Route-Based Redundant Site-to-Site VPN to Azure (BGP over IKEv2/IPsec)

This guide shows an example of a redundant (active-active) route-based IKEv2 site-to-site VPN to Azure using VTI and BGP for dynamic routing updates.

Prerequisites

  • A pair of Azure VNet Gateways deployed in active-active configuration with BGP enabled.

  • A local network gateway deployed in Azure representing the Vyos device, matching the below Vyos settings except for address space, which only requires the Vyos private IP, in this example 10.10.0.5/32

  • A connection resource deployed in Azure linking the Azure VNet gateway and the local network gateway representing the Vyos device.

Example

WAN Interface

eth0

On-premises address space

10.10.0.0/16

Azure address space

10.0.0.0/16

Vyos public IP

198.51.100.3

Vyos private IP

10.10.0.5

Azure VNet Gateway 1 public IP

203.0.113.2

Azure VNet Gateway 2 public IP

203.0.113.3

Azure VNet Gateway BGP IP

10.0.0.4,10.0.0.5

Pre-shared key

ch00s3-4-s3cur3-psk

Vyos ASN

64499

Azure ASN

65540

Vyos configuration

  • Configure the IKE and ESP settings to match a subset of those supported by Azure:

set vpn ipsec esp-group AZURE lifetime '3600'
set vpn ipsec esp-group AZURE mode 'tunnel'
set vpn ipsec esp-group AZURE pfs 'dh-group2'
set vpn ipsec esp-group AZURE proposal 1 encryption 'aes256'
set vpn ipsec esp-group AZURE proposal 1 hash 'sha1'

set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE dead-peer-detection action 'restart'
set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE dead-peer-detection interval '15'
set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE dead-peer-detection timeout '30'
set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE ikev2-reauth
set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE key-exchange 'ikev2'
set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE lifetime '28800'
set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE proposal 1 dh-group '2'
set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE proposal 1 encryption 'aes256'
set vpn ipsec ike-group AZURE proposal 1 hash 'sha1'
  • Enable IPsec on eth0

set vpn ipsec interface 'eth0'
  • Configure two VTIs with a dummy IP address each

set interfaces vti vti1 address '10.10.1.5/32'
set interfaces vti vti1 description 'Azure Primary Tunnel'

set interfaces vti vti2 address '10.10.1.6/32'
set interfaces vti vti2 description 'Azure Secondary Tunnel'
  • Clamp the VTI’s MSS to 1350 to avoid PMTU blackholes.

set interfaces vti vti1 ip adjust-mss 1350
set interfaces vti vti2 ip adjust-mss 1350
  • Configure the VPN tunnels

set vpn ipsec authentication psk azure id '198.51.100.3'
set vpn ipsec authentication psk azure id '203.0.113.2'
set vpn ipsec authentication psk azure id '203.0.113.3'
set vpn ipsec authentication psk azure secret 'ch00s3-4-s3cur3-psk'

set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary authentication local-id '198.51.100.3'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary authentication mode 'pre-shared-secret'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary authentication remote-id '203.0.113.2'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary connection-type 'respond'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary description 'AZURE PRIMARY TUNNEL'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary ike-group 'AZURE'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary ikev2-reauth 'inherit'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary local-address '10.10.0.5'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary remote-address '203.0.113.2'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary vti bind 'vti1'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-primary vti esp-group 'AZURE'

set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary authentication local-id '198.51.100.3'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary authentication mode 'pre-shared-secret'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary authentication remote-id '203.0.113.3'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary connection-type 'respond'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary description 'AZURE secondary TUNNEL'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary ike-group 'AZURE'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary ikev2-reauth 'inherit'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary local-address '10.10.0.5'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary remote-address '203.0.113.3'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary vti bind 'vti2'
set vpn ipsec site-to-site peer azure-secondary vti esp-group 'AZURE'
  • Important: Add an interface route to reach both Azure’s BGP listeners

set protocols static route 10.0.0.4/32 interface vti1
set protocols static route 10.0.0.5/32 interface vti2
  • Configure your BGP settings

set protocols bgp system-as 64499
set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.4 remote-as '65540'
set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.4 address-family ipv4-unicast soft-reconfiguration 'inbound'
set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.4 timers holdtime '30'
set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.4 timers keepalive '10'

set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.5 remote-as '65540'
set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.5 address-family ipv4-unicast soft-reconfiguration 'inbound'
set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.5 timers holdtime '30'
set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.5 timers keepalive '10'
  • Important: Disable connected check, otherwise the routes learned from Azure will not be imported into the routing table.

set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.4 disable-connected-check
set protocols bgp neighbor 10.0.0.5 disable-connected-check