IPS 45xx/43xx/42xx appliance and Catalyst 6500 Inline Mode issues

Hello to everyone!
We have recently got our new IPS 4510 appliance and for now there is a task to develop a connection scheme to our backbone multilayer switch (Catalyst 6500).
There are several server's and user's VLANs connected to 6500.
6500 performs inter-vlan routing.
The main task is to "insert" IPS appliance between traffic path from any VLAN to server's VLANs.
The additional task is to provide failover in "fail-open" manner (We have only one 4510 appliance. So if 4510 fails then traffic should continue passing without inspections).
As I understood from this document https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-12206 the only way to implement Inline Mode when using multilayer switch is to "take out" default gateway address for inspected subnet on the other VLAN's SVI.
If we replace IDSM-2 with IPS appliance I suppose we can use hardware bypass feature as a failover measure (in case if IPS fails then traffic between bridged VLANs will still be forwarded).
But what if there are several VLANs that should be monitored?
As I understand in such schema we will need to use addtional interface-inline-pair for each monitored VLAN.
But what if we have 20 VLANs for servers and 50 VLANs for users?
Can using of VLAN-group mode handle this problem?
I am not sure but using of VLAN-groups cannot provide bridging between two different VLANs. Am I right?
And will using of VLAN-group make hardware-bypass feature useless?
I tryed to simulate the first scenario in Cisco Packet Tracer (i used a bridge to simulate an IPS appliance in interface-pair inline mode):
May be this is a bug of Packet Tracer but traffic went through IPS only if it was sent from VLAN 10 to VLAN100.
The return traffic from VLAN 100 to VLAN 10 went through the Catalyst directly.
When Catalyst recieved the frame it said:
"The frame destination MAC address matches the MAC address of the active VLAN interface."
After that it decapsulates the PDU from the Ethernet frame and send IP packet directly to VLAN 10.
Does it mean that there is a need to change SVI's mac address?
Thanks for any advice in advance.

Here is my guess of how to realise my scenario:
Config on Cat6k should looks something like this:
ip routing
interface Ge1/0
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk allowed vlan 10-12,110-112
switchport mode trunk
switchport nonegotiate
switchport vlan mapping enable
switchport vlan mapping 110 10
switchport vlan mapping 111 11
switchport vlan mapping 112 12
interface Ge1/1
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk allowed vlan 10-12
switchport mode trunk
switchport nonegotiate
interface vlan 2
ip address 10.0.2.1 255.255.255.0
interface vlan 3
ip address 10.0.3.1 255.255.255.0
interface Vlan4
ip address 10.0.4.1 255.255.255.0
interface Vlan110
ip address 10.0.10.1 255.255.255.0
interface Vlan111
ip address 10.0.11.1 255.255.255.0
interface Vlan112
ip address 10.0.12.1 255.255.255.0
no interface Vlan10
no interface Vlan11
no interface Vlan12
IPS should operate in VLAN-group inline mode. We could separate traffic by VLAN tag to inspect with different virtual sensors or we use one VS for all trunk traffic.
Traffic routed from any VLAN to VLANs 10-12 should go through IPS.
In case if IPS gets powered off - hardware-bypass feature should provide bridging between trunk ports.
In theory it should work.
Remained to test it in practice
Thoughts / suggestions?

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I understand how to configure the Catalyst 6500 switch so that the monitoring ports are access ports in two separate VLAN's for inline operation.
However, I don't see any documentation that describes how the desired VLAN traffic gets forced through the IPS.
In promiscuous mode, you can use VACL's to copy/capture and forward the desired traffic to the IDSM for analysis. I'm not seeing how to get the desired traffic through the IPS.
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A tranparent firewall is a fairly good comparison.
Let's say you have vlan 10 with 100 PCs and 1 Router for the network.
If you want to apply a transparent firewall on that vlan you can not simply put one interface of the firewall on vlan 10. Nothing would go through the firewall.
Instead you have to create a new vlan, let's say 1010. Now you place one interface of the firewall on vlan 10 and the other on vlan 1010. Still nothing is going through the firewall. So now you move that Router from vlan 10 to vlan 1010. All you do is change the vlan, the IP Address and netmask of the router stay the same.
The transparent firewall bridges vlan 10 and vlan 1010. The PCs on vlan 10 ae still able to communicate to and through the router, but must go through the transparent firewall to do so.
The firewall is transparent because it does not IP Route between 2 vlans, instead the same IP subnet exists on both vlans and the firewall transparently beidges traffic between the 2 vlans.
The transparent firewall can do firewalling between the PCs on vlan 10 and the Router on vlan 1010. But is PC A on vlan 10 talks to PC B on vlan 10, then the transparent firewall does not see and can not block that traffic.
An InLine sensor is very similar to the transparent firewall and will bridge between the 2 vlans. And similarly an InLine sensor is able to InLine monitor traffic between PCs on vlan 10 and the Router on vlan 1010, but will not be able to monitor traffic between 2 PCs on vlan 10.
Now the router on one vlan and the PCs on the other vlan is a typical deployment for inline sensors, but your vlans do not Have to be divided that way. You could choose to place some servers in one vlan, and desktop PCs in the other vlan. You subdivide the vlans in what ever method makes sense for your deployment.
Now for monitoring multiple vlans the same principle still applies. You can't monitor traffic between machines on the same vlan. So for each of the vlans you want to monitor you will need to create a new vlan and split the machines between the 2 vlans.
In your case with Native IOS you are limited to only 1 pair of vlans for InLine monitoring, but your desired deployment would require 20 vlan pairs.
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The Native IOS changes are in testing right now, but I have not heard a release date for those changes.
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For vlans 10-20, and 300-310 that you want monitored you will need to break each of those vlans in to 2 vlans.
Let's say we make it simple and add 500 to each vlan in order to create the new vlan for each pair.
So you have the following pairs:
10/510, 11/511, 12/512, etc...
300/800, 301/801, 302/802, etc....
You set up the sensor port to trunk all 40 vlans:
set trunk 5/7 10-20,300-310,510-520,800-810
(Then clear all other vlans off that trunk to keep things clean)
In the IDSM-2 configuration create the 20 inline vlan pairs on interface GigabitEthernet0/7
Nw on each of the 20 original vlans move the default router for each vlan from the original vlan to the 500+ vlan.
At this point you should ordinarily be good to go. The IDSM-2 won't be monitoring traffic that stays within each of the original 20 vlans, but Would monitor traffic getting routed in and out of each of the 20 vlans.
Because of a switch bug you may have to have an additional PC moved to the same vlan as the router if the switch/MSFC is being used as the router and you are deploying with an IDSM-2.

