Technical Tip: VIP policy log action status value is 'Accept: IP connection error'
Description
This article describes a potential root cause of action as 'Accept: IP connection error in VIP policy logs.
Scope
FortiGate.
Solution
Assume the following scenario:
(Server: 172.31.132.15) ----DMZ FGT wan2 10.5.52.157------- Internet
Consider the server is hosting 172.31.132.15 behind the FortiGate using the VIP configuration.
When the FortiGate WAN2 is pinging IP 10.5.52.157, it will get DNAT to 172.31.132.15.
config firewall vip
edit "test"
set extip 10.5.52.157
set extintf "any"
set portforward enable
set mappedip "172.31.132.15"
set protocol icmp
next
end
config firewall policy
edit 3
set name "vip"
set srcintf "wan2"
set dstintf "dmz"
set srcaddr "all"
set dstaddr "test"
set action accept
set schedule "always"
set service "PING"
set logtraffic all
next
end
Forward traffic log for the destination 10.5.52.157 and service ping will shortlist all the traffic log of policy 3 in which action of the log shows 'Accept: IP connection error'.

diagnose debug reset
diagnose debug console timestamp enable
diagnose debug flow filter saddr 10.5.63.254
diagnose debug flow trace start 1000
diagnose debug enable
To stop debugging:
diagnose debug reset
diagnose debug disable
id=20085 trace_id=11 func=print_pkt_detail line=5588 msg="vd-root:0 received a packet(proto=1, 10.5.63.254:60417->10.5.52.157:2048) from wan2. type=8, code=0, id=60417, seq=1949."
id=20085 trace_id=11 func=init_ip_session_common line=5754 msg="allocate a new session-000b15d1"
id=20085 trace_id=11 func=fw_pre_route_handler line=181 msg="VIP-172.31.132.15:60417, outdev-wan2"
id=20085 trace_id=11 func=__ip_session_run_tuple line=3409 msg="DNAT 10.5.52.157:8->172.31.132.15:60417"
id=20085 trace_id=11 func=vf_ip_route_input_common line=2598 msg="find a route: flag=04000000 gw-172.31.132.15 via dmz"
id=20085 trace_id=11 func=fw_forward_handler line=781 msg="Allowed by Policy-3:"
In sniffer logs, the incoming packet to FortiGate is visible, and there will be no output packet from the FortiGate to the server.
The root cause of the issue is that FortiGate does not have the ARP entry for the destination IP 172.31.132.15.
Troubleshooting tips:
Check whether FortiGate has learned the MAC address of the destination IP.
get system arp | grep -n "x.x.x.x"
If the mapped server is directly connected network, then replace 'x.x.x.x' with the server IP, and if the mapped server is connected via a static route, then replace 'x.x.x.x' with the next hop gateway IP.
If the ARP entry is not available in FortiGate, then isolate the issue with ARP communication.
Run the below sniffer command in the Putty session and ping IP 'x.x.x.x' from the FortiGate CLI.
PuTTY:
diagnose sniffer packet any "host x.x.x.x and arp" 4 0 l
Press Ctrl+C to stop it.