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Sylvia
Explorer
January 8, 2018
Question

question for troubleshooting experts ;-)

  • January 8, 2018
  • 6 replies
  • 7243 views

Hi there,

 

I am wondering if anybody has an idea how to troubleshoot ARP problems...

 

[ul]
  • We have a dialup IPsec VPN, the vpn client is getting a virtual IP (eg. 10.10.10.50).
  • Now the clients pings somebody within an internal routed network (eg. 172.16.10.10, reachable through an internal router (10.10.10.200)).
  • Echo request is ok, echo reply come back to the internal router.
  • Now the router is searching for 10.10.10.50 and broadcasts an ARP request for 10.10.10.50 - but the firewall is not answering this ARP request...[/ul]

     

    Normally this setup is not a problem - but I have one installation where the firewall behaves as described. I suspect there is something wrong within the configuration (big one, 34000 lines) and I do not want to build it up from scratch.

     

    So are there any clever debugging commands - something like a "diag deb flow" for the ARP protocol? To get a hint what might be wrong?

     

    Cheers,

    Sylvia

     

    • 6 replies

      Toshi_Esumi
      SuperUser
      SuperUser
      January 8, 2018

      If the route's subnet is 10.10.10.0/24, it wouldn't work. You should change the IP address range for VPNs to different subnet.

      ede_pfau
      SuperUser
      SuperUser
      January 9, 2018

      hi,

       

      well, it can be set up to work, even if the VPN client uses an IP address from the subnet's range it's connecting to.

      The FGT needs to provide proxy arp on behalf of the remote client as the server on the LAN assumes it can reach the remote client locally, using arp to get the MAC address.

      From this KB article: http://kb.fortinet.com/kb/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=11060

      "Using proxy-ARP for VPN dial-in FortiClients"

      "A remote VPN user can now be configured to use an IP address within the same subnet that he is attempting to connect to. This requires that the main FortiGate unit perform proxy-ARP responses on behalf of these remote dial-in clients"

      This was introduced in FOS v2.80MR5 (remember? Oct 2009).

       

      The point is: the client's IP needs to be issued by DHCP (DHCP-over-IPsec) so that the FGT can create an entry in the internal proxy table when the remote client connects. If you just configure the client with a fixed address the FGT will not proxy arp for it.

      Sylvia
      SylviaAuthor
      Explorer
      January 9, 2018

      Hi ede_pfau,

       

      good answer, I totally agree :)

       

      I think that this (using the same subnet for virtual client IP and internal network) is working with Mode Config as well - at least it works in several of my installations.

       

      I assume that Mode Config is not mentioned in the KB article because the article has been published before Mode Config was implemented in ForitOS.

       

      Now the question is: how to troubleshoot/verify the internal proxy arp table to make sure that the entry is there?

       

      Cheers,

      Sylvia

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