topic Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation in General Topics

R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

HeikoAnkenbrand — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 10:36:05 GMT

Management Data Plane Separation allows a security gateway to have isolated management and data networks. The network system of each domain (plane) is independent and includes interfaces, routes, sockets, and processes. This has the performance advantage that some processes run separately from the firewall core daemon. Thus it reduces the load on the firewall processes, e.g. during the policy installation.

The management plane is a domain whose purpose is to access, provision, and monitor the gateway. This includes:
      - Routing separation
      - Resource Separation
                 - Access:                         SSH, FTP, and more
                 - Provisioning:               Policy installation, GAIA Portal, RestAPI's, and more
                 - Monitoring:                  Logs, SNMP, and more

When resource separation is enabled, the security gateway will separat the management instance. Here is an example:

Mgmt
instance

CPU core 0

SND

CPU core 1

SND

CPU core 2

CoreXL
instance

CPU core 3

CoreXL
instance

CPU core 4

CoreXL
instance

CPU core 5

CoreXL
instance

CPU core 6

CoreXL
instance

CPU core 7

This feature can be enabled with the following minimum requirements:
      - R80.30 kernel 3.10 and JHF 136 or higher
      - R80.20SP JHF 194 or higher
      - To enable this option, at least 4 cores and 3 CoreXL FW instances are required.

TIP 1
To configure Management Data Plane Separation or if you need more information take a look at this SK138672.

TIP 2
This can also help if a gateway or a ClusterXL member goes into CUL freeze mode (SK92723) during policy installation through high CPU load on cluster member or single gateway.

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

m_oeqvist — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 11:45:33 GMT

Is this also possible with R80.10 or R80.20 and the latest JHF?

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

HeikoAnkenbrand — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 12:09:51 GMT

Unfortunately not.

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

_Val_ — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 16:13:51 GMT

3.10 kernel is required for that functionality, so no

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

spiros-p — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 09:27:22 GMT

We use this with R80.30 and kernel 3.10.
Since we have been using it we have no problems with high CPU usage when installing policies.

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

charlie_h — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 09:35:56 GMT

Does this not reduce a core license?

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

Andreas_Aust — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 15:41:35 GMT

One has to die one death

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

osef — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 16:45:53 GMT

In sk138672, we can found this :

Setting the 'sync' interface. When you use Routing Separation and ClusterXL, you must set the Sync interface on the Management Plane. The interface is used for ClusterXL synchronization between members.

and this :

The use of logical interfaces is not supported on management interface (Alias, Bridge, VPN Tunnel, 6in4 Tunnel, PPPoE, Bond, VLAN)

So, if I understand correctly,

- It's mandatory to put the sync interface in the management plane

- Management plane doesn't support bonding

So if my sync interface is a bond, I can't use management place, correct ?

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

_Val_ — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 08:06:27 GMT

You need MGMT plane separation when your machine is extremely busy with FW operations. we are talking 90+% average CPU utilization. That is the only use case.

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

osef — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 08:30:40 GMT

Thanks for the answer but if I understand correctly, this feature also allow "routing" and "ressources" separation, right ?

So I can put the management interface into a separate "VRF" and if I shoot myself in the foot with the routing, the management server will still be able to reach the gateways through the management interface.

Do I understand this correctly?

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

_Val_ — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:03:20 GMT

No, that interpretation is not correct. Routing here means traffic filtering and forwarding. As kernel related CPU tasks usually have highest priority, MGMT plane allows taking one CPU for processes only hence allowing logging, admin processes and WebUI access unaffected, if FW tasks are taking too much CPU time

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

osef — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:36:27 GMT

Sorry but I'm extremly confused now 😅

In sk138672, we can read this :
(a) Routing Separation
Routing Separation creates a routing domain (ID 1) that includes an interface that the Gateway uses to communicate with Management, and an interface used for the synchronization of cluster members (when using ClusterXL). This domain has its own routing table, in which routing decisions are made. It is not connected with the Data Plane via any virtual adapter. This means that any packet that is inbound to the Gateway, whether on the Management or on the Data Plane, cannot cross over to the other plane.

So if I'm reading this correctly, it's like a VRF, no ?

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

_Val_ — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:52:06 GMT

Sorry, my bad, I misread your original comment.

Yes, there is a different routing domain for management only communications. I think VRF terms are no longer applicable on 3.10, but I cannot recall the new name other than routing domain, sorry 🙂

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

osef — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 12:12:27 GMT

Okay 🙂

So for my original question, if my sync interface is a bonding, I can't use the "routing separation", correct ?

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

_Val_ — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 12:26:32 GMT

Bonding is not supported with MGMT plane, you answered this yourself.

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

osef — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 13:20:34 GMT

I wanted to be sure 😞

I think it's a very big limitation and it's going to prevent the deployment of this feature where it's the most needed 😞 If Checkpoint could remove this limitation, it would be great !

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

Power_Support — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 05:50:06 GMT

Are there plans for bonding to be supported in the future?

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

_Val_ — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 08:46:12 GMT

The support limitations are coming from RH side. It is not possible with 3.10 kernel to get bonding working on MGMT plane. Also, it kinda productive, as MGMT interface should not carry any production traffic.

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

osef — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 08:55:07 GMT

But it's a requirement to put the sync interface in the MGMT plane and bonding on the sync interace is a must for high availability. I realy hope checkpoint will remove this limitation one day

Re: R80.x - Performance Tuning Tip - Management Data Plane Separation

_Val_ — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 09:28:42 GMT

I see your point.