Managing Traffic Zones

You can assign multiple interfaces to a traffic zone, which lets traffic from an existing flow exit or enter the ASA on any interface within the zone. This capability allows Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing on the ASA as well as external load balancing of traffic to the ASA across multiple interfaces.

Non-Zoned Behavior

The Adaptive Security Algorithm takes into consideration the state of a packet when deciding to permit or deny the traffic. One of the enforced parameters for the flow is that traffic enters and exits the same interface. Any traffic for an existing flow that enters a different interface is dropped by the ASA.

Traffic zones let you group multiple interfaces together so that traffic entering or exiting any interface in the zone fulfills the Adaptive Security Algorithm security checks.

Why Use Zones?

Asymmetric Routing

In the following scenario, a connection was established between an inside host and an outside host through ISP 1 on the Outside1 interface. Due to asymmetric routing on the destination network, return traffic arrived from ISP 2 on the Outside2 interface.

Non-Zoned Problem: The ASA maintains the connection tables on a per-interface basis. When the returning traffic arrives at Outside2, it will not match the connection table and will be dropped.

Zoned Solution: The ASA maintains connection tables on a per-zone basis. If you group Outside1 and Outside2 into a zone, then when the returning traffic arrives at Outside2, it will match the per-zone connection table, and the connection will be allowed.

Lost Route

In the following scenario, a connection was established between an inside host and an outside host through ISP 1 on the Outside1 interface. Due to a lost or moved route between Outside1 and ISP 1, traffic needs to take a different route through ISP 2.

Non-Zoned Problem: The connection between the inside and outside host will be deleted; a new connection must be established using a new next-best route. For UDP, the new route will be used after a single packet drop, but for TCP, a new connection has to be reestablished.

Zoned Solution: The ASA detects the lost route and switches the flow to the new path through ISP 2. Traffic will be seamlessly forwarded without any packet drops.

Load Balancing

In the following scenario, a connection was established between an inside host and an outside host through ISP 1 on the Outside1 interface. A second connection was established through an equal cost route through ISP 2 on Outside2.

Non-Zoned Problem: Load-balancing across interfaces is not possible; you can only load-balance with equal cost routes on one interface.

Zoned Solution: The ASA load-balances connections across up to eight equal cost routes on all the interfaces in the zone.

Related Topics

ECMP Routing

The ASA supports Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing.

Non-Zoned ECMP Support

Without zones, you can have up to three equal cost static or dynamic routes per interface. For example, you can configure three default routes on the outside interface that specify different gateways:

route outside 0 0 10.1.1.2

route outside 0 0 10.1.1.3

route outside 0 0 10.1.1.4

In this case, traffic is load-balanced on the outside interface between 10.1.1.2, 10.1.1.3, and 10.1.1.4. Traffic is distributed among the specified gateways based on an algorithm that hashes the source and destination IP addresses.

ECMP is not supported across multiple interfaces, so you cannot define a route to the same destination on a different interface. The following route is disallowed when configured with any of the routes above:

route outside2 0 0 10.2.1.1

Zoned ECMP Support

With zones, you can have up to 8 equal cost static or dynamic routes across up to 8 interfaces within a zone. For example, you can configure three default routes across three interfaces in the zone:

route outside1 0 0 10.1.1.2

route outside2 0 0 10.2.1.2

route outside3 0 0 10.3.1.2

Similarly, your dynamic routing protocol can automatically configure equal cost routes. The ASA load-balances traffic across the interfaces with a more robust load balancing mechanism.

When a route is lost, the ASA seamlessly moves the flow to a different route.

How Connections Are Load-Balanced

The ASA load balances connections across equal cost routes using a hash made from the packet 6-tuple (source and destination IP address, source and destination port, protocol, and ingress interface). Unless the route is lost, a connection will stay on the chosen interface for its duration.

Packets within a connection are not load-balanced across routes; a connection uses a single route unless that route is lost.

The ASA does not consider the interface bandwidth or other parameters when load balancing. You should make sure all interfaces within the same zone have the same characteristics such as MTU, bandwidth, and so on.

The load-balancing algorithm is not user configurable.

Falling Back to a Route in Another Zone

When a route is lost on an interface, if there are no other routes available within the zone, then the ASA will use a route from a different interface/zone. If this backup route is used, then you may experience packet drops as with non-zoned routing support.

Related Topics

Understanding Traffic Zones

Interface-Based Security Policy

Zones allow traffic to and from any interface in the zone, but the security policy itself (access rules, NAT, and so on) is still applied per interface, not per zone. If you configure the same security policy for all interfaces within the zone, then you can successfully implement ECMP and load balancing for that traffic. For more information about required parallel interface configuration, see Prerequisites for Traffic Zones.

Supported Services for Traffic Zones

The following services are supported with zones:

  • Access Rules

  • NAT

  • Service Rules, except for QoS traffic policing.

  • Routing

You can also configure to- and from-the-box services (see below), although full zoned support is not available.

Do not configure other services (such as VPN or Botnet Traffic Filter) for interfaces in a traffic zone; they may not function or scale as expected.


