Platform Features

ASAv support for VMware ESXi 6.5

The ASAv virtual platform supports hosts running on VMware ESXi 6.5. New VMware hardware versions have been added to the vi.ovf and esxi.ovf files to enable optimal performance and usability of the ASAv on ESXi 6.5.

We did not modify any commands.

ASAv support for VMXNET3 interfaces

The ASAv virtual platform supports VMXNET3 interfaces on VMware hypervisors.

We did not modify any commands.

ASAv support for virtual serial console on first boot

You can now configure the ASAv to use the virtual serial console on first boot, instead of the virtual VGA console, to access and configure the ASAv.

New or Modified commands: console serial

ASAv support to update user-defined routes in more than one Azure subscription for High Availability on Microsoft Azure

You can now configure the ASAv in an Azure High Availability configuration to update user-defined routes in more than one Azure subscription.

New or Modified commands: failover cloud route-table

VPN Features

Remote Access VPN multi-context support extended to IKEv2 protocol

Support for configuring ASA to allow Anyconnect and third party Standards-based IPSec IKEv2 VPN clients to establish Remote Access VPN sessions to ASA operating in multi-context mode.

IPv6 connectivity to Radius Servers

ASA 9.9.2 now supports IPv6 connectivity to external AAA Radius Servers.

Easy VPN Enhancements for BVI Support

Easy VPN has been enhanced to support a Bridged Virtual Interface (BVI) as its internal secure interface, and you can now directly configure which interface to use as the internal secure interface. Otherwise, the ASA chooses its internal secure interface using security levels.

Also, management services, such as telnet, http, and ssh, can now be configured on a BVI if VPN management-access has been enabled on that BVI. For non-VPN management access, you should continue to configure these services on the bridge group member interfaces.

New or Modified commands: vpnclient secure interface [interface-name], https, telnet, ssh, management-access

Distributed VPN Session Improvements

• The Active Session Redistribution logic, which balances Distributed S2S VPN active and backup sessions, has been improved. Also, the balancing process may be repeated up to eight times in the background for a single cluster redistribute vpn-sessiondb command entered by the administrator.

• The handling of dynamic Reverse Route Injections (RRI) across the cluster has been improved.

High Availability and Scalability Features

Automatically rejoin the cluster after an internal failure

Formerly, many error conditions caused a cluster unit to be removed from the cluster, and you were required to manually rejoin the cluster after resolving the issue. Now, a unit will attempt to rejoin the cluster automatically at the following intervals by default: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and then 20 minutes. These values are configurable. Internal failures include: application sync timeout; inconsistent application statuses; and so on.

New or Modified commands: health-check system auto-rejoin, show cluster info auto-join

Configurable debounce time to mark an interface as failed for the ASA 5000-X series

You can now configure the debounce time before the ASA considers an interface to be failed and the unit is removed from the cluster on the ASA 5500-X series. This feature allows for faster detection of interface failures. Note that configuring a lower debounce time increases the chances of false-positives. When an interface status update occurs, the ASA waits the number of milliseconds specified before marking the interface as failed and the unit is removed from the cluster. The default debounce time is 500 ms, with a range of 300 ms to 9 seconds. This feature was previously available for the Firepower 4100/9300.

New or modified command: health-check monitor-interface debounce-time

Show transport related statistics for cluster reliable transport protocol messages

You can now view per-unit cluster reliable transport buffer usage so you can identify packet drop issues when the buffer is full in the control plane.

New or modified command: show cluster info transport cp detail

Show failover history from peer unit

You can now view failover history from the peer unit, using the details keyword . This includes failover state changes and reason for the state change.

New or modified command: show failover

Interface Features

Unique MAC address generation for single context mode

You can now enable unique MAC address generation for VLAN subinterfaces in single context mode. Normally, subinterfaces share the same MAC address with the main interface. Because IPv6 link-local addresses are generated based on the MAC address, this feature allows for unique IPv6 link-local addresses.

New or modified command: mac-address auto

Also in 9.8(3) and 9.8(4).

Administrative Features

RSA key pair supports 3072-bit keys

You can now set the modulus size to 3072.

New or modified command: crypto key generate rsa modulus

The FXOS bootstrap configuration now sets the enable password

When you deploy the ASA on the Firepower 4100/9300, the password setting in the bootstrap configuration now sets the enable password as well as the admin user password. Requires FXOS Version 2.3.1.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting Features

SNMP IPv6 support

The ASA now supports SNMP over IPv6, including communicating with SNMP servers over IPv6, allowing the execution of queries and traps over IPv6, and supporting IPv6 addresses for existing MIBs. We added the following new SNMP IPv6 MIB objects as described in RFC 8096.

• ipv6InterfaceTable (OID: 1.3.6.1.2.1.4.30)—Contains per-interface IPv6-specific information.

• ipAddressPrefixTable (OID:1.3.6.1.2.1.4.32)—Includes all the prefixes learned by this entity.

• ipAddressTable (OID: 1.3.6.1.2.1.4.34)—Contains addressing information relevant to the entity's interfaces.

• ipNetToPhysicalTable (OID: 1.3.6.1.2.1.4.35)—Contains the mapping from IP addresses to physical addresses.

New or modified command: snmp-server host

Conditional Debugging to troubleshoot a single user session

Conditional debugging feature now assists you to verify the logs of specific ASA VPN sessions based on the filter conditions that are set. Support for "any, any" for IPv4 and IPv6 subnets is provided.

Firewall Features

Ethertype access control list changes

EtherType access control lists now support Ethernet II IPX (EII IPX). In addition, new keywords are added to the DSAP keyword to support common DSAP values: BPDU (0x42), IPX (0xE0), Raw IPX (0xFF), and ISIS (0xFE). Consequently, existing EtherType access contol entries that use the BPDU or ISIS keywords will be converted automatically to use the DSAP specification, and rules for IPX will be converted to 3 rules (DSAP IPX, DSAP Raw IPX, and EII IPX). In addition, packet capture that uses IPX as an EtherType value has been deprecated, because IPX corresponds to 3 separate EtherTypes.

New or modified command: access-list ethertype added the new keywords eii-ipx and dsap {bpdu | ipx | isis | raw-ipx} ; capture ethernet-type no longer supports the ipx keyword.

VPN Features

Distributed Site-to-Site VPN with clustering on the Firepower 9300

An ASA cluster on the Firepower 9300 supports Site-to-Site VPN in distributed mode. Distributed mode provides the ability to have many Site-to-Site IPsec IKEv2 VPN connections distributed across members of an ASA cluster, not just on the control unit (as in centralized mode). This significantly scales VPN support beyond Centralized VPN capabilities and provides high availability. Distributed S2S VPN runs on a cluster of up to two chassis, each containing up to three modules (six total cluster members), each module supporting up to 6K active sessions (12K total), for a maximum of approximately 36K active sessions (72K total).

New or modified commands: cluster redistribute vpn-sessiondb, show cluster vpn-sessiondb, vpn mode , show cluster resource usage, show vpn-sessiondb , show connection detail, show crypto ikev2

High Availability and Scalability Features

Active/Backup High Availability for ASAv on Microsoft Azure

A stateless Active/Backup solution that allows for a failure of the active ASAv to trigger an automatic failover of the system to the backup ASAv in the Microsoft Azure public cloud.

New or modified command: failover cloud

Monitoring > Properties > Failover > Status

Monitoring > Properties > Failover > History

Also in 9.8(1.200).

Improved chassis health check failure detection for the Firepower chassis

You can now configure a lower holdtime for the chassis health check: 100 ms. The previous minimum was 300 ms.

New or modified command: app-agent heartbeat interval

Inter-site redundancy for clustering

Inter-site redundancy ensures that a backup owner for a traffic flow will always be at the other site from the owner. This feature guards against site failure.

New or modified commands: site-redundancy, show asp cluster counter change, show asp table cluster chash-table, show conn flag

cluster remove unit command behavior matches no enable behavior

The cluster remove unit command now removes a unit from the cluster until you manually reenable clustering or reload, similar to the no enable command. Previously, if you redeployed the bootstrap configuration from FXOS, clustering would be reenabled. Now, the disabled status persists even in the case of a bootstrap configuration redeployment. Reloading the ASA, however, will reenable clustering.

New/Modified command: cluster remove unit

Administrative, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting Features

SSH version 1 has been deprecated

SSH version 1 has been deprecated, and will be removed in a future release. The default setting has changed from both SSH v1 and v2 to just SSH v2.

New/Modified commands: ssh version

Enhanced packet tracer and packet capture capabilities

The packet tracer has been enhanced with the following features:

• Trace a packet when it passes between cluster units.

• Allow simulated packets to egress the ASA.

• Bypass security checks for a similated packet.

• Treat a simulated packet as an IPsec/SSL decrypted packet.

The packet capture has been enhanced with the following features:

• Capture packets after they are decrypted.

• Capture traces and retain them in the persistent list.

New or modified commands: cluster exec capture test trace include-decrypted, cluster exec capture test trace persist, cluster exec clear packet-tracer, cluster exec show packet-tracer id, cluster exec show packet-tracer origin, packet-tracer persist, packet-tracer transmit, packet-tracer decrypted, packet-tracer bypass-checks