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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About Mike

Michael Pruett, CISSP has a wide range of cyber-security and network engineering expertise. The plethora of vendors that resell hardware but have zero engineering knowledge resulting in the wrong hardware or configuration being deployed is a major pet peeve of Michael's. This site was started in an effort to spread information while providing the option of quality consulting services at a much lower price than Fortinet Professional Services. Owns PacketLlama.Com (Fortinet Hardware Sales) and Office Of The CISO, LLC (Cybersecurity consulting firm).

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