Dynamic Multipoint VPN (DMVPN)

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Revision as of 13:48, 20 January 2014 by Iilluzion2 (talk | contribs) (nsd control)
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(Last edited by Iilluzion2 on 20 Jan 2014.)

http://alpinelinux.org/about under Why the Name Alpine? states: [ref?]

The first open-source implementation of Cisco's DMVPN, called OpenNHRP, was written for Alpine Linux.

So the aim of this document is to be the reference Linux DMVPN setup, with all the networking services needed for the clients that will use the DMVPN (DNS, DHCP, firewall, etc.).

Terminology

NBMA
Non-Broadcast Multi-Access network as described in RFC 2332
Hub
the Next Hop Server (NHS) performing the Next Hop Resolution Protocol service within the NBMA cloud.
Spoke
the Next Hop Resolution Protocol Client (NHC) which initiates NHRP requests of various types in order to obtain access to the NHRP service.
Tip: At the time of this writing the recommended Alpine version for building a DMVPN should be at minimum 2.4.11. Don't use 2.5.x, or 2.6.0 since the kernel has in-tunnel IP fragmentation issues. Alpine 2.6.1 or later should be okay instead.
Note: This document assumes that all Alpine installations are run in diskless mode and that the configuration is saved on USB key

Hardware

If you are looking for hundreds of megabits of throughput for your VPN with a limited budget, you should consider using VIA Padlock engine present in VIA processor C7, Eden, Nano and Quad. If you need gigabits throughput you should go instead for an Intel Xeon processor with AES-NI and SHA Extensions

For supporting VIA Padlock engine enable its modules:

echo -e "padlock_aes\npadlock-sha" >> /etc/modules

Extract Certificates

We will use certificates for DMVPN and for OpenVPN (RoadWarrior clients). If you are in need to generate your own certificates, please see Generating_SSL_certs_with_ACF. You should use a separate machine for this purpose. If you downloaded the certificates on a Windows machine, you may use WinSCP to copy them on the DMVPN box.

Here are the general purpose instruction for extracting certificates from pfx files:

openssl pkcs12 -in cert.pfx -cacerts -nokeys -out cacert.pem openssl pkcs12 -in cert.pfx -nocerts -nodes -out serverkey.pem openssl pkcs12 -in cert.pfx -nokeys -clcerts -out cert.pem

Set appropriate permission for your certificate files:

chmod 600 *.pem *.pfx

Spoke Node

A local spoke node network has support for multiple ISP connections, along with redundant layer 2 switches. At least one 802.1q capable switch is required, and a second is optional for redundancy purposes. The typical spoke node network looks like:

Boot Alpine USB

Follow the instructions on http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Create_a_Bootable_USB about how to create a bootable USB.

Alpine Setup

We will setup the network interfaces as follows:

bond0.3 = Management (not implemented below yet)
bond0.8 = LAN
bond0.64 = DMZ
bond0.80 = Voice (not implemented below yet)
bond0.96 = Internet Access Only (no access to the DMVPN network)(not implemented below yet)
bond0.256 = ISP1
bond0.257 = ISP2

setup-alpine

You will be prompted something like this... Suggestion on what you could enter...
Select keyboard layout [none]: Type an appropriate layout for you
Select variant: Type an appropriate layout for you (if prompted)
Enter system hostname (short form, e.g. 'foo') [localhost]: Enter the hostname, e.g. vpnc
Available interfaces are: eth0
Enter '?' for help on bridges, bonding and vlans.
Which one do you want to initialize? (or '?' done')
Enter bond0.8
Available bond slaves are: eth0 eth1
Which slave(s) do you want to add to bond0? (or 'done') [eth0]
eth0 eth1
IP address for bond0? (or 'dhcp', 'none', '?') [none]: Press Enter confirming 'none'
IP address for bond0.8? (or 'dhcp', 'none', '?') [dhcp]: Enter the IP address of your LAN interface, e.g. 10.1.0.1
Netmask? [255.255.255.0]: Press Enter confirming '255.255.255.0' or type another appropriate subnet mask
Gateway? (or 'none') [none]: Press Enter confirming 'none'
Do you want to do any manual network configuration? [no] yes
Make a copy of the bond0.8 configuration for bond0.64, bond0.256 and bond0.257 (optional) interfaces.
Don't forget to add a gateway and a metric value for ISP interfaces when multiple gateways are set.
Save and close the file (:wq)
DNS domain name? (e.g. 'bar.com') []: Enter the domain name of your intranet, e.g., example.net
DNS nameservers(s)? []: 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 (we will change them later)
Changing password for root
New password:
Enter a secure password for the console
Retype password: Retype the above password
Which timezone are you in? ('?' for list) [UTC]: Press Enter confirming 'UTC'
HTTP/FTP proxy URL? (e.g. 'http://proxy:8080', or 'none') [none] Press Enter confirming 'none'
Enter mirror number (1-9) or URL to add (or r/f/e/done) [f]: Select a mirror close to you and press Enter
Which SSH server? ('openssh', 'dropbear' or 'none') [openssh]: Press Enter confirming 'openssh'
Which NTP client to run? ('openntpd', 'chrony' or 'none') [chrony]: Press Enter confirming 'chrony'
Which disk(s) would you like to use? (or '?' for help or 'none') [none]: Press Enter confirming 'none' or type 'none' if needed
Enter where to store configs ('floppy', 'usb' or 'none') [usb]: Press Enter confirming 'usb'
Enter apk cache directory (or '?' or 'none') [/media/usb/cache]: Press Enter confirming '/media/usb/cache'

