtual server

Before you can create a SIP virtual server, you need to create a SIP ALG session profile and a SIP ALG router profile.

You can create a SIP virtual server to provide source address translation and manage messages as configured in the SIP session profile and SIP router profile.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Virtual Servers

The Virtual Server List screen opens.

Click

Create

The New Virtual Server screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the virtual server.

In the

Description

field, type a description for the virtual server.

From the

Type

list, select

Message Routing

In the

Destination Address/Mask

field, type an IP address in CIDR format.

The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, to select all IP addresses, an IPv4 address/prefix is

0.0.0.0/0

, and an IPv6 address/prefix is

::/0

. To specify a network, an IPv4 address/prefix is

10.07.0.0

10.07.0.0/24

, and an IPv6 address/prefix is

ffe1::/64

2001:ed8:77b5::/64

. When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a

/32

prefix.

For best results, F5 recommends that you enter the subnet that matches your destination server network.

In the

Service Port

field, type

5060

From the

Configuration

list, select

Advanced

From the

Application Protocol

list, select

SIP

From the

Session Profile

list, select a SIP session ALG profile.

From the

Router Profile

list, select a SIP router ALG profile.

From the

Source Address Translation

list, select

LSN

From the

LSN Pool

list, select an LSN pool.

Click

Finished

A SIP virtual server is configured to provide source address translation and manage messages as configured in the SIP session profile and SIP router profile.

Viewing reserved endpoints

When an LSN pool or AFM Dynamic PAT source translation is configured, you can view information for the reserved endpoints using the TMSH (TMOS Shell) command-line interface.

You can run the

tmsh

command

run util lsndb

from route domain

only. Running the command from a non-zero route domain produces an error message similar to the following:

Error: Connection to internal DB failed (err: Connection refused [111]).

Access the

tmsh

command-line utility.

At the command prompt, type

tmsh run util lsndb list endpoint_reservations

tmsh run util lsndb list all

A listing similar to the following example appears.

# tmsh run util lsndb list endpoint-reservations
LSN Endpoint Reservations
Translation                 Subscriber ID    Client          DS-Lite tunnel   Proto   Age
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.5.5.1:1035                No-lookup       10.0.0.0:1035                    UDP     9
5.5.5.1:1025                No-lookup       10.0.0.0:1025                    TCP     14
5.5.5.1:1025                No-lookup       10.0.0.0:1025                    UDP     14
5.5.5.1:1033                No-lookup       10.0.0.0:1033                    UDP     9
5.5.5.2:5033                No-lookup       10.0.0.1:6000                    UDP     9
5 endpoint reservations found 
# tmsh run util lsndb list all
LSN Client Connections
Client                                      Connections
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 client with 0 connection found.
LSN Persistence Entries
Client                                      Translation     TTL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 persist entries found.
LSN port block allocations
Client                                      Port block      TTL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 port block entries found.
LSN Inbound Mapping Entries
Translation                 Subscriber ID   Client          DS-Lite tunnel   Proto   Age
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 inbound mappings found.
LSN Endpoint Reservations
Translation                 Subscriber ID   Client          DS-Lite tunnel   Proto   Age
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.5.5.1:1035                No-lookup       10.0.0.0:1035                    UDP     9
5.5.5.1:1025                No-lookup       10.0.0.0:1025                    TCP     14
5.5.5.1:1025                No-lookup       10.0.0.0:1025                    UDP     14
5.5.5.1:1033                No-lookup       10.0.0.0:1033                    UDP     9
5.5.5.2:5033                No-lookup       10.0.0.1:6000                    UDP     9
5 endpoint reservations found
PCP Entries
Client                                      Translation     Proto     Lifetime   Age
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 PCP entries found.
  
# lsndb summary endpoint-reservations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary:
LSN Endpoint Reservation Entries
Translation Address                         Client Count
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.5.5.1                                     4
5.5.5.2                                     1
Total:                                      5

Overview: Using the RTSP ALG Profile to Stream Media

The Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) application layer gateway (ALG) profile enables you to establish streaming multimedia sessions between a client and a server. You can stream multimedia sessions by configuring an LSN pool, configuring an RTSP profile, and then assigning the LSN pool and RTSP profile to a virtual server. The RTSP protocol is described in RFC 2326.

About the RTSP ALG profile

The

Real Time Streaming Protocol

(RTSP) profile enables you to stream multimedia content between a client and server, using RTSP connections over TCP. The RTSP application layer group (ALG) supports the RTSP protocol's control channel to an RTSP server, through which the client requests a file for the server to stream (and controls the streaming of that file with commands like play or pause). The client can request streaming over UDP and provide two listening ports for the server response. The RTSP server responds with a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) data channel port, to stream the requested file, and a Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP) control channel port, which provides a stream description and status.

You can specify RTP and RTCP port numbers in the RTSP profile, which only apply when a client connects to a Windows Media server. If you configure RTP and RTCP port numbers, both values must be nonzero.

