D-Link DFL-260 Product Manual - Page 407

Dead Peer Detection, Keep-alive, Comparing DPD and Keep-alive, IPsec Tunnel Quick Start, DPD-R-U-THERE

Page 407 highlights

9.4.1. Overview Chapter 9. VPN performance of the NetDefendOS IPsec engine and explicitly dropping such traffic with an IP rule is an efficient way of preventing it reaching the engine. In other words, IP rules can be used to have complete control over all traffic related to the tunnel. Dead Peer Detection Dead Peer Detection (DPD) can optionally be enabled for an IPsec tunnel. DPD monitors the aliveness of the tunnel by looking for traffic coming from the peer at the other end of the tunnel. If no message is seen within a length of time (specified by the the advanced setting DPD Metric) then NetDefendOS sends DPD-R-U-THERE messages to the peer to determine if it is still reachable and alive. If the peer does not respond to these messages during a period of time (specified by the advanced setting DPD Expire Time) then the peer is considered dead and the tunnel is taken down. NetDefendOS will then automatically try to re-establish the tunnel after a period of time (specified by the advanced setting DPD Keep Time). The advanced settings for DPD are described further in Section 9.4.6, "IPsec Advanced Settings". DPD is enabled by default for NetDefendOS IPsec tunnels. Disabling does not disable to ability to respond to DPD-R-U-THERE from another peer. Keep-alive The IPsec Keep-alive option ensures that the tunnel remains established at all possible times even if no traffic flows. It does this by continuously sending ICMP Ping messages through the tunnel. If replies to the ping messages are not received then the tunnel link is assumed to be broken and an attempt is automatically made to re-establish the tunnel. This feature is only useful for LAN to LAN tunnels. Optionally, a specific source IP address and/or a destination IP address for the pings can be specified. It is recommended to specify a destination IP of a host which is known to being able to reliably respond to ICMP messages. If a destination IP is not specified, NetDefendOS will use the first IP address on the remote network. An important usage of keep-alive is if a LAN to LAN tunnel with infrequent data traffic can only be established from one side but needs to be kept alive for hosts on the other peer. If the peer that establishes the tunnel uses keep-alive to keep the tunnel established, any hosts on the other side can use the tunnel even though the other peer cannot establish the tunnel when it is needed. Comparing DPD and Keep-alive DPD and Keep-alive can be considered to perform a similar function which is detecting if an IPsec tunnel is down and re-establishing it. However, there are differences: • Keep-alive can only be used for LAN to LAN IPsec tunnels. It cannot be used with roaming clients. • Keep-alive is much faster at detecting that a tunnel is down and re-establishing it. It is therefore a preferred solution for LAN to LAN tunnels. Having keep-alive and DPD enabled simultaneously for a LAN to LAN tunnel is not needed since DPD will never trigger if keep-alive pings are being sent. IPsec Tunnel Quick Start This section covers IPsec tunnels in some detail. A quick start checklist of setup steps for these protocols in typical scenarios can be found in the following sections: • Section 9.2.1, "IPsec LAN to LAN with Pre-shared Keys". 407

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performance of the NetDefendOS IPsec engine and explicitly dropping such traffic with an IP rule is
an efficient way of preventing it reaching the engine. In other words, IP rules can be used to have
complete control over all traffic related to the tunnel.
Dead Peer Detection
Dead Peer Detection
(DPD) can optionally be enabled for an IPsec tunnel. DPD monitors the
aliveness of the tunnel by looking for traffic coming from the peer at the other end of the tunnel. If
no message is seen within a length of time (specified by the the advanced setting
DPD Metric
) then
NetDefendOS sends
DPD-R-U-THERE
messages to the peer to determine if it is still reachable and
alive.
If the peer does not respond to these messages during a period of time (specified by the advanced
setting
DPD Expire Time
) then the peer is considered dead and the tunnel is taken down.
NetDefendOS will then automatically try to re-establish the tunnel after a period of time (specified
by the advanced setting
DPD Keep Time
).
The advanced settings for DPD are described further in
Section 9.4.6, “IPsec Advanced Settings”
.
DPD is enabled by default for NetDefendOS IPsec tunnels. Disabling does not disable to ability to
respond to
DPD-R-U-THERE
from another peer.
Keep-alive
The IPsec
Keep-alive
option ensures that the tunnel remains established at all possible times even if
no traffic flows. It does this by continuously sending ICMP
Ping
messages through the tunnel. If
replies to the ping messages are not received then the tunnel link is assumed to be broken and an
attempt is automatically made to re-establish the tunnel. This feature is only useful for LAN to LAN
tunnels.
Optionally, a specific source IP address and/or a destination IP address for the pings can be
specified. It is recommended to specify a destination IP of a host which is known to being able to
reliably respond to ICMP messages. If a destination IP is not specified, NetDefendOS will use the
first IP address on the remote network.
An important usage of keep-alive is if a LAN to LAN tunnel with infrequent data traffic can only be
established from one side but needs to be kept alive for hosts on the other peer. If the peer that
establishes the tunnel uses keep-alive to keep the tunnel established, any hosts on the other side can
use the tunnel even though the other peer cannot establish the tunnel when it is needed.
Comparing DPD and Keep-alive
DPD and Keep-alive can be considered to perform a similar function which is detecting if an IPsec
tunnel is down and re-establishing it. However, there are differences:
Keep-alive can only be used for LAN to LAN IPsec tunnels. It cannot be used with roaming
clients.
Keep-alive is much faster at detecting that a tunnel is down and re-establishing it. It is therefore
a preferred solution for LAN to LAN tunnels.
Having keep-alive and DPD enabled simultaneously for a LAN to LAN tunnel is not needed since
DPD will never trigger if keep-alive pings are being sent.
IPsec Tunnel Quick Start
This section covers IPsec tunnels in some detail. A quick start checklist of setup steps for these
protocols in typical scenarios can be found in the following sections:
Section 9.2.1, “IPsec LAN to LAN with Pre-shared Keys”
.
9.4.1. Overview
Chapter 9. VPN
407