
Half 1 and Half 2 of this weblog sequence lined native cloud networking and firewall guidelines automation on GCP, and a learn by is advisable for completeness. This ultimate put up of the sequence is about enabling exterior entry for cloud sources. Extra particularly, it’s going to concentrate on how clients can allow exterior connectivity from and to GCP, utilizing both Cloud Native Router or Cisco Cloud Router (CCR) based mostly on Cisco Catalyst 8000v, relying on use case.
By increasing earlier capabilities, Cisco Cloud Community Controller (CNC) will provision routing, automate VPC peering between infra and person VPCs, and BGP IPSec connectivity to exterior networks with just a few steps utilizing the identical coverage mannequin.
Situation
This state of affairs will leverage the prevailing configuration constructed beforehand represented by network-a and network-b VPCs. These person VPCs might be peered with the infra VPC in a hub and spoke structure, the place GCP cloud native routers might be provisioned to determine BGP IPSec tunnels with an exterior IPSec system. The GCP cloud native routers are composed by the mixture of a Cloud Router and a Excessive-availability (HA) Cloud VPN gateway.
The high-level topology under illustrates the extra connections automated by Cisco CNC.
Provisioning Cloud Native Routers
Step one is to allow exterior connectivity beneath Area Administration by deciding on through which area cloud native routers might be deployed. For this state of affairs, they are going to be provisioned in the identical area because the Cisco CNC as depicted on the high-level topology. Moreover, default values might be used for the IPSec Tunnel Subnet Pool and BGP AS beneath the Hub Community representing the GCP Cloud Router.
The cloud native routers are being provisioned purposely on a special area as an example the flexibility of getting a devoted hub community with exterior entry. Nevertheless, they might have been deployed on the identical area because the person VPCs.
Be aware: a short overview of the Cisco CNC GUI was offered on Half 1.
Enabling Exterior Networks
The following step is to create an Exterior Community assemble throughout the infra tenant. That is the place an exterior VRF can be outlined to symbolize exterior networks linked to on-premises knowledge facilities or distant websites. Any cloud VRF mapped to present VPC networks can leak routes to this exterior VRF or can get routes from it. Along with the exterior VRF definition, that is additionally the place VPN settings are entered with the distant IPSec peer particulars.
The configuration under illustrates the stitching of the exterior VRF and the VPN community throughout the area the place the cloud native routers are being provisioned within the backend. For simplicity, the VRF was named as “external-vrf” however in a manufacturing setting, the title needs to be outlined properly and aligned to the exterior community as to enhance operations.
The VPN community settings require public IP of the distant IPSec system, IKE model, and BGP AS. As indicated earlier, the default subnet pool is getting used.
As soon as the exterior community is created, Cisco CNC generates a configuration file for the distant IPSec system to determine BGP peering and IPSec tunnels with the GCP cloud native routers. Beneath is the choice to obtain the configuration file.
Configuring Exterior IPSec System
Because the configuration file gives a lot of the configuration required for the exterior IPSec system, customization is required solely on tunnel supply interface and routing settings the place relevant to match native community necessities. On this instance, the distant IPSec system is a digital router utilizing interface GigabitEthernet1. For brevity, solely one of many IPSec tunnels config is proven under together with all the opposite config generated by Cisco CNC.