You can configure the RTSP profile settings, as needed.

In this example, an LSN pool is configured with a translation IP address and prefix length of

10.33.1.0/24

. The virtual server is configured with an RTSP control port using a wildcard address and a specific port:

0.0.0.0:554

. The configured translation mode uses the values of the respective port range.

Translation mode	Port range
NAPT	2000-3000
DNAT	2000-2200
PBA	2000-2150

Creating an LSN pool

The carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) module must be enabled with the appropriate settings before you can create large-scale NAT (LSN) pools.

LSN pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the Configuration area, for the

Persistence Mode

setting, select

Address

Address Port

For the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

If your pool uses deterministic mode, ensure that any address ranges you enter as a member do not overlap another member's prefix address ranges. For example, the address and prefix

10.10.10.0/24

overlaps

10.10.10.0/23

Click

Finished

Creating an RTSP profile

You can configure a real time streaming protocol (RTSP) profile on the BIG-IP system that streams multimedia content between a client and server.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

ALG Profiles

RTSP

The RTSP screen opens and displays a list of available RTSP ALG profiles.

Click

Create

Type a name for the profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a parent profile.

Select the

Custom

check box.

In the

RTP Port

field, type the port number that a Microsoft Media Services server uses. The default is

You can specify Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) and Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP) port numbers in the RTSP profile, which only apply when a client connects to a Windows Media server. If you configure RTP and RTCP port numbers, both values must be nonzero.

In the

RTCP Port

field, type the port number that a Microsoft Media Services server uses. The default is

Click

Finished

An RTSP profile is configured on the BIG-IP system that streams multimedia content between a client and server.

Configuring a CGNAT iRule

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

iRules

The iRule List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a 1 to 31 character name, such as

cgn_https_redirect_iRule

In the

Definition

field, type the syntax for the iRule using Tool Command Language (Tcl) syntax.

For complete and detailed information about iRules syntax, see the F5 Networks DevCentral web site (

http://devcentral.f5.com

Click

Finished

You now have an iRule to use with a CGNAT virtual server.

Creating a virtual server using an RTSP ALG profile

Virtual servers are matched based on source (client) addresses. Here are the steps to define a virtual server that references an RTSP profile and LSN pool.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Virtual Servers

The Virtual Server List screen opens.

Click

Create

The New Virtual Server screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the virtual server.

From the

Type

list, retain the default setting

Standard

For the

Destination Address/Mask

setting, confirm that the

Host

button is selected, and type the IP address in CIDR format.

The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is

10.0.0.1

10.0.0.0/24

, and an IPv6 address/prefix is

ffe1::0020/64

2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64

. When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a

/32

prefix.

The IP address you type must be available and not in the loopback network.

In the

Service Port

field, type

554

for the service.

From the

Protocol

list, select

TCP

From the

Protocol Profile (Client)

list, select a predefined or user-defined TCP profile.

From the

Protocol Profile (Server)

list, select a predefined or user-defined TCP profile.

From the

RTSP Profile

list, select an RISP ALG profile for the virtual server to use.

For the

LSN Pool

setting, select the pool that this server will draw on for addresses.

Locate the Resources area of the screen; for the

Related iRules

setting, from the

Available

list, select the name of the iRule that you want to assign and move the name to the

Enabled

list.

This setting applies to virtual servers that reference a profile for a data channel protocol, such as FTP or RTSP.

Click

Finished

The custom CGNAT virtual server appears in the CGNAT Virtual Servers list.

Creating an RTSP ALG logging profile

You can create an ALG logging profile, and associate it with one or more RTSP ALG profiles, to allow you to configure logging options for various events that apply to high-speed logging (HSL) destinations. A logging profile decreases the need to maintain a number of customized profiles where the events are very similar.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Logging Profiles

ALG

The ALG logging profiles screen opens.

Click

Create

The New ALG Logging Profile screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the logging profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.

For the Log Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

For the Log Settings area, select

Enabled

for the following settings, as necessary.

Setting	Description
CSV Format	Generates log entries in comma-separated-values (csv) format.
Start Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
End Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
Start Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
End Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
Inbound Transaction	Generates event log entries of ALG messages triggered by an inbound connection to the BIG-IP system.

Enabling the

CSV

check box affects splunk logs because IP addresses are shown as

ip,port,rtdom

instead of

ip%rtdom:port

. Do not mix log types and only use standard syslog formats.

Click

Finished

Configuring an RTSP ALG profile

You can associate an RTSP ALG profile with a log publisher and logging profile that the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

ALG Profiles

RTSP

The RTSP screen opens and displays a list of available RTSP ALG profiles.

Click the name of an RTSP profile.

In the Log Settings area, from the

Log Publisher

list, select the log publisher the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

If you configure a log publisher, you must also configure a Logging Profile.

logpublisher.atomic

db variable to

false

From the

Logging Profile

list, select the logging profile the BIG-IP system uses to configure logging options for various ALG events.

