Hypervisor Support
For hypervisor support, see Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Compatibility.
The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.
The Adaptive Security Appliance Virtual (ASA virtual) brings full firewall functionality to virtualized environments to secure data center traffic and multitenant environments.
You can manage and monitor the ASA virtual using ASDM or CLI. Other management options may be available.
For hypervisor support, see Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Compatibility.
The ASA virtual uses Cisco Smart Software Licensing. For complete information, see Smart Software Licensing.
Note |
You must install a smart license on the ASA virtual. Until you install a license, throughput is limited to 100 Kbps so you can perform preliminary connectivity tests. A smart license is required for regular operation. |
Beginning with 9.13(1), any ASA virtual license can be used on any supported ASA virtual vCPU/memory configuration. This allows you to deploy an ASA virtual on a wide variety of VM resource footprints. Session limits for Secure Client and TLS Proxy are determined by the ASA virtual platform entitlement installed rather than a platform limit tied to a model type.
See the following sections for information about ASA virtual licensing entitlements and resource specifications for the supported private and public deployment targets.
Any ASA virtual license can be used on any supported ASA virtual vCPU/memory configuration. This allows you to run the ASA virtual on a wide variety of VM resource footprints. This also increases the number of supported AWS and Azure instances types. When configuring the ASA virtual machine, the maximum supported number of vCPUs is 16 (ASAv100); and the maximum supported memory is 64GB for ASA virtual deployed on all platforms other than AWS and OCI. For ASA virtual deployed on AWS and OCI, the maximum supported memory is 128GB.
Important |
It is not possible to change the resource allocation (memory, CPUs, disk space) of an ASA virtual instance once it is deployed. If you need to increase your resource allocations for any reason, for example to change your licensed entitlement from the ASAv30/2Gbps to the ASAv50/10Gbps, you need to create a new instance with the necessary resources. |
vCPUs―The ASA virtual supports 1 to 16 vCPUs.
Memory―The ASA virtual supports 2GB to 64GB of RAM for ASA virtual deployed on all platforms other than AWS and OCI. For ASA virtual deployed on AWS and OCI, the maximum supported memory is 128GB.
Disk storage―The ASA virtual supports a minimum virtual disk of 8GB by default. Depending on the type of platform, the virtual disk support varies between 8GB to 10GB. Keep this in mind when you provision your VM resources.
Important |
The minimum memory requirement for the ASA virtual is 2 GB. If your current ASA virtual runs with less than 2 GB of memory, you cannot upgrade to version 9.13(1) or greater from an earlier version without increasing the memory of your ASA virtual machine. You can also redeploy a new ASA virtual machine with the latest version. The minimum memory requirement for deploying ASA virtual with more than 1 vCPU is 4 GB. For upgrading from ASA virtual version 9.14 and later to a latest version, the ASA virtual machine requires a minimum memory of 4 GB and 2 vCPU. |
Session limits for Secure Client and TLS Proxy are determined by the installed ASA virtual platform entitlement tier, and enforced via a rate limiter. The following table summarizes the session limits based on the entitlement tier and rate limiter.
Entitlement |
Secure Client Premium Peers |
Total TLS Proxy Sessions |
Rate Limiter |
---|---|---|---|
Standard Tier, 100M |
50 |
500 |
150 Mbps |
Standard Tier, 1G |
250 |
500 |
1 Gbps |
Standard Tier, 2G |
750 |
1000 |
2 Gbps |
Standard Tier, 10G |
10,000 |
10,000 |
10 Gbps |
Standard Tier, 20G |
20,000 |
20,000 |
20 Gbps |
The session limits granted by an entitlement, as shown in the previous table, cannot exceed the session limits for the platform. The platform session limits are based on the amount of memory provisioned for the ASA virtual.
Provisioned Memory |
Secure Client Premium Peers |
Total TLS Proxy Sessions |
---|---|---|
2 GB to 7.9 GB |
250 |
500 |
8 GB to 15.9 GB |
750 |
1000 |
16 GB - 31.9 GB |
10,000 |
10,000 |
32 GB to 64 GB |
20,000 |
20,000 |
64 GB to 128 GB |
20,000 |
20,000 |
Firewall connections, concurrent and VLANs are platform limits based on the ASA virtual memory.
