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About VPN devices and IPsec/IKE parameters for Site-to-Site VPN Gateway connections

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A VPN device is required to configure a Site-to-Site (S2S) cross-premises VPN connection using a VPN gateway. Site-to-Site connections can be used to create a hybrid solution, or whenever you want secure connections between your on-premises networks and your virtual networks. This article provides a list of validated VPN devices and a list of IPsec/IKE parameters for VPN gateways.

Important

If you are experiencing connectivity issues between your on-premises VPN devices and VPN gateways, refer to Known device compatibility issues.

Items to note when viewing the tables:

  • There has been a terminology change for Azure VPN gateways. Only the names have changed. There's no functionality change.
    • Static Routing = PolicyBased
    • Dynamic Routing = RouteBased
  • Specifications for HighPerformance VPN gateway and RouteBased VPN gateway are the same, unless otherwise noted. For example, the validated VPN devices that are compatible with RouteBased VPN gateways are also compatible with the HighPerformance VPN gateway.

Validated VPN devices and device configuration guides

In partnership with device vendors, we have validated a set of standard VPN devices. All of the devices in the device families in the following list should work with VPN gateways. These are the recommended algorithms for your device configuration.

Recommended Algorithms Encryptions Integrity DH Group
IKE AES256 SHA256 DH2
IPSec AES256GCM AES256GCM None

To help configure your VPN device, refer to the links that correspond to the appropriate device family. The links to configuration instructions are provided on a best-effort basis and defaults listed in configuration guide need not contain the best cryptographic algorithms. For VPN device support, contact your device manufacturer.

Vendor Device family Minimum OS version PolicyBased configuration instructions RouteBased configuration instructions
A10 Networks, Inc. Thunder CFW ACOS 4.1.1 Not compatible Configuration guide
AhnLab TrusGuard TG 2.7.6
TG 3.5.x		 Not tested Configuration guide
Allied Telesis AR Series VPN Routers AR-Series 5.4.7+ Configuration guide Configuration guide
Arista CloudEOS Router vEOS 4.24.0FX Not tested Configuration guide
Barracuda Networks, Inc. Barracuda CloudGen Firewall PolicyBased: 5.4.3
RouteBased: 6.2.0		 Configuration guide Configuration guide
Check Point Security Gateway R80.10 Configuration guide Configuration guide
Cisco ASA 8.3
8.4+ (IKEv2*)		 Supported Configuration guide*
Cisco ASR PolicyBased: IOS 15.1
RouteBased: IOS 15.2		 Supported Supported
Cisco CSR RouteBased: IOS-XE 16.10 Not tested Configuration script
Cisco ISR PolicyBased: IOS 15.0
RouteBased*: IOS 15.1		 Supported Supported
Cisco Meraki (MX) MX v15.12 Not compatible Configuration guide
Cisco vEdge (Viptela OS) 18.4.0 (Active/Passive Mode) Not compatible Manual configuration (Active/Passive)
Citrix NetScaler MPX, SDX, VPX 10.1 and later Configuration guide Not compatible
F5 BIG-IP series 12.0 Configuration guide Configuration guide
Fortinet FortiGate FortiOS 5.6 Not tested Configuration guide
Fujitsu Si-R G series V04: V04.12
V20: V20.14		 Configuration guide Configuration guide
Hillstone Networks Next-Gen Firewalls (NGFW) 5.5R7 Not tested Configuration guide
HPE Aruba EdgeConnect SDWAN Gateway ECOS Release v9.2
Orchestrator OS v9.2		 Configuration guide Configuration guide
Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) SEIL Series SEIL/X 4.60
SEIL/B1 4.60
SEIL/x86 3.20		 Configuration guide Not compatible
Juniper SRX PolicyBased: JunOS 10.2
Routebased: JunOS 11.4		 Supported Configuration script
Juniper J-Series PolicyBased: JunOS 10.4r9
RouteBased: JunOS 11.4		 Supported Configuration script
Juniper ISG ScreenOS 6.3 Supported Configuration script
Juniper SSG ScreenOS 6.2 Supported Configuration script
Juniper MX JunOS 12.x Supported Configuration script
Microsoft Routing and Remote Access Service Windows Server 2012 Not compatible Supported
Open Systems AG Mission Control Security Gateway N/A Supported Not compatible
Palo Alto Networks All devices running PAN-OS PAN-OS
PolicyBased: 6.1.5 or later
RouteBased: 7.1.4		 Supported Configuration guide
Sentrium (Developer) VyOS VyOS 1.2.2 Not tested Configuration guide
ShareTech Next Generation UTM (NU series) 9.0.1.3 Not compatible Configuration guide
SonicWall TZ Series, NSA Series
SuperMassive Series
E-Class NSA Series		 SonicOS 5.8.x
SonicOS 5.9.x
SonicOS 6.x		 Not compatible Configuration guide
Sophos XG Next Gen Firewall XG v17 Not tested Configuration guide