If you configure a Logging Profile, you must also configure a Log Publisher.

Click

Finished

Overview: Using the PPTP ALG profile to create a VPN tunnel

The point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP) profile enables you to configure the BIG-IP system to support a secure virtual private network (VPN) tunnel that forwards PPTP control and data connections. You can create a secure VPN tunnel by configuring a PPTP Profile, and then assigning the PPTP profile to a virtual server. The PPTP protocol is described in RFC 2637.

You cannot combine or use the PPTP Profile with another profile other than a TCP Profile. The PPTP Profile must be used separately and independently.

About the PPTP ALG profile

With the

point-to-point tunneling protocol

(PPTP) profile, you can configure the BIG-IP system to support a secure virtual private network (VPN) tunnel. A PPTP application layer gateway (ALG) forwards PPTP client control and data connections through the BIG-IP system to PPTP servers, and provides source address translation that allows multiple clients to share a single translation address.

A PPTP client is also known as PPTP Access Concentrator (PAC). PPTP servers are also known as PPTP Network Servers (PNSs).

The PPTP profile defines a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) control connection and a data channel through a PPTP Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel., This manages the PPTP tunnels through CGNAT for NAT44 and DS-Lite. It also manages all translation modes, including Network Address Port Translation (NAPT), Deterministic, and Port Block Allocation (PBA) modes.

PPTP control channels

The BIG-IP system proxies PPTP control channels as normal TCP connections. The PPTP profile translates outbound control messages, which contain Call Identification numbers (Call IDs) that match the port that is selected on the outbound side. Subsequently, for inbound control messages containing translated Call IDs, the BIG-IP system restores the original client Call ID. You can use a packet tracer to observe this translation on the subscriber side or on the Internet side. You can also use iRules® to evaluate and manage any headers in the PPTP control channel.

PPTP GRE data channels

The BIG-IP system manages the translation for PPTP GRE data channels in a manner similar to that of control channels. The BIG-IP system replaces the translated Call ID from the Key field of the GRE header with the inbound client's Call ID. You can use a packet tracer to observe this translation, as well.

Log messages

With the PPTP profile, you can configure Log Settings, specifically the Publisher Name setting, which logs the name of the log publisher, and the Include Destination IP setting, which logs the host IP address of the PPTP server, for each call establishment, call failure, and call teardown.

If a client, for example a personal computer (PC) or mobile phone, attempts to create a second concurrent call, then an error message is logged and sent to the client.

PPTP profile log example

This topic includes examples of the elements that comprise a typical log entry.

Description of PPTP log messages

PPTP log messages include several elements of interest. The following examples describe typical log messages.

"Mar 1 18:46:11:PPTP CALL-REQUEST id;0 from;10.10.10.1 to;20.20.20.1 nat;30.30.30.1 ext-id;32456"
"Mar 1 18:46:11:PPTP CALL-START id;0 from;10.10.10.1 to;20.20.20.1 nat;30.30.30.1 ext-id;32456"
"Mar 1 18:46:11:PPTP CALL-END id;0 reason;0 from;10.10.10.1 to;20.20.20.1 nat;30.30.30.1 ext-id;32456"

Information Type	Example Value	Description
Timestamp	Mar 1 18:46:11	The time and date that the system logged the event message.
Transformation mode	PPTP	The logged transformation mode.
Command	CALL-REQUEST , CALL-START , CALL-END	The type of command that is logged.
Client Call ID	id;0	The client Call ID received from a subscriber.
Client IP address	from;10.10.10.1	The IP address of the client that initiated the connection.
Reason	reason;0	A code number that correlates the reason for terminating the connection. The following reason codes apply: 0 . The client requested termination, a normal termination. 1 . The server requested termination, a normal termination. 2 . The client unexpectedly disconnected, where TCP shut down or reset the connection. 3 . The server unexpectedly disconnected, where TCP shut down or reset the connection. 4 . The client timed out. 5 . The server timed out.
Server IP address	to;20.20.20.1	The IP address of the server that established the connection. If Include Destination IP is set to Disabled, then the Server IP address uses the value of 0.0.0.0 .
NAT	nat;30.30.30.1	The translated IP address.
Translated client Call ID	ext-id;32456	The translated client Call ID from the GRE header of the PPTP call.

Creating an LSN pool

The carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) module must be enabled with the appropriate settings before you can create large-scale NAT (LSN) pools.

LSN pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the Configuration area, for the

Persistence Mode

setting, select

Address

Address Port

For the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

If your pool uses deterministic mode, ensure that any address ranges you enter as a member do not overlap another member's prefix address ranges. For example, the address and prefix

10.10.10.0/24

overlaps

10.10.10.0/23

Click

Finished

Creating a PPTP profile

You can configure a point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP) profile on the BIG-IP system to support a secure virtual private network (VPN) tunnel that forwards PPTP control and data connections, and logs related messages.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

ALG Profiles

PPTP

The PPTP screen opens and displays a list of available PPTP ALG profiles.

