Configuring AWS Devices

This chapter covers the following sections:

Update AWS VPC Connection Credentials

If you create a new access key and secret access key to connect to the AWS VPC, you must update the connection credentials in CDO. Update the credentials in the AWS console and then update the credentials from the CDO console using the procedure below. See Managing Access Keys for IAM Users (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_access-keys.html) or Creating, Disabling, and Deleting Access Keys for Your AWS Account Root User (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/managing-aws-access-keys.html) for more information.

You cannot change the access key or secret access key from CDO; you must manually manage the connection credentials from the AWS console or the AWS CLI console.


Note

If you have multiple AWS VPCs onboarded to your CDO tenant, you must update the credentials for one device at a time.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab and then click AWS VPC.

Step 3

Select the AWS VPC whose connection credentials you want to update.

You can use the filter and search functionalities to find the required device.

Step 4

In the Device Action pane, click Update Credentials.

Step 5

Enter the new access key and secret access key you want to use to connect to the AWS VPC.

Step 6

Click Update.

Note

 

If CDO fails to sync the device, the connectivity status in CDO may show "Invalid Credentials." If that's the case, you may have tried to use an invalid username and password combination. See Troubleshoot Invalid Credentials

Monitor AWS VPC Tunnels using AWS Transit Gateway

Amazon Web Service (AWS) Transit Gateway acts as a cloud router connecting enterprise virtual private clouds (VPCs) to AWS VPCs through a central hub that allows for simplified peering relationships.

CDO allows you to monitor the connection status of your onboarded AWS VPCs using AWS Transit Gateway.

Procedure

Step 1

In the CDO menu bar, select VPN > Site-to-Site VPN.

Step 2

The VPN Tunnels page displays the connection status for all network tunnels managed by your CDO tenant. The connection status for the VPN tunnel can be active or idle.

Step 3

Select a VPC and under Actions click Check Connectivity to trigger a real-time connectivity check against the tunnel and identify whether the tunnel is currently active or idle. Unless you click the on-demand connectivity check link, a check across all tunnels, available across all onboarded devices, occurs every ten minutes.

Note

 

CDO prompts a notification if a VPN tunnel’s connection goes down. However, there is no notification prompt if the link is back up.

Search and Filter Site-to-Site VPN Tunnels

Use the filter sidebar in combination with the search field to focus your search of VPN tunnels presented in the VPN tunnel diagram.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

Click the filter icon to open the filter pane.

Step 3

Use these filters to refine your search:

  • Filter by Device-Click Filter by Device, select the device type tab, and check the devices you want to find by filtering.

  • Tunnel Issues-Whether or not we have detected either side of the tunnel has issues. Some examples of a device having issues may be but not limited to is: missing associated interface or peer IP address or access list, IKEv1 proposal mismatches, etc. (Detecting tunnel issues is not yet available for AWS VPC VPN tunnels.)

  • Devices/Services-Filter by type of device.

  • Status–Tunnel status can be active or idle.

    • Active-There is an open session where network packets are traversing the VPN tunnel or a successful session was established and hasn’t been timed-out yet. Active can assist to indicate that tunnel is active and relevant.

    • Idle - CDO is unable to discover an open session for this tunnel. The tunnel may either be not in use or there is an issue with this tunnel.

  • Onboarded - Devices could be managed by CDO or not managed (unmanaged) by CDO.

    • Managed – Filter by devices that CDO manages.

    • Unmanaged – Filter by devices that CDO does not manage.

  • Device Types - Whether or not either side of the tunnel is a live (connected device) or model device.

Step 4

You can also search the filtered results by device name or IP address by entering that information in the search bar. The search is case-insensitive.

View a history of changes made to the AWS VPC tunnels

To view a history of changes made to AWS VPC tunnels:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Change Log.

Step 2

On the Change Log page, click the filter icon and select Filter by device tab and then click AWS VPC .

Step 3

Select the AWS VPC whose history you want to review and click OK.

Manage Security Policies in CDO

Security policies examine network traffic with the ultimate goal of allowing the traffic to its intended destination or dropping it if a security threat is identified. You can use CDO to configure security policies on many different types of devices.

AWS VPC Policy

CDO provides users the ability to keep security policies consistent across an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) associated with your AWS account. You can also use CDO to share objects across multiple device types. See the following topics for more information:

AWS VPCs and Security Groups in CDO

AWS VPC Security Groups Rules

AWS security groups are a collection of rules that govern inbound and outbound network traffic to all the AWS EC2 instances, and other entities, associated with the security group.

Similar to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) console, CDO displays each rule individually. As long as your SDC has access to the Internet, you can create and manage AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) rules for the following environments:

  • A security group allowing information to or from another security group within the same AWS VPC.

  • A security group allowing to or from an IPv4 or IPv6 address.

When creating a rule in CDO that contains an AWS security group, keep the following limitations in mind:

  • For a rule allowing inbound traffic, the source can be one or more security group objects in the same AWS VPC, an IPv4 or IPv6 CIDR block, or a single IPv4 or IPv6 address. Inbound rules can only have one security group object as the destination.

  • For a rule allowing outbound traffic, the destination can be one or more security group objects in the same AWS VPC, a prefix list ID, an IPv4 or IPv6 CIDR block, a single IPv4 or IPv6 address. Outbound rules can only have one security group object as the source.

  • CDO translates rules that contain multiple entities, such as more than one port or subnet, into separate rules before deploying them to an AWS VPC.

  • When you add or remove rules, the changes are automatically applied to all AWS entities associated with the security group.

  • An AWS security group is limited to hosting a maximum of 60 inbound rules and 60 outbound rules. This limit is enforced separately for IPv4 rules and IPv6 rules; any additional rules created in CDO are inclusive to the total number of rules. In short, you cannot exceed the 60 rule limitation by onboarding to CDO.


Warning

Any edits made to existing rules will result in the edited rule being deleted and a new rule created with the new details. This will cause traffic that depends on that rule to be dropped for a very brief period of time until the new rule can be created. This does not occur if you create a brand new rule.

If you need more information on the types of rules you can create from the AWS console, see AWS Security Group Object. See AWS Security Groups and Cloud Security Group Objects for more information on objects that can be associated with AWS VPCs.

Create a Security Group Rule

By default, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) blocks all network traffic. This means that any rules are automatically configured to Allow traffic. You cannot edit this action.


Note

When you create a new security group rule you must associate it with a security group.

The AWS console does not support rules that contain more than one source or destination. This means that if you deploy a single security group rule that contains more than one entity, CDO translates the rule into separate rules before deploying it to the AWS VPC. For example, if you create an inbound rule that allows traffic from two port ranges into one cloud security group object, CDO translates it into two separate rules: (1) to allow traffic from the first port range to the security group and (2) to allow traffic from the second port range to the security group.

Use this procedure to create a security group rule:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Template tab.

Step 3

Click the AWS tab and select the AWS VPC device template whose access control policy you want to edit..

Step 4

In the Management pane at the right, select Policy.

Step 5

Click the blue plus button next to the security group you wish to add the rule to.

Step 6

Click Inbound or Outbound.

  • Inbound rules - The source network can contain one or multiple IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, or cloud security group objects. The destination network must be defined as a single cloud security group object.

  • Outbound rules - The source network must be defined as a single cloud security group object. The destination network can contain one or multiple IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, or security group objects

Step 7

Enter the rule name. You can use alphanumeric characters, spaces, and these special characters: + . _ -

Step 8

Define the traffic matching criteria by using any combination of attributes in the following tabs:

  • Source - Click the Source tab and add or remove networks (which includes networks and continents). You cannot define a port or port range as the source.

  • Destination - Click the Destination tab and add or remove networks (which includes networks and continents), or ports on which the traffic arrives. The default value is "Any."

    • Note:

      If no network object is defined, it will be translated into two rules in the AWS Console: one for IPv4 (0.0.0.0/0) and one for IPv6 (::0/0)

Step 9

Click Save.

Step 10

Review and deploy now the changes you made, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Caution

 

If the deploy fails, CDO attempts to return the state of the AWS VPC to what it was before you made the deployment attempt. This is done on a "best effort" basis. Because AWS doesn't maintain a state, this rollback attempt could fail. In that case, you will have to log in to the AWS management console and manually return the AWS VPC to its previous configuration and then read the changes into CDO.

Edit a Security Group Rule

Use this procedure to edit an access control rule for an AWS VPC using CDO:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 3

Click the AWS tab and select the AWS VPC whose access control policy you want to edit.

Step 4

In the Management pane on the right, select Policy.

Step 5

To edit an existing security group rule, select the rule and click the edit icon in the Actions pane. (Simple edits may also be performed inline without entering edit mode.) See AWS VPC Security Group Rules for rule limitations and exceptions.

Step 6

Click Save.

Step 7

Review and deploy now the changes you made, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Caution

 

If the deployment fails, CDO attempts to return the state of the AWS VPC to what it was before you made the deployment attempt. This is done on a "best effort" basis. Because AWS doesn't maintain a state, this rollback attempt could fail. In that case, you will have to log in to the AWS management console and manually return the AWS VPC to its previous configuration and then poll for changes between the AWS VPC device configuration and the configuration in CDO.

Delete a Security Group Rule

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 3

Click the AWS tab and select the AWS VPC whose access control policy you want to edit.

Step 4

In the Management pane on the right, select Policy.

Step 5

To delete a security group rule you no longer need, select the rule and click the remove icon in the Actions pane.

Step 6

Review and deploy now the changes you made, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Caution

 

If the deployment fails, CDO attempts to return the state of the AWS VPC to what it was before you made the deployment attempt. This is done on a "best effort" basis. Because AWS doesn't maintain a "state," this rollback attempt could fail. In that case, you will have to log in to the AWS management console and manually return the AWS VPC to its previous configuration and then poll for changes between the AWS VPC device configuration and the configuration in CDO.

Manage Virtual Private Network Management in CDO

A virtual private network (VPN) connection establishes a secure tunnel between endpoints over a public network such as the Internet.

This section applies to Remote Access and Site-to-site VPNs on device. It also describes the SSL standards that are used to build and remote access VPN connections on .

CDO supports the following types of VPN connections:

Introduction to Site-to-Site Virtual Private Network

A site-to-site VPN tunnel connects networks in different geographic locations. You can create site-to-site IPsec connections between managed devices and between managed devices and other Cisco or third-party peers that comply with all relevant standards. These peers can have any mix of inside and outside IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Site-to-site tunnels are built using the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocol suite and Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2). After the VPN connection is established, the hosts behind the local gateway can connect to the hosts behind the remote gateway through the secure VPN tunnel.

VPN Topology

To create a new site-to-site VPN topology you must provide a unique name, specify a topology type, choose the IKE version that is used for IPsec IKEv1 or IKEv2, or both and authentication method. Once configured, you deploy the topology to .

IPsec and IKE Protocols

In CDO, site-to-site VPNs are configured based on IKE policies and IPsec proposals that are assigned to VPN topologies. Policies and proposals are sets of parameters that define the characteristics of a site-to-site VPN, such as the security protocols and algorithms that are used to secure traffic in an IPsec tunnel. Several policy types may be required to define a full configuration image that can be assigned to a VPN topology.

Authentication VPN Tunnels

For authentication of VPN connections, configure a pre-shared key in the topology on each device. Pre-shared keys allow a secret key, used during the IKE authentication phase, to be shared between two peers.

About Extranet Devices

You can add non-Cisco or unmanaged Cisco devices to a VPN topology as "Extranet" devices with either static or dynamic IP addresses.

  • Non-Cisco Device: You cannot use CDO to create and deploy configurations to non-Cisco devices.

  • Unmanaged Cisco Device: Cisco device not managed by your organization, such as spokes in networks managed by other organizations within your company, or a connection to a service provider or partner's network.

Monitor AWS Site-to-Site Virtual Private Networks

CDO allows you to monitor already existing site-to-site VPN configurations on onboarded AWS devices. It doesn't allow you to modify or delete the site-to-site configuration.

Check Site-to-Site VPN Tunnel Connectivity

Use the Check Connectivity button to trigger a real-time connectivity check against the tunnel to identify whether the tunnel is currently active or idle. Unless you click the on-demand connectivity check button, a check across all tunnels, available across all onboarded devices, occurs once an hour.


Note
  • CDO runs this connectivity check command on the to determine if a tunnel is active or idle: 
    show vpn-sessiondb l2l sort ipaddress

  • Model ASA device(s) tunnels will always show as Idle.

To check tunnel connectivity from the VPN page:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN.

Step 2

Search and filter the list of tunnels for your site-to-site VPN tunnel and select it.

Step 3

In the Actions pane at the right, click Check Connectivity.

Site-To-Site VPN Dashboard

CDO provides a consolidated information about site-to-site VPN connections created in the tenant.

In the left pane, click Dashboard. The Site-to-Site VPN provides the information in the following widgets:

  • Sessions & Insights: Displays a bar graph representing Active VPN Tunnels and Idle VPN Tunnels, each in appropriate colors.

  • Issues: Shows the total number of tunnels detected with issues.

  • Pending Deploy: Shows the total number of tunnels with pending deployment.

By clicking on a value in the pie chart or any link in the widget, the site-to-site VPN listing page is displayed with a filter based on the selected value. For instance, in the VPN Tunnel Status widget, on clicking the Active VPN Tunnels, you will be directed to the site-to-site VPN listing page with the Active status filter applied, showing only the active tunnels.

Identify VPN Issues

CDO can identify VPN issues on . (This feature is not yet available for AWS VPC site-to-site VPN tunnels.) This article describes:

Find VPN Tunnels with Missing Peers

The "Missing IP Peer" condition is more likely to occur on ASA devices than FDM-managed devices.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

Select Table View.

Step 3

Open the Filter panel by clicking the filter icon .

Step 4

Check Detected Issues.

Step 5

Select each device reporting an issue and look in the Peers pane at the right. One peer name will be listed. CDO reports the other peer name as, "[Missing peer IP.]"

Find VPN Peers with Encryption Key Issues

Use this approach to locate VPN Peers with encryption key issues such as:

  • IKEv1 or IKEv2 keys are invalid, missing, or mismatched

  • Obsolete or low encryption tunnels

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

Select Table View.

Step 3

Open the Filter panel by clicking the filter icon .

Step 4

Select each device reporting an issue and look in the Peers pane at the right. The peer information will show you both peers.

Step 5

Click on View Peers for one of the devices.

Step 6

Double-click the device reporting the issue in the Diagram View.

Step 7

Click Key Exchange in the Tunnel Details panel at the bottom. You will be able to view both devices and diagnose the key issue from that point.

Find Incomplete or Misconfigured Access Lists Defined for a Tunnel

The "incomplete or misconfigured access-list" condition could only occur on ASA devices.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

Select Table View.

Step 3

Open the Filter panel by clicking the filter icon .

Step 4

Select each device reporting an issue and look in the Peers pane at the right. The peer information shows you both peers.

Step 5

Click on View Peers for one of the devices.

Step 6

Double-click the device reporting the issue in the Diagram View.

Step 7

Click Tunnel Details in the Tunnel Details panel at the bottom. You will see the message, "Network Policy: Incomplete"

Find Issues in Tunnel Configuration

The tunnel configuration error can occur in the following scenarios:

  • When the IP address of a site-to-site VPN interface changes, the "Peer IP Address Value has changed".

  • When the IKE value of a VPN tunnel doesn't match the other VPN tunnel, the "IKE value Mismatch" message appears.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

Select Table View.

Step 3

Open the Filter panel by clicking the filter icon .

Step 4

In the Tunnel Issues, click Detected Issues to view the VPN configuration reporting errors. You can view the configuration reporting issues .

Step 5

Select the VPN configuration reporting issues.

Step 6

In the Peers pane on the right, the icon appears for the peer having the issue. Hover over the icon to see the issue and resolution.

Next Step: Resolve Tunnel Configuration Issues.

Resolve Tunnel Configuration Issues

This procedure attempts to resolve these tunnel configuration issues:

  • When the IP address of a site-to-site VPN interface changes, the "Peer IP Address Value has changed".

  • When the IKE value of a VPN tunnel doesn’t match the other VPN tunnel, the "IKE value Mismatch" message appears.

See Find Issues in Tunnel Configuration for more information.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab and select the device associated with the VPN configuration reporting an issue.

Step 4

Accept the device changes.

Step 5

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 6

Select the VPN configuration reporting this issue.

Step 7

In the Actions pane, click the Edit icon.

Step 8

Click Next in each step until you click the Finish button in step 4.

Step 9

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Search and Filter Site-to-Site VPN Tunnels

Use the filter sidebar in combination with the search field to focus your search of VPN tunnels presented in the VPN tunnel diagram.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

Click the filter icon to open the filter pane.

Step 3

Use these filters to refine your search:

  • Filter by Device-Click Filter by Device, select the device type tab, and check the devices you want to find by filtering.

  • Tunnel Issues-Whether or not we have detected either side of the tunnel has issues. Some examples of a device having issues may be but not limited to is: missing associated interface or peer IP address or access list, IKEv1 proposal mismatches, etc. (Detecting tunnel issues is not yet available for AWS VPC VPN tunnels.)

  • Devices/Services-Filter by type of device.

  • Status–Tunnel status can be active or idle.

    • Active-There is an open session where network packets are traversing the VPN tunnel or a successful session was established and hasn’t been timed-out yet. Active can assist to indicate that tunnel is active and relevant.

    • Idle - CDO is unable to discover an open session for this tunnel. The tunnel may either be not in use or there is an issue with this tunnel.

  • Onboarded - Devices could be managed by CDO or not managed (unmanaged) by CDO.

    • Managed – Filter by devices that CDO manages.

    • Unmanaged – Filter by devices that CDO does not manage.

  • Device Types - Whether or not either side of the tunnel is a live (connected device) or model device.

Step 4

You can also search the filtered results by device name or IP address by entering that information in the search bar. The search is case-insensitive.

Onboard an Unmanaged Site-to-Site VPN Peer

CDO will discover a site-to-site VPN tunnel when one of the peers is onboarded. If the second peer is not managed by CDO, you can filter the list of VPN tunnels to find the unmanaged device and onboard it:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

Select Table View.

Step 3

Open the filter panel by clicking .

Step 4

Check Unmanaged.

Step 5

Select a tunnel from the table from the results.

Step 6

In the Peers pane on the right, click Onboard Device and follow the instructions on the screen.

Viewing AWS Site-to-Site VPN Tunnels

AWS site-to-site VPN connects your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to your enterprise network through a secure tunnel.

All site-to-site VPN configuration occurs in the AWS Management Console. Once you onboard your VPC, CDO is able to display the site-to-site VPN connections maintained by your AWS VPC and display them on the VPN Tunnels page so that you can manage them along with all your other site-to-site connections. Each VPN connection from your network to your VPC is made up of two separate VPN tunnels.

From the VPN Tunnels page in CDO, you can view information about all your managed VPN peers, filter and search for the site-to-site VPN peers of the VPC, and onboard unmanaged VPN peers.

CDO polls the AWS Management Console every 10 minutes looking for changes to the site-to-site VPN configuration. If CDO finds that there has been a change, it polls for changes in that configuration and stores the changes in its database. CDO administrators will then be able to view the new configurations in CDO.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Reference Material

AWS Virtual Private Network Documentation

View IKE Object Details of Site-To-Site VPN Tunnels

You can view the details of the IKE objects configured on the peers/devices of the selected tunnel. These details appear in a tree structure in a hierarchy based on the priority of the IKE policy object.


Note

Extranet devices don't show the IKE Objects details.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

In the VPN Tunnels page, click the name of the VPN tunnel that connects the peers.

Step 3

Under Relationships on the right, expand the object that you want to see its details.

View Site-to-Site VPN Tunnel Information

The site-to-site VPN table view is a complete listing of all site-to-site VPN tunnels available across all devices onboarded to CDO. A tunnel only exists once in this list. Clicking on a tunnel listed in the table provides an option in the right side bar to navigate directly to a tunnel's peers for further investigation.

In cases where CDO does not manage both sides of a tunnel, you can click Onboard Device to open the main onboarding page an onboard the unmanaged peer. In cases where CDO manages both side of a tunnel, the Peer 2 column contains the name of the managed device. However, in the case of an AWS VPC, the Peer 2 column contains the IP address of the VPN gateway.

To view site-to-site VPN connections in the table view:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN to open the VPN page.

Step 2

Click the Table view button.

Step 3

Use Search and Filter Site-to-Site VPN Tunnels to find a specific tunnel, or zoom into the Global View graphic to find the VPN gateway and its peers that you are looking for.

Site-to-Site VPN Global View

This is an example fo the global view. In the illustration, 'FTD_BGL_972' has a site-to-site connection with FTD_BGL_973 and FTD_BGL_974 devices.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click VPN > ASA/FDM Site-to-Site VPN.

Step 2

Click the Global view button.

Step 3

Use Search and Filter Site-to-Site VPN Tunnels to find a specific tunnel, or zoom into the Global View graphic to find the VPN gateway and its peers that you are looking for.

Step 4

Select one of the peers represented in the Global View.

Step 5

Click View Details.

Step 6

Click the other end of the VPN tunnel and CDO displays Tunnel Details, NAT Information, and Key Exchange information for that connection:

  • Tunnel Details-Displays the name and connectivity information about the tunnel. Clicking the Refresh icon updates the connectivity information for the tunnels.

  • Tunnel Details specific to AWS connections-Tunnel details for AWS site-to-site connections are slightly different than for other connections. For each connection from the AWS VPC to your VPN gateway, AWS creates two VPN tunnels. This is for high availability.

    • The name of the tunnel represents the name of the VPC your VPN gateway is connected to. The IP address named in the tunnel is the IP address that your VPN gateway knows as the VPC.

    • If the CDO Connectivity status shows active, the AWS tunnel state is Up. If the CDO Connectivity state is inactive, the AWS tunnel state is Down.

  • NAT Information-Displays the type of NAT rule being used, original and translated packet information, and provides links to the NAT table to view the NAT rule for that tunnel. (Not yet available for AWS VPC site-to-site VPN.)

  • Key Exchange-Displays the cryptographic keys in use by the tunnel and key-exchange issues. (Not yet available for AWS VPC site-to-site VPN.)

Site-to-Site VPN Tunnels Pane

The Tunnels pane displays a list of all the tunnels associated with a particular VPN gateway. For site-to-site VPN connections between your VPN gateway and an AWS VPC, the tunnels pane shows all the tunnels from your VPN gateway to the VPC. Since each site-to-site VPN connection between your VPN gateway and an AWS VPC has two tunnels, you will see double the number of tunnels you normally would for other devices.

VPN Gateway Details

Displays the number of peers connected to the VPN gateway and the IP address of the VPN gateway. This is only visible in the VPN Tunnels page.

View Peer

After you select a site-to-site VPN peer pair, the peers pane lists the two devices in the pair and allows you to click View Peer for one of the devices. By clicking View Peer, you see any other site-to-site peer that device is associated with. This is visible in the Table view and in the Global view.

Delete a CDO Site-To-Site VPN Tunnel

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, choose VPN> Site-to-Site VPN.

Step 2

Select the desired site-to-site VPN tunnel that you want to delete.

Step 3

In the Actions pane on the right, click Delete.

The selected site-to-site VPN tunnel is deleted.

About Device Configuration Changes

In order to manage a device, CDO must have its own copy of the device's configuration stored in its local database. When CDO "reads" a configuration from a device it manages, it takes a copy of the device's configuration and saves it. The first time CDO reads and saves a copy of a device's configuration is when the device is onboarded. These choices describe reading a configuration for different purposes:

  • Discard Changes: This action is available when a device's configuration status is "Not Synced." In the Not Synced state, there are changes to the device's configuration pending on CDO. This option allows you to undo all pending changes. The pending changes are deleted and CDO overwrites its copy of the configuration with copy of the configuration stored on the device.

  • Check for Changes: This action is available if the device's configuration status is Synced. Clicking Checking for Changes directs CDO to compare its copy of the device's configuration with the copy of the configuration stored on the device. If there is a difference, CDO immediately overwrites its copy of the device's configuration with the copy stored on the device.

  • Review Conflict and Accept Without Review: If you have enabled Conflict Detection on a device, CDO checks for configuration changes made on the device every 10 minutes. If the copy of the configuration stored on the device has changed, CDO notifies you by displaying the "Conflict Detected" configuration status.

    • Review Conflict: Click Review Conflict allows you to review changes made directly on a device and accept or reject them.

    • Accept Without Review: This action overwrites CDO's copy of a device's configuration with the latest copy of the configuration stored on the device. CDO does not prompt you to confirm the differences in the two copies of the configuration before taking the overwriting action.

Read All: This is a bulk operation. You can select more than one device, in any state, and click Read All to overwrite all the devices' configurations stored on CDO with the configurations stored on the devices.

  • Deploy Changes: As you make changes to a device's configuration, CDO saves the changes you make to its own copy of the configuration. Those changes are "pending" on CDO until they are deployed to the device. When there are changes to a device's configuration that have not been deployed to the device, the device is in the Not Synced configuration state.

    Pending configuration changes have no effect on the network traffic running through the device. Only after CDO deploys the changes to the device do they have an effect. When CDO deploys changes to the device's configuration, it only overwrites those elements of the configuration that were changed. It does not overwrite the entire configuration file stored on the device. Deployments can be initiated for a single device or on more than one device simultaneously.

  • Discard All is an option that is only available after you click Preview and Deploy.... After clicking Preview and Deploy, CDO shows you a preview of the pending changes in CDO. Clicking Discard All deletes all pending changes from CDO and does not deploy anything to the selected device(s). Unlike "Discard Changes" above, deleting the pending changes is the end of the operation.

Read All Device Configurations

If a configuration change is made to a device outside of CDO, the device's configuration stored on CDO and the device's local copy of its configuration are no longer the same. You many want to overwrite CDO's copy of the device's configuration with the configuration stored on the device to make the configurations the same again. You can perform this task on many devices simultaneously using the Read All link.

See Reading, Discarding, Checking for, and Deploying Configuration Changes for more information about how CDO manages the two copies of the device's configuration.

Here are three configuration statuses where clicking Read All will overwrite CDO's copy of the device's configuration with the device's copy of the configuration.

  • Conflict Detected-If conflict detection is enabled, CDO polls the devices it manages every 10 minutes for changes made to their configurations. If CDO finds that the configuration on the device has changed, CDO displays a "Conflict detected" configuration status for the device.

  • Synced-If the device is in a synced state, and you click Read All, CDO immediately checks the devices to determine if there have been any changes made to its configurations directly. After clicking Read All, CDO confirms your intent to overwrite its copy of the device's configuration and then CDO performs the overwrite.

  • Not Synced-If the device is in the Not Synced state, and you click Read All, CDO warns you that there are pending changes made to to the device's configuration using CDO and that proceeding with the Read All operation will delete those changes and then overwrite CDO's copy of the configuration with the configuration on the device. This Read All functions like Discard Changes.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

(Optional) Create a change request label to identify the results of this bulk action easily in the Change Log.

Step 5

Select the devices whose configurations you want to save CDO. Notice that CDO only provides command buttons for actions that can be applied to all the selected devices.

Step 6

Click Read All.

Step 7

CDO warns you if there are configuration changes staged on CDO, for any of the devices you selected, and asks if you want to continue with the bulk reading configurations action. Click Read All to continue.

Step 8

Look at the notifications tab for the progress of the Read All configurations operation. If you want more information about how individual actions in the bulk operation succeeded or failed, click the blue Review link and you will be directed to the Jobs page.

Step 9

If you created and activated a change request label, remember to clear it so that you don't inadvertently associate other configuration changes with this event.

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices

CDO informs you when you have made a configuration change to a device on your tenant, but you have not deployed that change, by displaying an orange dot on the Deploy icon . The devices affected by these changes show the status "Not Synced" in the Devices and Services page. By clicking Deploy, you can review which devices have pending changes and deploy the changes to those devices.


Note

For every new FDM or FTD network object or group that you create and make changes to, CDO creates an entry in this page for all on-prem management centers that are managed by CDO.

This deployment method is available for all supported devices.

You can use this deployment method for single configuration changes or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Procedure

Step 1

In the top right corner of the screen, click the Deploy icon .

Step 2

Select the devices with changes you want to deploy. If a device has a yellow caution triangle, you can not deploy changes to that device. Hover your mouse over the yellow caution triangle to find out why you can't deploy changes to that device.

Step 3

(Optional) If you want to see more information about a pending change, click the View Detailed Changelog link to open the change log associated with that change. Click the Deploy icon to return to the Devices with Pending Changes page.

Step 4

(Optional) Create a change request to track your changes without leaving the Devices with Pending Changes page.

Step 5

Click Deploy Now to deploy the changes immediately to the devices you selected. You'll see the progress in the Active jobs indicator in the Jobs tray.

Step 6

(Optional) After the deployment has finished, click Jobs in the CDO navigation bar. You will see a recent "Deploy Changes" job showing the results of the deployment.

Step 7

If you created a change request label, and you have no more configuration changes to associate with it, clear it.

What to do next

Deploy Changes to a Device

Procedure

Step 1

After you make a configuration change for a device using CDO and save it, that change is saved in CDO instance of the device's configuration.

Step 2

In the navigation bar, click Inventory.

Step 3

Click the Devices tab.

Step 4

Click the appropriate device type tab. You should see that the configuration status of the device you made changes to is now "Not synced."

Step 5

Deploy the changes using one of these methods:

  • Select the device and in the Not Synced pane on the right, click Preview and Deploy. On the Pending Changes screen, review the changes. If you are satisfied with the pending version, click Deploy Now. After the changes are deployed successfully, you can view the change log to confirm what just happened.

  • Click the Deploy icon at the top-right of the screen. See Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices for more information.

Cancelling Changes

If, when deploying a change from CDO to a device, you click Cancel, the changes you made are not deployed to the device. The process is canceled. The changes you made are still pending on CDO and can be edited further before you finally deploy them to FDM-managed device.

Discarding Changes

If, when previewing changes, you click Discard all, the changes you made, and any other changes any other user made but did not deploy to the device, are deleted. CDO reverts its pending configuration to the last read or deployed configuration before any changes were made.

Bulk Deploy Device Configurations

If you have made changes to multiple devices, for instance by editing a shared object, you can apply those change to all of the affected devices at once:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select all of the devices for which you have made configuration changes on CDO. These devices should show "Not Synced" status.

Step 5

Deploy the changes using one of these methods:

  • Click the button at the top-right of the screen to view the Devices with Pending Changes window. This gives you a chance to review the pending changes on the devices you selected before you deploy them. Click Deploy Now to deploy the changes.

    Note

     

    If you see a yellow warning triangle next to a device on the Devices with Pending Changes screen, you cannot deploy a change to that device. Hover your mouse over the warning triangle for information about why changes cannot be deployed to that device.

  • Click Deploy All on the details pane. Review any warnings and click OK. The bulk deployment starts immediately without a review of the changes.

Step 6

(Optional) Click the Jobs icon in the navigation bar to view the results of the bulk deploy.

About Scheduled Automatic Deployments

Using CDO, you can make configuration changes to one or more of the devices it manages and then schedule the changes to be deployed to those devices at a time that is convenient for you.

You can only schedule deployments if you Enable the Option to Schedule Automatic Deployments in the Tenant Settings tab of the Settings page. Once this option is enabled, you can create, edit, or delete scheduled deployments. A scheduled deployment deploys all the staged changes saved on CDO at the date and time set. You can also view and delete scheduled deployments from the Jobs page.

If there were changes made directly to the device that have not been read to CDO, the scheduled deployment will be skipped until that conflict is resolved. The Jobs page will list any instance where a scheduled deployment fails. If Enable the Option to Schedule Automatic Deployments is turned off, all scheduled deployments are deleted.


Caution

If you schedule a new deployment for multiple devices, and some of those devices already have deployments scheduled, the new scheduled deployment overwrites the existing scheduled deployments.


Note

When you create a scheduled deployment, the schedule is created in your local time, not in the time zone of the device. Scheduled deployments do not automatically adjust for daylight savings time.

Schedule an Automatic Deployment

The deployment schedule can be a single event or a recurring event. You may find recurring automatic deployments a convenient way to line up recurring deployments with your maintenance window. Follow this procedure to schedule a one-time or a recurring deployment for a single device:


Note

If you schedule a deployment for a device that has an existing deployment scheduled, the new scheduled deployment overwrites the existing deployment.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select one ore more devices.

Step 5

In the Device Details pane, locate the Scheduled Deployments tab and click Schedule.

Step 6

Select when the deployment should occur.

  • For a one-time deployment, click the Once on option to select a date and time from the calendar.

  • For a recurring deployment, click the Every option. You can choose either a daily or once a week deployment. Select the Day and Time the deployment should occur.

Step 7

Click Save.

Edit a Scheduled Deployment

Follow this procedure to edit a scheduled deployment:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select one or more devices.

Step 5

In the Device Details pane, locate the Scheduled Deployments tab and click Edit .

Step 6

Edit the recurrence, date, or time of a scheduled deployment.

Step 7

Click Save.

Delete a Scheduled Deployment

Follow this procedure to delete a scheduled deployment:


Note

If you schedule a deployment for multiple devices, and then change or delete the schedule for some of the devices, the original scheduled deployment for the remaining devices will be preserved.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select one or more devices.

Step 5

In the Device Details pane, locate the Scheduled Deployments tab and click Delete .

What to do next

Check for Configuration Changes

Check for Changes to determine if the device's configuration has been changed directly on the device and it is no longer the same as the copy of the configuration stored on CDO. You will see the this option when the device is in the "Synced" state.

To check changes:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device, whose configuration you suspect may have been changed directly on the device.

Step 5

Click Check for Changes in the Synced pane on the right.

Step 6

The behavior that follows is slightly different depending on the device:

  • For AWS device if there has been a change to the device's configuration, you will receive the message:

    Reading the policy from the device. If there are active deployments on the device, reading will start after they are finished.

    • Click OK to continue. The configuration on the device will overwrite the stored configuration on CDO.

    • Click Cancel to cancel the action.

  • For device:

  1. Compare the two configurations presented to you. Click Continue. The configuration labeled Last Known Device Configuration is the configuration stored on CDO. The configuration labeled Found on Device is the configuration saved on the ASA.

  2. Select either:

    1. Reject the out-of-band changes to keep the "Last Known Device Configuration."

    2. Accept the out-of-band changes to overwrite the device's configuration stored in CDO with the configuration found on the device.

  3. Click Continue.

Discard Configuration Changes

Click Discard Changes when you want to "undo" all the undeployed configuration changes you made to a device's configuration using CDO. When you click Discard Changes, CDO completely overwrites its local copy of a device's configuration with the configuration stored on the device.

When you click Discard Changes, your device's configuration status is in a Not Synced state. After you discard your changes, the copy of the configuration on CDO will be the same as the copy of the configuration on the device and the configuration status in CDO will return to Synced.

To discard, or "undo," all of your undeployed configuration changes for a device:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device you have been making configuration changes to.

Step 5

Click Discard Changes in the Not Synced pane on the right.

  • For FDM-managed devices-CDO warns you that "Pending changes on CDO will be discarded and the CDO configuration for this device will be replaced with the configuration currently running on the device." Click Continue to discard your changes.

  • For Meraki devices-CDO deletes the change immediately.

  • For AWS devices-CDO displays what you are about to delete. Click Accept or Cancel.

Out-of-Band Changes on Devices

Out-of-band changes refer to changes made directly on the device without using CDO. These changes may be made using the device's command-line interface over an SSH connection or by using a local manager like the Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) for the ASA, the FDM for the FDM-managed device, or for an On-Prem Firewall Management Center on the On-Prem Firewall Management Center user interface. An out-of-band change causes a conflict between the device's configuration stored on CDO and the configuration stored on the device itself.

Detecting Out-of-Band Changes on Devices

If Conflict Detection is enabled for an ASA, or an FDM-managed device, a Cisco IOS device, or an On-Prem Firewall Management Center, CDO checks the device every 10 minutes searching for any new changes made directly to the device's configuration outside of CDO.

If CDO finds that there are changes to the device's configuration that are not stored on CDO, it changes the Configuration Status of that device to the "Conflict Detected" state.

When CDO detects a conflict, one of two conditions is likely:

  • There have been configuration changes made to the device directly that have not been saved to CDO's database.

  • In the case of an FDM-managed device, there may be "pending" configuration changes on the FDM-managed device that have not been deployed.

  • In the case of an On-Prem Firewall Management Center, there may be changes made, for instance, to objects outside CDO, which are pending to be synchronized with CDO or changes made in CDO which are pending to be deployed to the On-Prem Firewall Management Center.

Synchronizing Configurations Between CDO and Device

About Configuration Conflicts

On the Inventory page, you may see devices or services have the status "Synced," "Not Synced," or "Conflict Detected." To know the status of an On-Prem Firewall Management Center that you manage using CDO, navigate Tools & Services > Firewall Management Center.

  • When a device is Synced, the configuration on CDO) and the configuration stored locally on the device are the same.

  • When a device is Not Synced, the configuration stored in CDO was changed and it is now different that the configuration stored locally on the device. Deploying your changes from CDO to the device changes the configuration on the device to match CDO's version.

  • Changes made to devices outside of CDO are called out-of-band changes. When out-of-band changes are made, you'll see the device state change to "Conflict Detected," if conflict detection is enabled for the device. Accepting the out-of-band changes, changes the configuration on CDO to match the configuration on the device.

Conflict Detection

When conflict detection is enabled, CDO polls the device for the default interval to to determine if a change has been made to the device's configuration outside of CDO. If CDO detects that a change was made, it changes the configuration status for the device to Conflict Detected. Changes made to a device outside of CDO are called "out-of-band" changes.

In the case of an On-Prem Firewall Management Center that is managed by CDO, if there are changes that are staged and the device is in Not Synced state, CDO stops polling the device to check for changes. When there are changes made outside CDO which are pending to be synchronized with CDO and changes made in CDO which are pending to be deployed to the on-prem management center, CDO declares the on-prem management center to be in the Conflict Detected state.

