Example Active-passive WAN optimization

Example Active-passive WAN optimization

In active-passive WAN optimization you add an active WAN optimization policy to the client-side FortiGate unit and you add a WAN optimization tunnel policy and a passive WAN optimization policy to the server-side FortiGate unit.

The active policy accepts the traffic to be optimized and sends it down the WAN optimization tunnel to the serverside FortiGate unit. The active policy can also apply security profiles and other features to traffic before it exits the client-side FortiGate unit.

A tunnel explicit proxy policy on the sever-side FortiGate unit allows the server-side FortiGate unit to form a WAN optimization tunnel with the client-side FortiGate unit. The passive WAN optimization policy is required because of the active policy on the client-side FortiGate unit. You can also use the passive policy to apply WAN optimization transparent mode and features such as security profiles, logging, traffic shaping and web caching to the traffic before it exits the server-side FortiGate unit.

Network topology and assumptions

On the client-side FortiGate unit this example configuration includes a WAN optimization profile that optimizes CIFS, HTTP, and FTP traffic and an active WAN optimization policy. The active policy also applies virus scanning to the WAN optimization traffic.

On the server-side FortiGate unit, the passive policy applies application control to the WAN optimization traffic.

In this example, WAN optimization transparent mode is selected in the WAN optimization profile and the passive WAN optimization policy accepts this transparent mode setting. This means that the optimized packets maintain their original source and destination addresses. As a result, routing on the client network must be configured to route packets for the server network to the client-side FortiGate unit. Also the routing configuration on the server network must be able to route packets for the client network to the server-side FortiGate unit.

Example active-passive WAN optimization topology

General configuration steps

This section breaks down the configuration for this example into smaller procedures. For best results, follow the procedures in the order given:

  1. Configure the client-side FortiGate unit:
    • Add peers. l Add a WAN optimization profile to optimize CIFS, FTP, and HTTP traffic. l Add firewall addresses for the client and web server networks. l Add an active WAN optimization policy.
  2. Configure the server-side FortiGate unit by:
    • Add peers. l Add firewall addresses for the client and web server networks. l Add a passive WAN optimization policy. l Add a WAN optimization tunnel policy.

Configuring basic active-passive WAN optimization – web-based manager

Use the following steps to configure the example WAN optimization configuration from the client-side and serverside FortiGate unit web-based manager.

To configure the client-side FortiGate unit

  1. Go to WAN Opt. & Cache > Peersand enter a Local Host ID for the client-side FortiGate unit:
Local Host ID   Client-Fgt
  1. Select Apply.
  2. Select Create New and add a Peer Host ID and the IP Address for the server-side FortiGate unit:
Peer Host ID   Server-Fgt
IP Address   192.168.20.1
  1. Select OK.
  2. Go to WAN Opt. & Cache > Profilesand select Create New to add a WAN optimization profile to optimize CIFS, HTTP, and FTP traffic:
Name Custom-wan-opt-pro
Transparent Mode Select
  1. Select the CIFS protocol, select Byte Caching and set the Port to 445.
  2. Select the FTP protocol, select Byte Caching and set the Port to 21.
  3. Select the HTTP protocol, select Byte Caching and set the Port to 80.
  4. Select OK.
  5. Go to Policy & Objects > Addresses and select Create New to add an address for the client network.
Category Address
Address Name Client-Net
Type IP Range
Subnet / IP Range 172.20.120.100-172.20.120.200
Interface port1
  1. Select Create New to add an address for the web server network.
Category Address
Address Name Web-Server-Net
Type Subnet
Subnet / IP Range 192.168.10.0/24
Interface port2
  1. Go to Policy & Objects > IPv4 Policy and select Create New to add an active WAN optimization security policy:
Incoming Interface port1
Source Address Client-Net
Outgoing Interface port2
Destination Address Web-Server-Net
Schedule always
Service HTTP

FTP

SMB

Action ACCEPT
  1. Turn on WAN Optimization and configure the following settings:
WAN Optimization active
Profile Custom-wan-opt-pro
  1. Turn on Antivirus and select the default antivirus profile.
  2. Select OK.

To configure the server-side FortiGate unit

  1. Go to WAN Opt. & Cache > Peersand enter a Local Host ID for the server-side FortiGate unit:
Local Host ID Server-Fgt
  1. Select Apply.
  2. Select Create New and add a Peer Host ID and the IP Address for the client-side FortiGate unit:
Peer Host ID Client-Fgt
IP Address 172.30.120.1
  1. Select OK.
  2. Go to Policy & Objects > Addresses and select Create New to add an address for the client network.
Category Address
Address Name Client-Net
Type IP Range
Subnet / IP Range 172.20.120.100-172.20.120.200
Interface port1
  1. Select Create New to add a firewall address for the web server network.
Category Address
Address Name Web-Server-Net
Type Subnet
Subnet / IP Range 192.168.10.0/24
Interface port2
  1. Select OK.
  2. Select Policy & Objects > IPv4 Policy and select Create New to add a passive WAN optimization policy that applies application control.
Incoming Interface port2
Source Address Client-Net
Outgoing Interface port1
Destination Address Web-Server-Net
Schedule always
Service ALL
Action ACCEPT
  1. Turn on WAN Optimization and configure the following settings:
WAN Optimization passive
Passive Option default
  1. Select OK.
  2. From the CLI enter the following command to add a WAN optimization tunnel explicit proxy policy. configure firewall proxy-policy edit 0 set proxy wanopt set dstintf port1 set srcaddr all set dstaddr all set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

next

end

Configuring basic active-passive WAN optimization – CLI

Use the following steps to configure the example WAN optimization configuration from the client-side and serverside FortiGate unit CLI.

To configure the client-side FortiGate unit

  1. Add the Local Host ID to the client-side FortiGate configuration: config wanopt settings set host-id Client-Fgt

end

  1. Add the server-side Local Host ID to the client-side peer list:

config wanopt peer edit Server-Fgt set ip 192.168.20.1 end

  1. Add a WAN optimization profile to optimize CIFS, HTTP, and FTP traffic.

config wanopt profile

edit Custom-wan-opt-pro config cifs

set status enable set byte-caching enable set port 445

end config http

set status enable set byte-caching enable

set port 80 end config ftp

set status enable set byte-caching enable

set port 21 end

end

  1. Add a firewall address for the client network.

config firewall address edit Client-Net

set type iprange set start-ip 172.20.120.100 set end-ip 172.20.120.200 set associated-interface port1

end

  1. Add a firewall address for the web server network.

config firewall address edit Web-Server-Net

set type ipmask set subnet 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0 set associated-interface port2

end

  1. Add an active WAN optimization security policy that applies virus scanning:

config firewall policy edit 0

set srcintf port1 set dstintf port2 set srcaddr Client-net set dstaddr Web-Server-Net set action accept set service HTTP FTP SMB set schedule always set wanopt enable set wanopt-detection active set wanopt-profile Custom-wan-opt-pro

end

To configure the server-side FortiGate unit

  1. Add the Local Host ID to the server-side FortiGate configuration:

config wanopt settings

set host-id Server-Fgt end

  1. Add the client-side Local Host ID to the server-side peer list:

config wanopt peer edit Client-Fgt set ip 172.20.120.1

end

  1. Add a firewall address for the client network.

config firewall address edit Client-Net set type iprange set start-ip 172.20.120.100 set end-ip 172.20.120.200 set associated-interface port1

end

  1. Add a firewall address for the web server network.

config firewall address edit Web-Server-Net set type ipmask set subnet 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0 set associated-interface port2

end

  1. Add a passive WAN optimization policy.

config firewall policy edit 0 set srcintf port1 set dstintf port2 set srcaddr Client-Net set dstaddr Web-Server-Net set action accept set service ALL set schedule always set wanopt enable set wanopt-detection passive set wanopt-passive-opt default

end

  1. Add a WAN optimization tunnel explicit proxy policy. configure firewall proxy-policy edit 0 set proxy wanopt set dstintf port1 set srcaddr all set dstaddr all set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

next

end

Testing and troubleshooting the configuration

To test the configuration attempt to start a web browsing session between the client network and the web server network. For example, from a PC on the client network browse to the IP address of a web server on the web server network, for example http://192.168.10.100. Even though this address is not on the client network you should be able to connect to this web server over the WAN optimization tunnel.

 

If you can connect, check WAN optimization monitoring. If WAN optimization has been forwarding the traffic the WAN optimization monitor should show the protocol that has been optimized (in this case HTTP) and the reduction rate in WAN bandwidth usage.

