FortiGate

This topic provides configuration for a FortiGate that is running software version 6.0.4.

FortiGate experience is recommended. For more details on how to use FortiGate products, visit their official site. For FortiGate documentation for high availability (HA) or manual deployment, see the Fortinet Document Library.

Important

Oracle provides configuration instructions for a tested set of vendors and devices. Use the correct configuration for the vendor and software version.

If the device or software version that Oracle used to verify the configuration doesn't exactly match the device or software, you might still create the necessary configuration on the device. Consult the vendor's documentation and make any necessary changes.

If the device is from a vendor not in the list of verified vendors and devices, or if you're already familiar with configuring the device for IPSec, see the list of supported IPSec parameters and consult the vendor's documentation for help.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offersSite-to-Site VPN, a secure IPSec connection between your on-premises network and a virtual cloud network (VCN).

The following diagram shows a basic IPSec connection to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with redundant tunnels. IP addresses used in this diagram are for example purposes only.

This image summarizes the general layout of your on-premises network, Site-to-Site VPN IPSec tunnels, and VCN.

Best Practices

This section covers general best practices and considerations for using Site-to-Site VPN.

Configure All Tunnels for Every IPSec Connection

Oracle deploys two IPSec headends for connections to provide high availability for mission-critical workloads. On the Oracle side, these two headends are on different routers for redundancy purposes. We recommend configuring all available tunnels for maximum redundancy. This is a key part of the "Design for Failure" philosophy.

Have Redundant CPEs in On-Premises Network Locations

We recommend that each site that connects with IPSec to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure has redundant edge devices (also known as customer-premises equipment (CPE)). You add each CPE to the Oracle Console and create a separate IPSec connection between a dynamic routing gateway (DRG)  and each CPE. For each IPSec connection, Oracle provisions two tunnels on geographically redundant IPSec headends. For more information, see the Connectivity redundancy guide (PDF).

Routing Protocol Considerations

When you create a Site-to-Site VPN IPSec connection, it has two redundant IPSec tunnels. Oracle encourages you to configure the CPE to use both tunnels (if the CPE supports it). In the past, Oracle created IPSec connections that had up to four IPSec tunnels.

The following three routing types are available, and you select the routing type separately for each tunnel in the Site-to-Site VPN:

  • BGP dynamic routing: The available routes are learned dynamically through BGP. The DRG dynamically learns the routes from the on-premises network. On the Oracle side, the DRG advertises the VCN's subnets.
  • Static routing: When you set up the IPSec connection to the DRG, you specify the particular routes to the on-premises network that you want the VCN to know about. You also must configure the CPE device with static routes to the VCN's subnets. These routes aren't learned dynamically.
  • Policy-based routing: When you set up the IPSec connection to the DRG, you specify the particular routes to the on-premises network that you want the VCN to know about. You also must configure the CPE device with static routes to the VCN's subnets. These routes aren't learned dynamically.

For more information about routing with Site-to-Site VPN, including Oracle recommendations on how to manipulate the BGP best path selection algorithm, see Routing for Site-to-Site VPN.

Other Important CPE Configurations

Ensure that access lists on the CPE are configured correctly to not block necessary traffic from or to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

If you have several tunnels up simultaneously, you might experience asymmetric routing. To account for asymmetric routing, ensure that the CPE is configured to handle traffic coming from the VCN on any of the tunnels. For example, you need to disable ICMP inspection, configure TCP state bypass . For more details about the appropriate configuration, contact the CPE vendor's support. To configure routing to be symmetric, see Routing for Site-to-Site VPN.

Caveats and Limitations

This section covers general important characteristics and limitations of Site-to-Site VPN to be aware of. See Service Limits for a list of applicable limits and instructions for requesting a limit increase.

Asymmetric Routing

Oracle uses asymmetric routing across the tunnels that make up the IPSec connection. Configure firewalls with that in mind. Otherwise, ping tests or application traffic across the connection don't work reliably.

When you use several tunnels to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, We recommend that you configure routing to deterministically route traffic through the preferred tunnel. To use one IPSec tunnel as primary and another as backup, configure more-specific routes for the primary tunnel (BGP) and less-specific routes (summary or default route) for the backup tunnel (BGP/static). Otherwise, if you advertise the same route (for example, a default route) through all tunnels, return traffic from a VCN to an on-premises network routes to any of the available tunnels. This is because Oracle uses asymmetric routing.

For specific Oracle routing recommendations about how to force symmetric routing, see Routing for Site-to-Site VPN.

Route-Based or Policy-Based Site-to-Site VPN

The IPSec protocol uses Security Associations (SAs) to decide how to encrypt packets. Within each SA, you define encryption domains to map a packet's source and destination IP address and protocol type to an entry in the SA database to define how to encrypt or decrypt a packet.

Note

Other vendors or industry documentation might use the term proxy ID, security parameter index (SPI), or traffic selector when referring to SAs or encryption domains.