Click

Create

Type a name for the profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a parent profile.

Select the

Custom

check box.

From the

Publisher Name

list, select a log publisher for high-speed logging of messages.

None

is selected, the BIG-IP system uses the default syslog.

logpublisher.atomic

db variable to

false

From the

Include Destination IP

list, select whether to include the PPTP server's IP address in log messages.

Enabled	Includes the PPTP server's IP address in log messages for call establishment or call disconnect.
Disabled	Default. Includes 0.0.0.0 as the PPTP server's IP address in log messages for call establishment or call disconnect.

Click

Finished

The PPTP profile displays in the ALG Profiles list on the PPTP screen.

Adding a static route to manage GRE traffic

Perform this task when you want to explicitly add a route for a destination client that is not on the directly-connected network. Depending on the settings you choose, the BIG-IP system can forward packets to a specified network device, or the system can drop packets altogether.

On the Main tab, click

Network

Routes

Click

Add

The New Route screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique user name.

This name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters, including an IP address.

In the

Description

field, type a description for this route entry.

In the

Destination

field, type the destination IP address for the route.

In the

Netmask

field, type the network mask for the destination IP address.

From the

Resource

list, specify the method through which the system forwards packets:

Use Gateway	Select this option when you want the next hop in the route to be a network IP address. This choice works well when the destination is a pool member on the same internal network as this gateway address.
Use Pool	Select this option when you want the next hop in the route to be a pool of routers instead of a single next-hop router. If you select this option, verify that you have created a pool on the BIG-IP system, with the routers as pool members.
Use VLAN/Tunnel	Select this option when you want the next hop in the route to be a VLAN or tunnel. This option works well when the destination address you specify in the routing entry is a network address. Selecting a VLAN/tunnel name as the resource implies that the specified network is directly connected to the BIG-IP system. In this case, the BIG-IP system can find the destination host simply by sending an ARP request to the hosts in the specified VLAN, thereby obtaining the destination host’s MAC address.
Reject	Select this option when you want the BIG-IP system to reject packets sent to the specified destination.

In the

MTU

field, specify in bytes a maximum transmission unit (MTU) for this route.

Click

Finished

A static route is defined to manage GRE traffic to a client.

Creating a virtual server using a PPTP ALG profile

Virtual servers are matched based on source (client) addresses. You define a virtual server that references the CGNAT profile and the LSN pool.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Virtual Servers

The Virtual Server List screen opens.

Click

Create

The New Virtual Server screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the virtual server.

From the

Type

list, retain the default setting

Standard

For a network, in the

Destination Address/Mask

field, type an IPv4 or IPv6 address in CIDR format to allow all traffic to be translated.

The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is

0.0.0.0/0

, and an IPv6 address/prefix is

::/0

In the

Service Port

field, type

1723

or select

PPTP

from the list.

From the

PPTP Profile

list, select a PPTP ALG profile for the virtual server to use.

From the

VLAN and Tunnel Traffic

list, select

Enabled on

. Then, for the

VLANs and Tunnels

setting, move the VLAN or VLANs on which you want to allow the virtual servers to share traffic from the

Available

list to the

Selected

list.

For the

LSN Pool

setting, select the pool that this server will draw on for translation addresses.

Click

Finished

The custom CGNAT virtual server appears in the CGNAT Virtual Servers list.

Overview: Configuring IPsec ALG with IKE

You can configure CGNAT IPsec application layer gateway (ALG) functionality with Internet Key Exchange (IKE) security for LSN source address translation. A typical IPsec ALG configuration includes a wildcard virtual server listening on Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) port 500, using IPsec tunnel mode. When the BIG-IP system receives the first IKE packet, it picks a translation address, and, after successfully completing the IKE negotiation, creates the IKE and IPsec flows.

An example configuration of IPsec ALG with IKE for source address translation

A typical CGNAT IKE virtual server configuration
Virtual Server Configuration	Setting
Service Port	500 ( ISAKMP )
Protocol	UDP
IPsecALG Profile	Default ipsecalg profile, or custom IPsecALG profile
Source Address Translation	LSN
LSN pool	One of the following LSN pool modes applies: NAPT Deterministic PBA The BIG-IP system must map a different translation address to each subscriber when two or more subscribers connect to the same server. However, if each subscriber connects to a different server, then each subscriber can use the same translation address, because the server IP address distinguishes the traffic. If the pool of translation addresses is exhausted when a new subscriber attempts to initiate an IKE exchange with a server, the BIG-IP system logs an error and drops the IKE traffic from the second client.