If you can’t connect you can try the following to diagnose the problem:

  • Review your configuration and make sure all details such as address ranges, peer names, and IP addresses are correct.
  • Confirm that the security policy on the Client-Side FortiGate unit is accepting traffic for the 192.168.10.0 network and that this security policy does not include security profiles. You can do this by checking the FortiGate session table from the dashboard. Look for sessions that use the policy ID of this policy.
  • Check routing on the FortiGate units and on the client and web server networks to make sure packets can be forwarded as required. The FortiGate units must be able to communicate with each other, routing on the client network must allow packets destined for the web server network to be received by the client-side FortiGate unit, and packets from the server-side FortiGate unit must be able to reach the web servers etc.

You can use the following get and diagnose commands to display information about how WAN optimization is operating

Enter the following command to list all of the running WAN optimization tunnels and display information about each one. The command output shows 3 tunnels all created by peer-to-peer WAN optimization rules (auto-detect set to on).

diagnose wad tunnel list

Tunnel: id=139 type=auto vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=1 peer name= id=0 ip=unknown SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp=test bytes_in=744 bytes_out=76

Tunnel: id=141 type=auto vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=1 peer name= id=0 ip=unknown SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp=test bytes_in=727 bytes_out=76

Tunnel: id=142 type=auto vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=1 peer name= id=0 ip=unknown SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp=test bytes_in=727 bytes_out=76

Tunnels total=3 manual=0 auto=3


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WAN optimization configuration summary

WAN optimization configuration summary

This section includes a client-side and a server-side WAN Optimization configuration summary.:

Client-side configuration summary

WAN optimization profile

Enter the following command to view WAN optimization profile CLI options:

tree wanopt profile — [profile] –*name (36)

|- transparent

|- comments

|- auth-group (36)

|- <http> — status

|- secure-tunnel

|- byte-caching

|- prefer-chunking

|- tunnel-sharing

|- log-traffic

|- port (1,65535)

|- ssl

|- ssl-port (1,65535)

|- unknown-http-version

+- tunnel-non-http

|- <cifs> — status

|- secure-tunnel

|- byte-caching

|- prefer-chunking

|- tunnel-sharing

|- log-traffic

+- port (1,65535)

WAN optimization configuration summary

|- <mapi> — status

|- secure-tunnel

|- byte-caching

|- tunnel-sharing

|- log-traffic

+- port (1,65535)

|- <ftp> — status

|- secure-tunnel

|- byte-caching

|- prefer-chunking

|- tunnel-sharing

|- log-traffic

+- port (1,65535)

+- <tcp> — status

|- secure-tunnel

|- byte-caching

|- byte-caching-opt

|- tunnel-sharing

|- log-traffic

|- port

|- ssl

+- ssl-port (1,65535)

Local host ID and peer settings

config wanopt settings set host-id client

end config wanopt peer edit server set ip 10.10.2.82

end

Security policies

Two client-side WAN optimization security policy configurations are possible. One for active-passive WAN optimization and one for manual WAN optimization.

Active/passive mode on the client-side

config firewall policy edit 2 set srcintf internal set dstintf wan1 set srcaddr all set dstaddr all set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

set wanopt enable <<< enable WAN optimization set wanopt-detection active <<< set the mode to active/passive set wanopt-profile “default” <<< select the wanopt profile

next end

configuration summary

Manual mode on the client-side

config firewall policy edit 2 set srcintf internal set dstintf wan1 set srcaddr all set dstaddr all set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

set wanopt enable <<< enable WAN optimization set wanopt-detection off <<< sets the mode to manual set wanopt-profile “default” <<< select the wanopt profile

set wanopt-peer “server” <<< set the only peer to do wanopt

                                                                    with

(required for manual mode) next

end

server-side configuration summary

Local host ID and peer settings

config wanopt settings set host-id server

end config wanopt peer edit client set ip 10.10.2.81

end

Security policies

Two server-side WAN optimization security policy configurations are possible. One for active-passive WAN optimization and one for manual WAN optimization.

Active/passive mode on server-side

config firewall policy edit 2 <<< the passive mode policy set srcintf wan1 set dstintf internal set srcaddr all set dstaddr all set action accept set schedule always set service ALL set wanopt enable set wanopt-detection passive set wanopt-passive-opt transparent

end

config firewall proxy-policy edit 3 <<< policy that accepts wanopt tunnel connections from the server set proxy wanopt <<< wanopt proxy type

set dstintf internal

Best practices

set srcaddr all set dstaddr server-subnet set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

next

end

Manual mode on server-side config firewall proxy-policy

edit 3 <<< policy that accepts wanopt tunnel connections from the set proxy wanopt <<< wanopt proxy type

set dstintf internal set srcaddr all set dstaddr server-subnet set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

next end

client

Best practices

This is a short list of WAN optimization and explicit proxy best practices.

  • WAN optimization tunnel sharing is recommended for similar types of WAN optimization traffic. However, tunnel sharing for different types of traffic is not recommended. For example, aggressive and non-aggressive protocols should not share the same tunnel. See Best practices on page 239.
  • Active-passive HA is the recommended HA configuration for WAN optimization. See Best practices on page 239.
  • Configure WAN optimization authentication with specific peers. Accepting any peer is not recommended as this can be less secure. See Accepting any peers on page 1.
  • Set the explicit proxy Default Firewall Policy Action to Deny. This means that a security policy is required to use the explicit web proxy. See General explicit web proxy configuration steps on page 1.
  • Set the explicit FTP proxy Default Firewall Policy Action to Deny. This means that a security policy is required to use the explicit FTP proxy. See General explicit FTP proxy configuration steps on page 1.
  • Do not enable the explicit web or FTP proxy on an interface connected to the Internet. This is a security risk because anyone on the Internet who finds the proxy could use it to hide their source address. If you must enable the proxy on such an interface make sure authentication is required to use the proxy. See General explicit web proxy configuration steps on page 1.

Example Basic manual (peer-to-peer) WAN optimization configuration

In a manual (peer to peer) configuration the WAN optimization tunnel can be set up between one client-side FortiGate unit and one server-side FortiGate unit. The peer ID of the server-side FortiGate unit is added to the client-side WAN optimization policy. When the client-side FortiGate unit initiates a tunnel with the server-side FortiGate unit, the packets that initiate the tunnel include information that allows the server-side FortiGate unit to determine that it is a manual tunnel request. The server-side FortiGate unit does not require a WAN optimization

 

profile; you just need to add the client peer host ID and IP address to the server-side FortiGate unit peer list and from the CLI an explicit proxy policy to accept WAN optimization tunnel connections.

In a manual WAN optimization configuration, you create a manual WAN optimization security policy on the clientside FortiGate unit. To do this you must use the CLI to set wanopt-detection to off and to add the peer host ID of the server-side FortiGate unit to the WAN optimization security policy.

Network topology and assumptions

This example configuration includes a client-side FortiGate unit called Client-Fgt with a WAN IP address of 172.20.34.12. This unit is in front of a network with IP address 172.20.120.0. The server-side FortiGate unit is called Server_Fgt with a WAN IP address of 192.168.30.12. This unit is in front of a web server network with IP address 192.168.10.0.

This example customizes the default WAN optimization profile on the client-side FortiGate unit and adds it to the WAN optimization policy. You can also create a new WAN optimization profile.

Example manual (peer-to-peer) topology

General configuration steps

This section breaks down the configuration for this example into smaller procedures. For best results, follow the procedures in the order given:

  1. Configure the client-side FortiGate unit:

l Add peers. l Configure the default WAN optimization profile to optimize HTTP traffic. l Add a manual WAN optimization security policy.

  1. Configure the server-side FortiGate unit: l Add peers. l Add a WAN optimization tunnel policy.

Configuring basic peer-to-peer WAN optimization – web-based manager

Use the following steps to configure the example configuration from the web-based manager.

