Cisco Firewall :: ASA 7.2 Adding A Context In A Multiple Context Environment
Jul 1, 2012
On my production environment I have a firewall with already two contexts defined (15% of CPU used) and I want to add a new one.
This context is going to use the same interfaces as the others contexts. When I will enable the context, can I have some sort of repercussion on these two context ?
I have two ASA 5510 in an Active/Active failover configuration; On the first ASA I have a license for five security contexts, on the second one I have the default two. On the pair I configured seven security contexts and everything works as expected; so far so good. Let's suppose now that the first ASA (the one with the license for 5 contexts) goes up in smoke; all the contexts migrate to the surviving firewall and life is still good. But what happens if, for some reason, I need to reboot the second ASA before the first one is repaired? My guess is that it will come up with just its own license for two contexts and that I will not be able to operate all my virtual firewalls.
I am looking to deploy a cloud/borderless network solution and cannot get my head around how the licenses (AnyConnect Mobile and essentials) will be applied in a multiple context deployment. Any correct documentation.
We already know that ASA 9.0 supports site-to-site VPN in multiple context mode. But remote access VPN isn't supported. Obviously, SSL-VPN is a very important feature for most multi-tenant deployment scenarios where each context acts as a border firewall towards the Internet for each tenant. The alternative to terminate all tenant remote-access VPNs in one context means that each tenant would have to be routable from the ASA, which of course isn't a reasonable requirement in most cases.
So, what I'd like to do is to deploy an ASA cluster, and provide remote access VPNs for each tenant, where the connectivity for each remote access group can be addressed with whatever IP address space, and that goes into it's own VRF in the back-end.
As far as I can tell, this isn't doable with the ASA, since multiple context mode prohibits the use of remote access VPN, and I can't think of any other work-around than either having individual firewalls running in single context mode for each tenant, or demand that all tenants are interoperable routing-wise and configure a separate ip address pool in a single context mode for each tenant.
Essentially, there's no good way to implement this with multiple virtual firewalls, using cisco firewalls?
Is it possible to use 1 or 2 of the 4 gigabit ethernet ports from one ACE straight into the other ACE for redundancy? So ACE_01 gig0/4 to ACE_02 gig0/4.If so, is it a case of just having the layer 3 config instead of trunking etc..Also - is it possible to create a context within the same vlan as the Admin context?
I have a Failover pair of ASA5550's running ASDM 6.2(5) and ASA 8.2(2). Originally they were setup with 2 context's and an admin context but one of the contexts has now been removed. I would like to now migrate to single mode before I go about patching them to the latest software.
I need to configure multiple context mode with active/standby failover solution.
Even after reading some Cisco documents I still can't understand if active/standby failover configuration has to be done within the admin context only or also within every single context (context-1, context-2 for example). In this case I have to allocate as failover interface a subinterface for each context (admin, context-1, context-2), right ?
Therefore a I have an other question: within the admin context, in a failover solution, do I have to allocate all interfaces I want to be moniotred, even though some will be used by context-1 only context and some others will be used by context-2 only context ?
An other question is: if active/standby failover configuration has to be done within each context, can I set regular failover within context-1 while stateful failover within context-2 ?
The last question is: can I use management interface within all 3 contexts ?
I have a Fail over pair of ASA5550's running ASDM 6.2(5) and ASA 8.2(2). Originally they were setup with 2 context's and an admin context but one of the contexts has now been removed. I would like to now migrate to single mode before I go about patching them to the latest software.
I have a pair of ASA 5520s in active/standby failover mode, single context. I'll be migrating to multiple context mode later this week. Do I need to break failover first? Or if I don't need to, should I? Or can I do this while maintaining failover? Can either of these scenarios will work (or fail). I'll be remote, doing my work via SSH, but have somebody local who can console in if needed.
Migration option #1 Log into active/primary ASA Configure Multiple Context mode Reboot both devices Login to active/primary ASA
what´s going on with an asa540 configure in multiple-context mode. I Have a cacti server on my lan and now I´m try to monitoring the interface with snmp. When I try to get this information returns the error message:
CISCOASA/CONTEXTA# JUN 11 2013 01:52:00: %ASA-1-1-6021: Deny UDP reverse path check from 10.6.6.6 to IP_SRV_CACTI on interface inside JUN 11 2013 01:52:01: %ASA-1-1-6021: Deny UDP reverve path check from 10.6.6.6 to IP_SRV_CACTI on interface inside
If I try to ping returns the same error:
CISCOASA/CONTEXTA# JUN 11 2013 01:56:09: %ASA-1-1-6021: Deny icmp reverse path check from 10.6.6.6 to IP_SRV_CACTI on interface inside
Following attached the conf of my asa My question is Why I can´t ping or even use snmp ?