There are two general methods for implementing IPSec tunnels:

  • Route-based tunnels: Also called next-hop-based tunnels. A route table lookup is performed on a packet's destination IP address. If that route's egress interface is an IPSec tunnel, the packet is encrypted and sent to the other end of the tunnel.
  • Policy-based tunnels: The packet's source and destination IP address and protocol are matched against a list of policy statements. If a match is found, the packet is encrypted based on the rules in that policy statement.

The Oracle Site-to-Site VPN headends use route-based tunnels but can work with policy-based tunnels with some caveats listed in the following sections.

If Your CPE Is Behind a NAT Device

In general, the CPE IKE identifier configured on the on-premises end of the connection must match the CPE IKE identifier that Oracle is using. By default, Oracle uses the CPE's public IP address, which you provide when you create the CPE object in the Oracle Console. However, if a CPE is behind a NAT device, the CPE IKE identifier configured on the on-premises end might be the CPE's private IP address, as shown in the following diagram.

This image shows the CPE behind a NAT device, the public and private IP addresses, and the CPE IKE identifier.
Note

Some CPE platforms don't let you change the local IKE identifier. If you can't, you must change the remote IKE ID in the Oracle Console to match the CPE's local IKE ID. You can provide the value either when you set up the IPSec connection, or later, by editing the IPSec connection. Oracle expects the value to be either an IP address or a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) such as cpe.example.com. For instructions, see Changing the CPE IKE Identifier That Oracle Uses.

CPE Configuration

Important

The configuration instructions in this section are provided by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for this CPE. If you need support or further help, contact the CPE vendor's support directly.

The following figure shows the basic layout of the IPSec connection.

This image summarizes the general layout of the IPSec connection and tunnels.

By default, FortiGate provisions the IPSec tunnel in route-based mode. This topic focuses on FortiGate with a route-based VPN configuration.

If necessary, you can have FortiGate provision the IPSec tunnel in policy-based mode. To enable the feature, go to System, and then to Feature Visiblity. Under Additional Features, enable the Policy-based IPsec VPN feature.

This image shows where to select a policy-based VPN.

About Using IKEv2

Oracle supports Internet Key Exchange version 1 (IKEv1) and version 2 (IKEv2). If you configure the IPSec connection in the Console to use IKEv2, you must configure your CPE to use only IKEv2 and related IKEv2 encryption parameters that your CPE supports. For a list of parameters that Oracle supports for IKEv1 or IKEv2, see Supported IPSec Parameters.

If you want to use IKEv2, there's a variation on one of the tasks presented in the next section. Specifically, in task 2, when configuring authentication, select IKE version 2.

Configuration Process

Important

Before starting, ensure you have a valid license or trial license to configure FortiGate.

Redundancy with BGP Over IPSec

For redundancy, Oracle recommends using BGP over IPSec. By default, if you have two connections of the same type (for example, two IPSec VPNs that both use BGP), and you advertise the same routes across both connections, Oracle prefers the oldest established route when responding to requests or initiating connections. If you want to force routing to be symmetric, Oracle recommends using BGP and AS path prepending with your routes to influence which path Oracle uses when responding to and initiating connections. For more information, see Routing Details for Connections to the On-premises Network.

The Oracle DRG uses /30 or /31 as subnets for configuring IP addresses on the interface tunnels. Remember that the IP address must be part of Site-to-Site VPN's encryption domain and must be allowed in the firewall policy to reach the peer VPN through the interface tunnel. You might need to implement a static route through the tunnel interface for the peer IP address.

Oracle's BGP ASN for the commercial cloud is 31898, except the Serbia Central (Jovanovac) region which is 14544. If you're configuring Site-to-Site VPN for the Government Cloud, see Required Site-to-Site VPN Parameters for Government Cloud and also Oracle's BGP ASN.

For your side, you can use a private ASN. Private ASNs are in the range 64512–65534.

Verification

The following CLI command is useful for gathering statistical data such as the number of packets encrypted versus decrypted, the number of bytes sent versus received, the encryption domain (SPI) identifier, and so on. This kind of information can be critical for determining an issue with the VPN.

diagnose vpn tunnel list

The following command indicates a lack of firewall policy, a lack of forwarding route, and policy ordering issues. If there are no communication issues, this command returns blank output.

diagnose debug flow

The following command verifies BGP neighbor status information. Remember that an "Active" state doesn't mean that the BGP session is up. "Active" refers to a BGP state message. For more information, see BGP Background and Concepts in the FortiGate documentation.

get router info bgp summary

The following command provides more detailed information about a BGP neighbor.

get router info bgp neighbors

A Monitoring service is also available from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to actively and passively monitor cloud resources. For information about monitoring a Site-to-Site VPN, see Site-to-Site VPN Metrics.

If you have issues, see Site-to-Site VPN Troubleshooting.