To configure the client-side FortiGate unit

  1. Go to WAN Opt. & Cache > Peersand enter a Local Host ID for the client-side FortiGate unit:
Local Host ID Client-Fgt
  1. Select Apply.
  2. Select Create New and add the server-side FortiGate unit Peer Host ID and IP Address for the server-side FortiGate:
Peer Host ID Server-Fgt
IP Address 192.168.30.12
  1. Select OK.
  2. Go to Policy & Objects > Addresses and select Create New to add a firewall address for the client network.
Category Address
Name Client-Net
Type Subnet
Subnet / IP Range 172.20.120.0/24
Interface port1
  1. Select Create New to add a firewall address for the web server network.
Category Address
Name Web-Server-Net
Type Subnet
Subnet / IP Range 192.168.10.0/24
Interface port2
  1. Go to WAN Opt. & Cache > Profiles and edit the default profile.
  2. Select Transparent Mode.
  3. Under Protocol, select HTTP and for HTTP select Byte Caching. Leave the HTTP Port set to 80.
  4. Select Apply to save your changes.
  5. Go to Policy & Objects > IPv4 Policy and add a WAN optimization security policy to the client-side FortiGate unit that accepts traffic to be optimized:
Incoming Interface   port1
Source Address   all
Outgoing Interface port2
Destination Address all
Schedule always
Service ALL
Action ACCEPT
  1. Select Enable WAN Optimization and configure the following settings:
Enable WAN Optimization active
Profile default
  1. Select OK.
  2. Edit the policy from the CLI to turn off wanopt-detection, add the peer ID of the server-side FortiGate unit, and the default WAN optimization profile. The following example assumes the ID of the policy is 5:

config firewall policy edit 5 set wanopt-detection off set wanopt-peer Server-Fgt set wanopt-profile default

end

When you set the detection mode to off the policy becomes a manual mode WAN optimization policy. On the web-based manager the WAN optimization part of the policy changes to the following:

Enable WAN Optimization Manual (Profile: default, Peer: Peer-Fgt-2)

To configure the server-side FortiGate unit

  1. Go to WAN Opt. & Cache > Peersand enter a Local Host ID for the server-side FortiGate unit:
Local Host ID Server-Fgt
  1. Select Apply.
  2. Select Create New and add a Peer Host ID and the IP Address for the client-side FortiGate unit:
Peer Host ID Client-Fgt
IP Address 172.20.34.12
  1. Select OK.
  2. Enter the following CLI command to add an explicit proxy policy to accept WAN optimization tunnel connections. configure firewall proxy-policy edit 0 set proxy wanopt set dstintf port1 set srcaddr all set dstaddr all

set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

next

end

Configuring basic peer-to-peer WAN optimization – CLI

Use the following steps to configure the example WAN optimization configuration from the client-side and serverside FortiGate unit CLI.

To configure the client-side FortiGate unit

  1. Add the Local Host ID to the client-side FortiGate configuration: config wanopt settings set host-id Client-Fgt

end

  1. Add the server-side Local Host ID to the client-side peer list:

config wanopt peer edit Server-Fgt set ip 192.168.30.12

end

  1. Add a firewall address for the client network. config firewall address edit Client-Net set type ipmask set subnet 172.20.120.0 255.255.255.0 set associated-interface port1

end

  1. Add a firewall address for the web server network. config firewall address edit Web-Server-Net set type ipmask set subnet 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0 set associated-interface port2

end

  1. Edit the default WAN optimization profile, select transparent mode, enable HTTP WAN optimization and enable byte caching for HTTP. Leave the HTTP Port set to 80.

config wanopt profile edit default set transparent enable config http set status enable set byte-caching enable

end

end

  1. Add a WAN optimization security policy to the client-side FortiGate unit to accept the traffic to be optimized: config firewall policy edit 0

set srcintf port1 set dstintf port2 set srcaddr all set dstaddr all set action accept set service ALL set schedule always set wanopt enable set wanopt-profile default set wanopt-detection off set wanopt-peer Server-Fgt

end

To configure the server-side FortiGate unit

  1. Add the Local Host ID to the server-side FortiGate configuration:

config wanopt settings set host-id Server-Fgt

end

  1. Add the client-side Local Host ID to the server-side peer list:

config wanopt peer edit Client-Fgt set ip 192.168.30.12

end

  1. Add a WAN optimization tunnel explicit proxy policy. configure firewall proxy-policy edit 0 set proxy wanopt set dstintf port1 set srcaddr all set dstaddr all set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

next

end

Testing and troubleshooting the configuration

To test the configuration attempt to start a web browsing session between the client network and the web server network. For example, from a PC on the client network browse to the IP address of a web server on the web server network, for example http://192.168.10.100. Even though this address is not on the client network you should be able to connect to this web server over the WAN optimization tunnel.

If you can connect, check WAN optimization monitoring. If WAN optimization has been forwarding the traffic the WAN optimization monitor should show the protocol that has been optimized (in this case HTTP) and the reduction rate in WAN bandwidth usage.

If you can’t connect you can try the following to diagnose the problem:

  • Review your configuration and make sure all details such as address ranges, peer names, and IP addresses are correct.
  • Confirm that the security policy on the client-side FortiGate unit is accepting traffic for the 192.168.10.0 network. You can do this by checking the policy monitor (Monitor > Firewall User Monitor). Look for sessions that use the policy ID of this policy.
  • Check routing on the FortiGate units and on the client and web server networks to make sure packets can be forwarded as required. The FortiGate units must be able to communicate with each other, routing on the client network must allow packets destined for the web server network to be received by the client-side FortiGate unit, and packets from the server-side FortiGate unit must be able to reach the web servers.

You can use the following get and diagnose commands to display information about how WAN optimization is operating.

Enter the following command to list all of the running WAN optimization tunnels and display information about each one. The command output for the client-side FortiGate unit shows 10 tunnels all created by peer-to-peer WAN optimization rules (auto-detect set to off).

diagnose wad tunnel list

Tunnel: id=100 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=100 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=348 bytes_out=384

Tunnel: id=99 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=99 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=348 bytes_out=384

Tunnel: id=98 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=98 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=348 bytes_out=384

Tunnel: id=39 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=39 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=1068 bytes_out=1104

Tunnel: id=7 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=7 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=1228 bytes_out=1264

Tunnel: id=8 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=8 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=1228 bytes_out=1264

Tunnel: id=5 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=5 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp=

 

bytes_in=1228 bytes_out=1264

Tunnel: id=4 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=4 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=1228 bytes_out=1264

Tunnel: id=1 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=1 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=1228 bytes_out=1264

Tunnel: id=2 type=manual vd=0 shared=no uses=0 state=3

peer name=Web-servers id=2 ip=192.168.30.12

SSL-secured-tunnel=no auth-grp= bytes_in=1228 bytes_out=1264

Tunnels total=10 manual=10 auto=0


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WAN optimization profiles

WAN optimization profiles

Use WAN optimization profiles to apply WAN optimization techniques to traffic to be optimized. In a WAN optimization profile you can select the protocols to be optimized and for each protocol you can enable SSL offloading (if supported), secure tunneling, byte caching and set the port or port range the protocol uses. You can also enable transparent mode and optionally select an authentication group. You can edit the default WAN optimization profile or create new ones.

WAN optimization profiles

To configure a WAN optimization profile go to WAN Opt. & Cache > Profiles and edit a profile or create a new one.

Configuring a WAN optimization profile

From the CLI you can use the following command to configure a WAN optimization profile to optimize HTTP traffic.

config wanopt profile edit new-profile config http set status enable

end

Transparent Mode Servers receiving packets after WAN optimization “see” different source addresses depending on whether or not you select Transparent Mode.

For more information, see WAN optimization profiles on page 232.

Authentication Group Select this option and select an authentication group so that the client and server-side FortiGate units must authenticate with each other before starting the WAN optimization tunnel. You must also select an authentication group if you select Secure Tunneling for any protocol.

You must add identical authentication groups to both of the FortiGate units that will participate in the WAN optimization tunnel. For more information, see Configuring authentication groups on page 1.

Protocol Select CIFS, FTP, HTTP or MAPI to apply protocol optimization for the selected protocols. See WAN optimization profiles on page 232.

Select TCP if the WAN optimization tunnel accepts sessions that use more than one protocol or that do not use the CIFS, FTP, HTTP, or MAPI protocol.

profiles

SSL Offloading Select to apply SSL offloading for HTTPS or other SSL traffic. You can use

SSL offloading to offload SSL encryption and decryption from one or more HTTP servers to the FortiGate unit. If you enable this option, you must configure the security policy to accept SSL-encrypted traffic.

If you enable SSL offloading, you must also use the CLI command config firewall ssl-server to add an SSL server for each HTTP server that you want to offload SSL encryption/decryption for. For more information, see Turning on web caching for HTTPS traffic on page 1.

Secure

Tunnelling

The WAN optimization tunnel is encrypted using SSL encryption. You must also add an authentication group to the profile. For more information, see Secure tunneling on page 1.
Byte Caching Select to apply WAN optimization byte caching to the sessions accepted by this rule. For more information, see “Byte caching”.
Port Enter a single port number or port number range. Only packets whose destination port number matches this port number or port number range will be optimized.

Processing non-HTTP sessions accepted by a WAN optimization profile with HTTP optimization

From the CLI, you can use the following command to configure how to process non-HTTP sessions when a rule configured to accept and optimize HTTP traffic accepts a non-HTTP session. This can occur if an application sends non-HTTP sessions using an HTTP destination port.

config wanopt profile edit default config http set status enable

set tunnel-non-http {disable | enable}

end

To drop non-HTTP sessions accepted by the rule set tunnel-non-http to disable, or set it to enable to pass non-HTTP sessions through the tunnel without applying protocol optimization, byte-caching, or web caching. In this case, the FortiGate unit applies TCP protocol optimization to non-HTTP sessions.