About negotiation of security associations

The way to dynamically negotiate security associations is to configure the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol, which is included in the IPsec protocol suite. When you configure the

IKE protocol

, two IPsec tunnel endpoints (IKE peers) open a secure channel using an ISAKMP security association (ISAKMP-SA) to initially negotiate the exchange of peer-to-peer authentication data. This exchange is known as

Phase 1 negotiation

After Phase 1 is complete and the secure channel is established,

Phase 2 negotiation

begins, in which the IKE peers dynamically negotiate the authentication and encryption algorithms to use to secure the payload. Without IKE, the system cannot dynamically negotiate these security algorithms.

About the IPSecALG profile

The

IPSecALG profile

provides network address translation and flow management for Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) and Internet Key Exchange (IKE) flows.

This profile enables you to specify an idle timeout value, where a connection is idle for the specified period before becoming eligible for deletion. You can also limit the number of pending Internet Key Exchange (IKE) connections, a maximum number of unacknowledged connections that a client can have, before being denied further requests, to prevent a single client from flooding all of the connections while establishing the connections. Additionally, you can apply an initial connection timeout value, which determines the maximum number of seconds to wait for a response from the server for an IKE or IPsec request.

Finally, you can configure a log publisher and logging profile for IPsec ALG functionality, as necessary, through the IPsecALG profile.

About IPsec Tunnel mode

Tunnel mode

causes the IPsec protocol to encrypt the entire packet (the payload plus the IP header). This encrypted packet is then included as the payload in another outer packet with a new header. Traffic sent in this mode is more secure than traffic sent in Transport mode, because the original IP header is encrypted along with the original payload.

Creating a log publisher

Create a log publisher to specify where the BIG-IP system sends alert messages.

If you want alerts sent to a remote syslog server, you need to create two log publishers, one for the local syslog server and one for the remote syslog server.

On the Main tab, click

System

Logs

Configuration

Log Publishers

The Log Publishers screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique, identifiable name for this publisher.

For the

Destinations

setting, select

local-syslog

from the

Available

list, and click

to move the destination to the

Selected

list.

Click

Finished

The list of Log Publishers appears, showing the Log Publisher you just created.

If you want to have alerts sent to a remote syslog server, repeat steps 2-5, and at step 4 select the log destination that you created previously from the

Available

list.

Creating an IPsecALG logging profile

You can create an ALG logging profile, and associate it with one or more IPsecALG profiles, to allow you to configure logging options for various events that apply to high-speed logging (HSL) destinations. A logging profile decreases the need to maintain a number of customized profiles where the events are very similar.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Logging Profiles

ALG

The ALG logging profiles screen opens.

Click

Create

The New ALG Logging Profile screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the logging profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.

For the Log Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

For the Log Settings area, select

Enabled

for the following settings, as necessary.

Setting	Description
CSV Format	Generates log entries in comma-separated-values (csv) format.
Start Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
End Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
Start Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
End Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
Inbound Transaction	Generates event log entries of ALG messages triggered by an inbound connection to the BIG-IP system.

Enabling the

CSV

check box affects splunk logs because IP addresses are shown as

ip,port,rtdom

instead of

ip%rtdom:port

. Do not mix log types and only use standard syslog formats.

Click

Finished

Creating an LSN pool

The carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) module must be enabled with the appropriate settings before you can create large-scale NAT (LSN) pools.

LSN pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters. You can configure the following types of LSN pools:

NAPT

Deterministic

PBA

Creating a NAPT LSN pool

The CGNAT module must be provisioned before LSN pools can be configured.

Before associating a LSN pool with a log publisher, ensure that at least one log publisher exists on the BIG-IP system.

Large Scale NAT

(LSN) pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the

Description

field, type a description.

Select

NAPT

for the pool's translation

Mode

Click

Finished

Your NAPT LSN pool is now ready and you can continue to configure your CGNAT.

Creating a deterministic LSN pool

The CGNAT module must be provisioned before you can configure LSN pools.

Large Scale NAT

(LSN) pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

For the

Mode

setting, select

Deterministic

for the pool's translation.

Note that deterministic mode does not support

DS-lite

tunneling or

NAT64

From the

Log Publisher

list, select the publisher that includes the destinations to which you want to send log messages.

In the Configuration area, for the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

If your pool uses deterministic mode, ensure that any address ranges you enter as a member do not overlap another member's prefix address ranges. For example, the address and prefix

10.10.10.0/24

overlaps

10.10.10.0/23

For deterministic mode, the

Backup Member List

must have at least one member, so type an address in the

Address/Prefix Length

field and click

Add

Click

Finished

Your deterministic LSN pool is now ready, and you can continue to configure your CGNAT.

Creating a PBA LSN pool

The CGNAT module must be provisioned before LSN pools can be configured.

Before associating a LSN pool with a log publisher, ensure that at least one log publisher exists on the BIG-IP system.

You configure

Large Scale NAT

(LSN) pools for the CGNAT module to use in allowing efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the

Description

field, type a description.

For the

Mode

setting, select

PBA

for the pool's translation.

