End-of-Life (EoL)
Palo Alto Networks Firewall Integration with Cisco ACI
Palo Alto Networks integration with Cisco ACI allows
you to insert a firewall between EPGs as a Layer 4 to Layer 7 service.
The firewall then secures the east-west traffic between the application
tiers within those EPGs or north-south traffic between users and
the applications.
The figure below shows an example of a physical ACI deployment
that includes integrated Palo Alto Network firewalls. All the entities
in the ACI Fabric are connected to leaf switches and those leaf
switches are connected to larger spine switches. As users access
the application, the ACI fabric moves the traffic to the correct
destination. To secure the traffic between the application tiers,
the network administrator inserts the Palo Alto Networks firewalls
as L4 to L7 services between each EPG and creates a service graph
to define what services the L4 to L7 device provides.

After the firewall services have been deployed, traffic now flows
logically as shown below. Traffic to and from the end users and
each tier in the application regardless of where or how each entity
is physically connected to the network.

When the firewall is integrated with Cisco ACI, traffic is sent
to the firewall with a policy-based redirect (PBR). Additionally,
configuration of the firewall and configuration of the APIC are
completely separate. Network policy mode does not rely on any other
configuration integration between the firewall and the APIC, so
it provides greater flexibility of configuration and deployment
of the firewall.
For East-West traffic, define a bridge domain and subnet in the
ACI fabric for the firewall. Configure contracts between EPGs that
send traffic to the firewall using a PBR. The PBR forwards traffic
to the firewall based on policy containg the firewall’s IP and MAC
address. The firewall interfaces are always in Layer 3 mode and
traffic is received and routed back to the ACI fabric. You can configure
separate interfaces for consumer and provider connections or a single
interface for ingress and egress traffic. The procedure in this
document uses a single interface because it simplifies the integration;
you do not need to configure as many interfaces, IP addresses, or
VLANs. However, when using a single interface, you cannot uses zone information
in defining security policy and you must modify the default intra-zone
policy on the firewall to deny traffic.
For north-south traffic, you must use a dedicated policy called
an L3Out. An L3Out contains the information required for the tenant
to connect to external routing devices and access external networks.
L3Out connections contain an external network EPG that represent
the networks accessible through the L3Out policy. Just as the L3Out
can group all external networks into a single EPG, you can use a
vzAny object ACI to represent all EPGs in a VRF. Using a vzAny object
simples the application of the outbound traffic contract because,
whenever a new EPG is added to the VRF, the contract is automatically
applied. In this scenario, the external network provides the contract
and the vzAny object (all internal EPGs) consume it.
The following section provide additional details about components
and concepts that make up the integration between the Next-Generation
Firewall and Cisco ACI.
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