Processing unknown HTTP sessions

Unknown HTTP sessions are HTTP sessions that do not comply with HTTP 0.9, 1.0, or 1.1. From the CLI, use the following command to specify how a rule handles such HTTP sessions.

config wanopt profile edit default config http set status enable

set unknown-http-version {best-effort | reject | tunnel} end

Monitoring WAN optimization performance

To assume that all HTTP sessions accepted by the rule comply with HTTP 0.9, 1.0, or 1.1, select besteffort. If a session uses a different HTTP version, WAN optimization may not parse it correctly. As a result, the FortiGate unit may stop forwarding the session and the connection may be lost. To reject HTTP sessions that do not use HTTP 0.9, 1.0, or 1.1, select reject.

To pass HTTP sessions that do not use HTTP 0.9, 1.0, or 1.1, but without applying HTTP protocol optimization, byte-caching, or web caching, you can also select tunnel. TCP protocol optimization is applied to these HTTP sessions.

Monitoring WAN optimization performance

Using WAN optimization monitoring, you can confirm that a FortiGate unit is optimizing traffic and view estimates of the amount of bandwidth saved. The WAN optimization monitor presents collected log information in a graphical format to show network traffic summary and bandwidth optimization information.

To view the WAN optimization monitor, go to Monitor > WAN Opt. Monitor.

WAN optimization monitor

configuration summary

Traffic Summary

The traffic summary shows how WAN optimization is reducing the amount of traffic on the WAN for each WAN optimization protocol by showing the traffic reduction rate as a percentage of the total traffic. The traffic summary also shows the amount of WAN and LAN traffic. If WAN optimization is being effective the amount of WAN traffic should be lower than the amount of LAN traffic.

You can use the refresh icon to update the traffic summary display at any time. You can also set the amount of time for which the traffic summary shows data. The time period can vary from the last 10 minutes to the last month.

Bandwidth Optimization

This section shows network bandwidth optimization per time period. A line or column chart compares an application’s pre-optimized size (LAN data) with its optimized size (WAN data). You can select the chart type, the monitoring time period, and the protocol for which to display data. If WAN optimization is being effective the WAN bandwidth should be lower than the LAN bandwidth.


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WAN Optimization Configuration

WAN Optimization Configuration

This chapter describes FortiGate WAN optimization client server architecture and other concepts you need to understand to be able to configure FortiGate WAN optimization.

Manual (peer-to-peer) and active-passive WAN optimization

You can create manual (peer-to-peer) and active-passive WAN optimization configurations.

In reality, because WAN optimization traffic can only be processed by one CPU core, it is not recommended to increase the number of manual mode peers on the FortiGate unit per VDOM.

Note that the maximum number of manual peers are restricted to 256 per VDOM. However, in Active-Passive configurations, there is no hard-limit to the maximum number of manual peers per VDOM.

Manual (peer to peer) configurations

Manual configurations allow for WAN optimization between one client-side FortiGate unit and one server-side FortiGate unit. To create a manual configuration you add a manual mode WAN optimization security policy to the client-side FortiGate unit. The manual mode policy includes the peer ID of a server-side FortiGate unit.

In a manual mode configuration, the client-side peer can only connect to the named server-side peer. When the client-side peer initiates a tunnel with the server-side peer, the packets that initiate the tunnel include extra information so that the server-side peer can determine that it is a peer-to-peer tunnel request. This extra information is required because the server-side peer does not require a WAN optimization policy; however, you need to add the client peer host ID and IP address to the server-side FortiGate unit peer list.

In addition, from the server-side FortiGate unit CLI you must and an Explicit Proxy security policy with proxy set to wanopt and the destination interface and network set to the network containing the servers that clients connect to over the WAN optimization tunnel. WAN optimization tunnel requests are accepted by the explicit proxy policy and if the client-side peer is in the server side peer’s address list the traffic is forwarded to the servers on the destination network.

Manual mode client-side policy

You must configure manual mode client-side policies from the CLI. From the GUI a manual mode policy has WAN Optimization turned on and includes the following text beside the WAN optimization field: Manual (Profile: <profile-name>. Peer: <peer-name>.

Add a manual mode policy to the client-side FortiGate unit from the CLI. The policy enables WAN optimization, sets wanopt-detection to off, and uses the wanopt-peer option to specify the server-side peer. The following example uses the default WAN optimization profile.

config firewall policy edit 2 set srcintf internal

 

Manual (peer-to-peer) and active-passive WAN optimization

set dstintf wan1 set srcaddr client-subnet set dstaddr server-subnet set action accept set schedule always set service ALL set wanopt enable set wanopt-detection off set wanopt-profile default set wanopt-peer server

next

end

Manual mode server-side explicit proxy policy

The server-side explicit proxy policy allows connections from the WAN optimization tunnel to the server network by setting the proxy type to wanopt. You must add policies that set proxy to wanopt from the CLI and these policies do not appear on the GUI. The policy should look like the following:

configure firewall proxy-policy edit 3 set proxy wanopt set dstintf internal set srcaddr all set dstaddr server-subnet set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

next

end

Active-passive configurations

Active-passive WAN optimization requires an active WAN optimization policy on the client-side FortiGate unit and a passive WAN optimization policy on the server-side FortiGate unit. The server-side FortiGate unit also requires an explicit proxy policy with proxy set to wanopt.

You can use the passive policy to control WAN optimization address translation by specifying transparent mode or non-transparent mode. SeeManual (peer-to-peer) and active-passive WAN optimization on page 230. You can also use the passive policy to apply security profiles, web caching, and other FortiGate features at the server-side FortiGate unit. For example, if a server-side FortiGate unit is protecting a web server, the passive policy could enable web caching.

A single passive policy can accept tunnel requests from multiple FortiGate units as long as the server-side FortiGate unit includes their peer IDs and all of the client-side FortiGate units include the server-side peer ID.

Active client-side policy

Add an active policy to the client-side FortiGate unit by turning on WAN Optimization and selecting active. Then select a WAN optimization Profile. From the CLI the policy could look like the following:

config firewall policy edit 2 set srcintf internal set dstintf wan1 set srcaddr client-subnet set dstaddr server-subnet

profiles

set action accept set schedule always set service ALL set wanopt enable set wanopt-detection active set wanopt-profile default

next

end

Server-side tunnel policy

The server-side requires an explicit proxy policy that sets the proxy to wanopt. You must add this policy from the CLI and policies with proxy set to wanopt do not appear on the GUI. From the CLI the policy could look like the following:

configure firewall proxy-policy edit 3 set proxy wanopt set dstintf internal set srcaddr all set dstaddr server-subnet set action accept set schedule always set service ALL

next

end

Server-side passive policy

Add a passive policy to the server-side FortiGate unit by selecting Enable WAN Optimization and selecting passive. Then set the Passive Option to transparent. From the CLI the policy could look like the following:

config firewall policy edit 2 set srcintf “wan1” set dstintf “internal” set srcaddr “all” set dstaddr “all” set action accept set schedule “always” set service “ANY” set wanopt enable set wanopt-detection passive set wanopt-passive-opt transparent

next


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WAN Optimization Concepts

WAN Optimization Concepts

Client/server architecture

Traffic across a WAN typically consists of clients on a client network communicating across a WAN with a remote server network. The clients do this by starting communication sessions from the client network to the server network. These communication sessions can be open text over the WAN or they can be encrypted by SSL VPN or IPsec VPN.

To optimize these sessions, you can add WAN optimization security policies to the client-side FortiGate unit to accept sessions from the client network that are destined for the server network. The client-side FortiGate unit is located between the client network and the WAN. WAN optimization security policies include WAN optimization profiles that control how the traffic is optimized.

The client-side FortiGate unit must also include the IP address of the server-side FortiGate unit in its WAN optimization peer configuration. The server-side FortiGate unit is located between the server network and the WAN, The peer configuration allows the client-side FortiGate unit to find the server-side FortiGate unit and attempt to establish a WAN optimization tunnel with it.

For the server-side FortiGate unit you must add a security policy with wanopt as the Incoming Interface. This security policy allows the FortiGate unit to accept WAN optimization sessions from the client-side FortiGate unit. For the server-side FortiGate unit to accept a WAN optimization connection it must have the client-side FortiGate unit in its WAN optimization peer configuration.

WAN optimization profiles are only added to the client-side WAN optimization security policy. The server-side FortiGate unit employs the WAN optimization settings set in the WAN optimization profile on the client-side FortiGate unit.

