VPN Monitoring and Troubleshooting

This chapter describes threat defense VPN monitoring tools, parameters, and statistics information as well as troubleshooting.

VPN Summary Dashboard

System dashboards provide you with at-a-glance views of current system status, including data about the events collected and generated by the system. You can use the VPN dashboard to see consolidated information about VPN users, including the current status of users, device types, client applications, user geolocation information, and duration of connections. You can view details of the configured VPN topologies such as VPN interfaces, tunnel status, and so on.

For all VPN topologies, you can edit or delete the topology using the edit and delete buttons. For SASE topology VPNs, you have options to deploy, edit and delete any topology.

Viewing the VPN Summary Dashboard

Remote access VPNs provide secure connections for remote users, such as mobile users or telecommuters. Monitoring these connections provides important indicators of connection and user session performance at a glance.

You must be an Admin user in a leaf domain to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Overview > Dashboards > Access Controlled User Statistics > VPN.

Step 2

View the Remote Access VPN information widgets:

  • Current VPN Users by Duration.
  • Current VPN Users by Client Application.
  • Current VPN Users by Device.
  • VPN Users by Data Transferred.
  • VPN Users by Duration.
  • VPN Users by Client Application.
  • VPN Users by Client Country.

Remote Access VPN Dashboard

Remote Access Virtual Private Network (RA VPN) allows remote users to securely connect to your network. The RA VPN dashboard allows you to monitor real-time data from active RA VPN sessions on the devices. You can quickly determine problems related to user sessions and mitigate the problems for your network and users.

RA VPN dashboard (Overview > Dashboards > Remote Access VPN) provides a snapshot of the active RA VPN sessions on the threat defense devices managed by the management center.

The dashboard has the following widgets:

  • Active Sessions (Tabular View)

  • Active Sessions (Map view)

  • Sessions

  • Device Identity Certificates

Active Sessions (Tabular View)

This widget provides a tabular view of the active RA VPN users connected. You can view details of the active RA VPN sessions such as username, assigned IP, public IP, login time, VPN gateway (threat defense device), client application, client operating system, connection profile, and group policy. You can use the filter to narrow down your search based on the different criteria. You can also perform the following actions on the individual sessions:

  • Terminate a session of a specific user.

  • Terminate all sessions of a specific user connected to a specific VPN gateway.

  • Terminate all sessions that are connected to a specific VPN gateway.

If a client device supports dual address stack and the RA VPN configuration on the threat defense device allows IPv4 and IPv6 address pools, when a client establishes an RA VPN session with the headend device, it assigns an IPv4 and an IPv6 address to the client's tunnel interface. The RA VPN session has two IP addresses, an IPv4 and an IPv6 address on the threat defense device. The management center shows two sessions for the same user, one with an IPv4 address and another with an IPv6 address, and the session count is two.

Hence, even when there is only a single RA VPN session from a user as per show vpn-sessiondb l2l filter ipaddress command on the device, the management center shows two different sessions.

Active Sessions (Map View)

This widget shows an interactive heat map to visualize the location of the users connected through RA VPN sessions on the devices.

  • Countries that have user sessions appear in shades of blue.

  • Legend of the map provides a scale that indicates the correlation between the number of sessions in a country and the shade of blue for the country.

  • Hover the mouse pointer over the map to view the country name and the total number of active user sessions.

  • Zoom in, zoom out, and reset options are available.

Sessions

This widget allows you to monitor real-time data from active RA VPN sessions on the devices. You can filter and view the distribution of active RA VPN sessions according to:

  • Device: Displays the number of sessions per device.

  • Encryption Type: Displays the number of Secure Client SSL or IPsec sessions.

  • Secure Client Version: Displays the sessions per Secure Client version.

  • Operating System: Displays the sessions per operating systems. For example, Windows, Linux, Mac, Mobile OS, and so on.

  • Connection Profile: Displays the sessions per connection profile.

Device Identity Certificates

This widget provides information about the identity certificate expiry of the RA VPN gateways. You can view expired certificates and certificates that are due for expiry within a month. Click View Details to view the certificates in the Device > Certificates page.