I have 2xASA5510 with securityPlus license.i have configured 3 context and Active/Active Failover.Everything works fine. But also want to use rometeAccessVPN but couldn't fine anything for VPN. does it support VPN in multiple mode?
My corporate internal network is currently fire walled by an FWSM module on a 6513 switch. We have each security zone (we have eight) assigned to a FWSM context and have ACLs set up between the contexts and the enterprise LAN/WAN. Is it possible to support fire walling between these zones within a single security context? The reason I am asking is that we would like to purchase a second FWSM for use as a standby, but do not want to cough up the ~ $12K for the context license. We will ultimately be transitioning to ASAs for internal security, so do not want to spend more than we need to.
I know most QoS capabilities aren't available in multiple context mode, but I need to do some really simple policing on one of my contexts. I just want to apply a hard 20Mbps cap on an interface. I've seen a few places that suggest that basic policing is possible in multiple context mode, but apparently not by the normal commands.
I've got an ASA which has a number of contexts. They all share the same external interface, and in the interest of saving addresses I'm wondering if the standby address for each context is really necessary. I know that in active/passive the standby address is what allows the two to communicate and monitor that particular interface, however, in active/active I don't see the point as the context is either going to be on one or the other.
Im looking for some clarification regarding running a Cisco ASA in transparent mode with multiple contexts. To give you an insight into the network design we have the following -
Collapsed Core/Aggregation Layer running Cisco 3750s. The 2 Cisco 3750s are using SVIs with HSRP for default gateways per customer with a total of 8 customers. Each customer is segregated into seperate VLANs with Cisco 2960 switches used in the Access layer. Each customer has 2 Cisco 2960 switches with redundant uplinks to the Core/Aggregation layer. Customers are spanning tree loadbalanced between core/aggregation switches.
What i need to now do is add two transparent firewalls into the mix in either an active/active or active/standby setup. I need the firewalls to support all 8 customers, therefore I am guessing they need to run in multiple context mode. Having read into this it has left me somewhat confused as to how to integrate them into the above setup as a bump in the wire so to speak.
What are the new features added or going to be available on the 8.5 release on the ASA. Would this release "finally" support VPN on multi security context mode.
By the sounds of things looks like every other major vendor supports this feature except Cisco.
I am currently working with ASA 5585 with several contexts. What is the percentage of the CPU used per context. I already have the opportunity to do it for the whole ASA (context admin) using the SNMP mib CISCO-PROCES but, unfortunalty, this mib doesn't allow us to know the percentage of used CPU per context.
I was able to know the number of core used per context but not the percentage of the CPU used.
We have a pair of cisco Asa 5520 currently running multiple context mode. We wish to change to single context mode for following reasonWe will migrate infrastructure to hosted vendor . I was thinking of configuring site to site . Current Asa we pal to kee since wireless sits in our DMz and we have net screen that hosts tunnel for erp1. Is context change required for running site to site2. Is it a good idea for creating site to site on to make sure wireless network and oracle traffic goes through managed firewall ?
Firstly is this the right forum to post threads about FWSM's. We have 2 FWSM's in two seperate 6500 switches. There are a number of contexts on each FWSM.I want to fail a context from one FWSM over to the other 6500 and FWSM. Can you tell me how I can do that? Do I need to do it in the admin context and do I need to do it on the admin context of each 6500?
I have a ASA 5510 and planning to implement multiple context in a 2 tier security level and vrf-lite. meaning I have 2xASA facing the internet and below that a 2x3560 switch for our extranet and below that is another 2xASA for intranet. See diagram below. In this kind of network I want to know how it would impact the total throughput and resources of the ASA using multiple context?
I have just joined a networks team and will be working on two fwsm versions 4.0(8) in two 6500 routers. Now the fwsms seem to be virtualised with multiple contexts. The server team want a new context setup for a group of servers behind a vlan. [code]
This context just seems to have two Vlans and a BVI interface. What is the function of this context and why we have 2 admin contexts?
Also another important question is on which 6500 do I create the new context? Is the admin context active on one 6500 just like other contexts and will sync across or do I have to create the new context on both 6500s.
I need your support for upgrading the Security context license on 5550, at present we have 5 Security context license installed in ASA but we want it to increased till 10 conctexts. I want to understand if we need to get addtional 5 Security context license or 10.
I'm having a problem with a context, I have two CISCO ASA 5550 (failover) and also we have the CISCO CSM to monitoring it, but since some weeks is showing a memory usage of 100% but then it drops until reach zero and then again the graphic goes up. This is the second time that the graphic shows this
I also check this on the CLI and i'ts fine because is showing the real percent, so my question here is why is showing this kind of behavior, I mean it was working fine before.