Client/server architecture

When both peers are identified the FortiGate units attempt to establish a WAN optimization tunnel between them. WAN optimization tunnels use port 7810. All optimized data flowing across the WAN between the clientside and server-side FortiGate units use this tunnel. WAN optimization tunnels can be encrypted use SSL encryption to keep the data in the tunnel secure.

WAN optimization peers

Any traffic can be sent through a WAN optimization tunnel. This includes SSL and IPsec VPN traffic. However, instead of configuring SSL or IPsec VPN for this communication you can add SSL encryption using the WAN optimization tunnel.

In addition to basic identification by peer host ID and IP address you can configure WAN optimization authentication using certificates and pre-shared keys to improve security. You can also configure FortiGate units involved in WAN optimization to accept connections from any identified peer or restrict connections to specific peers.

The FortiClient application can act in the same manner as a client-side FortiGate unit to optimize traffic between a computer running FortiClient and a FortiGate unit.

WAN optimization peers

The client-side and server-side FortiGate units are called WAN optimization peers because all of the FortiGate units in a WAN optimization network have the same peer relationship with each other. The client and server roles just relate to how a session is started. Any FortiGate unit configured for WAN optimization can be a client-side and a server-side FortiGate unit at the same time, depending on the direction of the traffic. Client-side FortiGate units initiate WAN optimization sessions and server-side FortiGate units respond to the session requests. Any FortiGate unit can simultaneously be a client-side FortiGate unit for some sessions and a server-side FortiGate unit for others.

WAN optimization peer and tunnel architecture

To identify all of the WAN optimization peers that a FortiGate unit can perform WAN optimization with, you add host IDs and IP addresses of all of the peers to the FortiGate unit configuration. The peer IP address is actually the IP address of the peer unit interface that communicates with the FortiGate unit.

Protocol optimization

Protocol optimization techniques optimize bandwidth use across the WAN. These techniques can improve the efficiency of communication across the WAN optimization tunnel by reducing the amount of traffic required by Protocol optimization and MAPI

communication protocols. You can apply protocol optimization to Common Internet File System (CIFS), FTP, HTTP, MAPI, and general TCP sessions. You can apply general TCP optimization to MAPI sessions.

For example, CIFS provides file access, record locking, read/write privileges, change notification, server name resolution, request batching, and server authentication. CIFS is a fairly “chatty” protocol, requiring many background transactions to successfully transfer a single file. This is usually not a problem across a LAN. However, across a WAN, latency and bandwidth reduction can slow down CIFS performance.

When you select the CIFS protocol in a WAN optimization profile, the FortiGate units at both ends of the WAN optimization tunnel use a number of techniques to reduce the number of background transactions that occur over the WAN for CIFS traffic.

If a policy accepts a range of different types of traffic, you can set Protocol to TCP to apply general optimization techniques to TCP traffic. However, applying this TCP optimization is not as effective as applying more protocolspecific optimization to specific types of traffic. TCP protocol optimization uses techniques such as TCP SACK support, TCP window scaling and window size adjustment, and TCP connection pooling to remove TCP bottlenecks.

Protocol optimization and MAPI

By default the MAPI service uses port number 135 for RPC port mapping and may use random ports for MAPI messages. The random ports are negotiated through sessions using port 135. The FortiOS DCE-RPC session helper learns these ports and opens pinholes for the messages. WAN optimization is also aware of these ports and attempts to apply protocol optimization to MAPI messages that use them. However, to configure protocol optimization for MAPI you should set the WAN optimization profile to a single port number (usually port 135). Specifying a range of ports may reduce performance.

Byte caching

Byte caching breaks large units of application data (for example, a file being downloaded from a web page) into small chunks of data, labeling each chunk of data with a hash of the chunk and storing those chunks and their hashes in a database. The database is stored on a WAN optimization storage device. Then, instead of sending the actual data over the WAN tunnel, the FortiGate unit sends the hashes. The FortiGate unit at the other end of the tunnel receives the hashes and compares them with the hashes in its local byte caching database. If any hashes match, that data does not have to be transmitted over the WAN optimization tunnel. The data for any hashes that does not match is transferred over the tunnel and added to that byte caching database. Then the unit of application data (the file being downloaded) is reassembled and sent to its destination.

The stored byte caches are not application specific. Byte caches from a file in an email can be used to optimize downloading that same file or a similar file from a web page.

The result is less data transmitted over the WAN. Initially, byte caching may reduce performance until a large enough byte caching database is built up.

To enable byte caching, you select Byte Caching in a WAN optimization profile.

Byte caching cannot determine whether or not a file is compressed (for example a zip file), and caches compressed and non-compressed versions of the same file separately.

WAN optimization transparent mode

Dynamic data chunking for byte caching

Dynamic data chunking can improve byte caching by improving detection of data chunks that are already cached in changed files or in data embedded in traffic using an unknown protocol. Dynamic data chunking is available for HTTP, CIFS and FTP.

Use the following command to enable dynamic data chunking for HTTP in the default WAN optimization profile.

config wanopt profile edit default config http set prefer-chunking dynamic

end

By default dynamic data chunking is disabled and prefer-chunking is set to fix.

WAN optimization transparent mode

WAN optimization is transparent to users. This means that with WAN optimization in place, clients connect to servers in the same way as they would without WAN optimization. However, servers receiving packets after WAN optimization “see” different source addresses depending on whether or not transparent mode is selected for WAN optimization. If transparent mode is selected, WAN optimization keeps the original source address of the packets, so servers appear to receive traffic directly from clients. Routing on the server network should be configured to route traffic with client source IP addresses from the server-side FortiGate unit to the server and back to the server-side FortiGate unit.

Some protocols, for example CIFS, may not function as expected if transparent mode is not selected. In most cases, for CIFS WAN optimization you should select transparent mode and make sure the server network can route traffic as described to support transparent mode.

If transparent mode is not selected, the source address of the packets received by servers is changed to the address of the server-side FortiGate unit interface that sends the packets to the servers. So servers appear to receive packets from the server-side FortiGate unit. Routing on the server network is simpler in this case because client addresses are not involved. All traffic appears to come from the server-side FortiGate unit and not from individual clients.

Do not confuse WAN optimization transparent mode with FortiGate transparent mode. WAN optimization transparent mode is similar to source NAT. FortiGate Transparent mode is a system setting that controls how the FortiGate unit (or a VDOM) processes traffic.

Configuring Transparent mode

You can configure transparent mode by selecting Transparent in a WAN Optimization profile. The profile is added to an active WAN Optimization policy.

FortiClient WAN optimization

When you configure a passive WAN Optimization policy you can accept the active policy transparent setting or you can override the active policy transparent setting. From the GUI you can do this by setting the Passive Option as follows:

  • default use the transparent setting in the WAN Optimization profile added to the active policy (client-side configuration).
  • transparent impose transparent mode (override the active policy transparent mode setting). Packets exiting the FortiGate keep their original source addresses.
  • non-transparent impose non-transparent mode (override the active policy transparent mode setting). Packets exiting the FortiGate have their source address changed to the address of the server-side FortiGate unit interface that sends the packets to the servers.

From the CLI you can use the following command:

config firewall policy set wanopt-passive-opt {default | transparent | non-transparent}

end

FortiClient WAN optimization

PCs running the FortiClient application are client-side peers that initiate WAN optimization tunnels with serverside peer FortiGate units. However, you can have an ever-changing number of FortiClient peers with IP addresses that also change regularly. To avoid maintaining a list of such peers, you can instead configure WAN optimization to accept any peer and use authentication to identify FortiClient peers.

Together, the WAN optimization peers apply the WAN optimization features to optimize the traffic flow over the WAN between the clients and servers. WAN optimization reduces bandwidth requirements, increases throughput, reduces latency, offloads SSL encryption/decryption and improves privacy for traffic on the WAN.

For more details, see FortiClient WAN optimization on page 1.

Operating modes and VDOMs

To use WAN optimization, the FortiGate units can operate in either NAT/Route or Transparent mode. The clientside and server-side FortiGate units do not have to be operating in the same mode.

As well, the FortiGate units can be configured for multiple virtual domain (VDOM) operation. You configure WAN optimization for each VDOM and configure one or both of the units to operate with multiple VDOMs enabled.

If a FortiGate unit or VDOM is operating in Transparent mode with WAN optimization enabled, WAN optimization uses the management IP address as the peer IP address of the FortiGate unit instead of the address of an interface.

WAN optimization tunnels

All optimized traffic passes between the FortiGate units or between a FortiClient peer and a FortiGate unit over a WAN optimization tunnel. Traffic in the tunnel can be sent in plain text or encrypted using AES-128bit-CBC SSL.