VPN Session and User Information

The system generates events that communicate the details of user activity on your network, including VPN-related activity. The system monitoring capabilities enable you to determine quickly whether remote access VPN problems exist and where they exist. You can then apply this knowledge and use your network management tools to reduce or eliminate problems for your network and users. Optionally, you can log out remote access VPN users as needed.

Viewing Remote Access VPN Active Sessions

Analysis > Users > Active Sessions

Lets you view the currently logged-in VPN users at any given point in time with supporting information such as the user name, login duration, authentication type, assigned/public IP address, device details, client version, endpoint information, throughput, bandwidth consumed group policy, tunnel group and so on. The system allows you to filter current user information, log users out, and delete users from the summary list.


Note

If you configure your VPN in a high-availability deployment, the device name displayed against active VPN sessions can be the primary or secondary device that identified the user session.

Viewing Remote Access VPN User Activity

Analysis > Users > User Activity

Lets you view the details of user activity on your network. The system logs historical events and includes VPN-related information such as connection profile information, IP address, geolocation information, connection duration, throughput, and device information.

VPN Health Events

The Health Events page allows you to view VPN health events logged by the health monitor on the management center. When one or more VPN tunnels between devices are down, the heath monitor tracks the following events:

  • Site-to-site VPN for Secure Firewall Threat Defense

  • Remote access VPN for Secure Firewall Threat Defense

Viewing VPN Health Events

When you access health events from the Health Events page on your Secure Firewall Management Center, you retrieve all health events for all managed appliances. You can narrow the events by specifying the module which generated the health events you want to view.

You must be an Admin, Maintenance User, or Security Analyst to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose System > Health > Events.

Step 2

Select VPN Status under the Module Name column.

If you get an alert that your VPN tunnel is inactive even when the VPN session is up, you can disable the VPN health alerts. For more information, see the following topics:

VPN Troubleshooting

This section describes VPN troubleshooting tools and debug information.

System Messages

The Message Center is the place to start your troubleshooting. This feature allows you to view messages that are continually generated about system activities and status. To open the Message Center, click System Status, located to the immediate right of the Deploy button in the main menu.

VPN System Logs

You can enable logging of VPN troubleshoot syslogs for threat defense devices. Logging information can help you identify and isolate network or device configuration problems. When you enable VPN logging, the threat defense devices send VPN syslogs to the management center.

All VPN syslogs appear with a default severity level errors or a higher severity (unless changed). You can manage the VPN logging through threat defense platform settings. You can adjust the message severity level by editing the VPN Logging Settings in the threat defense platform settings policy for targeted devices. See Configure Syslog Logging for Threat Defense Devices for details on enabling VPN logging, configuring syslog servers, and viewing the system logs.

From the Troubleshooting Logs table (Devices > Troubleshooting Logs), you can view and analyze the VPN syslog messages to identify and isolate issues with your network and device configuration.

We recommend that you set the logging level of the VPN logs as level 3 (Errors). Setting the VPN logging level to level 4 and above (Warnings, Notifications, Informational or Debugging) could overload the management center.


Note

When you configure a device with site-to-site or remote access VPN, it automatically enables sending VPN syslogs to the management center by default.

Debug Commands

This section explains how you use debug commands to help you diagnose and resolve VPN-related problems. The commands described here are not exhaustive, this section include commands according to their usefulness in assisting you to diagnose VPN-related problems.

Usage Guidelines

Because debugging output is assigned high priority in the CPU process, it can render the system unusable. For this reason, use debug commands only to troubleshoot specific problems or during troubleshooting sessions with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC). Moreover, it is best to use debug commands during periods of lower network traffic and fewer users. Debugging during these periods decreases the likelihood that increased debug command processing overhead will affect system use.

You can view debug output in a CLI session only. Output is directly available when connected to the Console port, or when in the diagnostic CLI (enter system support diagnostic-cli ). You can also view output from the regular Firepower Threat Defense CLI using the show console-output command.

