BOVPN Virtual Interface with Dynamic Routing

You can use a BOVPN virtual interface to enable the Firebox to use dynamic routing to find the routes to private networks on a peer Firebox, or on a third-party endpoint, through the VPN tunnel. When you use dynamic routing with a BOVPN virtual interface, the device at each end of the tunnel automatically learns the routes to networks advertised by the other gateway.

Example

This example shows dynamic routing between a Firebox at Site A and a Firebox at Site B. The sites use OSPF to dynamically update routes through the BOVPN virtual interface.

For examples that show BGP dynamic routing between a Firebox and a third-party cloud endpoint, go to:

BGP is supported for BOVPN virtual interface connections to Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS. OSPF is not supported.

Site A Firebox

For this example, the Site A Firebox has two external interfaces, one trusted network, and four optional networks.

Interface Type Name IP Address
0 External External 203.0.113.2/24
1 Trusted Trusted 10.0.1.1/24
2 Optional Optional-1 10.0.2.1/24
3 Optional Optional-2 10.0.3.1/24
4 Optional Optional-3 10.0.4.1/24
5 Optional Optional-4 10.0.5.1/24
6 External External-2 190.0.2.2/24

The administrator at Site A wants to propagate routes for the Trusted, Optional-1, and Optional-2 networks through the BOVPN tunnel, but does not want to propagate routes for the Optional-3 and Optional-4 networks.

Site B Firebox

For this example, the Site B Firebox has one external interface, one trusted network, and three optional networks.

Interface Type Name IP Address
0 External External 198.51.100.2/24
1 Trusted Trusted 10.50.1.1/24
2 Optional Optional-1 10.50.2.1/24
3 Optional Optional-2 10.50.3.1/24
4 Optional Optional-3 10.50.4.1/24

The administrator at Site B wants to propagate routes for the Trusted and Optional-1 networks through the BOVPN tunnel, but does not want to propagate routes for the Optional-2 and Optional-3 networks.

BOVPN Virtual Interface Configuration

The BOVPN virtual interface on each Firebox must be configured to use the same settings. For this example, we assume that Site A and Site B agree to use a pre-shared key and to use these IP addresses for the BOVPN virtual interface:

  • Site A BOVPN virtual interface local IP address — 10.1.1.1
  • Site B BOVPN virtual interface local IP address — 10.2.2.2

All other BOVPN virtual interface settings keep the default values.

Site A BOVPN Virtual Interface Configuration

On the Gateway Settings tab of the BOVPN virtual interface configuration, specify these settings:

  • From the Remote Endpoint Type drop-down list, select Firebox. This option uses the GRE protocol to encapsulate the IPSec tunnel.
  • The Credential Method is the pre-shared key the two sites agreed upon.
  • The Gateway Endpoints list includes two gateway endpoint pairs, one for each external interface at Site A.
    • First gateway endpoint pair:
      Local Gateway —  203.0.113.2 (the IP address of the first external interface on the Site A Firebox)
      Remote Gateway —  198.51.100.2 (the external interface IP address of the Site B Firebox)
    • Second gateway endpoint pair:
      Local Gateway — 190.0.2.2 (the IP address of the second external interface on the Site A Firebox)
      Remote Gateway — 198.51.100.2 (the external interface IP address of the Site B Firebox)

Screen shot of the BOVPN Virtual Interfaces page, Gateway Settings tab
Site A gateway configuration in Fireware Web UI.

Screen shot of the New BOVPN Virtual Interface dialog box, Gateway Settings tab
Site A gateway configuration in Policy Manager.

On the VPN Routes tab of the BOVPN virtual interface configuration, specify these settings:

  • Assign virtual IP addresses — Enabled
  • Local IP address — 10.1.1.1
  • Peer IP address — 10.2.2.2

Screen shot of the BOVPN Virtual Interfaces page, VPN Routes tab
Site A VPN routes in Fireware Web UI.

Screen shot of the New BOVPN Virtual Interface dialog box, VPN Routes tab
Site A VPN routes in Policy Manager.

Site B BOVPN Virtual Interface Configuration

The configuration at Site B is exactly the same as at Site A, but the local and remote gateway IP addresses are reversed, and the local and peer IP addresses are reversed.

On the Gateway Settings tab of the BOVPN virtual interface configuration, specify these settings:

  • From the Remote Endpoint Type drop-down list, select Firebox. This option uses the GRE protocol to encapsulate the IPSec tunnel.
  • The Credential Method uses the pre-shared key the two sites agreed upon.
  • The Gateway Endpoints list includes two gateway endpoint pairs, one for each external interface at Site A.
    • First gateway endpoint pair:
      Local Gateway  — 198.51.100.2 (the external interface IP address of the Site B Firebox)
      Remote Gateway — 203.0.113.2 (the IP address of the first external interface on the Site A Firebox)
    • Second gateway endpoint pair:
      Local Gateway —  198.51.100.2 (the external interface IP address of the Site B Firebox)
      Remote Gateway  — 190.0.2.2 (the IP address of the second external interface on the Site A Firebox)

Screen shot of the BOVPN Virtual Interfaces page, Gateway Settings tab
Site B gateway configuration in Fireware Web UI.

Screen shot of the New BOVPN Interface dialog box, Gateway Settings tab
Site B gateway configuration in Policy Manager.

On the VPN Routes tab of the BOVPN virtual interface configuration, specify these settings:

  • Assign virtual IP addresses — Enabled
  • Local IP address — 10.2.2.2
  • Peer IP address — 10.1.1.1

Screen shot of the BOVPN Virtual Interface page, VPN Routes tab
Site B VPN routes in Fireware Web UI.

Screen shot of the New BOVPN Virtual Interface, VPN Routes tab
Site B VPN routes in Policy Manager.

Dynamic Routing Configuration

After you define virtual interface IP addresses, you can use them in the dynamic routing configuration.

In the OSPF configuration:

  • Select the Peer IP address in the BOVPN virtual interface configuration to refer to the peer-to-peer network.
  • Select the Device Name (bvpn1) in the BOVPN virtual interface configuration to refer to the BOVPN interface.

In this example configuration, Site A propagates routes for the Trusted, Optional-1 and Optional-2 local networks. Site B propagates routes for the Trusted and Optional-1 local networks.

This example shows two options to configure OSPF on each Firebox.

After the configuration files are saved to the Fireboxes at Site A and Site B, the BOVPN tunnel is active and dynamic routes are propagated through the tunnel.

See Dynamic Network Routes

After the BOVPN tunnel is established, each Firebox uses OSPF to find the routes to the connected networks propagated by the peer device.

You can see these routes in WatchGuard System Manager and Firebox System Manager when you expand the BOVPN virtual interface for each Firebox.

For the Firebox at Site A, Firebox System Manager shows two entries in the Route to section. These correspond to the two private networks that were specified in the Site B OSPF configuration.

10.50.1.0/24 metric 20
10.50.2.0/24 metric 20

Screen shot of Firebox System Manager front panel tab Branch Office VPN tunnels at Site A

For the Firebox at Site B, Firebox System Manager shows three entries in the Route to section. These correspond to the three private networks that were specified in the Site A OSPF configuration.

10.0.1.0/24 metric 20
10.0.2.0/24 metric 20
10.0.3.0/24 metric 20

Screen shot of Firebox System Manager front panel tab Branch Office VPN tunnels at Site B

On the Firebox System Manager Status Report tab, the dynamic network routes appear in the IPv4 Routes section. For more information about the route table, go to Read the Firebox Route Tables.

In Fireware Web UI, the learned network routes appear in the route table for each Firebox. To see the routes, select System Status > Routes. For more information about the routes table in Fireware Web UI, go to Routes.

The interface name for routes that use the BOVPN virtual interface is the Device Name that is automatically assigned when you create the BOVPN virtual interface. The name of the first BOVPN virtual interface is bvpn1.

For this example, the routes that use the bvpn1 interface at Site A are:

Destination Interface Gateway Description
10.2.2.2 bvpn1 0.0.0.0 The virtual BOVPN interface peer IP address
10.50.1.0 bvpn1 10.2.2.2 Route learned from Site B
10.50.2.0 bvpn1 10.2.2.2 Route learned from Site B

For this example, the routes that use the bvpn1 interface at Site B are:

Destination Interface Gateway Description
10.1.1.1 bvpn1 0.0.0.0 The virtual BOVPN interface peer IP address
10.0.1.0 bvpn1 10.1.1.1 Route learned from Site A
10.0.2.0 bvpn1 10.1.1.1 Route learned from Site A
10.0.3.0 bvpn1 10.1.1.1 Route learned from Site A

Related Topics

Configure a BOVPN Virtual Interface

Configure IPv4 Routing with OSPF

BOVPN Virtual Interface Examples

BOVPN Virtual Interface for Dynamic Routing to Microsoft Azure

BOVPN Virtual Interface for Dynamic Routing to Amazon Web Services (AWS)