vrf definition external-vrf rd 100:1 address-family ipv4 exit-address-family interface Loopback0 vrf forwarding external-vrf ip handle 41.41.41.41 255.255.255.255 crypto ikev2 proposal ikev2-1 encryption aes-cbc-256 aes-cbc-192 aes-cbc-128 integrity sha512 sha384 sha256 sha1 group 24 21 20 19 16 15 14 2 crypto ikev2 coverage ikev2-1 proposal ikev2-1 crypto ikev2 keyring keyring-ifc-3 peer peer-ikev2-keyring handle 34.124.13.142 pre-shared-key 49642299083152372839266840799663038731 crypto ikev2 profile ikev-profile-ifc-3 match handle native interface GigabitEthernet1 match identification distant handle 34.124.13.142 255.255.255.255 identification native handle 20.253.155.252 authentication distant pre-share authentication native pre-share keyring native keyring-ifc-3 lifetime 3600 dpd 10 5 periodic crypto ipsec transform-set ikev-transport-ifc-3 esp-gcm 256 mode tunnel crypto ipsec profile ikev-profile-ifc-3 set transform-set ikev-transport-ifc-3 set pfs group14 set ikev2-profile ikev-profile-ifc-3 interface Tunnel300 vrf forwarding external-vrf ip handle 169.254.0.2 255.255.255.252 ip mtu 1400 ip tcp adjust-mss 1400 tunnel supply GigabitEthernet1 tunnel mode ipsec ipv4 tunnel vacation spot 34.124.13.142 tunnel safety ipsec profile ikev-profile-ifc-3 ip route 34.124.13.142 255.255.255.255 GigabitEthernet1 192.168.0.1 router bgp 65002 bgp router-id 100 bgp log-neighbor-changes address-family ipv4 vrf external-vrf community 41.41.41.41 masks 255.255.255.255 neighbor 169.254.0.1 remote-as 65534 neighbor 169.254.0.1 ebgp-multihop 255 neighbor 169.254.0.1 activate
Verifying Exterior Connectivity standing
As soon as configuration is utilized, there are a couple of methods to confirm BGP peering and IPSec tunnels between GCP and exterior gadgets: through CLI on the IPSec system itself and through Cisco CNC GUI on the Exterior Connectivity dashboard.
Within the GCP console (infra mission), beneath Hybrid Connectivity, it exhibits each the IPSec and BGP periods are established accordingly by the mixture of a Cloud Router and an HA Cloud VPN gateway automated by Cisco CNC, upon definition of the Exterior Community. Be aware that the infra VPC community is known as as overlay-1 by default as a part of the Cisco CNC deployment from {the marketplace}.
Route Leaking Between Exterior and VPC Networks
Now that BGP IPSec tunnels are established, let’s configure inter-VRF routing between exterior networks and present person VPC networks from earlier sections. This works by enabling VPC peering between the person VPCs and the infra VPC internet hosting VPN connections, which is able to share these VPN connections to exterior websites. Routes acquired on the VPN connections are leaked to person VPCs, and person VPC routes are marketed on the VPN connections.
Utilizing inter-VRF routing, the route is leaked between the exterior VRF of the VPN connections and the cloud native person VRFs. The configuration under illustrates route leaking from external-vrf to network-a.
The reverse route leaking configuration from network-a to external-vrf is filtered with Subnet IP to point out granularity. Additionally, the identical steps had been carried out for network-b however not depicted for brevity.
Along with the prevailing peering between network-a and network-b VPCs, now each person VPCs are additionally peered with the infra VPC (overlay-1) as depicted on the high-level topology.
By exploring one of many peering connection particulars, it’s potential to see the exterior subnet 41.41.41.41/32 within the imported routes desk.
On the distant IPSec system, the subnets from network-a and network-b VPCs are realized over BGP peering as anticipated.
remote-site#sh bgp vpnv4 unicast vrf external-vrf <<<output omitted for brevity>>> Community Subsequent Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path Route Distinguisher: 100:1 (default for vrf external-vrf) *> 41.41.41.41/32 0.0.0.0 0 32768 i * 172.16.1.0/24 169.254.0.5 100 0 65534 ? *> 169.254.0.1 100 0 65534 ? * 172.16.128.0/24 169.254.0.5 100 0 65534 ? *> 169.254.0.1 100 0 65534 ? remote-site#
Defining Exterior EPG for the Exterior Community
Up up to now, all routing insurance policies had been automated by Cisco CNC to permit exterior connectivity to and from GCP. Nevertheless, firewall guidelines are additionally required for end-to-end connectivity. That is achieved by creating an exterior EPG utilizing subnet choice because the endpoint selector to symbolize exterior networks. Be aware that this exterior EPG can be created throughout the infra tenant and related to the external-vrf created beforehand.
The following step is to use contracts between the exterior EPG and the beforehand created cloud EPGs to permit communication between endpoints in GCP and exterior networks, which on this state of affairs is represented by 41.41.41.41/32 (loopback0 on distant IPSec system). As that is taking place throughout totally different tenants, the contract scope is ready to world and exported from the engineering tenant to the infra tenant and vice-versa, if permitting visitors to be initiated from each side.


On the backend, the mixture of contracts and filters interprets into correct GCP firewall guidelines, as lined in particulars on Half 2 of this sequence. For brevity, solely the end result is offered under.
remote-site#ping vrf external-vrf 172.16.1.2 supply lo0
Kind escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.16.1.2, timeout is 2 seconds:
Packet despatched with a supply handle of 41.41.41.41 !!!!!
Success charge is one hundred pc (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 84/84/86 ms
remote-site#ping vrf external-vrf 172.16.128.2 supply lo0
Kind escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.16.128.2, timeout is 2 seconds:
Packet despatched with a supply handle of 41.41.41.41 !!!!!
Success charge is one hundred pc (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 132/133/138 ms
root@web-server:/dwelling/marinfer# ping 41.41.41.41 PING 41.41.41.41 (41.41.41.41) 56(84) bytes of information. 64 bytes from 41.41.41.41: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=87.0 ms 64 bytes from 41.41.41.41: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=84.9 ms 64 bytes from 41.41.41.41: icmp_seq=3 ttl=254 time=83.7 ms 64 bytes from 41.41.41.41: icmp_seq=4 ttl=254 time=83.8 ms root@web-server:/dwelling/marinfer# root@app-server:/dwelling/marinfer# ping 41.41.41.41 PING 41.41.41.41 (41.41.41.41) 56(84) bytes of information. 64 bytes from 41.41.41.41: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=134 ms 64 bytes from 41.41.41.41: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=132 ms 64 bytes from 41.41.41.41: icmp_seq=3 ttl=254 time=131 ms 64 bytes from 41.41.41.41: icmp_seq=4 ttl=254 time=136 ms root@app-server:/dwelling/marinfer#
Superior Routing Capabilities with Cisco Cloud Router
Leveraging native routing capabilities as demonstrated might suffice for some particular use instances and be restricted for others. Due to this fact, for extra superior routing capabilities, Cisco Cloud Routers could be deployed as a substitute. The provisioning course of is comparatively the identical with CCRs additionally instantiated throughout the infra VPC in a hub and spoke structure. In addition to being able to handle the entire lifecycle of the CCRs from the Cisco CNC, clients can even select totally different tier-based throughput choices based mostly on necessities.
One of many foremost use instances for leveraging Cisco Cloud Routers is the BGP EVPN assist throughout totally different cloud websites operating Cisco CNC, or for hybrid cloud connectivity with on-prem websites when coverage extension is fascinating. The totally different inter-site makes use of instances are being documented on particular white papers, and under is a high-level topology illustrating the structure.
Abstract
There are a number of methods of enabling exterior entry and hybrid cloud connectivity for cloud sources. Cisco CNC gives flexibility to clients by giving choices to leverage native routing capabilities or extra superior options with CCR. Moreover, though not lined as a part of this sequence, potential to import and handle connectivity to brownfield VPCs can be supported to handle use instances with present VPC networks.
In conclusion, this weblog sequence introduces Cisco CNC for purchasers to discover and perceive the advantages of leveraging a cloud networking software program to automate and construct their cloud environments on GCP. Furthermore, Cisco CNC makes it simple to combine with present cloud automation instruments similar to Terraform by publishing steady provider updates.
Assets
Guides
Cisco Cloud Network Controller for Google Cloud Installation Guides
Cisco Cloud Network Controller for Google Cloud User Guides
Weblog Collection: Introducing Cisco Cloud Community Controller on Google Cloud Platform
Half 1: Native Cloud Networking Automation
Half 2: Contract-based Routing and Firewall Guidelines Automation
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