Technical Articles
F5 SMEs share good practice.
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
KevinGallaugher
F5 Employee
F5 Employee

Introduction

A typical SSL Orchestrator deployment uses 4 network interfaces.  Two are used for North/South connectivity and two are used for egress/ingress to/from Security Services.  There may be circumstances where you need to deploy SSL Orchestrator with a limited number of interfaces.  This guide walks you through configuration of SSL Orchestrator with only 3 interfaces.  One interface will be used for North/South connectivity and two will be used for egress/ingress to/from Security Services. 

This guide assumes you have configured a vlan and Self IP on BIG-IP.  A client computer on the same vlan is also required. 

Note: SSL Orchestrator has limited functionality when deployed this way.  A single Security Service is used in this guide and this has not been thoroughly tested.

Example Configuration

BIG-IP version 16.1.2.1

SSL Orchestrator version 9.2.49

BIG-IP is configured with a single vlan for Inbound and Outbound traffic, Outbound_Vlan, with Self IP 10.1.20.100

A default route of 10.1.20.1 is also configured

A client computer is configured with IP 10.1.20.101 and a Default Gateway of 10.1.20.100

Configuration of 2 Tagged interfaces for egress/ingress to/from Security Services will be covered next.

BIG-IP Network configuration

In this example the network settings will be configured outside of SSL Orchestrator though that is not required.

From the BIG-IP GUI go to Network > VLANs > Create.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 11.46.11 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a VLAN for Service1 Egress.  In this example interface 1.2 is being used.  Note that this is a TAGGED interface.  When done it should look like this:

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.16.04 PM.png 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a VLAN for Service1 Ingress.  In this example interface 1.3 is being used.  This must also be a Tagged interface.  When done it should look like this:

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.16.04 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we’ll configure the Self IPs for these VLANs.  Navigate to Self IPs under Network.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.23.23 PM.png

 

 

 

 

Create 2 Self IPs like the following:

Name

IP Address

Netmask

VLAN

Egress_Service1

10.0.0.1

255.255.255.0

Service_Egress

Ingress_Service1

90.0.0.1

255.255.255.0

Service_Ingress

When done it should look like this:

Screen Shot 2022-09-19 at 12.16.04 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator Configuration Steps

From the Configuration Utility select SSL Orchestrator > Configuration. 

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 10.52.58 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scroll down and click Next.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 10.54.51 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give the Topology a Name, L3_Outbound in this example.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 10.58.32 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select the Protocol needed, TCP in this example.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 10.59.53 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

Select the IP Family, IPv4 in this example.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.02.16 AM.png

 

 

 

 

Select the Topology type, L3 Outbound in this example.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.03.51 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: L3 Inbound is also compatible with One-Armed Mode.

Click Save & Next at the bottom of the page.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.06.35 AM.png

 

 

 

For SSL Configurations you will need to specify the CA Certificate Key Chain.  In this example we used subrsa.f5labs.com.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.11.34 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Save & Next at the bottom of the page.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.12.55 AM.png

 

 

Click Save & Next at the bottom of the page.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.12.55 AM.png

 

 

Configure the two L3 Services

Click the Add Service button

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.38.54 PM.png

 

 

 

Select the Inline L3 tab then double-click the Generic Inline Layer 3 Service.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.40.28 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

Note: a Generic Inline Layer 3 device is used in this example but any Layer 3 device can be used.

Give it a name, L3_Service1 in this example. 

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.51.57 PM.png

 

 

Uncheck the box to Auto Manage Addresses

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.52.32 PM.png

 

 

For the To Service Configuration select Use Existing then click the down arrow to expand the dialog box.  Select the Egress IP address for Service1, 10.0.0.1/24 in this example.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.54.50 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under Security Devices click Add.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.56.57 PM.png

 

 

 

Enter the IP address of your L3 Security device, 10.0.0.25 in this example.  Click Done.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 1.58.59 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the From Service Configuration select Use Existing then click the down arrow to expand the dialog box.  Select the Ingress IP address for Service1, 90.0.0.1/24 in this example.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 2.08.09 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Save at the bottom.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 2.02.57 PM.png

 

 

For the Services Chain you can configure it by clicking Add. 

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 2.21.39 PM.png

 

 

 

Give it a name, Service_Chain in this example.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 2.23.47 PM.png

 

 

Select the Service under Services Available and click the right arrow to move it under Selected Service Chain Order.

Screen Shot 2022-09-19 at 12.18.58 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

Click Save at the bottom.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 2.02.57 PM.png

 

 

Click Save & Next at the bottom of the next page.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.12.55 AM.png

 

 

The Security Policy screen is where you enable/disable SSL Proxy and specify the Service Chain to use.  Click the pencil (edit) icon on the bottom rule to set the Service Chain.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 2.29.40 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click OK.

Click Save & Next at the bottom of the page.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.12.55 AM.png

 

 

For the Interception Rule optionally specify the Source Address.  The Destination Address/Mask field is required.  In this example the policy is configured to intercept connections from and to any IP address.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.22.57 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select the correct vlan from the Available options, Outbound_Vlan in this example, and click the right arrow to move it to Selected.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 2.33.36 PM.pngScreen Shot 2022-08-31 at 2.34.58 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Save & Next at the bottom of the page.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.12.55 AM.png

 

 

For SNAT Settings select Auto Map.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.30.01 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Save & Next at the bottom of the page.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.12.55 AM.png 

 

Click Save & Next at the bottom of the page.

 Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.12.55 AM.png

 

Click Deploy at the bottom of the page.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.32.32 AM.png

 

 

You should see a Success message.  Click OK.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 11.34.01 AM.png

 

 

 

 

 

Test Connectivity from a Client Computer

The Default Gateway of the client computer is set to 10.1.20.100 which is the Self IP of the BIG-IP.

Screen Shot 2022-06-23 at 12.29.44 PM.png

 

 

 

The client computer has already been configured to trust the SSL certificates emulated by BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator.

Test the SSL decryption capabilities by connecting to an HTTPS site, espn.com in this example.

Screen Shot 2021-07-01 at 12.53.28 PM.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The connection to the site is secure, there are no certificate errors and the certificate was Issued By subrsa.f5labs.com.

Conclusion

You have successfully configured BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator with only 3 network interfaces.  For more information on that see the SSL Orchestrator series: Orchestrated Infrastructure Security

 

Comments

Thanks for sharing this trick 🙂

KevinGallaugher
F5 Employee
F5 Employee

Thanks!  I want to re-test it with VMware because it might work better.

Version history
Last update:
‎02-Dec-2022 10:56
Updated by:
Contributors