Bonding

Update the bonding configuration.

With your favorite editor open /etc/network/interfaces and add bond-mode, bond-miimon and bond-updelay parameters to the bond0 stanza:

Contents of /etc/network/interfaces

auto bond0 iface bond0 inet manual bond-slaves eth0 eth1 bond-mode balance-tlb bond-miimon 100 bond-updelay 500 ...

Bring up the new bonding settings:

ifdown bond0 ifup bond0


Physically install

At this point, you're ready to connect the VPN Spoke Node to the network if you haven't already done so. Please set up an 802.1q capable switch with the VLANs listed in AlpineSetup section. Once done, tag all of the VLANs on one port. Connect that port to eth0. Then, connect your first ISP's CPE to a switchport with VLAN 256 untagged.

SSH

Remove password authentication and DNS reverse lookup:

sed -i "s/.PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication no/" /etc/ssh/sshd_config sed -i "s/.UseDNS yes/UseDNS no/" /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Restart ssh:

/etc/init.d/sshd restart

NTP server

In order to have attached devices syncing their time agains this host, we need to do some modifications to chrony config.
Add 'allow all' to the end of the '/etc/chrony/chrony.conf' so the file looks something like this:

Contents of /etc/chrony/chrony.conf

server pool.ntp.org initstepslew 10 pool.ntp.org commandkey 10 keyfile /etc/chrony/chrony.keys driftfile /etc/chrony/chrony.drift allow all

Restart chronyd for the changes to take effect

/etc/init.d/chronyd restart

Recursive DNS

Install package(s):

apk add -U unbound

With your favorite editor open /etc/unbound/unbound.conf and add the following configuration. If you have a domain that you want unbound to resolve but is internal to your network only, the stub-zone stanza is present:

Contents of /etc/unbound/unbound.conf

server: verbosity: 1 interface: 10.1.0.1 do-ip4: yes do-ip6: no do-udp: yes do-tcp: yes do-daemonize: yes access-control: 10.1.0.0/16 allow access-control: 127.0.0.0/8 allow do-not-query-localhost: no root-hints: "/etc/unbound/root.hints" stub-zone: name: "location1.example.net" stub-addr: 10.1.0.2 stub-zone: name: "example.net" stub-addr: 172.16.255.1 stub-addr: 172.16.255.2 stub-addr: 172.16.255.3 stub-addr: 172.16.255.4 stub-addr: 172.16.255.5 stub-addr: 172.16.255.7 stub-zone: name: "example2.net" stub-addr: 172.16.255.1 stub-addr: 172.16.255.2 stub-addr: 172.16.255.3 stub-addr: 172.16.255.4 stub-addr: 172.16.255.5 stub-addr: 172.16.255.7 python: remote-control: control-enable: no

Start unbound and start using unbound on this host:

/etc/init.d/unbound start rc-update add unbound echo nameserver 10.1.0.1 > /etc/resolv.conf

Local DNS Zone

If you have a DNS zone that is only resolvable internally to your network, you will need a 2nd IP address on your LAN interface, and use NSD to host the zone.