Note that PBA mode for DS-lite is same as for NAT44, except that all clients behind the DS-Lite tunnel are managed as one subscriber. Port block limits are in accordance with each DS-lite tunnel.

For the

Port Block Allocation

setting, specify your preferred PBA configuration.

In the

Block Size

field, type the number of ports designated for a block.

In the

Block Lifetime

field, type the number of seconds before a port block times out.

If you type a timeout other than

, you can also specify a

Zombie Timeout

. A

Block Lifetime

value that is less than the

Persistence Timeout

value minimizes the number of zombie port blocks. The default value of

specifies no lifetime limit and indefinite use of the port block.

In the

Block Idle Timeout

field, enter the timeout (in seconds) for after the port block becomes idle.

Typically, you want to use a

Block Idle Timeout

value less than the

Persistence Timeout

value, to minimize the number of zombie port blocks.

In the

Client Block Limit

field, type the number of blocks that can be assigned to a single subscriber IP address.

In the

Zombie Timeout

field, type the number of seconds before port block times out.

zombie port block

is a timed out port block with one or more active connections. The default value of

specifies no timeout and an indefinite zombie state for the port block, as long as connections remain active. A value other than

specifies a timeout expiration, upon which existing connections are terminated, and the port block is released and returned to the pool.

In the Configuration area, for the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

Click

Finished

Your PBA LSN pool is now ready, and you can continue to configure your CGNAT.

Creating an IPsecALG profile

You can associate an IPsecALG profile with a log publisher and logging profile that the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

On the Main tab, click

Local Traffic

Profiles

Services

IPsecALG

The IPsecALG profile list screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a parent profile.

In the

Idle Timeout

field, type number of seconds that a connection is idle before the connection is eligible for deletion.

In the

Pending IKE Connection Limit

field, type the maximum number of unacknowledged IKE connections that a client can send, before being denied further requests.

In the

Initial Connection Timeout

field, type the maximum number of seconds to wait for a response from the server for the IKE or IPsec request.

In the Log Settings area, from the

Log Publisher

list, select the log publisher the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

If you configure a log publisher, you must also configure a Logging Profile.

logpublisher.atomic

db variable to

false

From the

Logging Profile

list, select the logging profile the BIG-IP system uses to configure logging options for various ALG events.

If you configure a Logging Profile, you must also configure a Log Publisher.

Click

Finished

Creating an IPsec ALG virtual server for IKE

You can define a virtual server that applies an IPsecALG profile and LSN pool to match IPsec ALG source (client) addresses for address translation.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Virtual Servers

The Virtual Server List screen opens.

Click

Create

The New Virtual Server screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the virtual server.

In the

Description

field, type a description for the virtual server.

From the

Type

list, select

Standard

In the

Source Address

field, type

0.0.0.0/0

for the source address and prefix length.

In the

Destination Address/Mask

field:

If you want to specify a single IP address, confirm that the

Host

button is selected, and type the IP address in CIDR format.

If you want to specify multiple IP addresses, select the

Address List

button, and confirm that the address list that you previously created appears in the box.

The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is

10.0.0.1

10.0.0.0/24

, and an IPv6 address/prefix is

ffe1::0020/64

2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64

. When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a

/32

prefix.

The IP address or addresses for this field must be on the same subnet as the external self-IP address.

In the

Service Port

field, type

500

or select

ISAKMP

from the list.

From the

Configuration

list, select

Advanced

From the

Protocol

list, select

UDP

From the

IPsecALG Profile

list, select a profile.

From the

LSN Pool

list, select an LSN pool.

Click

Finished

A virtual server is configured to use an IPsecALG profile and LSN pool to match IPsec ALG source (client) addresses for address translation.

Overview: Configuring IPsec ALG with manual keys

You can configure an IPsec application layer gateway (ALG) functionality with manual keys with network address translation. A typical IPsec ALG configuration includes an IPsec ESP (protocol 50) virtual server listening on port 0 (wildcard) using IPsec tunnel mode.

This configuration does not provide NAT-T address translation. If you need to provide NAT-T address translation, a separate virtual server configured to use NAT-T address translation is required.

An example configuration of IPsec ALG with manual keys with NAT

A typical IPsec ALG with manual keyswith NAT virtual server configuration
Virtual Server Configuration	Setting
Service Port	0 ( * All Ports )
Protocol	IPsec ESP
IPsecALG Profile	Default ipsecalg profile, or custom IPsecALG profile

About IPsec Tunnel mode

Tunnel mode

Creating a log publisher

Create a log publisher to specify where the BIG-IP system sends alert messages.

If you want alerts sent to a remote syslog server, you need to create two log publishers, one for the local syslog server and one for the remote syslog server.

On the Main tab, click

System

Logs

Configuration

Log Publishers

The Log Publishers screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique, identifiable name for this publisher.

For the

Destinations

setting, select

local-syslog

from the

Available

list, and click

to move the destination to the

Selected

list.