WAN optimization tunnels

WAN optimization tunnels

Both plain text and the encrypted tunnels use TCP destination port 7810.

Before a tunnel can be started, the peers must be configured to authenticate with each other. Then, the clientside peer attempts to start a WAN optimization tunnel with the server-side peer. Once the peers authenticate with each other, they bring up the tunnel and WAN optimization communication over the tunnel starts. After a tunnel has been established, multiple WAN optimization sessions can start and stop between peers without restarting the tunnel.

Tunnel sharing

You can use the tunnel-sharing WAN optimization profile CLI keyword to configure tunnel sharing for WAN optimization rules. Tunnel sharing means multiple WAN optimization sessions share the same tunnel. Tunnel sharing can improve performance by reducing the number of WAN optimization tunnels between FortiGate units. Having fewer tunnels means less data to manage. Also, tunnel setup requires more than one exchange of information between the ends of the tunnel. Once the tunnel is set up, each new session that shares the tunnel avoids tunnel setup delays.

Tunnel sharing also uses bandwidth more efficiently by reducing the chances that small packets will be sent down the tunnel. Processing small packets reduces network throughput, so reducing the number of small packets improves performance. A shared tunnel can combine all the data from the sessions being processed by the tunnel and send the data together. For example, suppose a FortiGate unit is processing five WAN optimization sessions and each session has 100 bytes to send. If these sessions use a shared tunnel, WAN optimization combines the packets from all five sessions into one 500-byte packet. If each session uses its own private tunnel, five 100-byte packets will be sent instead. Each packet also requires a TCP ACK reply. The combined packet in the shared tunnel requires one TCP ACK packet. The separate packets in the private tunnels require five.

Use the following command to configure tunnel sharing for HTTP traffic in a WAN optimization profile.

config wanopt profile edit default config http set tunnel-sharing {express-shared | private | shared}

end

Tunnel sharing is not always recommended and may not always be the best practice. Aggressive and nonaggressive protocols should not share the same tunnel. An aggressive protocol can be defined as a protocol that is able to get more bandwidth than a non-aggressive protocol. (The aggressive protocols can “starve” the non-

 

WAN optimization and user and device identity policies, load balancing and traffic shaping WAN Optimization

Concepts

aggressive protocols.) HTTP and FTP are considered aggressive protocols. If aggressive and non-aggressive protocols share the same tunnel, the aggressive protocols may take all of the available bandwidth. As a result, the performance of less aggressive protocols could be reduced. To avoid this problem, rules for HTTP and FTP traffic should have their own tunnel. To do this, set tunnel-sharing to private for WAN optimization rules that accept HTTP or FTP traffic.

It is also useful to set tunnel-sharing to express-shared for applications, such as Telnet, that are very interactive but not aggressive. Express sharing optimizes tunnel sharing for Telnet and other interactive applications where latency or delays would seriously affect the user’s experience with the protocol.

Set tunnel-sharing to shared for applications that are not aggressive and are not sensitive to latency or delays. WAN optimization rules set to sharing and express-shared can share the same tunnel.

WAN optimization and user and device identity policies, load balancing and traffic shaping

Please note the following about WAN optimization and firewall policies:

  • WAN optimization is not compatible with firewall load balancing.
  • WAN optimization is compatible with source and destination NAT options in firewall policies (including firewall virtual IPs). If a virtual IP is added to a policy the traffic that exits the WAN optimization tunnel has its destination address changed to the virtual IPs mapped to IP address and port.
  • WAN optimization is compatible with user identity-based and device identity security policies. If a session is allowed after authentication or device identification the session can be optimized.

Traffic shaping

Traffic shaping works for WAN optimization traffic that is not in a WAN optimization tunnel. So traffic accepted by a WAN optimization security policy on a client-side FortiGate unit can be shaped on ingress. However, when the traffic enters the WAN optimization tunnel, traffic shaping is not applied.

In manual mode:

  • Traffic shaping works as expected on the client-side FortiGate unit. l Traffic shaping cannot be applied to traffic on the server-side FortiGate unit.

In active-passive mode:

  • Traffic shaping works as expected on the client-side FortiGate unit.
  • If transparent mode is enabled in the WAN optimization profile, traffic shaping also works as expected on the server-side FortiGate unit. l If transparent mode is not enabled, traffic shaping works partially on the server-side FortiGate unit.

WAN optimization and HA

You can configure WAN optimization on a FortiGate HA cluster. The recommended best practice HA configuration for WAN optimization is active-passive mode. When the cluster is operating, all WAN optimization WAN optimization, web caching and memory usage

sessions are processed by the primary unit only. Even if the cluster is operating in active-active mode, HA does not load-balance WAN optimization sessions.

You can also form a WAN optimization tunnel between a cluster and a standalone FortiGate unit or between two clusters.

In a cluster, only the primary unit stores the byte cache database. This database is not synchronized to the subordinate units. So, after a failover, the new primary unit must rebuild its byte cache. Rebuilding the byte cache can happen relatively quickly because the new primary unit gets byte cache data from the other FortiGate unit that it is participating with in WAN optimization tunnels.

WAN optimization, web caching and memory usage

To accelerate and optimize disk access and to provide better throughput and less latency FortiOS WAN optimization uses provisioned memory to reduce disk I/O and increase disk I/O efficiency. In addition, WAN optimization requires a small amount of additional memory per session for comprehensive flow control logic and efficient traffic forwarding.

When WAN optimization is enabled you will see a reduction in available memory. The reduction increases when more WAN optimization sessions are being processed. If you are thinking of enabling WAN optimization on an operating FortiGate unit, make sure its memory usage is not maxed out during high traffic periods.

In addition to using the system dashboard to see the current memory usage you can use the get test wad 2 command to see how much memory is currently being used by WAN optimization. See “get test {wad | wccpd} <test_level>” for more information.

Manual (peer-to-peer) and active-passive WAN optimization


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Inside FortiOS: WAN Optimization

Inside FortiOS: WAN Optimization

Enterprises deploying FortiOS can leverage WAN optimization to provide fast and secure application responses between locations on a Wide Area Network (WAN). The web caching component of FortiOS WAN optimization extends this protection and performance boost to cloud services.

Centralize without compromising your WAN performance

Many multi-location enterprise environments reduce costs and consolidate resources by centralizing applications or providing applications in the cloud. Efficient and high-speed communication between applications and their users is critical. Remote sites don’t always have access to high bandwidth, but users at all sites expect consistent network performance. Minimizing user impact and improving performance is especially vital when applications designed for local area networks (LANs) are on the cloud.

Even applications that work fine on a local LAN, such as Windows File Sharing (CIFS), email exchange (MAPI), and many others, suffer from bandwidth limitations and latency issues when accessed over a WAN. This results in a loss of productivity and a perceived need for expensive network upgrades. FortiOS’s WAN Optimization provides an inexpensive and easy way to deploy a solution to this problem.

FortiOS is commonly deployed in central offices, satellite offices, and in the cloud to provide secure communications across a WAN using IPsec or SSL VPN. This installed infrastructure can be leveraged to add more value by using WAN Optimization to accelerate WAN traffic and web caching to accelerate could services.

FortiOS WAN Optimization

FortiOS includes license-free WAN Optimization on most current FortiGate devices. WAN Optimization is a comprehensive solution that maximizes your WAN performance and provides intelligent bandwith management and unmatched consolidated security performance. WAN Optimization reduces your network overhead and removes unneccessary traffic for a better overall performance experience. Efficient use of bandwidth and better application performance will remove the need for costly WAN link upgrades between data centers and other expensive solutions for your network traffic growth.

Protocol optimization

Protocol optimization is effective for applications designed for the LAN that do not function well on low bandwidth high latency networks. FortiOS protocol optimization improves the efficiency of CIFS, FTP, HTTP, MAPI, and general TCP sessions.

 

Inside FortiOS: WAN Optimization                                                                                                      Web caching

For example, CIFS, which is a fairly “chatty” protocol, requires many background transactions to successfully transfer a single file. When transferring the file, CIFS sends small chunks of data and waits sequentially for each chunk’s arrival and acknowledgment before sending the next. This large amount of request/acknowledgement traffic can delay transfers. FortiOS CIFS WAN Optimization removes this chatiness and gets on with the job of transferring the file.

TCP protocol optimization uses techniques such as SACK support, window scaling and window size adjustment, and connection pooling to remove common WAN TCP bottlenecks.

Web caching

In an enterprise environment, multiple users will often want to get the same content (for example, a sales spreadsheet, a corporate presentation or a PDF from a cloud service, or a software update). With FortiOS Web caching, content from the cloud, from the web or from other sites on the WAN is download once and cached on the local FortiGate device. When other uses access the same content they download it from the cache. The result is less bandwidth use and reduced latency for the file requester.