Configuration guide - Multiple SAs
Synology MR2200ac
RT2600ac
RT1900ac		 SRM1.1.5/VpnPlusServer-1.2.0 Not tested Configuration guide
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter EdgeOS v1.10 Not tested BGP over IKEv2/IPsec

VTI over IKEv2/IPsec
Ultra 3E-636L3 5.2.0.T3 Build-13 Not tested Configuration guide
WatchGuard All Fireware XTM
PolicyBased: v11.11.x
RouteBased: v11.12.x		 Configuration guide Configuration guide
Zyxel ZyWALL USG series
ZyWALL ATP series
ZyWALL VPN series		 ZLD v4.32+ Not tested VTI over IKEv2/IPsec

BGP over IKEv2/IPsec

Note

(*) Cisco ASA versions 8.4+ add IKEv2 support, can connect to Azure VPN gateway using custom IPsec/IKE policy with "UsePolicyBasedTrafficSelectors" option. Refer to this how-to article.

(**) ISR 7200 Series routers only support PolicyBased VPNs.

Download VPN device configuration scripts from Azure

For certain devices, you can download configuration scripts directly from Azure. For more information and download instructions, see Download VPN device configuration scripts.

Nonvalidated VPN devices

If you don’t see your device listed in the Validated VPN devices table, your device still might work with a Site-to-Site connection. Contact your device manufacturer for support and configuration instructions.

Editing device configuration samples

After you download the provided VPN device configuration sample, you’ll need to replace some of the values to reflect the settings for your environment.

To edit a sample:

  1. Open the sample using Notepad.
  2. Search and replace all <text> strings with the values that pertain to your environment. Be sure to include < and >. When a name is specified, the name you select should be unique. If a command doesn't work, consult your device manufacturer documentation.
Sample text Change to
<RP_OnPremisesNetwork> Your chosen name for this object. Example: myOnPremisesNetwork
<RP_AzureNetwork> Your chosen name for this object. Example: myAzureNetwork
<RP_AccessList> Your chosen name for this object. Example: myAzureAccessList
<RP_IPSecTransformSet> Your chosen name for this object. Example: myIPSecTransformSet
<RP_IPSecCryptoMap> Your chosen name for this object. Example: myIPSecCryptoMap
<SP_AzureNetworkIpRange> Specify range. Example: 192.168.0.0
<SP_AzureNetworkSubnetMask> Specify subnet mask. Example: 255.255.0.0
<SP_OnPremisesNetworkIpRange> Specify on-premises range. Example: 10.2.1.0
<SP_OnPremisesNetworkSubnetMask> Specify on-premises subnet mask. Example: 255.255.255.0
<SP_AzureGatewayIpAddress> This information specific to your virtual network and is located in the Management Portal as Gateway IP address.
<SP_PresharedKey> This information is specific to your virtual network and is located in the Management Portal as Manage Key.

Default IPsec/IKE parameters

The following tables contain the combinations of algorithms and parameters Azure VPN gateways use in default configuration (Default policies). For route-based VPN gateways created using the Azure Resource Management deployment model, you can specify a custom policy on each individual connection. Refer to Configure IPsec/IKE policy for detailed instructions.

In the following tables:

  • SA = Security Association
  • IKE Phase 1 is also called "Main Mode"
  • IKE Phase 2 is also called "Quick Mode"

IKE Phase 1 (Main Mode) parameters

Property PolicyBased RouteBased
IKE Version IKEv1 IKEv1 and IKEv2
Diffie-Hellman Group Group 2 (1024 bit) Group 2 (1024 bit)
Authentication Method Pre-Shared Key Pre-Shared Key
Encryption & Hashing Algorithms 1. AES256, SHA256
2. AES256, SHA1
3. AES128, SHA1
4. 3DES, SHA1		 1. AES256, SHA1
2. AES256, SHA256
3. AES128, SHA1
4. AES128, SHA256
5. 3DES, SHA1
6. 3DES, SHA256
SA Lifetime 28,800 seconds 28,800 seconds
Number of Quick Mode SA 100 100

IKE Phase 2 (Quick Mode) parameters

Property PolicyBased RouteBased
IKE Version IKEv1 IKEv1 and IKEv2
Encryption & Hashing Algorithms 1. AES256, SHA256
2. AES256, SHA1
3. AES128, SHA1
4. 3DES, SHA1		 RouteBased QM SA Offers
SA Lifetime (Time) 3,600 seconds 27,000 seconds
SA Lifetime (Bytes) 102,400,000 KB 102,400,000 KB
Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) No RouteBased QM SA Offers
Dead Peer Detection (DPD) Not supported Supported

Azure VPN Gateway TCP MSS Clamping

MSS clamping is done bidirectionally on the Azure VPN Gateway. The following table lists the packet size under different scenarios. | Packet Flow |IPv4 | IPv6 | | Over Internet | 1340 bytes | 1360 bytes | | Over Express Route Gateway | 1250 bytes | 1250 bytes |

RouteBased VPN IPsec Security Association (IKE Quick Mode SA) Offers

The following table lists IPsec SA (IKE Quick Mode) Offers. Offers are listed the order of preference that the offer is presented or accepted.

Azure Gateway as initiator

- Encryption Authentication PFS Group
1 GCM AES256 GCM (AES256) None
2 AES256 SHA1 None
3 3DES SHA1 None
4 AES256 SHA256 None
5 AES128 SHA1 None
6 3DES SHA256 None

Azure Gateway as responder

- Encryption Authentication PFS Group
1 GCM AES256 GCM (AES256) None
2 AES256 SHA1 None
3 3DES SHA1 None
4 AES256 SHA256 None
5 AES128 SHA1 None
6 3DES SHA256 None
7 DES SHA1 None
8 AES256 SHA1 1
9 AES256 SHA1 2
10 AES256 SHA1 14
11 AES128 SHA1 1
12 AES128 SHA1 2
13 AES128 SHA1 14
14 3DES SHA1 1
15 3DES SHA1 2
16 3DES SHA256 2
17 AES256 SHA256 1
18 AES256 SHA256 2
19 AES256 SHA256 14
20 AES256 SHA1 24
21 AES256 SHA256 24
22 AES128 SHA256 None
23 AES128 SHA256 1
24 AES128 SHA256 2
25 AES128 SHA256 14
26 3DES SHA1 14
  • You can specify IPsec ESP NULL encryption with RouteBased and HighPerformance VPN gateways. Null based encryption doesn't provide protection to data in transit, and should only be used when maximum throughput and minimum latency is required. Clients might choose to use this in VNet-to-VNet communication scenarios, or when encryption is being applied elsewhere in the solution.
  • For cross-premises connectivity through the Internet, use the default Azure VPN gateway settings with encryption and hashing algorithms listed in the preceding tables to ensure security of your critical communication.

Known device compatibility issues

Important

These are the known compatibility issues between third-party VPN devices and Azure VPN gateways. The Azure team is actively working with the vendors to address the issues listed here. Once the issues are resolved, this page will be updated with the most up-to-date information. Please check back periodically.

Feb. 16, 2017

Palo Alto Networks devices with version prior to 7.1.4 for Azure route-based VPN: If you're using VPN devices from Palo Alto Networks with PAN-OS version prior to 7.1.4 and are experiencing connectivity issues to Azure route-based VPN gateways, perform the following steps:

  1. Check the firmware version of your Palo Alto Networks device. If your PAN-OS version is older than 7.1.4, upgrade to 7.1.4.
  2. On the Palo Alto Networks device, change the Phase 2 SA (or Quick Mode SA) lifetime to 28,800 seconds (8 hours) when connecting to the Azure VPN gateway.
  3. If you're still experiencing connectivity issues, open a support request from the Azure portal.