Click

Finished

The list of Log Publishers appears, showing the Log Publisher you just created.

If you want to have alerts sent to a remote syslog server, repeat steps 2-5, and at step 4 select the log destination that you created previously from the

Available

list.

Creating an IPsecALG logging profile

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Logging Profiles

ALG

The ALG logging profiles screen opens.

Click

Create

The New ALG Logging Profile screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the logging profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.

For the Log Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

For the Log Settings area, select

Enabled

for the following settings, as necessary.

Setting	Description
CSV Format	Generates log entries in comma-separated-values (csv) format.
Start Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
End Control Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a control channel connection for an ALG client.
Start Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the start of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
End Data Channel	Generates event log entries at the end of a data channel connection for an ALG client.
Inbound Transaction	Generates event log entries of ALG messages triggered by an inbound connection to the BIG-IP system.

Enabling the

CSV

check box affects splunk logs because IP addresses are shown as

ip,port,rtdom

instead of

ip%rtdom:port

. Do not mix log types and only use standard syslog formats.

Click

Finished

Creating an LSN pool

The carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) module must be enabled with the appropriate settings before you can create large-scale NAT (LSN) pools.

LSN pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters. You can configure the following types of LSN pools:

NAPT

Deterministic

PBA

Creating a NAPT LSN pool

The CGNAT module must be provisioned before LSN pools can be configured.

Before associating a LSN pool with a log publisher, ensure that at least one log publisher exists on the BIG-IP system.

Large Scale NAT

(LSN) pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

In the

Description

field, type a description.

Select

NAPT

for the pool's translation

Mode

Click

Finished

Your NAPT LSN pool is now ready and you can continue to configure your CGNAT.

Creating a deterministic LSN pool

The CGNAT module must be provisioned before you can configure LSN pools.

Large Scale NAT

(LSN) pools are used by the CGNAT module to allow efficient configuration of translation prefixes and parameters.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

LSN Pools

The LSN Pool List screen opens.

Click

Create

In the

Name

field, type a unique name.

For the

Mode

setting, select

Deterministic

for the pool's translation.

Note that deterministic mode does not support

DS-lite

tunneling or

NAT64

From the

Log Publisher

list, select the publisher that includes the destinations to which you want to send log messages.

In the Configuration area, for the

Member List

setting, type an address and a prefix length in the

Address/Prefix Length

field, and click

Add

If your pool uses deterministic mode, ensure that any address ranges you enter as a member do not overlap another member's prefix address ranges. For example, the address and prefix

10.10.10.0/24

overlaps

10.10.10.0/23

For deterministic mode, the

Backup Member List

must have at least one member, so type an address in the

Address/Prefix Length

field and click

Add

Click

Finished

Your deterministic LSN pool is now ready, and you can continue to configure your CGNAT.

About VLANs with identical names and different tags

Sometimes a host administrator might publish a VLAN to a guest, but the guest administrator has already created, or later creates, a VLAN with the same name but with a different VLAN tag. In this case, the guest VLAN always overrides the host VLAN. The VLAN can still exist on the host (for other guests to subscribe to), but it is the guest VLAN that is used.

Whenever host and guest VLANs have the same names but different tags, traffic cannot flow between the identically-named VLANs at Layer 2. That is, when the tags do not match, the underlying Layer 2 infrastructure of the VLANs does not match, thereby preventing the host from reaching the guest.

The example here shows the

tmsh

command sequence for creating two separate VLANs with the same names and different tags, and the resulting traffic flow issue.

# While logged into the guest, create a VLAN:
   
[root@G1:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # tmsh create net vlan VLAN_A tag 1000

# Show that no VLANs exist on the host:

[root@host_210:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # tmsh list net vlan all 
[root@host_210:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # 

# On the host, create a VLAN with the same name as the guest VLAN but with a unique tag on the host:

[root@host_210:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # tmsh create net vlan VLAN_A tag 1001

# Publish the host VLAN to the guest:

[root@host_210:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # tmsh modify vcmp guest guest1 vlans add { VLAN_A }

# Within the guest, show that the guest still has its own VLAN only, and not the VLAN published from the host:

[root@G1:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # tmsh list net vlan all

   net vlan VLAN_A {
    if-index 192
    tag 1000
    }
 
# Within the guest, create a self IP address for the VLAN:

[root@G1:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # tmsh create net self 10.1.1.1/24 vlan VLAN_A

# On the host, create a self IP address for the identically-named VLAN:

[root@host_210:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # tmsh create net self 10.1.1.2/24 vlan VLAN_A

# From the host, open a connection to the guest, and notice that because the two VLANs have different tags, the connection fails:

[root@host_210:/S1-green-P:Active:Standalone] config # ping -c2 10.1.1.1
   
PING 10.1.1.1 (10.1.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 10.1.1.2 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 10.1.1.2 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable

--- 10.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 0 received, +2 errors, 100% packet loss, time 3000ms
pipe 2

Configuring an IPsecALG profile

You can associate an IPsecALG profile with a log publisher and logging profile that the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

ALG Profiles

IPsecALG

The IPsecALG screen opens and displays a list of available IPsecALG profiles.

Click the name of an IPsecALG profile.

In the

Idle Timeout

field, type number of seconds that a connection is idle before the connection is eligible for deletion.

In the

Pending IKE Connection Limit

field, type the maximum number of unacknowledged IKE connections that a client can send, before being denied further requests.

In the

Initial Connection Timeout

field, type the maximum number of seconds to wait for a response from the server for the IKE or IPsec request.

In the Log Settings area, from the

Log Publisher

list, select the log publisher the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.

If you configure a log publisher, you must also configure a Logging Profile.

logpublisher.atomic

db variable to

false

From the

Logging Profile

list, select the logging profile the BIG-IP system uses to configure logging options for various ALG events.

If you configure a Logging Profile, you must also configure a Log Publisher.

Click

Finished

Creating an IPsec ALG virtual server for manual keys

You can define a virtual server that applies an IPsecALG profile and LSN pool to match IPsec ALG source (client) addresses for address translation.

On the Main tab, click

Carrier Grade NAT

Virtual Servers

The Virtual Server List screen opens.

Click

Create

The New Virtual Server screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the virtual server.

In the

Description

field, type a description for the virtual server.

From the

Type

list, select

Standard

In the

Source Address

field, type

0.0.0.0/0

for the source address and prefix length.

In the

Destination Address/Mask

field:

If you want to specify a single IP address, confirm that the

Host

button is selected, and type the IP address in CIDR format.

If you want to specify multiple IP addresses, select the

Address List

button, and confirm that the address list that you previously created appears in the box.

The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is

10.0.0.1

10.0.0.0/24

, and an IPv6 address/prefix is

ffe1::0020/64

2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64

. When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a

/32

prefix.

The IP address or addresses for this field must be on the same subnet as the external self-IP address.

In the

Service Port

field, type

From the

Configuration

list, select

Advanced

From the

Protocol

list, select

IPsec ESP

From the

IPsecALG Profile

list, select a profile.

From the

LSN Pool

list, select an LSN pool.

Click

Finished

A virtual server is configured to use an IPsecALG profile and LSN pool to match IPsec ALG source (client) addresses for address translation.

Subscriptions

Product Usage

Trials

Registration Keys

Downloads

Applies To:

BIG-IP LTM

Using ALG Profiles

Overview: Using the FTP ALG Profile to Transfer Files

Task summary

About the FTP profile

FTP Control Channels

FTP Data Channels

Creating an LSN pool

Creating an FTP profile

Configuring a CGNAT iRule

Creating a virtual server using an FTP ALG profile

Creating an FTP ALG logging profile

Configuring an FTP ALG profile

Overview: Using the TFTP ALG profile to transfer files

About the TFTP ALG profile

Creating a TFTP ALG profile

Creating an LSN pool

Creating a virtual server using a TFTP ALG profile

Creating a TFTP ALG logging profile

Overview: Using the SIP MRF ALG Profile

Task summary

About the SIP session profile

About the SIP router profile

Creating a SIP session profile

Creating a SIP ALG router profile

Creating an LSN pool

SIP ALG LSN modes and networks

Creating a NAPT LSN pool

Creating a deterministic LSN pool

Creating a PBA LSN pool

Configuring a SIP virtual server

Viewing reserved endpoints

Overview: Using the RTSP ALG Profile to Stream Media

About the RTSP ALG profile

Creating an LSN pool

Creating an RTSP profile

Configuring a CGNAT iRule

Creating a virtual server using an RTSP ALG profile

Creating an RTSP ALG logging profile

Configuring an RTSP ALG profile

Overview: Using the PPTP ALG profile to create a VPN tunnel

About the PPTP ALG profile

PPTP control channels

PPTP GRE data channels

Log messages

PPTP profile log example

Description of PPTP log messages

Creating an LSN pool

Creating a PPTP profile

Adding a static route to manage GRE traffic

Creating a virtual server using a PPTP ALG profile

Overview: Configuring IPsec ALG with IKE

About negotiation of security associations

About the IPSecALG profile

About IPsec Tunnel mode

Creating a log publisher

Creating an IPsecALG logging profile

Creating an LSN pool

Creating a NAPT LSN pool

Creating a deterministic LSN pool

Creating a PBA LSN pool

Creating an IPsecALG profile

Creating an IPsec ALG virtual server for IKE

Overview: Configuring IPsec ALG with manual keys

About IPsec Tunnel mode

Creating a log publisher

Creating an IPsecALG logging profile

Creating an LSN pool

Creating a NAPT LSN pool

Creating a deterministic LSN pool

About VLANs with identical names and different tags

Configuring an IPsecALG profile

Creating an IPsec ALG virtual server for manual keys

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