Note |
We limit the firewall connections to 100 when the ASA virtual is in an unlicensed state. Once licensed with any entitlement, the connections go to the platform limit. The minimum memory requirement for the ASA virtual is 2GB. |
ASA virtual Memory |
Firewall Conns, Concurrent |
VLANs |
---|---|---|
2 GB to 7.9 GB |
100,000 |
50 |
8 GB to 15.9 GB |
500,000 |
200 |
16 GB to 31.9 |
2,000,000 |
1024 |
32 GB to 64 GB |
4,000,000 |
1024 |
Because any ASA virtual license can be used on any supported ASA virtual vCPU/memory configuration, you have greater flexibility when you deploy the ASA virtual in a private cloud environment (VMware, KVM, Hyper-V).
Note |
ASAv50 and ASAv100 are not supported on HyperV. |
Session limits for Secure Client and TLS Proxy are determined by the installed ASA virtual platform entitlement tier, and enforced via a rate limiter. The following table summarizes the session limits based on the entitlement tier for the ASA virtual deployed to a private cloud environment, with the enforced rate limiter.
Note |
ASA virtual session limits are based on the amount of memory provisioned for the ASA virtual; see Table 2. |
RAM (GB) |
Entitlement Support* |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Min |
Max |
Standard Tier, 100M |
Standard Tier, 1G |
Standard Tier, 2G |
Standard Tier, 10G |
Standard Tier, 20G |
2 |
7.9 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
250/500/20G |
8 |
15.9 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
750/1000/10G |
750/1000/20G |
16 |
31.9 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/10K/20G |
32 |
64 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
20K/20K/20G |
*Secure Client Sessions / TLS Proxy Sessions / Rate Limiter per entitlement/instance. |
Because any ASA virtual license can be used on any supported ASA virtual vCPU/memory configuration, you can deploy the ASA virtual on a wide variety AWS instances types. Session limits for Secure Client and TLS Proxy are determined by the installed ASA virtual platform entitlement tier, and enforced via a rate limiter.
The following table summarizes the session limits and rate limiter based on the entitlement tier for AWS instance types. See "About ASA virtual Deployment On the AWS Cloud" for a breakdown of the AWS VM dimensions (vCPUs and memory) for the supported instances.
Instance |
BYOL Entitlement Support* |
PAYG** |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Tier, 100M |
Standard Tier, 1G |
Standard Tier, 2G |
Standard Tier, 10G |
||
c5.xlarge |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
750/1000/10G |
750/1000 |
c5.2xlarge |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/10K |
c4.large |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
250/500 |
c4.xlarge |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
250/500 |
c4.2xlarge |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
750/1000 |
c3.large |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
250/500 |
c3.xlarge |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
250/500 |
c3.2xlarge |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
750/1000 |
m4.large |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
250/500 |
m4.xlarge |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
10K/10K |
m4.2xlarge |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/10K |
*Secure Client Sessions / TLS Proxy Sessions / Rate Limiter per entitlement/instance. **Secure Client Sessions / TLS Proxy Sessions. The Rate Limiter is not employed in PAYG mode. |
The following table summarizes the Smart Licensing entitlements for each tier for the hourly billing (PAYG) mode, which is based on the allocated memory.
RAM (GB) |
Hourly Billing Mode Entitlement |
---|---|
< 2 GB |
Standard Tier, 100M (ASAv5) |
2 GB to < 8 GB |
Standard Tier, 1G (ASAv10) |
8 GB to < 16 GB |
Standard Tier, 2G (ASAv30) |
16 GB < 32 GB |
Standard Tier, 10G (ASAv50) |
30 GB and higher |
Standard Tier, 20G (ASAv100) |
Because any ASA virtual license can be used on any supported ASA virtual vCPU/memory configuration, you can deploy the ASA virtual on a wide variety Azure instances types. Session limits for Secure Client and TLS Proxy are determined by the installed ASA virtual platform entitlement tier, and enforced via a rate limiter.
The following table summarizes the session limits and rate limiter based on the entitlement tier for the Azure instance types. See "About ASA virtual Deployment On the Microsoft Azure Cloud" for a breakdown of the Azure VM dimensions (vCPUs and memory) for the supported instances.