To show debugging messages for a given feature, use the debug command. To disable the display of debug messages, use the no form of this command. Use no debug all to turn off all debugging commands.

debug feature [ subfeature] [ level]

no debug feature [ subfeature]

Syntax Description

feature

Specifies the feature for which you want to enable debugging. To see the available features, use the debug ? command for CLI help.

subfeature

(Optional) Depending on the feature, you can enable debug messages for one or more subfeatures. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

level

(Optional) Specifies the debugging level. Use ? to see the available levels.

Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Example

With multiple sessions running on remote access VPN, troubleshooting can be difficult, given the size of the logs. You can use the debug webvpn condition command to set up filters to target your debug process more precisely.

debug webvpn condition {group name | p-ipaddress ip_address [{subnet subnet_mask | prefix length}] | reset | user name}

Where:

  • group name filters on a group policy (not a tunnel group or connection profile).

  • p-ipaddress ip_address [{subnet subnet_mask | prefix length}] filters on the public IP address of the client. The subnet mask (for IPv4) or prefix (for IPv6) is optional.

  • reset resets all filters. You can use the no debug webvpn condition command to turn off a specific filter.

  • user name filters by username.

If you configure more than one condition, the conditions are conjoined (ANDed), so that debugs appear only if all conditions are met.

After setting up the condition filter, use the base debug webvpn command to turn on the debug. Setting the conditions alone does not enable the debug. Use the show debug and show webvpn debug-condition commands to view the current state of debugging.

The following shows an example of enabling a conditional debug on the user jdoe.


firepower# debug webvpn condition user jdoe

firepower# show webvpn debug-condition
INFO: Webvpn conditional debug is turned ON
INFO: User name filters:
INFO: jdoe

firepower# debug webvpn
INFO: debug webvpn  enabled at level 1.

firepower# show debug
debug webvpn  enabled at level 1
INFO: Webvpn conditional debug is turned ON
INFO: User name filters:
INFO: jdoe

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug

Shows the currently active debug settings.

undebug

Disables debugging for a feature. This command is a synonym for no debug .

debug aaa

See the following commands for debugging configurations or authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) settings.

debug aaa [ accounting | authentication | authorization | common | internal | shim | url-redirect]

Syntax Description

aaa

Enables debugging for AAA. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

accounting

(Optional) Enables AAA accounting debugging.

authentication

(Optional) Enables AAA authentication debugging.

authorization

(Optional) Enables AAA authorization debugging.

common

(Optional) Specifies the AAA common debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

internal

(Optional) Enables AAA internal debugging.

shim

(Optional) Specifies the AAA shim debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

url-redirect

(Optional) Enables AAA url-redirect debugging.

Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug aaa

Shows the currently active debug settings for AAA.

undebug aaa

Disables debugging for AAA. This command is a synonym for no debug aaa .

debug crypto

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with crypto.

debug crypto [ ca | condition | engine | ike-common | ikev1 | ikev2 | ipsec | ss-apic]

Syntax Description

crypto

Enables debugging for crypto . Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

ca

(Optional) Specifies the PKI debug levels. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

condition

(Optional) Specifies the IPsec/ISAKMP debug filters. Use ? to see the available filters.

engine

(Optional) Specifies the crypto engine debug levels. Use ? to see the available levels.

ike-common

(Optional) Specifies the IKE common debug levels. Use ? to see the available levels.

ikev1

(Optional) Specifies the IKE version 1 debug levels. Use ? to see the available levels.

ikev2

(Optional) Specifies the IKE version 2 debug levels. Use ? to see the available levels.

ipsec

(Optional) Specifies the IPsec debug levels. Use ? to see the available levels.

condition

(Optional) Specifies the Crypto Secure Socket API debug levels. Use ? to see the available levels.

vpnclient

(Optional) Specifies the EasyVPN client debug levels. Use ? to see the available levels.

Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug crypto

Shows the currently active debug settings for crypto.

undebug crypto

Disables debugging for crypto. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto .

debug crypto ca

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with crypto ca.

debug crypto ca [ cluster | messages | periodic-authentication | scep-proxy | transactions | trustpool] [ 1-255]

Syntax Description

crypto ca

Enables debugging for crypto ca . Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

cluster

(Optional) Specifies the PKI cluster debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

cmp

(Optional) Specifies the CMP transactions debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

messages

(Optional) Specifies the PKI Input/Output message debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

periodic-authentication

(Optional) Specifies the PKI periodic-authentication debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

scep-proxy

(Optional) Specifies the SCEP proxy debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

server

(Optional) Specifies the local CA server debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

transactions

(Optional) Specifies the PKI transaction debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

trustpool

(Optional) Specifies the trustpool debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

1-255

(Optional) Specifies the debugging level.

Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug crypto ca

Shows the currently active debug settings for crypto ca.

undebug

Disables debugging for crypto ca. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto ca .

debug crypto ikev1

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with Internet Key Exchange version 1 (IKEv1).

debug crypto ikev1 [ timers] [ 1-255]

Syntax Description

ikev1

Enables debugging for ikev1 . Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

timers

(Optional) Enables debugging for IKEv1 timers.

1-255

(Optional) Specifies the debugging level.

Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug crypto ikev1

Shows the currently active debug settings for IKEv1.

undebug crypto ikev1

Disables debugging for IKEv1. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto ikev1 .

debug crypto ikev2

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2).

debug crypto ikev2 [ ha | platform | protocol | timers]

Syntax Description

ikev2

Enables debugging ikev2 . Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

ha

(Optional) Specifies the IKEv2 HA debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

platform

(Optional) Specifies the IKEv2 platform debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

protocol

(Optional) Specifies the IKEv2 protocol debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

timers

(Optional) Enables debugging for IKEv2 timers.
Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug crypto ikev2

Shows the currently active debug settings for IKEv2.

undebugcrypto ikev2

Disables debugging for IKEv2. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto ikev2 .

debug crypto ipsec

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with IPsec.

debug crypto ipsec [ 1-255]

Syntax Description

ipsec

Enables debugging for ipsec . Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

1-255

(Optional) Specifies the debugging level.

Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug crypto ipsec

Shows the currently active debug settings for IPsec.

undebugcrypto ipsec

Disables debugging for IPsec. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto ipsec .

debug ldap

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol).

debug ldap [ 1-255]

Syntax Description

ldap

Enables debugging for LDAP. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

1-255

(Optional) Specifies the debugging level.

Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug ldap

Shows the currently active debug settings for LDAP.

undebugldap

Disables debugging for LDAP. This command is a synonym for no debug ldap .

debug ssl

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with SSL sessions.

debug ssl [ cipher | device] [ 1-255]

Syntax Description

ssl

Enables debugging for SSL. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

cipher

(Optional) Specifies the SSL cipher debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

device

(Optional) Specifies the SSL device debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

1-255

(Optional) Specifies the debugging level.

Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug ssl

Shows the currently active debug settings for SSL.

undebug ssl

Disables debugging for SSL. This command is a synonym for no debug ssl .

debug webvpn

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with WebVPN.

debug webvpn [ anyconnect | chunk | cifs | citrix | compression | condition | cstp-auth | customization | failover | html | javascript | kcd | listener | mus | nfs | request | response | saml | session | task | transformation | url | util | xml]

Syntax Description

webvpn

Enables debugging for WebVPN. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

anyconnect

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN Secure Client debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

chunk

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN chunk debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

cifs

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN CIFS debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

citrix

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN Citrix debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

compression

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN compression debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

condition

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN filter conditions debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

cstp-auth

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN CSTP authentication debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

customization

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN customization debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

failover

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN failover debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

html

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN HTML debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

javascript

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN Javascript debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

kcd

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN KCD debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

listener

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN listener debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

mus

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN MUS debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

nfs

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN NFS debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

request

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN request debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

response

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN response debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

saml

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN SAML debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

session

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN session debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

task

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN task debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

transformation

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN transformation debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

url

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN URL debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

util

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN utility debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.

xml

(Optional) Specifies the WebVPN XML debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.
Command Default

The default debugging level is 1.

Related Commands

Command

Description

show debug webvpn

Shows the currently active debug settings for WebVPN.

undebug webvpn

Disables debugging for WebVPN. This command is a synonym for no debug webvpn .