I took delivery of a 5545-X from Bedfont Lakes to evaluate in my IPv6 lab; this post covers the steps to connect two ASA’s via IPv6 IPSec VPN.

Current Cisco configuration documentation shows the use of 3des encryption and MD5 hashing functions. According to the Cisco document on Next Gen Encryption (NGE) both are listed as ‘avoid’ and ‘legacy’. Using this document the tunnel shown here will used the recommend strength of encryption and hashing, whilst at the same time not crippling my 5505 with computations!!

The configuration of the ASA’s is pretty much identical with the exception of pre-shared key phrases and ACLs needing to be flipped.

The first step is to create the IKE policies. We will be using IKEv2 which was introduced in the ASA 8.4 software release. IKEv2 adds many improvements, one of which will be visible in the configuration is asymmetric keys.

Configured on both:

!
crypto ikev2 policy 1
 encryption aes-256
 integrity sha256
 group 2
 prf sha256
 lifetime seconds 43200
!
crypto ikev2 enable outside
!
crypto ipsec ikev2 ipsec-proposal ikev2_aes256
 protocol esp encryption aes-256
 protocol esp integrity sha-1
!

 

A tunnel-group is a set of connection polices related to the specified peer. In this config we are utilising a feature IKEv2, asymmetric authentication methods. For the sake of simplicity either ends will be using pre-shared keys.

The ACL is used to match traffic, which when used with the crypto map below will ensure it is sent down the tunnel.

Configured on the 5505:

!
tunnel-group 2001:630:BBBB:1::1 type ipsec-l2l
tunnel-group 2001:630:BBBB:1::1 ipsec-attributes
  ikev2 remote-authentication pre-shared-key 0 th3_5545
  ikev2 local-authentication pre-shared-key 0 s3b5_5505
!
access-list acl_l2l_01 extended permit ip 2001:470:AAAA:2::/64 2001:630:BBBB:2::/64
!

 

Configured on the 5545-X:

!
tunnel-group 2001:470:AAAA:1::1 type ipsec-l2l
tunnel-group 2001:470:AAAA:1::1 ipsec-attributes
  ikev2 remote-authentication pre-shared-key 0 s3b5_5505
  ikev2 local-authentication pre-shared-key 0 th3_5545
!
access-list acl_l2l_01 extended permit ip 2001:630:BBBB:2::/64 2001:470:AAAA:2::/64
!

 

The crypto map draws together all of the above configuration:

• The ACL defines what traffic should be protected by IPSec
• The IKEv2 IPSec proposal allows for the configuration of multiple transform-sets; one of which both peers must agree on. Once agreed the transform-set is used to define of transmitted data is to be protected.
• Specify the ASA interface to apply the crypto map. All traffic passing through the interface will be evaluated against the crypto map.

 

Configured on both:

!
crypto map l2l_01 1 match address acl_l2l_01
crypto map l2l_01 1 set ikev2 ipsec-proposal ikev2_aes256
crypto map l2l_01 interface outside
!

 

Now specify for each crypto map, where matching traffic should be sent.

ASA5505:

!
!
crypto map l2l_01 1 set peer 2001:630:BBBB:1::1
!

 

ASA 5545-X:

!
crypto map l2l_01 1 set peer 2001:470:AAAA:1::1
!

 

The VPN will not become active until it starts to pass traffic. To test start a ping which will match the ACL of whichever tunnel endpoint is closest, eg from a host on the 2001:470:AAAA:2::/64 subnet:

$ ping6 2001:630:BBBB:2::100

Now check the CLI on each ASA:

ciscoasa5505# sh crypto ikev2 sa detail

IKEv2 SAs:

Session-id:1, Status:UP-ACTIVE, IKE count:1, CHILD count:1

Tunnel-id                 Local                Remote     Status         Role
255226471 2001:470:aaaa:1::1 2001:630:bbbb:1::1/5      READY    INITIATOR
      Encr: AES-CBC, keysize: 256, Hash: SHA256, DH Grp:2, Auth sign: PSK, Auth verify: PSK
      Life/Active Time: 43200/149 sec
      Session-id: 1
      Status Description: Negotiation done
      Local spi: 7A3122706F95C51C       Remote spi: 2B17187D4CA841CD
      Local id: 2001:470:aaaa:1::1
      Remote id: 2001:630:bbbb:1::1
      Local req mess id: 7              Remote req mess id: 4
      Local next mess id: 7             Remote next mess id: 4
      Local req queued: 7               Remote req queued: 4
      Local window: 1                   Remote window: 1
      DPD configured for 10 seconds, retry 2
      NAT-T is not detected
Child sa: local selector  2001:470:aaaa:2::/0 - 2001:470:aaaa:2:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff/65535
          remote selector 2001:630:bbbb:2::/0 - 2001:630:bbbb:2:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff/65535
          ESP spi in/out: 0x28fc953/0x5d23b1e
          AH spi in/out: 0x0/0x0
          CPI in/out: 0x0/0x0
          Encr: AES-CBC, keysize: 256, esp_hmac: SHA96
          ah_hmac: None, comp: IPCOMP_NONE, mode tunnel

 

ASA5545-X:

5545
asa5545# sh crypto ikev2 sa detail

IKEv2 SAs:

Session-id:6, Status:UP-ACTIVE, IKE count:1, CHILD count:1

Tunnel-id                 Local                Remote     Status         Role
  2203917 2001:630:bbbb:1::1/5 2001:470:aaaa:1::1      READY    RESPONDER
      Encr: AES-CBC, keysize: 256, Hash: SHA256, DH Grp:2, Auth sign: PSK, Auth verify:                                     PSK
      Life/Active Time: 43200/40 sec
      Session-id: 6
      Status Description: Negotiation done
      Local spi: 2B17187D4CA841CD       Remote spi: 7A3122706F95C51C
      Local id: 2001:630:bbbb:1::1
      Remote id: 2001:470:aaaa:1::1
      Local req mess id: 0              Remote req mess id: 2
      Local next mess id: 0             Remote next mess id: 2
      Local req queued: 0               Remote req queued: 2
      Local window: 1                   Remote window: 1
      DPD configured for 10 seconds, retry 2
      NAT-T is not detected
Child sa: local selector  2001:630:bbbb:2::/0 - 2001:630:bbbb:2:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff/65535
          remote selector 2001:470:aaaa:2::/0 – 
2001:470:aaaa:2:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff/65535
          ESP spi in/out: 0x5d23b1e/0x28fc953
          AH spi in/out: 0x0/0x0
          CPI in/out: 0x0/0x0
          Encr: AES-CBC, keysize: 256, esp_hmac: SHA96
          ah_hmac: None, comp: IPCOMP_NONE, mode tunnel

….and perhaps more excitingly you should have a new VPN light lit on the front of your ASA: