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Palo Alto NGFW lab 19 of 30

Site-to-site IPsec VPN with IKEv2

Join the Leeds and York depots with a route-based IKEv2 VPN between two PAN-OS firewalls: crypto profiles, IKE gateways with FQDN identities, tunnel interfaces in a VPN zone, routes, policy, tunnel monitoring and proxy IDs for interoperability. Bring it up, then read every SA and flow.

Run this lab

It needs Standard: its 4 nodes are set to 6 vCPU and 13,312 MB in total.

In your workspace: Shared, then Palo Alto NGFW PAN-OS 11 guided labs, then 19 - Site-to-site IPsec VPN with IKEv2

Run it on Standard from £5 a day

The free demo can’t run it: it has 6 vCPU and 8 GB, and this lab’s nodes need 6 vCPU and 13,312 MB together. Every lab plan includes every guided lab.

Level
Advanced
Time
About 60 minutes
Nodes need
6 vCPU, 13,312 MB
Smallest plan
Standard

The scenario

Calder has opened a second depot in York. Staff in each depot need to reach the other depot's LAN as if it were local, over the internet, encrypted. Both depots have a PAN-OS firewall with interfaces, zones and basic routing done; the VPN is yours to build.

LeedsYork
FirewallFW-LEEDSFW-YORK
Public address (ethernet1/1)203.0.113.2203.0.113.3
LAN (ethernet1/2)10.1.1.0/24 (gateway .1)10.2.2.0/24 (gateway .1)
Management10.1.1.254 from Leeds-PC10.2.2.254 from York-PC
Tunnel interfacetunnel.1 172.31.255.1/30tunnel.1 172.31.255.2/30
IKE identityleeds.calder.lab (FQDN)york.calder.lab (FQDN)

Agreed parameters:

  • IKEv2;
  • pre-shared key Calder-VPN-2026;
  • IKE: AES-256-CBC, SHA-256, DH group 14, 8 hours;
  • IPsec ESP: AES-256-CBC, SHA-256, PFS group 14, 1 hour.

Before you start. Start all the nodes. Both firewalls take 6-8 minutes to boot and come up with this lab's starting configuration already loaded. Wait until each firewall's console shows its own name (FW-LEEDS login:, FW-YORK login:), then log in as admin / Lab-Access-1. Until the management plane is ready it answers Login incorrect, even with the right password. The Linux hosts are ready within seconds.

What you’ll practise

  • Explain IKE phase 1 and phase 2 and the PAN-OS objects for each
  • Configure IKE and IPsec crypto profiles, an IKEv2 gateway and a route-based tunnel
  • Place tunnel interfaces in a VPN zone, route over them and write the security rules
  • Add tunnel monitoring and proxy IDs, and know when proxy IDs are required
  • Verify with test vpn, show vpn ike-sa, show vpn ipsec-sa and show vpn flow

The tasks

  1. Phase 1 and phase 2, the PAN-OS way
  2. Build Leeds (FW-LEEDS)
  3. Build York (FW-YORK)
  4. Bring it up and look inside
  5. Proxy IDs for interoperability
  6. Quantum-resistant VPNs (concept)

The Lab Tasks pane has the scenario, these tasks, the checks to run, hints and the full solution.

Topology and devices

The network as it opens in EVE-NG, drawn from the lab’s own canvas, and the image each node runs.

Topology of Site-to-site IPsec VPN with IKEv24 nodes and 3 networks, 8 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.FW-LEEDSFW-YORKLeeds-PCYork-PCLeeds-LANInternetYork-LANmgmtethernet1/2mgmtethernet1/2eth0eth0ethernet1/1ethernet1/1
4 nodes and 3 networks, with the interface names each link uses. On a narrow screen, scroll the diagram sideways.
Every link, as text
  • FW-LEEDS mgmt to Leeds-LAN (network)
  • FW-LEEDS ethernet1/2 to Leeds-LAN (network)
  • FW-LEEDS ethernet1/1 to Internet (network)
  • FW-YORK mgmt to York-LAN (network)
  • FW-YORK ethernet1/2 to York-LAN (network)
  • FW-YORK ethernet1/1 to Internet (network)
  • Leeds-PC eth0 to Leeds-LAN (network)
  • York-PC eth0 to York-LAN (network)
Nodes in Site-to-site IPsec VPN with IKEv2, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
FW-LEEDSPalo Alto Networks VM-Series (PAN-OS)paloalto-11.2.52 vCPU, 5,632 MB
FW-YORKPalo Alto Networks VM-Series (PAN-OS)paloalto-11.2.52 vCPU, 5,632 MB
Leeds-PCEVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 1,024 MB
York-PCEVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 1,024 MB

How to open this lab

  1. Sign in to your workspace at lab.cloudlabbox.com.

  2. In File Manager, open Shared, then the folder Palo Alto NGFW PAN-OS 11 guided labs.

  3. Open 19 - Site-to-site IPsec VPN with IKEv2 and start its nodes, then open Lab Tasks for the scenario and the steps.

The lab is read-only. You can start the nodes and configure the devices, but changes to the topology can’t be saved. To change it, rebuild it in your own folder.

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CloudLabBox is independent of Palo Alto Networks and Cisco. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.