: Aggregate Ethernet (AE) Interface
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Aggregate Ethernet (AE) Interface

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Aggregate Ethernet (AE) Interface

  • Network > Interfaces > Ethernet
To configure an Aggregate Ethernet (AE) Interface, first configure an Aggregate Ethernet (AE) Interface Group and click the name of the interface you will assign to that group. Among the interfaces that you assign to any particular group, the hardware media can differ (for example, you can mix fiber optic and copper), but the bandwidth and interface type (such as Layer 3) must be the same. Furthermore, the interface type must be the same as that defined for the AE interface group, though you will change the type to
Aggregate Ethernet
when you configure each interface. Specify the following information for each interface that you assign to the group.
If you enabled Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) for the AE interface group, select the same
Link Speed
and
Link Duplex
for every interface in that group. For non-matching values, the commit operation displays a warning and PAN-OS defaults to the higher speed and full duplex.
Aggregate Interface Settings
Configured In
Description
Interface Name
Aggregate Ethernet Interface
The interface name is predefined and you cannot change it.
Comment
(
Optional
) Enter a description for the interface.
Interface Type
Select
Aggregate Ethernet
.
Aggregate Group
Assign the interface to an aggregate group.
Link Speed
Select the interface speed in Mbps (
10
,
100
, or
1000
), or select
auto
to have the firewall automatically determine the speed.
Link Duplex
Select whether the interface transmission mode is full-duplex (
full
), half-duplex (
half
), or negotiated automatically (
auto
).
Link State
Select whether the interface status is enabled (
up
), disabled (
down
), or determined automatically (
auto
).
LACP Port Priority
The firewall only uses this field if you enabled Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) for the aggregate group. If the number of interfaces you assign to the group exceeds the number of active interfaces (the Max Ports field), the firewall uses the LACP port priorities of the interfaces to determine which are in standby mode. The lower the numeric value, the higher the priority (range is 1-65,535; default is 32,768).
Virtual Router
Aggregate Ethernet Interface
Config
Select the virtual router to which you assign the Aggregate Ethernet interface.
Security Zone
Select the security zone to which you assign the Aggregate Ethernet interface.
Enable Bonjour Reflector
Aggregate Ethernet Interface
IPv4
(
PA-220, PA-800, and PA-3200 series only
) When you enable this option, the firewall forwards Bonjour multicast advertisements and queries received on and forwarded to this interface to all other L3 and AE interfaces and subinterfaces where you enable this option. This helps ensure user access and device discoverability in network environments that use segmentation to route traffic for security or administrative purposes. You can enable this option on up to 16 interfaces.
Enable IPv6 on the interface
Aggregate Ethernet Interface
IPv6
Select to enable IPv6 on this interface.
Interface ID
Enter the 64-bit extended unique identifier (EUI-64) in hexadecimal format (for example, 00:26:08:FF:FE:DE:4E:29). If you leave this field blank, the firewall uses the EUI-64 generated from the MAC address of the physical interface. If you
Use interface ID as host portion
when adding an address, the firewall uses the interface ID as the host portion of that address.
Address
Add
an IPv6 address and configure the following parameters:
  • Address
    —Enter an IPv6 address and prefix length (e.g. 2001:400:f00::1/64). You can also select an existing IPv6 address object or click
    Address
    to create one.
  • Enable address on interface
    —Select to enable the IPv6 address on the interface.
  • Use interface ID as host portion
    —Select to use the
    Interface ID
    as the host portion of the IPv6 address.
  • Anycast
    —Select to include routing through the nearest node.
  • Send RA
    —Select to enable router advertisement (RA) for this IP address. When you select this option, you must also globally
    Enable Router Advertisement
    on the interface. For details on RA, see Enable Router Advertisement.
    The remaining fields apply are visible only after you enable RA:
    • Valid Lifetime
      —The length of time, in seconds, that the firewall considers the address as valid. The valid lifetime must equal or exceed the
      Preferred Lifetime
      . The default is 2,592,000.
    • Preferred Lifetime
      —The length of time, in seconds, that the valid address is preferred, which means the firewall can use it to send and receive traffic. After the preferred lifetime expires, the firewall cannot use the address to establish new connections but any existing connections are valid until they exceed the
      Valid Lifetime
      . The default is 604,800.
    • On-link
      —Select if systems with IP addresses within the advertised prefix are reachable without a router.
    • Autonomous
      —Select if systems can independently create an IP address by combining the advertised prefix with an interface ID.
Enable Duplication Address Detection
Aggregate Ethernet Interface
IPv6
Address Resolution
Select to enable duplicate address detection (DAD), which then allows you to specify the number of
DAD
Attempts
.
DAD Attempts
Specify the number of DAD attempts within the neighbor solicitation interval (
NS Interval
) before the attempt to identify neighbors fails (range is 1-10; default is 1).
Reachable Time
Specify the length of time, in seconds, that a neighbor remains reachable after a successful query and response (range is 1-36,000; default is 30).
NS Interval (neighbor solicitation interval)
Specify the length of time, in seconds, before a DAD attempt failure is indicated (range is 1-10; default is 1).
Enable NDP Monitoring
Select to enable Neighbor Discovery Protocol monitoring. When enabled, you can select the NDP ( in Features column) and view information such as the IPv6 address of a neighbor the firewall has discovered, the corresponding MAC address and User-ID (on a best-case basis).
Enable Router Advertisement
Aggregated Ethernet Interface
IPv6
Router Advertisement
Select to provide Neighbor Discovery on IPv6 interfaces and configure the other fields in this section. IPv6 DNS clients that receive the router advertisement (RA) messages use this information.
RA enables the firewall to act as a default gateway for IPv6 hosts that are not statically configured and to provide the host with an IPv6 prefix for address configuration. You can use a separate DHCPv6 server in conjunction with this feature to provide DNS and other settings to clients.
This is a global setting for the interface. If you want to set RA options for individual IP addresses,
Add
and configure an Address in the IP address table. If you set RA options for any IP address, you must
Enable Router Advertisement
for the interface.
Min Interval (sec)
Specify the minimum interval, in seconds, between RAs that the firewall will send (range is 3-1,350; default is 200). The firewall will send RAs at random intervals between the minimum and maximum values you configure.
Max Interval (sec)
Specify the maximum interval, in seconds, between RAs that the firewall will send (range is 4-1,800; default is 600). The firewall will send RAs at random intervals between the minimum and maximum values you configure.
Hop Limit
Specify the hop limit to apply to clients for outgoing packets (range is 1-255; default is 64). Enter
0
for no hop limit.
Link MTU
Specify the link maximum transmission unit (MTU) to apply to clients. Select
unspecified
for no link MTU (range is 1,280-9,192; default is unspecified).
Reachable Time (ms)
Specify the reachable time, in milliseconds, that the client will use to assume a neighbor is reachable after receiving a reachability confirmation message. Select
unspecified
for no reachable time value (range is 0-3,600,000; default is unspecified).
Retrans Time (ms)
Specify the retransmission timer that determines how long the client will wait, in milliseconds, before retransmitting neighbor solicitation messages. Select
unspecified
for no retransmission time (range is 0-4,294,967,295; default is unspecified).
Router Lifetime (sec)
Specify how long, in seconds, the client will use the firewall as the default gateway (range is 0-9,000; default is 1,800). Zero specifies that the firewall is not the default gateway. When the lifetime expires, the client removes the firewall entry from its Default Router List and uses another router as the default gateway.
Router Preference
If the network segment has multiple IPv6 routers, the client uses this field to select a preferred router. Select whether the RA advertises the firewall router as having a
High
,
Medium
(default), or
Low
priority relative to other routers on the segment.
Managed Configuration
Select to indicate to the client that addresses are available via DHCPv6.
Other Configuration
Select to indicate to the client that other address information (such as DNS-related settings) is available via DHCPv6.
Consistency Check
Aggregated Ethernet Interface
IPv6
Router Advertisement (cont)
Select if you want the firewall to verify that RAs sent from other routers are advertising consistent information on the link. The firewall logs any inconsistencies in a system log; the type is
ipv6nd
.
Include DNS information in Router Advertisement
Aggregated Ethernet Interface
IPv6
DNS Support
Select for the firewall to send DNS information in NDP router advertisement (RA) messages from this IPv6 Aggregated Ethernet interface. The other DNS Support fields in this table are visible only after you select this option.
Server
Add
one or more recursive DNS (RDNS) server addresses for the firewall to send in NDP router advertisements from this IPv6 Aggregated Ethernet interface. RDNS servers send a series of DNS lookup requests to root DNS servers and authoritative DNS servers to ultimately provide an IP address to the DNS client.
You can configure a maximum of eight RDNS Servers that the firewall sends—in the order listed from top to bottom—in an NDP router advertisement to the recipient, which then uses those addresses in the same order. Select a server and
Move Up
or
Move Down
to change the order of the servers or
Delete
a server when you no longer need it.
Lifetime
Enter the maximum number of seconds after the IPv6 DNS client receives the router advertisement that it can use the RDNS Servers to resolve domain names (range is the value of Max Interval (sec) to twice the Max Interval; default is 1,200).
Suffix
Add
and configure one or more domain names (suffixes) for the DNS search list (DNSSL). The maximum suffix length is 255 bytes.
A DNS search list is a list of domain suffixes that a DNS client router appends (one at a time) to an unqualified domain name before it enters the name into a DNS query, thereby using a fully qualified domain name in the DNS query. For example, if a DNS client tries to submit a DNS query for the name “quality” without a suffix, the router appends a period and the first DNS suffix from the DNS search list to the name and transmits the DNS query. If the first DNS suffix on the list is “company.com”, the resulting DNS query from the router is for the fully qualified domain name “quality.company.com”.
If the DNS query fails, the router appends the second DNS suffix from the list to the unqualified name and transmits a new DNS query. The router tries DNS suffixes until a DNS lookup is successful (ignores the remaining suffixes) or until the router has tried all of suffixes on the list.
Configure the firewall with the suffixes you want to provide to the DNS client router in a Neighbor Discovery DNSSL option; the DNS client receiving the DNSSL option uses the suffixes in its unqualified DNS queries.
You can configure a maximum of eight domain names (suffixes) for a DNS search list that the firewall sends—in order listed from top to bottom—in an NDP router advertisement to the recipient, which uses them in the same order. Select a suffix and
Move Up
or
Move Down
to change the order of the suffixes or
Delete
a suffix from the list when you no longer need it.
Lifetime
Aggregated Ethernet Interface
IPv6
DNS Support (cont)
Enter the maximum number of seconds after the IPv6 DNS client receives the router advertisement that it can use a domain name (suffix) on the DNS search list (range is the value of Max Interval (sec) to twice the Max Interval; default is 1,200).

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