In the other hand I checked the secondary device and this is showing a 99% of used memory, but as the other one this graphic doesn't drop
I also checked via CLI and it says that it had the 99% memory used , Is there a way that i can put more memory on the context or what do you suggest that I can check on my firewalls.
I am trying to configure multi context on the 5520 ASA , how can i configure 1 outside and 1 inside for the 2 context or how to configure both outside from the same subnet and insides also from the same subnet , i did the below configuration but didn't work . [code]
I have a active-active setup with 2 cisco asa 5585x running 8.4 - the boxes ahve each 2 sec context's build-in - which gives 4 sec context in the cluster. I have 2 x 5 extra licenses (2 x ASA5500-SC-5) which I haven't applied yet - will this give me a total of 10 or 14 security contextes? I am a bit in doubt because if I only get 10 sec contextes in this cluster then could I instead get a single 10 security context license (1 x ASA5500-SC-10) and add this - hereby I would get 12 then.
This is the situation I got to firewalls with failover and I need to upgrade the license so I can get more context (right now I have 5 context and I need 10) so I was looking at the procedure and I'm not sure If I need to restart the device or not. I was looking at this procedure:
Upgrading the License for a Failover using ASDM (No Reload Required) Use the following procedure using ASDM if your new license does not require you to reload. This procedure ensures that there is no downtime.
•1. On the active unit, choose Configuration > Device Management > High Availability > Failover > Setup, and uncheck the Enable Failover check box. Now click Apply. The standby unit remains in a pseudo-standby state. Deactivating failover on the active unit prevents the standby unit from attempting to become active during the period when the licenses do not match. •
2. Choose Configuration > Device Management > Licensing > Activation Key, and enter the new activation key that you obtained with the active unit serial number. Now click Update Activation Key.•
3. Log into the standby unit by double-clicking its address in the Device List. If the device is not in the Device List, click Add to add the device. You might be prompted for credentials to log in.
4. Choose Configuration > Device Management > Licensing > Activation Key, and enter the new activation key that you obtained with the standby unit serial number. Now click Update Activation Key.
5. Log into the active unit again by double-clicking its address in the Device List. Choose Configuration > Device Management > High Availability > Failover > Setup, and re-check the Enable Failover check box.
6. Click Apply. This completes the procedure.link: [URL]
But then I checked on the cisco web page that there are some license that need to reload I see this:
All models
#Downgrading any license (for example, going from 10 contexts to 2 contexts).#Note If a temporary license expires, and the permanent license is a downgrade, then you do not need to immediately reload the security appliance; the next time you reload, the permanent license is restored.
[URL]
So I just want to know if I'm UPGRADING from 5 to 10 context the reload applies to my situation or not?
How do i measure the total throughput going via 5585-X.It has the firewall througput of 5Gbps. Looking at aggregate of all the interfaces traffic going through it seems about 4gbps is going through.
I use show traffic command and add up the trasmit and receive traffic on each live interface.Is that correct method and are there any more commands?
I have a firewall module in a Switch Catalyst 6500. I wan to upgrade its context capacity to a greater capacity. When I looked it in the Dynamic configuration, it send me following number parts:
FR-SVC-FWM-VC-T1= FR-SVC-FWM-UPGR1=
The first one is the license to have 20 context and the next one is upgrade from 20 context to 50 context. My problem is that I haven't could find a service support contract associate them.I want to know if they have or not service contract, because I can´t find them.
I have an ASA 5585 in transparent mode, multi-context. It seems that the option to configure a BVI in one of the traffic contexts isn't there. In other words, while I see the option to configure a bridge group interface in the admin context, no such option comes up in the traffic context. [CODE]....
We have an active-active pair of cisco ASA5580-20 with software version 8.4(1)9. There are 8 contexts on it (including admin and system). 1 context is active on Primary node and other 7 are active on Secondary node. User traffic is going through this 1 context (2 interfaces - inside to users, outside to internet) and there are peaks to 1.16M concurrent connections, max bandwidth is 1.25Gbps. CPU usage for this context in peak hours is 63%, but we noticed that when we run "show cpu usage context all" from system it shows that system context is using 25% of CPU and "Total CPU utilization" (form output of show cpu detailed - on system context) is 88% which is bad. In non peak hours - user context use 33.6% CPU, system use 14.5%, total CPU usage is 50.5% So, is it normal this cpu utilization on system context (system on Primary node)?
Is it possible to have context in transperant mode and routed mode. Means if i need three context then 2 of them is in routed mode and one of them is in transperant mode. If yes then how, i can 't find this info in cisco website.?I am havin 5585-x and asa version 8.4?