[f-nsp] Setup a WatchGuard Active-Active firecluster on FastIron SX-800 and/or Super-X

Wed Oct 19 04:20:44 EDT 2011

Hi everyone,

Was just referred to this list, hopefully somebody can help me with a
very stubborn problem here..

I have been fighting for a few months now to get my WatchGuard
Firecluster's up and running with stability on both a Super-X and
SX-800.  Here's a quick overview:

Datacenter:  SX-800 with V07.2.00 Full Layer 3 software, redundant mgmt
& fabric, and eight  424C modules.

This is our core switch that handles all network connectivity to our
datacenter servers.

1 Layer-3 segment (VLAN-9) that is primary gateway for INTERNAL remote
network routing across a 2GB dedicated fiber trunk to head office.

Multiple VLAN's used to partition both external and internal network  as
Layer-2 segments, with firewalls being used to manage and provide
controls between them as needed (FastIron does NOT participate in
Internal/External access).

Fireboxes are the Peak 5500e series, with Fireware XTM Pro V11.3.4 -
setup for Firecluster H/A support for load-sharing and redundancy.
These ports on firebox are given MULTICAST MAC addresses, with UNICAST
IP's.

Firewall ports are ALL plugged into various Layer-2 segments.

On the primary trusted network, as well as every other Layer-2 segment
(VLAN) the Firebox is the default gateway - however, there is a Layer-3
router on the SX-800 for that one segment that provides an alternate
lower-cost route to distant internal networks via RIP so that internal
traffic is sent directly across the 2GB trunk line instead of being sent
through the firewall at slower speed (and higher load on the firewalls
themselves handling inter-office traffic via VPN's).  ACL's were in
place to limit and control who had access across that link, but those
were removed to faciliate debugging for the moment.

Head office:  Similar to the above, but using a Super-X instead of the
SX-800, and a pair of Firebox Core 1250e's - same release of software on
both sets of devices.

The instructions from Watchguard are clear:  We need to setup Static ARP
and MAC addresses as needed to correctly direct traffic to/from the
switches and fireboxes.  The samples given are for a Cisco 3750 and an
Extreme Summit 15040  (ref:  
http://www.watchguard.com/help/docs/wsm/11/en-us/content/en-us/ha/cluste
r_example_cisco_wsm.html)  .  This is what I have tried to replicate to
the best I can but have had no luck with setting the static arp address
on the switch outside of the single layer-3 segment we have, and to set
it on more than one port.  Setting the multicast mac is fine for both
ports needed to support the pair of firewalls by interface )(ex:
static-mac xxx.xxxx.xxxx eth 1/yy eth 2/yy  -  works fine on every Vlan
I need it on).

Digging further into Google (which ended up pointing me at this list), I
found this article about "hairpinning" to correctly support a specific
setup of Microsoft NLB clusters (which we also use extensively at the
datacenter) here:  
https://puck.nether.net/pipermail/foundry-nsp/2010-June/002498.html

While I haven't found need to do this for the NLB clusters themselves as
they appear to be working perfectly (up to 5 physical servers per
cluster running IIS7 & Win2K8), it appeared to be the best solution to
adapt for the Firecluster problem...  And getting a static arp assigned
to multiple ports.

Anyways, long story short - it's not working well.  It seems that the
traffic is being forced from port to port by only having the ARP/MAC
entry recognized on a single port at a time (and being kicked around
constantly).    Apparently, if this was a Cisco - this would work
brilliantly..  But because we can't map static ARP's as we should,  the
switch is constantly moving things around instead of sending it out to
both ports at the same time for each interface.  

Has ANYONE seen or tried this kind of setup using similar hardware ?  If
so, did you get it working correctly?  Am I on the right track with the
hairpinning solution?

Is Brocade making any changes to Ironware to provide similar
functionality so that I can get this working properly any time soon, or
will I have to resort to a couple of dumb Layer-2 switches that
apparently won't need any configuration and will just work, and cobble
the whole thing together into a massive mess to get it all tied
together?  Are there any issues with WatchGuard Firecluster that I need
to know about that make it work differently than documented, and prevent
the FastIron's from being able to cope or perform as expected  ( I
realize that last question isn't really a Foundry question... My
apologies, but I hope that someone else with Fireboxes has seen this
problem on Foundry or perhaps found another solution using other
hardware if the FastIron's or other Foundry products just couldn't do
what was needed.  This assumes that FireCluster will work given the
right infrastructure setup - maybe THAT assumption is wrong?  If so, I'd
gladly listen to a solution that DOES work?)

Best regards,

Robert Toth

Director of Information Technology Services

iPerceptions Inc

Tel: 514.488.3600 ext. [284] | 877.796.3600 ext. [284]

Fax: 514.484.2600

London - Montreal - New York - Toronto

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