Note |
Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) Mode is currently not supported for the ASA virtual on Azure. |
Instance |
BYOL Entitlement Support* |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Tier, 100M |
Standard Tier, 1G |
Standard Tier, 2G |
Standard Tier, 10G |
Standard Tier, 20G |
|
D1, D1_v2DS1, DS1_v2 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
250/500/20G |
D2, D2_v2, DS2, DS2_v2 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
250/500/2G |
250/500/10G |
250/500/20G |
D3, D3_v2, DS3, DS3_v2 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
750/1000/10G |
750/1000/20G |
D4, D4_v2, DS4, DS4_v2 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/10K/20G |
D5, D5_v2, DS5, DS5_v2 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/20K/20G |
D2_v3 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
750/1000/10G |
750/1000/20G |
D4_v3 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/10K/20G |
D8_v3 |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/10K/20G |
F4, F4s |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
750/1000/10G |
750/1000/20G |
F8, F8s |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/20K/20G |
F16, F16s |
50/500/100M |
250/500/1G |
750/1000/2G |
10K/10K/10G |
10K/20K/20G |
*Secure Client Sessions / TLS Proxy Sessions / Rate Limiter per entitlement/instance. |
The ASA virtual firewall functionality is very similar to the ASA hardware firewalls, but with the following guidelines and limitations.
The maximum supported number of vCPUs is 16. The maximum supported memory is 64GB for ASA virtual deployed on all platforms other than AWS and OCI. For ASA virtual deployed on AWS and OCI, the maximum supported memory is 128GB. Any ASA virtual license can be used on any supported ASA virtual vCPU/memory configuration.
Session limits for licensed features and unlicensed platform capabilities are set based on the amount of VM memory.
Session limits for Secure Client and TLS Proxy are determined by the ASA virtual platform entitlement; session limits are no longer associated with an ASA virtual model type (ASAv5/10/30/50/100).
Session limits have a minimum memory requirement; in cases where the VM memory is below the minimum requirement, the session limits will be set for the maximum number supported by the amount of memory.
There are no changes to existing entitlements; the entitlement SKU and display name will continue to include the model number (ASAv5/10/30/50/100).
The entitlement sets the maximum throughput via a rate limiter.
There is no change to customer ordering process.
The ASA virtual supports a maximum virtual disk of 8 GB by default. You cannot increase the disk size beyond 8 GB. Keep this in mind when you provision your VM resources.
Supported in single context mode only. Does not support multiple context mode.
For failover deployments, make sure that the standby unit has the same license entitlement; for example, both units should have the 2Gbps entitlement.
Important |
When creating a high availability pair using ASA virtual, it is necessary to add the data interfaces to each ASA virtual in the same order. If the exact same interfaces are added to each ASA virtual, but in different order, errors may be presented at the ASA virtual console. Failover functionality may also be affected. |
The ASA virtual does not support the following ASA features:
Clustering (for all entitlements, except AWS, KVM and VMware)
Multiple context mode
Active/Active failover
EtherChannels
Shared AnyConnect Premium Licenses
The ASA virtual is not compatible with the 1.9.5 i40en host driver for the x710 NIC. Older or newer driver versions will work. (VMware only)
Jumbo frame reservation on the 1 GB platform with 9 or more configured e1000 interfaces may cause the device to reload. If jumbo-frame reservation is enabled, reduce the number of interfaces to 8 or less. The exact number of interfaces will depend on how much memory is needed for the operation of other features configured, and could be less than 8.
Supports 10Gbps of aggregated traffic.
Supports the following practices to improve ASA virtual performance:
Numa nodes
Multiple RX queues
SR-IOV provisioning
See Performance Tuning and Performance Tuning for more information.
CPU pinning is recommended to achieve full throughput rates; see Increasing Performance on ESXi Configurations and Increasing Performance on KVM Configurations.
Jumbo frame reservation with a mix of e1000 and i40e-vf interfaces may cause the i40e-vf interfaces to remain down. If jumbo-frame reservation is enabled, do not mix interface types that use e1000 and i40e-vf drivers.
Transparent mode is not supported.
The ASA virtual is not compatible with the 1.9.5 i40en host driver for the x710 NIC. Older or newer driver versions will work. (VMware only)
Not supported on Hyper-V.
Supports 20Gbps of aggregated traffic.
Supports the following practices to improve ASA virtual performance:
Numa nodes
Multiple RX queues
SR-IOV provisioning
See Performance Tuning and Performance Tuning for more information.
CPU pinning is recommended to achieve full throughput rates; see Increasing Performance on ESXi Configurations and Increasing Performance on KVM Configurations.
The ASA virtual is not compatible with the 1.9.5 i40en host driver for the x710 NIC. Older or newer driver versions will work. (VMware only)
Transparent mode is not supported.
Not supported on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Hyper-V.
As a guest on a virtualized platform, the ASA virtual uses the network interfaces of the underlying physical platform. Each ASA virtual interface maps to a virtual NIC (vNIC).
ASA virtual Interfaces
Supported vNICs
The ASA Virtual includes the following Gigabit Ethernet interfaces:
Management 0/0
For AWS and Azure, Management 0/0 can be a traffic-carrying “outside” interface.
GigabitEthernet 0/0 through 0/8. Note that the GigabitEthernet 0/8 is used for the failover link when you deploy the ASA Virtual as part of a failover pair.
Note |
To simply configuration migration, Ten GigabitEthernet interfaces, like those available on the VMXNET3 driver, are labeled GigabitEthernet. This has no impact on the actual interface speed and is cosmetic only. The ASA Virtual defines GigabitEthernet interfaces using the E1000 driver as 1Gbps links. Note that VMware no longer recommends using the E1000 driver. |
Hyper-V supports up to eight interfaces. Management 0/0 and GigabitEthernet 0/0 through 0/6. You can use GigabitEthernet 0/6 as a failover link.
The ASA virtual supports the following vNICs. Mixing vNICs, such as e1000 and vmxnet3, on the same ASA virtual is not supported.
vNIC Type |
Hypervisor Support |
ASA virtual Version |
Notes |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
VMware |
KVM |
|||
vmxnet3 |
Yes |
No |
9.9(2) and later |
VMware default When using vmxnet3, you need to disable Large Receive Offload (LRO) to avoid poor TCP performance. See Disable LRO for VMware and VMXNET3. |
e1000 |
Yes |
Yes |
9.2(1) and later |
Not recommended by VMware. |
virtio |
No |
Yes |
9.3(2.200) and later |
KVM default |
ixgbe-vf |
Yes |
Yes |
9.8(1) and later |
AWS default; ESXi and KVM for SR-IOV support. |
i40e-vf |
No |
Yes |
9.10(1) and later |
KVM for SR-IOV support. |
Large Receive Offload (LRO) is a technique for increasing inbound throughput of high-bandwidth network connections by reducing CPU overhead. It works by aggregating multiple incoming packets from a single stream into a larger buffer before they are passed higher up the networking stack, thus reducing the number of packets that have to be processed. However, LRO can lead to TCP perfomance problems where network packet delivery may not flow consistently and could be "bursty" in congested networks.
Important |
VMware enables LRO by default to increase overall throughput. It is therefore a requirement to disable LRO for ASA virtual deployments on this platform. |
You can disable LRO directly on the ASA virtual machine. Power off the virtual machine before you make any configuration changes.
Find the ASA virtual machine in the vSphere Web Client inventory.
To find a virtual machine, select a data center, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host.
Click the Related Objects tab and click Virtual Machines.
Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
Click VM Options.
Expand Advanced.
Under Configuration Parameters, click the Edit Configuration button.
Click Add Parameter and enter a name and value for the LRO parameters:
Net.VmxnetSwLROSL | 0
Net.Vmxnet3SwLRO | 0
Net.Vmxnet3HwLRO | 0
Net.Vmxnet2SwLRO | 0
Net.Vmxnet2HwLRO | 0
Note |
Optionally, if the LRO parameters exist, you can examine the values and change them if needed. If a parameter is equal to 1, LRO is enabled. If equal to 0, LRO is disabled. |
Click OK to save your changes and exit the Configuration Parameters dialog box.
Click Save.
See the following VMware support articles for more information:
Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) allows multiple VMs running a variety of guest operating systems to share a single PCIe network adapter within a host server. SR-IOV allows a VM to move data directly to and from the network adapter, bypassing the hypervisor for increased network throughput and lower server CPU burden. Recent x86 server processors include chipset enhancements, such as Intel VT-d technology, that facilitate direct memory transfers and other operations required by SR-IOV.
The SR-IOV specification defines two device types:
Physical Function (PF)—Essentially a static NIC, a PF is a full PCIe device that includes SR-IOV capabilities. PFs are discovered, managed, and configured as normal PCIe devices. A single PF can provide management and configuration for a set of virtual functions (VFs).
Virtual Function (VF)—Similar to a dynamic vNIC, a VF is a full or lightweight virtual PCIe device that provides at least the necessary resources for data movements. A VF is not managed directly but is derived from and managed through a PF. One or more VFs can be assigned to a VM.
SR-IOV is defined and maintained by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group ( PCI SIG), an industry organization that is chartered to develop and manage the PCI standard. For more information about SR-IOV, see PCI-SIG SR-IOV Primer: An Introduction to SR-IOV Technology.
Provisioning SR-IOV interfaces on the ASA virtual requires some planning, which starts with the appropriate operating system level, hardware and CPU, adapter types, and adapter settings.
The specific hardware used for ASA virtual deployment can vary, depending on size and usage requirements. Licensing for the ASA Virtual explains the compliant resource scenarios that match license entitlement for the different ASA virtual platforms. In addition, SR-IOV Virtual Functions require specific system resources.
SR-IOV support and VF drivers are available for:
Linux 2.6.30 kernel or later
The ASA virtual with SR-IOV interfaces is currently supported on the following hypervisors:
VMware vSphere/ESXi
QEMU/KVM
AWS
Note |
You should deploy the ASA virtual on any server class x86 CPU device capable of running the supported virtualization platforms. |
This section describes hardware guidelines for SR-IOV interfaces. Although these are guidelines and not requirements, using hardware that does not meet these guidelines may result in functionality problems or poor performance.
A server that supports SR-IOV and that is equipped with an SR-IOV-capable PCIe adapter is required. You must be aware of the following hardware considerations:
The capabilities of SR-IOV NICs, including the number of VFs available, differ across vendors and devices.
Not all PCIe slots support SR-IOV.
SR-IOV-capable PCIe slots may have different capabilities.
Note |
You should consult your manufacturer's documentation for SR-IOV support on your system. |
For VT-d enabled chipsets, motherboards, and CPUs, you can find information from this page of virtualization-capable IOMMU supporting hardware. VT-d is a required BIOS setting for SR-IOV systems.
For VMware, you can search their online Compatibility Guide for SR-IOV support.
For KVM, you can verify CPU compatibility. Note that for the ASA virtual on KVM we only support x86 hardware.
Note |
We tested the ASA virtual with the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Server. Note that the Cisco UCS-B server does not support the ixgbe-vf vNIC. |
Intel Ethernet Network Adapter X710
Attention |
The ASA virtual is not compatible with the 1.9.5 i40en host driver for the x710 NIC. Older or newer driver versions will work. (VMware only) |
x86_64 multicore CPU
Intel Sandy Bridge or later (Recommended)
Note |
We tested the ASA virtual on Intel's Broadwell CPU (E5-2699-v4) at 2.3GHz. |
Cores
Minimum of 8 physical cores per CPU socket
The 8 cores must be on a single socket.
Note |
CPU pinning is recommended to achieve full throughput rates on the ASAv50 and ASAv100; see Increasing Performance on ESXi Configurations and Increasing Performance on KVM Configurations. |
SR-IOV requires support in the BIOS as well as in the operating system instance or hypervisor that is running on the hardware. Check your system BIOS for the following settings:
SR-IOV is enabled
VT-x (Virtualization Technology) is enabled
VT-d is enabled
(Optional) Hyperthreading is disabled
We recommend that you verify the process with the vendor documentation because different systems have different methods to access and change BIOS settings.
Be aware of the following limitations when using ixgbe-vf interfaces:
The guest VM is not allowed to set the VF to promiscuous mode. Because of this, transparent mode is not supported when using ixgbe-vf.
The guest VM is not allowed to set the MAC address on the VF. Because of this, the MAC address is not transferred during HA like it is done on other ASA platforms and with other interface types. HA failover works by transferring the IP address from active to standby.
Note |
This limitation is applicable to the i40e-vf interfaces too. |
The Cisco UCS-B server does not support the ixgbe-vf vNIC.
In a failover setup, when a paired ASA virtual (primary unit) fails, the standby ASA virtual unit takes over as the primary unit role and its interface IP address is updated with a new MAC address of the standby ASA virtual unit. Thereafter, the ASA virtual sends a gratuitous Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) update to announce the change in MAC address of the interface IP address to other devices on the same network. However, due to incompatibility with these types of interfaces, the gratuitous ARP update is not sent to the global IP address that is defined in the NAT or PAT statements for translating the interface IP address to global IP addresses.