FortiOS web caching also recognizes requests for Windows or MS-Office updates and downloads the new update file in the background. Once downloaded to the cache, the new update file is available to all users and all subsequent requests for this update are rapidly downloaded from the cache.

Byte caching

Byte caching improves caching by accelerating the transfer of similar, but not identical content. Byte caching accelerates multiple downloads of different email messages with the same corporate disclaimer by downloading the disclaimer over the WAN once and then downloading all subsequent disclaimers from a local FortiGate unit. Byte caching reduces the amount of data crossing the WAN when multiple different emails with the same or similar attachments or different versions of an attachment are downloaded from a corporate email server to different locations over the WAN.

Server Monitoring and Management                                                                      Inside FortiOS: WAN Optimization

Dynamic data chunking

Dynamic data chunking detects and optimizes persistent data chunks in changed files or in data embedded in traffic that uses an unknown protocol. For example, dynamic chunking can cache data in Lotus notes traffic and make the data chunks available for email and other protocols.

Data Deduplication

Byte caching breaks large units of application data, like an email attachment or a file download, into manageable small chunks of data. Each chunk of data is labeled with a hash, and chunks with their respective hashes are stored in a database on the local FortiGate unit. When a remote user request a file, the WAN Optimization sends the hashes, rather than the actual data. The FortiGate unit at the other end of the WAN tunnel reassembles the data from its own hash database, only downloading chunks that it is missing. Deduplication, or the process of eliminating duplicate data, will reduce space consumption. In addition to reducing the amount of data downloaded across the WAN, byte caching is not application specific and assists by accelerating all of the protocols supported by WAN Optimization.

Server Monitoring and Management

The health and performance of real servers can be monitored from the FortiGate GUI. Virtual servers and their assigned real servers can be monitored for health status, if there have been any monitor events, number of active sessions, round trip time and number of bytes processed. Should a server become problematic and require

administration, it can be gracefully removed from the Real Server pool to enable disruption free maintenance. When a removed real server is able to operate it can gracefully be added back to the virtual server.

SSL acceleration

SSL is used by many organizations to keep WAN communications private. WAN Optimization boosts SSL acceleration properties of FortiGate FortiASIC hardware by accelerating SSL traffic across the WAN. The FortiGate unit handles SSL encryption/decryption for corporate servers providing SSL encrypted connections over the WAN.

VPN replacement

FortiOS WAN optimization supports secure SSL-encrypted tunnels between FortiGate units on the WAN. Employing secure WAN Optimization tunnels can replace IPsec VPNs between sites. The result is a single, relatively simple configuration that supports optimization and privacy of communication across the WAN and uses FortiGate SSL acceleration to provide high performance.

Inside FortiOS: WAN Optimization                                                                          Road warriors and home workers

Road warriors and home workers

The drive to give employees greater flexibility and reduce operational costs has led to more remote workers, both at home and on the road. Whether accessing the office from a hotel, public wireless hotspot, or home, the problem is the same: low bandwidth and high latency harming application performance. WAN Optimization is integrated into FortiClient, which can be installed on PCs and wireless devices to optimize communication between remote workers and their offices.

Reduce your…

  • Capital outlay: Organizations only need to purchase a single device per location. l Licensing costs: WAN Optimization is included with FortiOS. Additional licenses are not needed.
  • Network complexity: Small offices that may not have the space or power connections for multiple devices do not need to worry: no additional devices are required.

 

Client/server architecture


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Example topologies relevant to WAN Optimization

Example topologies relevant to WAN Optimization

FortiGate WAN optimization consists of a number of techniques that you can apply to improve the efficiency of communication across your WAN. These techniques include protocol optimization, byte caching, web caching, SSL offloading, and secure tunneling. Protocol optimization can improve the efficiency of traffic that uses the

CIFS, FTP, HTTP, or MAPI protocol, as well as general TCP traffic. Byte caching caches files and other data on

FortiGate units to reduce the amount of data transmitted across the WAN. Web caching stores web pages on FortiGate units to reduce latency and delays between the WAN and web servers. SSL offloading offloads SSL decryption and encryption from web servers onto FortiGate SSL acceleration hardware. Secure tunneling secures traffic as it crosses the WAN.

You can apply different combinations of these WAN optimization techniques to a single traffic stream depending on the traffic type. For example, you can apply byte caching and secure tunneling to any TCP traffic. For HTTP and HTTPS traffic, you can also apply protocol optimization and web caching.

You can configure a FortiGate unit to be an explicit web proxy server for both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic and an explicit FTP proxy server. Users on your internal network can browse the Internet through the explicit web proxy server or connect to FTP servers through the explicit FTP proxy server. You can also configure these proxies to protect access to web or FTP servers behind the FortiGate unit using a reverse proxy configuration.

Web caching can be applied to any HTTP or HTTPS traffic, this includes normal traffic accepted by a security policy, explicit web proxy traffic, and WAN optimization traffic.

You can also configure a FortiGate unit to operate as a Web Cache Communication Protocol (WCCP) client or server. WCCP provides the ability to offload web caching to one or more redundant web caching servers.

FortiGate units can also apply security profiles to traffic as part of a WAN optimization, explicit web proxy, explicit FTP proxy, web cache and WCCP configuration. Security policies that include any of these options can also include settings to apply all forms of security profiles supported by your FortiGate unit.

Basic WAN optimization topology

The basic FortiGate WAN optimization topology consists of two FortiGate units operating as WAN optimization peers intercepting and optimizing traffic crossing the WAN between the private networks.

Security device and WAN optimization topology

 

Out-of-path WAN Optimization topology

FortiGate units can be deployed as security devices that protect private networks connected to the WAN and also perform WAN optimization. In this configuration, the FortiGate units are configured as typical security devices for the private networks and are also configured for WAN optimization. The WAN optimization configuration intercepts traffic to be optimized as it passes through the FortiGate unit and uses a WAN optimization tunnel with another FortiGate unit to optimize the traffic that crosses the WAN.

You can also deploy WAN optimization on single-purpose FortiGate units that only perform WAN optimization. In the out of path WAN optimization topology shown below, FortiGate units are located on the WAN outside of the private networks. You can also install the WAN optimization FortiGate units behind the security devices on the private networks.

The WAN optimization configuration is the same for FortiGate units deployed as security devices and for singlepurpose WAN optimization FortiGate units. The only differences would result from the different network topologies.

Out-of-path WAN Optimization topology

In an out-of-path topology, one or both of the FortiGate units configured for WAN optimization are not directly in the main data path. Instead, the out-of-path FortiGate unit is connected to a device on the data path, and the device is configured to redirect sessions to be optimized to the out-of-path FortiGate unit.

Single-purpose WAN optimization topology

The following out-of-path FortiGate units are configured for WAN optimization and connected directly to FortiGate units in the data path. The FortiGate units in the data path use a method such as policy routing to redirect traffic to be optimized to the out-of-path FortiGate units. The out-of-path FortiGate units establish a WAN optimization tunnel between each other and optimize the redirected traffic.

Out-of-path WAN optimization

Topology for multiple networks

One of the benefits of out-of-path WAN optimization is that out-of-path FortiGate units only perform WAN optimization and do not have to process other traffic. An in-path FortiGate unit configured for WAN optimization also has to process other non-optimized traffic on the data path.

The out-of-path FortiGate units can operate in NAT/Route or Transparent mode.

Other out-of-path topologies are also possible. For example, you can install the out-of-path FortiGate units on the private networks instead of on the WAN. Also, the out-of-path FortiGate units can have one connection to the network instead of two. In a one-arm configuration such as this, security policies and routing have to be configured to send the WAN optimization tunnel out the same interface as the one that received the traffic.

Topology for multiple networks

As shown in below, you can create multiple WAN optimization configurations between many private networks. Whenever WAN optimization occurs, it is always between two FortiGate units, but you can configure any FortiGate unit to perform WAN optimization with any of the other FortiGate units that are part of your WAN.

WAN optimization among multiple networks

You can also configure WAN optimization between FortiGate units with different roles on the WAN. FortiGate units configured as security devices and for WAN optimization can perform WAN optimization as if they are single-purpose FortiGate units just configured for WAN optimization.

WAN optimization with web caching

WAN optimization with web caching

You can add web caching to a WAN optimization topology when users on a private network communicate with web servers located across the WAN on another private network.

WAN optimization with web caching topology

The topology above is the same as that shown in WAN optimization with web caching on page 214 with the addition of web caching to the FortiGate unit in front of the private network that includes the web servers. You can also add web caching to the FortiGate unit that is protecting the private network. In a similar way, you can add web caching to any WAN Optimization topology.

WAN optimization and web caching with FortiClient peers

FortiClient WAN optimization works with FortiGate WAN optimization to accelerate remote user access to the private networks behind FortiGate units. The FortiClient application requires a simple WAN optimization configuration to automatically detect if WAN optimization is enabled on the FortiGate unit. Once WAN optimization is enabled, the FortiClient application transparently makes use of the WAN optimization and web caching features available.

FortiClient WAN optimization topology

Explicit Web proxy topologies

You can configure a FortiGate unit to be an explicit web proxy server for Internet web browsing of IPv4 and IPv6 web traffic. To use the explicit web proxy, users must add the IP address of the FortiGate interface configured for the explicit web proxy to their web browser proxy configuration.

214

Explicit FTP proxy topologies

Explicit web proxy topology

If the FortiGate unit supports web caching, you can also add web caching to the security policy that accepts explicit web proxy sessions The FortiGate unit then caches Internet web pages on a hard disk to improve web browsing performance.

Explicit web proxy with web caching topology

Explicit FTP proxy topologies

You can configure a FortiGate unit to be an explicit FTP proxy server for FTP users. To use the explicit web proxy, FTP users must connect to and authenticate with the explicit FTP proxy before connecting to an FTP server.

Explicit FTP proxy topology

You can also configure reverse explicit FTP proxy. In this configuration, users on the Internet connect to the explicit web proxy before connecting to an FTP server installed behind a FortiGate unit.

Reverse explicit FTP proxy topology

 

Web caching topologies

Web caching topologies

FortiGate web caching can be added to any security policy and any HTTP or HTTPS traffic accepted by that security policy can be cached on the FortiGate unit hard disk. This includes WAN optimization and explicit web proxy traffic. The network topologies for these scenarios are very similar. They involved a FortiGate unit installed between users and web servers with web caching enabled.

A typical web-caching topology includes one FortiGate unit that acts as a web cache server. Web caching is enabled in a security policy and the FortiGate unit intercepts web page requests accepted by the security policy, requests web pages from the web servers, caches the web page contents, and returns the web page contents to the users. When the FortiGate unit intercepts subsequent requests for cached web pages, the FortiGate unit contacts the destination web server just to check for changes.

Web caching topology

You can also configure reverse proxy web-caching. In this configuration, users on the Internet browse to a web server installed behind a FortiGate unit. The FortiGate unit intercepts the web traffic (HTTP and HTTPS) and caches pages from the web server. Reverse proxy web caching on the FortiGate unit reduces the number of requests that the web server must handle, leaving it free to process new requests that it has not serviced before.

Reverse proxy web caching topology

WCCP topologies

You can operate a FortiGate unit as a Web Cache Communication Protocol (WCCP) router or cache engine. As a router, the FortiGate unit intercepts web browsing requests from client web browsers and forwards them to a WCCP cache engine. The cache engine returns the required cached content to the client web browser. If the cache server does not have the required content it accesses the content, caches it and returns the content to the client web browser.

WCCP topologies

WCCP topology

FortiGate units can also operate as WCCP cache servers, communicating with WCCP routers, caching web content and providing it to client web browsers as required.

WCCP is transparent to client web browsers. The web browsers do not have to be configured to use a web proxy.

Centralize without compromising your WAN performance                                        Inside FortiOS: WAN Optimization


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Secure Web Gateway, WAN Optimization, Web Caching and WCC

Secure Web Gateway, WAN Optimization, Web Caching and WCCP

You can use FortiGate WAN optimization and web caching to improve performance and security of traffic passing between locations on your wide area network (WAN) or from the Internet to your web servers. You can also use the FortiGate unit as an explicit FTP and web proxy server. If your FortiGate unit supports web caching, you can also add web caching to any HTTP sessions including WAN optimization, explicit web proxy and other HTTP sessions.

the next sections of this document describes how FortiGate WAN optimization, web caching, explicit web proxy, explicit FTP proxy and WCCP work and also describes how to configure these features.

Before you begin

Before you begin to configure WAN optimization, Web caching, explicit proxies or WCCP, take a moment to note the following:

  • To use WAN optimization and web caching, your FortiGate unit must support these features and not all do. In general your FortiGate unit must include a hard disk to support these features. See “FortiGate models that support WAN optimization” on page 209. Most FortiGate units support Explicit Web and FTP proxies.
  • To be able to configure WAN optimization and web caching from the web manager you should begin by going to System > Feature Visibility and turning on WAN Opt. & Cache.
  • To be able to configure the Web and FTP proxies from the web manager you should begin by going to System > Feature Visibility and turning on Explicit Proxy.
  • If you enable virtual domains (VDOMs) on the FortiGate unit, WAN optimization, web caching, and the explicit web and FTP proxies are available separately for each VDOM.
  • This guide is based on the assumption that you are a FortiGate administrator. It is not intended for others who may also use the FortiGate unit, such as FortiClient administrators or end users.
  • FortiGate WAN optimization is proprietary to Fortinet. FortiGate WAN optimization is compatible only with

FortiClient WAN optimization, and will not work with other vendors’ WAN optimization or acceleration features.

  • FortiGate web caching, explicit web and FTP proxies, and WCCP support known standards for these features. See the appropriate chapters of this document for details.

At this stage, the following installation and configuration conditions are assumed:

  • For WAN optimization you have already successfully installed two or more FortiGate units at various locations across your WAN.
  • For web caching, the explicit proxies and WCCP you have already successfully installed one or more FortiGate units on your network.
  • You have administrative access to the web-based manager and/or CLI. l The FortiGate units are integrated into your WAN or other networks l The operation mode has been configured. l The system time, DNS settings, administrator password, and network interfaces have been configured. l Firmware, FortiGuard Antivirus and FortiGuard Antispam updates are completed.

 

Secure Web Gateway, WAN Optimization, Web Caching and

WCCP                                                                                             FortiGate models that support WAN optimization

  • You Fortinet products have been registered. Register your Fortinet products at the Fortinet Technical Support web site, https://support.fortinet.com.

FortiGate models that support WAN optimization

WAN optimization is available on FortiGate models with internal storage that also support SSL acceleration.

Internal storage includes high-capacity internal hard disks, AMC hard disk modules, FortiGate Storage Modules (FSMs) or over 4 Gbytes of internal flash storage. All of these storage locations can provide similar web caching and byte caching performance. If you add more than one storage location (for example, by creating multiple partitions on a storage device, by using more than one FSM, or by using an FSM and AMC hard disk in the same FortiGate unit) you can configure different storage locations for web caching and byte caching.

Distributing WAN optimization, explicit proxy, and web caching to multiple CPU Cores

By default WAN optimization, explicit proxy and web caching is handled by half of the CPU cores in a FortiGate unit. For example, if your FortiGate unit has 4 CPU cores, by default two will be used for WAN optimization, explicit proxy and web caching. You can use the following command to change the number of CPU cores that are used.

config system global set wad-worker-count <number>

end

The value for <number> can be between 1 and the total number of CPU cores in your FortiGate unit. Adding more cores may enhance WAN optimization, explicit proxy and web caching performance and reduce the performance of other FortiGate systems.

Toggling Disk Usage for logging or wan-opt

Both logging and WAN Optimization use hard disk space to save data. In FortiOS, you cannot use the same hard disk for WAN Optimization and logging.

  • If the FortiGate has one hard disk, then it can be used for either disk logging or WAN optimization, but not both. By default, the hard disk is used for disk logging.
  • If the FortiGate has two hard disks, then one disk is always used for disk logging and the other disk is always used for WAN optimization.

On the FortiGate, go to System > Advanced > Disk Settings to switch between Local Log and WAN Optimization.

You can also change disk usage from the CLI using the following command:

configure system global set disk-usage {log | wanopt} end

You can configure WAN Optimization from the CLI or the GUI. To configure WAN Optimization from the GUI you must go to System > Feature Visibility and turn on WAN Optimization.

Enabling WAN Optimization affects more than just disk logging

In addition to affecting WAN Optimization, the following table shows other features affected by the FortiGate disk configuration.

Features affected by Disk Usage as per the number of internal hard disks on the FortiGate

Feature Logging Only (1 hard disk) WAN Opt. Only

(1 hard disk)

Logging & WAN Opt.

(2 hard disks)

Logging Supported Not supported Supported
Report/Historical FortiView Supported Not supported Supported
Firewall Packet

Capture (Policy

Capture and

Interface Capture)

Supported Not supported Supported
AV Quarantine Supported Not supported Supported
IPS Packet Capture Supported. Not supported Supported
DLP Archive Supported Not supported Supported
Sandbox

DB & Results

FortiSandbox database and results are also stored on disk, but will not be affected by this feature.

Basic WAN optimization topology


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