Aviatrix Source NAT (SNAT) on BGP Spoke

Aviatrix customer has applications running in various VPCs, these applications need to be able to communicate with FiServ securely via BGP over IPSec tunnels. FiServ also has lots of its own customers that most likely use RFC1918 as internal address space. To avoid conflicts, FiServ assigns non-RFC1918 IP Prefixes to FiServ customers, the incoming connection must be Source NAT (SNAT) to these non-RFC1918 IP Prefixes, and FiServ also only allows incoming traffic from these non-RFC1918 IP Prefixes on FiServ firewalls.

FiServ reference architecture: https://developer.fiserv.com/product/FirstVisionEMEA/docs/?path=docs/Support/Client-Onboarding.md&branch=main#connectivity-overview-diagram

This blog intends to walk through various considerations that affects final design.

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Request/Renew SSL Certificate for Aviatrix Controller/CoPilot

As of writing, on Aviatrix Controller version 7.1.2131 and CoPilot v4.3.1, the current process of installing a certificate:

  1. For Aviatrix Controller
    • By default, the Aviatrix Controller uses a self-signed certificate. In this case, an option to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) will be available.  The CSR requires the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the controller, e.g., avx-controller.mycompany.com.  When the CSR is generated, the controller will also generate and store a corresponding private key.  The generated CSR is supplied to the Certificate Authority (CA) which will return a signed public certificate.  In addition to this certificate, a CA certificate (generally publicly available from the CA) will also be required during the import process.
    • If a public certificate is already installed, you can no longer generate a CSR without first reverting to a self-signed certificate.
    • There is also an option to import an externally generated private key with corresponding public and CA certs. 
  2. For Aviatrix CoPilot
    • The Copilot does not support the generation of CSR’s.  Instead, an externally generated private key and corresponding CA-signed public key are required for importation. 

The processes above can be challenging for customers, especially when renewing existing certificates.  This confusion is compounded by the variety of different certificate types of Certification Authorities, certificate formats and operating system tools.

This blog intends to create a more standardized process for Aviatrix Customers to follow.

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Picking the correct subnet from Aviatrix created VPC

Resource aviatrix_vpc creates a VPC/vNet/VCN in various cloud types. For Aviatrix Transit VPC, there would be various different subnets created for the purpose of integrating with SDWan appliances, insertion of Firewalls, integration with AWS TGW (Aviatrix Orchestrated), or utilizing AWS Gateway Load Balancer etc.

An example of subnets created in AWS for Aviatrix Transit VPC with High-Performance Encryption, TGW-O integration, and Firewall integration with GWLB.

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Gain Visibility and Control of your AWS Public Subnet Workloads

It is common for enterprise customers to run a workload in AWS in a public-facing subnet, where the default route (0.0.0.0/0) would be pointing to the AWS internet gateway (IGW). Reference: AWS Internet Gateway Documentation

The IGW provides NAT between the public IP and the private IP assigned to the instance. You may control inbound/outbound traffic via Security Group, where you can control what protocol and IP range that would have access. However, IGW won’t provide you much visibility of the traffic going in/out from your instance, and you may need to use FlowLogs to gain some level of visibility. Some examples of FlowLogs can be found here: Flow log record examples. You may find it lack of detail and very difficult to read.

For enterprise customers that value visibility and security, as well as simplified IT operations, Aviatrix has designed a Public Subnet Filtering gateway feature for AWS public subnet workload.

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Aviatrix CoPilot Baseline Metric

Enterprise customers values Aviatrix CoPilot for track and gather evidential data on their network. The platform aggregates abundant Syslog and Netflow data, which can be used to establish baseline metrics for alerting. Customers can choose to modify or add/remove metrics to suit their specific needs. Here is a list of recommended baseline metric, as well as detail of each one’s meaning.

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GCP Interconnect to Aviatrix Transit – Option 1

In the last blog post: Learning GCP Interconnect: Step-by-Step Guide for Configuring BGP with ISR and Cloud Router, I have shown steps of creating Interconnect VLAN attachment to existing VPC, as well as how to configure Cloud Routers and VPC peerings to establish connectivity from on-prem to GCP spoke VPC. You may have noticed a few feature difference amongst AWS Direct Connect, Azure Express Route and GCP Interconnect, which leads to different architecture.

In this blog post, I will show you how to connect Aviatrix Edge 2.0 to Aviatrix Transit in GCP, using Interconnect as underlay.

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Aviatrix High Performance Encryption (pseudo) with 3rd party devices

Aviatrix Gateways – Spoke, Transit, CloudN, and Edge – offer a simple and efficient way to establish highly available and high-performing data planes. With the Aviatrix Controller, multiple encrypted tunnels can be automatically created, ensuring seamless redundancy and fast throughput. By deploying a pair of gateways at each end, Aviatrix builds four full mesh tunnels, creating a reliable data path with up to 5Gbps of throughput. But what makes Aviatrix truly stand out is its patented High Performance Encryption, which leverages multiple IP addresses and CPU cores to create multiple IPSec tunnels. This unique approach can achieve up to 70Gbps throughput, delivering exceptional performance.

However, not all customers are ready to implement CloudN or Edge. For these situations, Aviatrix still provides encryption and the ability to create multiple IPSec tunnels for higher throughput. In this blog post, we will delve into how to achieve this and explore the benefits of using Aviatrix Gateways for highly available and high-performing data planes.

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Securely and Efficiently Access GCP Global Services with Aviatrix Architecture: A Guide for Enterprise Customers

As the number of customers onboarding to GCP Google Cloud Platform continues to grow, one of the most common questions asked is how to access GCP Global Services, such as Cloud SQL, privately and securely. The unique features of GCP networking, including the global VPC construct, single route table for all subnets, and regional Cloud Routers, can be challenging for enterprise customers seeking to access GCP global services. In this blog post, I will demonstrate how Aviatrix architecture enables customers securely and efficiently access GCP global services.

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Aviatrix Edge 2.0 features

In our last blog, “AWS Hybrid Architecture and Edge 2.0,” we covered the workflow of registering an Edge 2.0 gateway, attaching it to Aviatrix Transit, and forming a BGP peering with on-premise devices. Now, let’s take a closer look at the features of the Edge 2.0 gateway. By leveraging Edge 2.0, enterprises gain high throughput and intelligent packet processing capabilities at the edge of their network. Edge 2.0 provides a robust set of features, including intelligent packet routing to streamline network traffic and advanced security features, such as network segmentation, to provide an added layer of protection to your network.

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