Note
For detailed information about how to configure the security policy, see Prerequisites for Traffic Zones.

Security Levels

The first interface that you add to a zone determines the security level of the zone. All additional interfaces must have the same security level. To change the security level for interfaces in a zone, you must remove all but one interface, and then change the security levels, and re-add the interfaces.

Primary and Current Interface for the Flow

Each connection flow is built based on the initial ingress and egress interfaces. These interfaces are the primary interfaces.

If a new egress interface is used because of route changes or asymmetric routing, then the new interfaces are the current interfaces.

Joining or Leaving a Zone

When you assign an interface to a zone, any connections on that interface are deleted. The connections must be reestablished.

If you remove an interface from a zone, any connections that have the interface as the primary interface are deleted. The connections must be reestablished. If the interface is the current interface, the ASA moves the connections back to the primary interface. The zone route table is also refreshed.

To- and From-the-Box Traffic

  • You cannot add management-only or management-access interfaces to a zone.

  • For management traffic on regular interfaces in a zone, only asymmetric routing on existing flows is supported; there is no ECMP support.

  • You can configure a management service on only one zone interface, but to take advantage of asymmetric routing support, you need to configure it on all interfaces. Even when the configurations are parallel on all interfaces, ECMP is not supported.

  • The ASA supports the following to- and from-the-box services in a zone:

    • Telnet

    • SSH

    • HTTPS

    • SNMP

    • Syslog

    • BGP

Overlapping IP Addresses Within a Zone

For non-zoned interfaces, the ASA supports overlapping IP address networks on interfaces so long as you configure NAT properly. However, overlapping networks are not supported on interfaces in the same zone.

Related Topics

Prerequisites for Traffic Zones

  • Configure all interface parameters including the name, IP address, and security level. Note that the security level must match for all interfaces in the zone. You should plan to group together like interfaces in terms of bandwidth and other Layer 2 properties.

  • Configure the following services to match on all zone interfaces:

    • Access Rules—Apply the same access rule to all zone member interfaces, or use a global access rule.

    • NAT—Configure the same NAT policy on all member interfaces of the zone or use a global NAT rule.

Interface PAT is not supported.


Note
When you use interface-specific NAT and PAT pools, the ASA cannot switch connections over in case of the original interface failure.If you use interface-specific PAT pools, multiple connections from the same host might load-balance to different interfaces and use different mapped IP addresses. Internet services that use multiple concurrent connections may not work correctly in this case.

  • Service Rules—Use the global service policy, or assign the same policy to each interface in a zone.

QoS traffic policing is not supported.


Note
For VoIP inspections, zone load balancing can cause increased out-of-order packets. This situation can occur because later packets might reach the ASA before earlier packets that take a different path. Symptoms of out-of-order packets include:–Higher memory utilization at intermediate nodes (firewall and IDS) and the receiving end nodes if queuing is used.–Poor video or voice quality.To mitigate these effects, we recommend that you use IP addresses only for load distribution for VoIP traffic.

  • Configure routing with ECMP zone capabilities in mind.

Related Topics

Guidelines for Traffic Zones

Firewall Mode

Supported in routed firewall mode only. Does not support transparent firewall mode.

Failover

  • You cannot add the failover or state link to a zone.

  • In Active/Active failover mode, you can assign an interface in each context to an asymmetrical routing (ASR) group. This service allows traffic returning on a similar interface on the peer unit to be restored to the original unit. You cannot configure both ASR groups and traffic zones within a context. If you configure a zone in a context, none of the context interfaces can be part of an ASR group.

  • Only the primary interfaces for each connection are replicated to the standby unit; current interfaces are not replicated. If the standby unit becomes active, it will assign a new current interface if necessary.

Clustering

You cannot add the cluster control link to a zone.

Additional Guidelines

  • You can create a maximum of 256 zones.

  • You can only add physical interfaces to a zone.

  • An interface can be a member of only one zone.

  • You can include up to 8 interfaces per zone.

  • The first interface that you add to a zone determines the security level of the zone. All additional interfaces must have the same security level.

  • For ECMP, you can add up to 8 equal cost routes per zone, across all zone interfaces. You can also configure multiple routes on a single interface as part of the 8 route limit.

Related Topics

Configuring Traffic Zones

You can assign multiple interfaces to a traffic zone, which lets traffic from an existing flow exit or enter the ASA on any interface within the zone. This capability allows Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing on the ASA as well as external load balancing of traffic to the ASA across multiple interfaces.

Related Topics

Procedure

Step 1

Do one of the following:

  • (Device view) Select Firewall > Settings > Zone from the Policy selector.

  • (Policy view) Select Firewall > Settings > Zone from the Policy Type selector. Select an existing policy or create a new one.

Step 2

Click the Add Row button beneath the Zone table to open the Zone dialog box.

Step 3

Enter the name of an interface role that identifies the interfaces that belong to the traffic zone you are configuring and then click OK. For more information about interface role object, see Understanding Interface Role Objects.

Tip 
You can click Select to select the interface role from a list of interface role objects or to define a new interface role object.
Step 4

Click Save to save the changes.