First, add the following to the end of the bond0.8 stanza:

Contents of /etc/network/interfaces

auto bond0.8 ... ... up ip addr add 10.1.0.2/24 dev bond0.8

Bring up the new IP address:

ifdown bond0.8 ifup bond0.8

Install package(s):

apk add nsd

Create /etc/nsd/nsd.conf:

Contents of /etc/nsd/nsd.conf

server: ip-address: 10.1.0.2 port: 53 server-count: 1 ip4-only: yes hide-version: yes identity: "" zonesdir: "/etc/nsd" zone: name: location1.example.net zonefile: location1.example.net.zone remote-control: control-enable: yes

Create zonefile in /etc/nsd/location1.example.net.zone:

Contents of /etc/nsd/location1.example.net.zone

;## location1.example.net authoritative zone $ORIGIN location1.example.net. $TTL 86400 @ IN SOA ns1.location1.example.net. webmaster.location1.example.net. ( 2013081901  ; serial 28800  ; refresh 7200  ; retry 86400  ; expire 86400  ; min TTL ) NS ns1.location1.example.net. MX 10 mail.location1.example.net. ns IN A 10.1.0.2 mail IN A 10.1.0.4

Check configuration then start:

nsd-checkconf /etc/nsd/nsd.conf nsd-control-setup /etc/init.d/nsd start rc-update add nsd

GRE Tunnel

With your favorite editor open /etc/network/interfaces and add the following:

Contents of /etc/network/interfaces

auto gre1 iface gre1 inet static pre-up ip tunnel add $IFACE mode gre ttl 64 tos inherit key 12.34.56.78 || true address 172.16.1.1 netmask 255.255.0.0 post-down ip tunnel del $IFACE || true

Bring up the new gre1 interface:

ifup gre1

IPSEC

Install package(s):

apk add ipsec-tools

With your favorite editor create /etc/ipsec.conf and set the content to the following:

Contents of /etc/ipsec.conf

spdflush; spdadd 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 gre -P out ipsec esp/transport//require; spdadd 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 gre -P in ipsec esp/transport//require;

Create missing directory:

mkdir /etc/racoon/

Extract your pfx into /etc/racoon, using the filenames ca.pem, cert.pem, and key.pem (see instructions above for command).

With your favorite editor create /etc/racoon/racoon.conf and set the content to the following:

Contents of /etc/racoon/racoon.conf

path certificate "/etc/racoon/"; remote anonymous { exchange_mode main; lifetime time 2 hour; certificate_type x509 "/etc/racoon/cert.pem" "/etc/racoon/key.pem"; ca_type x509 "/etc/racoon/ca.pem"; my_identifier asn1dn; nat_traversal on; script "/etc/opennhrp/racoon-ph1dead.sh" phase1_dead; dpd_delay 120; proposal { encryption_algorithm aes 256; hash_algorithm sha1; authentication_method rsasig; dh_group modp4096; } proposal { encryption_algorithm aes 256; hash_algorithm sha1; authentication_method rsasig; dh_group 2; } } sainfo anonymous { pfs_group 2; lifetime time 2 hour; encryption_algorithm aes 256; authentication_algorithm hmac_sha1; compression_algorithm deflate; }

Edit /etc/conf.d/racoon and unset RACOON_PSK_FILE:

Contents of /etc/conf.d/racoon

... RACOON_PSK_FILE= ...

Start service(s):

/etc/init.d/racoon start rc-update add racoon

Next Hop Resolution Protocol (NHRP)

Install package(s):

apk add opennhrp

With your favorite editor open /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp.conf and change the content to the following:

Contents of /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp.conf

interface gre1 dynamic-map 172.16.0.0/16 hub.example.com shortcut redirect non-caching interface bond0.8 shortcut-destination interface bond0.64 shortcut-destination

You must have a DNS A record hub.example.com for each hub node IP address.

With your favorite editor open /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp-script and change the content to the following:

Contents of /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp-script

#!/bin/sh MYAS=$(sed -n 's/router bgp \(\d*\)/\1/p' < /etc/quagga/bgpd.conf) case $1 in interface-up) echo "Interface $NHRP_INTERFACE is up" if [ "$NHRP_INTERFACE" = "gre1" ]; then ip route flush proto 42 dev $NHRP_INTERFACE ip neigh flush dev $NHRP_INTERFACE vtysh -d bgpd \ -c "configure terminal" \ -c "router bgp $MYAS" \ -c "no neighbor core" \ -c "neighbor core peer-group" fi  ;; peer-register)  ;; peer-up) if [ -n "$NHRP_DESTMTU" ]; then ARGS=`ip route get $NHRP_DESTNBMA from $NHRP_SRCNBMA | head -1` ip route add $ARGS proto 42 mtu $NHRP_DESTMTU fi echo "Create link from $NHRP_SRCADDR ($NHRP_SRCNBMA) to $NHRP_DESTADDR ($NHRP_DESTNBMA)" racoonctl establish-sa -w isakmp inet $NHRP_SRCNBMA $NHRP_DESTNBMA || exit 1 racoonctl establish-sa -w esp inet $NHRP_SRCNBMA $NHRP_DESTNBMA gre || exit 1  ;; peer-down) echo "Delete link from $NHRP_SRCADDR ($NHRP_SRCNBMA) to $NHRP_DESTADDR ($NHRP_DESTNBMA)" racoonctl delete-sa isakmp inet $NHRP_SRCNBMA $NHRP_DESTNBMA ip route del $NHRP_DESTNBMA src $NHRP_SRCNBMA proto 42  ;; nhs-up) echo "NHS UP $NHRP_DESTADDR" ( flock -x 200 vtysh -d bgpd \ -c "configure terminal" \ -c "router bgp $MYAS" \ -c "neighbor $NHRP_DESTADDR remote-as 65000" \ -c "neighbor $NHRP_DESTADDR peer-group core" \ -c "exit" \ -c "exit" \ -c "clear bgp $NHRP_DESTADDR" ) 200>/var/lock/opennhrp-script.lock  ;; nhs-down) ( flock -x 200 vtysh -d bgpd \ -c "configure terminal" \ -c "router bgp $MYAS" \ -c "no neighbor $NHRP_DESTADDR" ) 200>/var/lock/opennhrp-script.lock  ;; route-up) echo "Route $NHRP_DESTADDR/$NHRP_DESTPREFIX is up" ip route replace $NHRP_DESTADDR/$NHRP_DESTPREFIX proto 42 via $NHRP_NEXTHOP dev $NHRP_INTERFACE ip route flush cache  ;; route-down) echo "Route $NHRP_DESTADDR/$NHRP_DESTPREFIX is down" ip route del $NHRP_DESTADDR/$NHRP_DESTPREFIX proto 42 ip route flush cache  ;; esac exit 0

Make it executable and start service(s):

chmod +x /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp-script /etc/init.d/opennhrp start rc-update add opennhrp

BGP

Install package(s):

apk add quagga touch /etc/quagga/zebra.conf

With your favorite editor open /etc/quagga/bgpd.conf and change the content to the following (replace strongpassword with a password of your choice and %HUB_GRE_IP% with the Hub node GRE IP address):

  • Add the line neighbor %HUB_GRE_IP% remote-as 65000 for each Hub host you have in your NBMA cloud.

Contents of /etc/quagga/bgpd.conf

password strongpassword enable password strongpassword log syslog access-list 1 remark Command line access authorized IP access-list 1 permit 127.0.0.1 line vty access-class 1 hostname vpnc.example.net router bgp 65001 bgp router-id 172.16.1.1 network 10.1.0.0/16 neighbor %HUB_GRE_IP% remote-as 65000 neighbor %HUB_GRE_IP% remote-as 65000 ...

Start service(s):

/etc/init.d/bgpd start rc-update add bgpd

OpenVPN

Install package(s):

echo tun >> /etc/modules modprobe tun apk add openvpn openssl openssl dhparam -out /etc/openvpn/dh1024.pem 1024

Configure openvpn:

Contents of /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf

dev tun proto udp port 1194 server 10.1.128.0 255.255.255.0 push "route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0" push "dhcp-option DNS 10.1.0.1" tls-server ca /etc/openvpn/cacert.pem cert /etc/openvpn/servercert.pem key /etc/openvpn/serverkey.pem crl-verify /etc/openvpn/crl.pem dh /etc/openvpn/dh1024.pem persist-key persist-tun keepalive 10 120 comp-lzo status /var/log/openvpn.status mute 20 verb 3

Start service(s):

/etc/init.d/openvpn start rc-update add openvpn

Firewall

Install package(s):

apk add awall

Enable IP forwarding:

sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 sed -i 's/.*net\.ipv4\.ip_forward.*$/net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1/g' /etc/sysctl.conf

With your favorite editor, edit the following files and set their contents as follows:


Contents of /etc/awall/optional/params.json

{ "description": "params", "variable": { "B_IF": "bond0.8", "C_IF": "bond0.64", "ISP1_IF": "bond0.256", "ISP2_IF": "bond0.257" } }


Contents of /etc/awall/optional/internet-host.json

{ "description": "Internet host", "import": "params", "zone": { "E": { "iface": [ "$ISP1_IF", "$ISP2_IF" ] }, "ISP1": { "iface": "$ISP1_IF" }, "ISP2": { "iface": "$ISP2_IF" } }, "filter": [ { "in": "E", "service": "ping", "action": "accept", "flow-limit": { "count": 10, "interval": 6 } }, { "in": "E", "out": "_fw", "service": [ "ssh", "https" ], "action": "accept", "conn-limit": { "count": 3, "interval": 60 } }, { "in": "_fw", "out": "E", "service": [ "dns", "http", "ntp" ], "action": "accept" }, { "in": "_fw", "service": [ "ping", "ssh" ], "action": "accept" } ] }


Contents of /etc/awall/optional/openvpn.json

{ "description": "OpenVPN support", "import": "internet-host", "service": { "openvpn": { "proto": "udp", "port": 1194 } }, "filter": [ { "in": "E", "out": "_fw", "service": "openvpn", "action": "accept" } ] }


Contents of /etc/awall/optional/clampmss.json

{ "description": "Deal with ISPs afraid of ICMP", "import": "internet-host", "clamp-mss": [ { "out": "E" } ] }


Contents of /etc/awall/optional/mark.json

{ "description": "Mark traffic based on ISP", "import": [ "params", "internet-host" ], "route-track": [ { "out": "ISP1", "mark": 1 }, { "out": "ISP2", "mark": 2 } ] }


Contents of /etc/awall/optional/dmvpn.json

{ "description": "DMVPN router", "import": "internet-host", "variable": { "A_ADDR": [ "10.0.0.0/8", "172.16.0.0/16" ] }, "zone": { "A": { "addr": "$A_ADDR", "iface": "gre1" } }, "filter": [ { "in": "E", "out": "_fw", "service": "ipsec", "action": "accept" }, { "in": "_fw", "out": "E", "service": "ipsec", "action": "accept" }, { "in": "E", "out": "_fw", "ipsec": "in", "service": "gre", "action": "accept" }, { "in": "_fw", "out": "E", "ipsec": "out", "service": "gre", "action": "accept" }, { "in": "_fw", "out": "A", "service": "bgp", "action": "accept" }, { "in": "A", "out": "_fw", "service": "bgp", "action": "accept"}, { "out": "E", "dest": "$A_ADDR", "action": "reject" } ] }


Contents of /etc/awall/optional/vpnc.json

{ "description": "VPNc", "import": [ "params", "internet-host", "dmvpn" ], "zone": { "B": { "iface": "$B_IF" }, "C": { "iface": "$C_IF" } }, "policy": [ { "in": "A", "action": "accept" }, { "in": "B", "out": "A", "action": "accept" }, { "in": "C", "out": [ "A", "E" ], "action": "accept" }, { "in": "E", "action": "drop" }, { "in": "_fw", "out": "A", "action": "accept" } ], "snat": [ { "out": "E" } ], "filter": [ { "in": "A", "out": "_fw", "service": [ "ping", "ssh", "http", "https" ], "action": "accept" }, { "in": [ "B", "C" ], "out": "_fw", "service": [ "dns", "ntp", "http", "https", "ssh" ], "action": "accept" }, { "in": "_fw", "out": [ "B", "C" ], "service": [ "dns", "ntp" ], "action": "accept" }, { "in": [ "A", "B", "C" ], "out": "_fw", "proto": "icmp", "action": "accept" } ] }

Activate the firewall:

modprobe ip_tables modprobe iptable_nat awall enable clampmss awall enable openvpn awall enable vpnc awall activate rc-update add iptables

ISP Failover

Install package(s):

apk add pingu echo -e "1\tisp1">> /etc/iproute2/rt_tables echo -e "2\tisp2">> /etc/iproute2/rt_tables

Configure pingu to monitor our bond0.256 and bond0.257 interfaces in /etc/pingu/pingu.conf. Add the hosts to monitor for ISP failover to /etc/pingu/pingu.conf and bind to primary ISP. We also set the ping timeout to 4 seconds.:

Contents of /etc/pingu/pingu.conf

timeout 4 required 2 retry 11 interface bond0.256 { # route-table must correspond with mark in /etc/awall/optional/mark.json route-table 1 fwmark 1 rule-priority 20000 # google dns ping 8.8.8.8 # opendns ping 208.67.222.222 } interface bond0.257 { # route-table must correspond with mark in /etc/awall/optional/mark.json route-table 2 fwmark 2 rule-priority 20000 }

Make sure we can reach the public IP from our LAN by adding static route rules for our private net(s). Edit /etc/pingu/route-rules:

Contents of /etc/pingu/route-rules

to 10.0.0.0/8 table main prio 1000 to 172.16.0.0/12 table main prio 1000

Start service(s):

/etc/init.d/pingu start rc-update add pingu

Now, if both hosts stop responding to pings, ISP-1 will be considered down and all gateways via bond0.256 will be removed from main route table. Note that the gateway will not be removed from the route table '1'. This is so we can continue try ping via bond0.256 so we can detect that the ISP is back online. When ISP starts working again, the gateways will be added back to main route table again.

Commit Configuration

Commit configuration:

lbu ci

Hub Node

We will document only what changes from the Spoke node setup.

Routing Tables

Todo: Would we need to change this command - or add some description on why it's documented?


echo -e "42\tnhrp_shortcut\n43\tnhrp_mtu\n44\tquagga\n

NHRP

With your favorite editor open /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp.conf on Hub 2 and set the content as follows:

Contents of /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp.conf

interface gre1 map %Hub1_GRE_IP%/%MaskBit% hub1.example.org route-table 44 shortcut redirect non-caching

Do the same on Hub 1 adding the data relative to Hub 2.

With your favorite editor open /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp-script and set the content as follows:

Contents of /etc/opennhrp/opennhrp-script

openssl x509 -inform der -text -noout

BGP

With your favorite editor open /etc/quagga/bgpd.conf on Hub 2 and set the content as follows:

Contents of /etc/quagga/bgpd.conf

password zebra enable password zebra log syslog router bgp 65000 bgp router-id %Hub2_GRE_IP% bgp deterministic-med network %GRE_NETWORK%/%MASK_BITS% neighbor hub peer-group neighbor hub next-hop-self neighbor hub route-map CORE-IN in neighbor spoke peer-group neighbor spoke passive neighbor spoke next-hop-self neighbor %Spoke1_GRE_IP% remote-as 65001 neighbor %Spoke1_GRE_IP% peer-group spoke neighbor %Spoke1_GRE_IP% prefix-list net-65001-in in ... ... ... neighbor hub remote-as 65000 neighbor %Hub1_GRE_IP% peer-group core ip prefix-list net-65001-in seq 5 permit 10.1.0.0/16 le 26 ... route-map CORE-IN permit 10 set metric +100

Add the lines neighbor %Spoke1_GRE_IP%... for each spoke node you have. Do the same on Hub 1, changing the relevant data for Hub 2.

Troubleshooting the DMVPN

Broken Path MTU Discovery (PMTUD)

ISPs afraid of ICMP (which is somehow legitimate) often just blindly add no ip unreachables in their router interfaces, effectively creating a blackhole router that breaks PMTUD, since ICMP Type 3 Code 4 packets (Fragmentation Needed) are dropped. PMTUD is needed by ISAKMP that runs on UDP (TCP works because it uses CLAMPMSS).

For technical details see http://packetlife.net/blog/2008/oct/9/disabling-unreachables-breaks-pmtud/

PMTUD could also be broken due to badly configured DSL modem/routers or bugged firmware. Turning off the firewall on modem itself or any VPN passthrough functionality it may help.

You can easily detect which host is the blackhole router by pinging with DF bit set and with packets of standard MTU size, each hop given in your traceroute to destination:

ping -M do -s 1472 %IP%

Note: "-M do" requires GNU ping, present in iputils package

If you don't get a response back (either Echo-Response or Fragmentation-Needed) there's firewall dropping ICMP packets. If it answers to normal ping packets (DF bit cleared), most likely you have hit a blackhole router.

Kernel and NHRP Routing Cache Issues

Todo: ...