Once this option is enabled, you can configure how often conflicts or OOB changes are detected per device. See Schedule Polling for Device Changes for more information.

Enable Conflict Detection

Enabling conflict detection alerts you to instances where changes have been made to a device outside of CDO.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Select the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device or devices for which you want to enable conflict detection.

Step 5

In the Conflict Detection box at the right of the device table, select Enabled from the list.

Automatically Accept Out-of-Band Changes from your Device

You can configure CDO to automatically accept any change made directly to a managed device by enabling auto-accept changes. Changes made directly to a device without using CDO are referred to as out-of-band changes. An out-of-band change creates a conflict between the device's configuration stored on CDO and the configuration stored on the device itself.

The auto-accept changes feature is an enhancement to conflict detection. If you have auto-accept changes enabled on your device, CDO checks for changes every 10 minutes to determine if there have been any out-of-band changes made to the device's configuration. If there have been configuration changes, CDO automatically updates its local version of the device's configuration without prompting you.

CDO will not automatically accept a configuration change if there are configuration changes made on CDO that have not yet been deployed to the device. Follow the prompts on the screen to determine your next action.

To use auto-accept changes, you first enable the tenant to display the auto-accept option in the Conflict Detection menu on the Inventory page; then, you enable auto-accept changes for individual devices.

If you want CDO to detect out-of-band changes but give you the option to accept or reject them manually, enable Conflict Detection instead.

Configure Auto-Accept Changes

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to CDO using an account with Admin or Super Admin privileges.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Settings > General Settings.

Step 3

In the Tenant Settings area, click the toggle to Enable the option to auto-accept device changes. This enables the Auto-Accept Changes menu option to appear in the Conflict Detection menu on the Inventory page.

Step 4

Open the Inventory page and select the device for which you want to automatically accept out-of-band changes.

Step 5

In the Conflict Detection menu, select Auto-Accept Changes in the drop-down menu.

Disabling Auto-Accept Changes for All Devices on the Tenant

Procedure

Step 1

Log-in to CDO using an account with Admin or Super Admin privileges.

Step 2

In left pane, click Settings > General Settings.

Step 3

In the Tenant Settings area, disable the "Enable the option to auto-accept device changes" by sliding the toggle to the left so it shows a grey X. This disables Auto-Accept Changes option in the Conflict Detection menu and disables the feature for every device on your tenant.

Note

 

Disabling "Auto-Accept" will require you to review each device conflict before you can accept it into CDO. This includes devices previously configured to auto-accept changes.

Resolve Configuration Conflicts

This section provides information about resolving configuration conflicts that occur on the device.

Resolve the Not Synced Status

Use the following procedure to resolve a device with a "Not Synced" Configuration Status:

Procedure

Step 1

In the navigation bar, click Inventory.

Note

 

For an On-Prem Firewall Management Center, navigate Tools & Services > Firewall Management Center and select the FMC that is in Not Synced state and continue from Step 5.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device reported as Not Synced.

Step 5

In the Not synced panel to the right, select either of the following:

  • Preview and Deploy... -If you want to push the configuration change from CDO to the device, preview and deploy the changes you made now, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

  • Discard Changes -If you do not want to push the configuration change from CDO to the device, or you want to "undo" the configuration changes you started making on CDO. This option overwrites the configuration stored in CDO with the running configuration stored on the device.

Resolve the Conflict Detected Status

CDO allows you to enable or disable conflict detection on each live device. If Conflict Detection is enabled and there was a change made to the device's configuration without using CDO, the device's configuration status will show Conflict Detected.

To resolve a "Conflict Detected" status, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the navigation bar, click Inventory.

Note

 

For an On-Prem Firewall Management Center, navigate Tools & Services > Firewall Management Center and select the FMC that is in Not Synced state and continue from Step 5.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate your device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device reporting the conflict and click Review Conflict in the details pane on the right.

Step 5

In the Device Sync page, compare the two configurations by reviewing the highlighted differences.

  • The panel labeled "Last Known Device Configuration" is the device configuration stored on CDO.

  • The panel labeled "Found on Device" is the configuration stored in the running configuration on the ASA.

Step 6

Resolve the conflict by selecting one of the following:

  • Accept Device changes: This will overwrite the configuration and any pending changes stored on CDO with the device's running configuration.

    Note

     

    As CDO does not support deploying changes to the Cisco IOS devices outside of the command line interface, your only choice for a Cisco IOS device will be to select Accept Without Review when resolving the conflict.

  • Reject Device Changes: This will overwrite the configuration stored on the device with the configuration stored on CDO.

Note

 

All configuration changes, rejected or accepted, are recorded in the change log.

Schedule Polling for Device Changes

If you have Conflict Detection enabled, or if you Enable the option to auto-accept device changes from the Settings page,CDO polls the device for the default interval to determine if a change has been made to the device's configuration outside of CDO. You can customize how often CDO polls for changes per device. These changes can be applied to more than one device.

If there is no selection configured for a device, the interval is automatically configured for "tenant default".


Note

Customizing the interval per device from the Inventory page overrides the polling interval selected as the Default Conflict Detection Interval from the General Settings page.

After you enable Conflict Detection from the Inventory page or Enable the option to auto-accept device changes from the Settings page, use the following procedure to schedule how often you want CDO to poll your devices:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Inventory.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate your device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device or devices for which you want to enable conflict detection.

Step 5

In the same area as Conflict Detection, click the drop-down menu for Check every and select the desired polling interval: