IPsec Site-to-Site VPN

Created by Yuriy Andamasov, Modified on Tue, 16 Jan at 4:04 PM by Srividya Anantapatnaikuni

Article review date	2024-01-15
Validated for VyOS versions	1.2.5, 1.3.5

Introduction

In addition to being used with other protocols (such as L2TP) in a server-client VPN setup, another common use for IPsec is the creation of site-to-site VPNs.

Basic Configuration

For this example, we'll be using the following two network topologies:

For central-office-net:

Public address of 203.0.113.2 on interface eth1
Local private network of 10.1.1.0/24
A VyOS router called central-office-rtr

For remote-office-net:

Public address of 192.51.100.2 on interface eth1
Local private network of 10.2.2.0/24
A VyOS router called remote-office-rtr

For simplicity, we will be using pre-shared secret authentication for IPsec, although one may also use an RSA key or X.509 certificates, depending on existing infrastructure. The pre-shared key will be not-so-secret.

Note: These configurations are run from the vpn ipsec tree. The edit vpn ipsec is issued in the first line to change the current configuration path. It is displayed as [edit vpn ipsec] in the command line, and as a comment here (prefixed by # ).

Configuration of central-office-rtr:

edit vpn ipsec
#[edit vpn ipsec]

set esp-group central-rtr-esp compression 'disable'
set esp-group central-rtr-esp lifetime '1800'
set esp-group central-rtr-esp mode 'tunnel'
set esp-group central-rtr-esp pfs 'enable'
set esp-group central-rtr-esp proposal 1 encryption 'aes256'
set esp-group central-rtr-esp proposal 1 hash 'sha256'
set ike-group central-rtr-ike ikev2-reauth 'no'
set ike-group central-rtr-ike key-exchange 'ikev1'
set ike-group central-rtr-ike lifetime '3600'
set ike-group central-rtr-ike proposal 1 encryption 'aes256'
set ike-group central-rtr-ike proposal 1 hash 'sha256'
set ipsec-interfaces interface 'eth1'
set site-to-site peer 192.51.100.2 authentication mode 'pre-shared-secret'
set site-to-site peer 192.51.100.2 authentication pre-shared-secret 'not-so-secret'
set site-to-site peer 192.51.100.2 ike-group 'central-rtr-ike'
set site-to-site peer 192.51.100.2 local-address '203.0.113.2'
set site-to-site peer 192.51.100.2 tunnel 0 allow-nat-networks 'disable'
set site-to-site peer 192.51.100.2 tunnel 0 allow-public-networks 'disable'
set site-to-site peer 192.15.100.2 tunnel 0 esp-group 'central-rtr-esp'
set site-to-site peer 192.51.100.2 tunnel 0 local prefix '10.1.1.0/24'
set site-to-site peer 192.51.100.2 tunnel 0 remote prefix '10.2.2.0/24'

Configuration of remote-office-rtr:

edit vpn ipsec
#[edit vpn ipsec]
set esp-group remote-rtr-esp compression 'disable'
set esp-group remote-rtr-esp lifetime '1800'
set esp-group remote-rtr-esp mode 'tunnel'
set esp-group remote-rtr-esp pfs 'enable'
set esp-group remote-rtr-esp proposal 1 encryption 'aes256'
set esp-group remote-rtr-esp proposal 1 hash 'sha256'
set ike-group remote-rtr-ike ikev2-reauth 'no'
set ike-group remote-rtr-ike key-exchange 'ikev1'
set ike-group remote-rtr-ike lifetime '3600'
set ike-group remote-rtr-ike proposal 1 encryption 'aes256'
set ike-group remote-rtr-ike proposal 1 hash 'sha256'
set ipsec-interfaces interface 'eth1'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 authentication mode 'pre-shared-secret'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 authentication pre-shared-secret 'not-so-secret'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 ike-group 'remote-rtr-ike'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 local-address '192.51.100.2'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 tunnel 0 allow-nat-networks 'disable'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 tunnel 0 allow-public-networks 'disable'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 tunnel 0 esp-group 'remote-rtr-esp'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 tunnel 0 local prefix '10.2.2.0/24'
set site-to-site peer 203.0.113.2 tunnel 0 remote prefix '10.1.1.0/24'

At this point, there should be a working tunnel between central-office-net and remote-office-net. This can be verified on each router:

vyos@central-office-rtr:~$ show vpn ipsec sa #show security associations
Peer ID / IP                            Local ID / IP               
------------                            -------------
192.51.100.2                            203.0.113.2                          

    Tunnel  State  Bytes Out/In   Encrypt  Hash    NAT-T  A-Time  L-Time  Proto
    ------  -----  -------------  -------  ----    -----  ------  ------  -----
    0       up     0.0/0.0        aes256   sha256  no     1145    1800    all

vyos@central-office-rtr:~$ show vpn ipsec status #show status of IPsec tunnels/process
IPSec Process Running PID: 4058

1 Active IPsec Tunnels

IPsec Interfaces :
        eth1    (203.0.113.2)

vyos@central-office-rtr:~$ show vpn ipsec state #not displayed, but shows the in-kernel crypto state.

The same commands may be performed on remote-office-rtr as well.

Additional Configuration

SNAT

If you have source NAT rules on the outbound interface, exceptions need to be added on each router:

edit nat source rule 10
# [edit nat source rule 10]
set destination address 10.2.2.0/24
set exclude
set outbound-interface eth1
set source address 10.1.1.0/24

And similarly for remote-office-rtr:

edit nat source rule 10
# [edit nat source rule 10]
set destination address 10.1.1.0/24
set exclude
set outbound-interface eth1
set source address 10.2.2.0/24

Firewall Rules

If either or both router has existing firewall rules that prevent non-local LAN traffic from being sent/accepted, the appropriate firewall exceptions need to be made on each router for the other network, for example:

For central-office-rtr:

set firewall name REMOTE-LOCAL rule 32 action accept
set firewall name REMOTE-LOCAL rule 32 source address 10.2.2.0/24

and remote-office-rtr:

set firewall name CENTRAL-LOCAL rule 32 action accept
set firewall name CENTRAL-LOCAL rule 32 source address 10.1.1.0/24