Help us improve your experience.

Let us know what you think.

Do you have time for a two-minute survey?

 
 

Multicast Routing and Asymmetric Routing on Chassis Cluster

This topic explains how multicast routing support in a chassis cluster enables multicast protocols to forward traffic across interfaces to multiple recipients. Asymmetric routing occurs when packets traveling from a source to a destination follow a different path than packets traveling from the destination back to the source.

Multicast Routing

Multicast routing support across nodes in a chassis cluster allows multicast protocols to forward traffic across interfaces in the cluster—such as

  • Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) versions 1 and 2

  • Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP)

  • Session Announcement Protocol (SAP)

  • Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP)

Multicast protocols must not be enabled on the management interface (fxp0) or on the fabric interfaces (fab0 and fab1). Multicast sessions are synchronized across the cluster and maintained during redundancy group failovers, although some multicast packet loss may occur during failover events

In a chassis cluster, multicast data forwarding uses the incoming interface to determine whether a session remains active. If a leaf session’s outgoing interface resides on the peer node, packets are forwarded across the fabric link. Multicast routing also supports tunnel interfaces for both incoming and outgoing traffic.

Multicast traffic flows in two directions: upstream (toward the source) and downstream (toward subscribers). Devices replicate a single multicast packet to multiple downstream networks containing subscribers. In a chassis cluster, multicast packet replication (fanout) can be active on either node.

If the incoming interface is active on the current node and in backup state on the peer node, the multicast session is active on the current node and maintained as a backup on the peer node.

Multicast configuration on a chassis cluster is identical to multicast configuration on a standalone device.

PIM Data Forwarding

Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) is used between devices to track and forward multicast traffic.

A PIM session encapsulates multicast data within a PIM unicast packet and consists of two components: a control session and a data session.

The data session maintains the control session ID, and the control and data sessions are established and terminated independently. The incoming interface is used to determine whether a PIM session is active. If the outgoing interface for a session resides on the peer node, multicast packets are forwarded to the peer node for transmission.

Multicast and PIM Session Synchronization

Synchronizing multicast and PIM sessions helps prevent packet loss during failover because the sessions do not need to be reestablished after a failover event.

For PIM sessions, the control session is synchronized to the backup node first, followed by synchronization of the data session.

For multicast sessions, the template session is synchronized to the peer node first, then all leaf sessions are synchronized, and finally the template session is synchronized again.

Asymmetric Routing

In a chassis cluster, Firewalls support asymmetric routing scenarios. Traffic received on a node is first matched against that node’s session table. Based on the lookup result, the node either processes the packet locally or forwards it to the peer node over the fabric link. Sessions are initially anchored on the egress node that processes the first packet of the session. If subsequent traffic arrives on a node where the session is not anchored, the packets are forwarded over the fabric link to the anchor node for processing.

The session anchor node can change if routing conditions change while the session is active.

Figure 1: Asymmetric Routing Chassis Cluster Scenario Network diagram with an Untrust Zone connected to the internet via SRX1500 devices and a Trust Zone with EX Series devices. Untrust interfaces are ge-0/0/0 IP 1.4.0.1/24 and ge-7/0/0 IP 1.2.1.1/24. Trust interfaces are ge-0/0/1 and ge-7/0/1 with network reth 0.0 IP 10.16.8.1/24. Default routes: 0/0 next-hop 1.4.0.1 metric 100; 0/0 next-hop 1.2.1.1 metric 10.

In this scenario, two Internet connections are used, with one designated as the preferred path. Connectivity to the trust zone is provided through a redundant Ethernet interface to ensure LAN redundancy for devices in the trust zone. This scenario describes two failover cases in which sessions originate in the trust zone and are destined for the Internet (untrust zone).

Failures in the Trust Zone Redundant Ethernet Interface

Under normal operating conditions, traffic flows from the trust zone interface ge-0/0/1, which is part of reth0.0, to the Internet. Because the primary Internet connection resides on node 0, sessions are created on node 0 and synchronized to node 1, although they remain active only on node 0.

If interface ge-0/0/1 fails, the associated redundancy group fails over, causing interface ge-7/0/1 on node 1 to become active. After the failover, traffic arrives at node 1 and undergoes a session lookup. Because the session is anchored on node 0, the traffic is forwarded over the fabric link to node 0. Node 0 processes the traffic and forwards it to the Internet.

Return traffic follows a similar path. It arrives at node 0, where security processing—such as antispam and antivirus scanning, and policy enforcement—is applied because the session is anchored there. The packet is then forwarded over the fabric link to node 1 for egress processing and transmission out through interface ge-7/0/1.

Failures in the Untrust Zone Interfaces

In this scenario, sessions are migratedbetween nodes. Under normal operating conditions, all traffic is processed by node 0. A failure of interface ge-0/0/0 on node 0 causes a a routing table update that redirects traffic to interface ge-7/0/0 on node 1. After the failure, sessions node 0 become inactive, and the previously passive sessions on node 1 become active.

Traffic arriving from the trust zone continues to be received on interface ge-0/0/1, but it is forwarded to node 1 for processing. After processing on node 1, the traffic is forwarded to the Internet through interface ge-7/0/0.

In this chassis cluster configuration, redundancy group 1 controls the redundant Ethernet interface connected to the trust zone. As configured, redundancy group 1 fails over only when interface ge-0/0/1 or ge-7/0/1 fails, and not when the internet-facing interfaces fail.

Optionally, the configuration can be modified to allow redundancy group 1 to monitor the Internet-facing interfaces and trigger if an Internet link fails. For example, redundancy group 1 could be configured to monitor ge-0/0/0 and activate ge-7/0/1 for reth0 if the ge-0/0/0 Internet link fails.

Example: Configure an Asymmetric Chassis Cluster Pair

This example shows how to configure a chassis cluster to allow asymmetric routing. Configuring asymmetric routing for a chassis cluster allows traffic received on either device to be processed seamlessly.

Requirements

Before you begin:

  1. Physically connect a pair of devices together, ensuring that they are the same models. This example uses a pair of SRX1500 or SRX1600 devices.

    1. To create the fabric link, connect a Gigabit Ethernet interface on one device to another Gigabit Ethernet interface on the other device.

    2. To create the control link, connect the control port of the two SRX1500 or SRX1600 devices.

  2. Connect to one of the devices using the console port. (This is the node that forms the cluster.)

    1. Set the cluster ID and node number.

  3. Connect to the other device using the console port.

    1. Set the cluster ID and node number.

Overview

In this example, a chassis cluster provides asymmetric routing. As illustrated in Figure 2, two Internet connections are used, with one being preferred. The connection to the trust zone is provided by a redundant Ethernet interface to provide LAN redundancy for the devices in the trust zone.

Figure 2: Asymmetric Routing Chassis Cluster Topology Network topology with Juniper SRX1500 devices and EX Series switches showing Untrust Zone with subnets 1.4.0.1/24 and 1.2.1.1/24, Trust Zone with subnet 10.16.8.1/24.

In this example, you configure group (applying the configuration with the apply-groups command) and chassis cluster information. Then you configure security zones and security policies. See Table 1 through Table 4.

Table 1: Group and Chassis Cluster Configuration Parameters

Feature

Name

Configuration Parameters

Groups

node0

  • Hostname: srxseries-1

  • Interface: fxp0

    • Unit 0

    • 192.168.100.50/24

node1

  • Hostname: srxseries-2

  • Interface: fxp0

    • Unit 0

    • 192.168.100.51/24

Table 2: Chassis Cluster Configuration Parameters

Feature

Name

Configuration Parameters

Fabric links

fab0

Interface: ge-0/0/7

fab1

Interface: ge-7/0/7

Heartbeat interval

1000

Heartbeat threshold

3

Redundancy group

1

  • Priority:

    • Node 0: 100

    • Node 1: 1

Interface monitoring

  • ge-0/0/3

  • ge-7/0/3

Number of redundant Ethernet interfaces

1

Interfaces

ge-0/0/1

  • Unit 0

  • 10.4.0.202/24

ge-7/0/1

  • Unit 0

  • 10.2.1.233/24

ge-0/0/3

Redundant parent: reth0

ge-7/0/3

Redundant parent: reth0

reth0

  • Unit 0

  • 10.16.8.1/24

Table 3: Security Zone Configuration Parameters

Name

Configuration Parameters

trust

The reth0.0 interface is bound to this zone.

untrust

The ge-0/0/1 and ge-7/0/1 interfaces are bound to this zone.

Table 4: Security Policy Configuration Parameters

Purpose

Name

Configuration Parameters

This security policy permits traffic from the trust zone to the untrust zone.

ANY

  • Match criteria:

    • source-address any

    • destination-address any

    • application any

  • Action: permit

Configuration

Procedure

CLI Quick Configuration

To quickly configure this example, copy the following commands, paste them into a text file, remove any line breaks, change any details necessary to match your network configuration, copy and paste the commands into the CLI at the [edit] hierarchy level, and then enter commit from configuration mode.

Step-by-Step Procedure

To configure an asymmetric chassis cluster pair:

  1. Configure the management interface.

  2. Configure the fabric interface.

  3. Configure the number of redundant Ethernet interfaces.

  4. Configure the redundancy groups.

  5. Configure the redundant Ethernet interfaces.

  6. Configure the static routes (one to each ISP, with preferred route through ge-0/0/1).

  7. Configure the security zones.

  8. Configure the security policies.

Results

From operational mode, confirm your configuration by entering the show configuration command. If the output does not display the intended configuration, repeat the configuration instructions in this example to correct it.

For brevity, this show command output includes only the configuration that is relevant to this example. Any other configuration on the system has been replaced with ellipses (...).

If you are done configuring the device, enter commit from configuration mode.

Verification

Confirm that the configuration is working properly.

Verify Chassis Cluster Status

Purpose

Verify the chassis cluster status, failover status, and redundancy group information.

Action

From operational mode, enter the show chassis cluster status command.

Verify Chassis Cluster Interfaces

Purpose

Verify information about chassis cluster interfaces.

Action

From operational mode, enter the show chassis cluster interfaces command.

Verify Chassis Cluster Statistics

Purpose

Verify information about the statistics of the different objects being synchronized, the fabric and control interface hellos, and the status of the monitored interfaces in the cluster.

Action

From operational mode, enter the show chassis cluster statistics command.

Verify Chassis Cluster Control Plane Statistics

Purpose

Verify information about chassis cluster control plane statistics (heartbeats sent and received) and the fabric link statistics (probes sent and received).

Action

From operational mode, enter the show chassis cluster control-plane statistics command.

Verify Chassis Cluster Data Plane Statistics

Purpose

Verify information about the number of RTOs sent and received for services.

Action

From operational mode, enter the show chassis cluster data-plane statistics command.

Verify Chassis Cluster Redundancy Group Status

Purpose

Verify the state and priority of both nodes in a cluster and information about whether the primary node has been preempted or whether there has been a manual failover.

Action

From operational mode, enter the chassis cluster status redundancy-group command.

Troubleshoot with Logs

Purpose

Use these logs to identify any chassis cluster issues. You must run these logs on both nodes.

Action

From operational mode, enter these show commands.