Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with F5 BIG-IP

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with F5 BIG-IPThe Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) is the protocol of choice for Always On VPN deployments where the highest level of security is required. Implementing Always On VPN at scale often requires multiple VPN servers to provide sufficient capacity and to provide redundancy. Commonly an Application Delivery Controller (ADC) or load balancer is configured in front of the VPN servers to provide scalability and high availability for Always On VPN.

Load Balancing IKEv2

In a recent post I described some of the unique challenges load balancing IKEv2 poses, and I demonstrated how to configure the Kemp LoadMaster load balancer to properly load balance IKEv2 VPN connections. In this post I’ll outline how to configure IKEv2 VPN load balancing on the F5 BIG-IP load balancer.

Note: This article assumes the administrator is familiar with basic F5 BIG-IP load balancer configuration, such as creating nodes, pools, virtual servers, etc.

Initial Configuration

Follow the steps below to create a virtual server on the F5 BIG-IP to load balance IKEv2 VPN connections.

Pool Configuration

To begin, create two pools on the load balancer. The first pool will be configured to use UDP port 500, and the second pool will be configured to use UDP port 4500. Each pool is configured with the VPN servers defined as the individual nodes.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with F5 BIG-IP

Virtual Server Configuration

Next create two virtual servers, the first configured to use UDP port 500 and the second to use UDP port 4500.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with F5 BIG-IP

To ensure reliable connectivity for IKEv2 connections it is necessary for the VPN server to see the client’s original source IP address. When configuring virtual server, select None from the Source Address Translation drop-down list.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing and NAT

Persistence Profile

To ensure that both IKEv2 UDP 500 and 4500 packets are delivered to the same node, follow the steps below to create and assign a Persistence Profile.

1. Expand Local Traffic > Profiles and click Persistence.
2. Click Create.
3. Enter a descriptive name for the profile in the Name field.
4. Select Source Address Affinity from the Persistence Type drop-down list.
5. Click the Custom check box.
6. Select the option to Match Across Services.
7. Click Finished.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with F5 BIG-IP

Assign the new persistence profile to both UDP 500 and 4500 virtual servers. Navigate to the Resources tab on each virtual server and select the new persistence profile from the Default Persistence Profile drop-down list. Be sure to do this for both virtual servers.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with F5 BIG-IP

Additional Resources

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing and NAT

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with Kemp LoadMaster Load Balancer 

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Security Configuration

Windows 10 Always On VPN and IKEv2 Fragmentation

Windows 10 Always On VPN Certificate Requirements for IKEv2

Video: Windows 10 Always On VPN Load Balancing with the Kemp LoadMaster Load Balancer

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with KEMP LoadMaster

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with KEMP LoadMasterInternet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) is an IPsec-based VPN protocol with configurable security parameters that allows administrators to ensure the highest level of security for Windows 10 Always On VPN clients. It is the protocol of choice for deployments that require the best possible protection for communication between remote clients and the VPN server. IKEv2 has some unique requirements when it comes to load balancing, however. Because it uses UDP on multiple ports, configuring the load balancer requires some additional steps for proper operation. This article demonstrates how to enable IKEv2 load balancing using the Kemp LoadMaster load balancer.

IKEv2 and NAT

IKEv2 VPN security associations (SAs) begin with a connection to the VPN server that uses UDP port 500. During this initial exchange, if it is determined that the client, server, or both are behind a device performing Network Address Translation (NAT), the connection switches to UDP port 4500 and the connection establishment process continues.

IKEv2 Load Balancing Challenges

Since UDP is connectionless, there’s no guarantee that when the conversation switches from UDP 500 to UDP 4500 that the load balancer will forward the request to the same VPN server on the back end. If the load balancer forwards the UDP 500 session from a VPN client to one real server, then forwards the UDP 4500 session to a different VPN server, the connection will fail. The load balancer must be configured to ensure that both UDP 500 and 4500 from the same VPN client are always forwarded to the same real server to ensure proper operation.

Port Following

To meet this unique requirement for IKEv2 load balancing, it is necessary to use a feature on the KEMP LoadMaster load balancer called “port following”. Enabling this feature will ensure that a VPN client using IKEv2 will always have their UDP 500 and 4500 sessions forwarded to the same real server.

Load Balancing IKEv2

Open the web-based management console and perform the following steps to enable load balancing of IKEv2 traffic on the KEMP LoadMaster load balancer.

Create the Virtual Server

  1. Expand Virtual Services.
  2. Click Add New.
  3. Enter the IP address to be used by the virtual server in the Virtual Address field.
  4. Enter 500 in the Port field.
  5. Select UDP from the Protocol drop-down list.
  6. Click Add this Virtual Service.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with KEMP LoadMaster

Add Real Servers

  1. Expand Real Servers.
  2. Click Add New.
  3. Enter the IP address of the VPN server in the Real Server Address field.
  4. Click Add This Real Server.
  5. Repeat the steps above for each VPN server in the cluster.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with KEMP LoadMaster

Repeat all the steps above to create another virtual server using UDP port 4500.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with KEMP LoadMaster

Enable Layer 7 Operation

  1. Click View/Modify Services below Virtual Services in the navigation tree.
  2. Select the first virtual server and click Modify.
  3. Expand Standard Options.
  4. Uncheck Force L4.
  5. Check Transparency (additional configuration may be required – details here).
  6. Select Source IP Address from the Persistence Options drop-down list.
  7. Choose an appropriate value from the Timeout drop-down list.
  8. Choose an appropriate setting from the Scheduling Method drop-down list.
  9. Click Back.
  10. Repeat these steps on the second virtual server.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with KEMP LoadMaster

Enable Port Following

  1. Click View/Modify Services below Virtual Services in the navigation tree.
  2. Select the first virtual server and click Modify.
  3. Expand Advanced Properties.
  4. Select the virtual server using UDP 500 from the Port Following drop-down list.
  5. Click Back.
  6. Repeat these steps on the second virtual server.

Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing with KEMP LoadMaster

Demonstration Video

The following video demonstrates how to enable IKEv2 load balancing for Windows 10 Always On VPN using the KEMP LoadMaster Load Balancer.

Summary

With the KEMP LoadMaster load balancer configured to use port following, Windows 10 Always On VPN clients using IKEv2 will be assured that their connections will always be delivered to the same back end VPN server, resulting in reliable load balancing for IKEv2 connections.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Certificate Requirements for IKEv2

Windows 10 Always On VPN Protocol Recommendations for Windows Server RRAS

Always On VPN Multisite with Azure Traffic Manager

Always On VPN Multisite with Azure Traffic ManagerEliminating single points of failure is crucial to ensuring the highest levels of availability for any remote access solution. For Windows 10 Always On VPN deployments, the Windows Server 2016 Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) and Network Policy Server (NPS) servers can be load balanced to provide redundancy and high availability within a single datacenter. Additional RRAS and NPS servers can be deployed in another datacenter or in Azure to provide geographic redundancy if one datacenter is unavailable, or to provide access to VPN servers based on the location of the client.

Multisite Always On VPN

Unlike DirectAccess, Windows 10 Always On VPN does not natively include support for multisite. However, enabling multisite geographic redundancy can be implemented using Azure Traffic Manager.

Azure Traffic Manager

Traffic Manager is part of Microsoft’s Azure public cloud solution. It provides Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) functionality by resolving DNS queries for the VPN public hostname to an IP address of the most optimal VPN server.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Using Azure Traffic manager has some benefits, but it is not with some drawbacks.

Advantages – Azure Traffic Manager is easy to configure and use. It requires no proprietary hardware to procure, manage, and support.

Disadvantages – Azure Traffic Manager offers only limited health check options. Today, only HTTP, HTTP, and TCP protocols can be used to perform endpoint health checks. There is no option to use UDP or PING, making monitoring for IKEv2 a challenge.

Note: This scenario assumes that RRAS with Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) or another third-party TLS-based VPN server is in use. If IKEv2 is to be supported exclusively, it will still be necessary to publish an HTTP or HTTPS-based service for Azure Traffic Manager to monitor site availability.

Traffic Routing Methods

Azure Traffic Manager provide four different methods for routing traffic.

Priority – Select this option to provide active/passive failover. A primary VPN server is defined to which all traffic is routed. If the primary server is unavailable, traffic will be routed to another backup server.

Weighted – Select this option to provide active/active failover. Traffic is routed to all VPN servers equally, or unequally if desired. The administrator defines the percentage of traffic routed to each server.

Performance – Select this option to route traffic to the VPN server with the lowest latency. This ensures VPN clients connect to the server that responds the quickest.

Geographic – Select this option to route traffic to a VPN server based on the VPN client’s physical location.

Multivalue – Select this option when endpoints must use IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.

Subnet – Select this option to map DNS responses to the client’s source IP address.

Configure Azure Traffic Manager

Open the Azure management portal and follow the steps below to configure Azure Traffic Manager for multisite Windows 10 Always On VPN.

Create a Traffic Manager Resource

  1. Click Create a resource.
  2. Click Networking.
  3. Click Traffic Manager profile.

Create a Traffic Manager Profile

  1. Enter a unique name for the Traffic Manager profile.
  2. Select an appropriate routing method (described above).
  3. Select a subscription.
  4. Create or select a resource group.
  5. Select a resource group location.
  6. Click Create.

Always On VPN Multisite with Azure Traffic Manager

Important Note: The name of the Traffic Manager profile cannot be used by VPN clients to connect to the VPN server, since a TLS certificate cannot be obtained for the trafficmanager.net domain. Instead, create a CNAME DNS record that points to the Traffic Manager FQDN and ensure that name matches the subject or a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) entry on the VPN server’s TLS and/or IKEv2 certificates.

Endpoint Monitoring

Open the newly created Traffic Manager profile and perform the following tasks to enable endpoint monitoring.

  1. Click Configuration.
  2. Select HTTPS from the Protocol drop-down list.
  3. Enter 443 in the Port field.
  4. Enter /sra_%7BBA195980-CD49-458b-9E23-C84EE0ADCD75%7D/ in the Path field.
  5. Enter 401-401 in the Expected Status Code Ranges field.
  6. Update any additional settings, such as DNS TTL, probing interval, tolerated number of failures, and probe timeout, as required.
  7. Click Save.

aovpn_traffic_manager_multisite_001

Endpoint Configuration

Follow the steps below to add VPN endpoints to the Traffic Manager profile.

  1. Click Endpoints.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Select External Endpoint from the Type drop-down list.
  4. Enter a descriptive name for the endpoint.
  5. Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or the IP address of the first VPN server.
  6. Select a geography from the Location drop-down list.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Repeat the steps above for any additional datacenters where VPN servers are deployed.

Always On VPN Multisite with Azure Traffic Manager

Summary

Implementing multisite by placing VPN servers is multiple physical locations will ensure that VPN connections can be established successfully even when an entire datacenter is offline. In addition, active/active scenarios can be implemented, where VPN client connections can be routed to the most optimal datacenter based on a variety of parameters, including current server load or the client’s current location.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Hands-On Training Classes