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To remove the WiSM2, perform these steps:
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Good catch.
Which one is true, will get back to you on this if i've something soon.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/module/wism2/installation/note/WiSM_2.html#wp34727
The above link is procedure to remove wism2. This procedure doesn’t look like wism2 is hot swapable.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/module/wism2/installation/note/WiSM_2.html#wp34621
All modules, including the supervisor engine (if you have redundant supervisor engines), support hot swapping. You can add, replace, or remove modules without interrupting the system power or causing other software or interfaces to shut down. For more information about hot-swapping modules, see the Catalyst 6500 Series Switch Module Installation Guide.

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Hi Mubin,
If you're looking to monitor all the traffic from the user VLANs to the server VLANs then the simplest way to configure the IDSM-2 would be inline on the server VLAN segment. All traffic destined to the servers (from the users or anywhere else) has to traverse that VLAN. Assuming you have something like this to start:
VLAN 100-120 (users) ====== Switch ------ VLAN 200 (servers)
you'd drop the IDSM-2 inline on VLAN 200 by using a helper VLAN:
VLAN 100-120 (users) ====== Switch ----- VLAN 201 (server gateway) ----- IDSM-2 (bridging 201 to 200) ----- VLAN 200 (servers)
To do this you'll need to perform the following steps:
1. Designate a new VLAN to use as a helper VLAN for your current server VLAN. I'll use 201 for this example and assume your current server VLAN is 200.
Create the helper VLAN on the switch:
switch# conf t
switch(config)# vlan 201
2. Configure the IDSM-2 to bridge the helper VLAN and the server VLAN (200-201)
sensor# conf t
sensor(config)# service interface
sensor(config-int)# phsyical-interface GigabitEthernet0/7
sensor(config-int-phy)# admin-state enabled
sensor(config-int-phy)# subinterface-type inline-vlan-pair
sensor(config-int-phy-inl)# subinterface 1
sensor(config-int-phy-inl-sub)# vlan1 200
sensor(config-int-phy-inl-sub)# vlan2 201
sensor(config-int-phy-inl-sub)# description Server-Helper pair
sensor(config-int-phy-inl-sub)# exit
sensor(config-int-phy-inl)# exit
sensor(config-int-phy)# exit
sensor(config-int)# exit
Apply Changes:?[yes]:
3. Configure the switch to trunk the helper and server VLANs to the IDSM-2 module. I assume the module is in slot 5 in the example. Replace the 5 with the correct slot for your deployment:
switch# conf t
switch(config)# intrusion-detection module 5 data-port 1 trunk allowed-vlan 200,201
switch(config)# intrusion-detection module 5 data-port 1 autostate include
*Warning! This next step may cause an outage if everything is configured correctly. You'll probably want to schedule a window to do this.*
4. Finally, force the traffic from the server VLAN through the IDSM-2 by moving the server VLAN gateway from VLAN 200 (where it is currently) to the helper VLAN you created. To do this, remove the SVI from VLAN 200 and apply the same IP address to VLAN 201. I assume the current server gateway is 192.168.1.1/24
switch# conf t
switch(config)#int vlan 200
switch(config-int)#no ip addr
switch(config-int)#int vlan 201
switch(config-int)#ip addr 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
switch(config-int)#exit
switch(config)#exit
switch# wr mem
Now, when the servers try to contact 192.168.1.1 (their gateway) they'll have to be bridged through the IDSM-2 to reach VLAN 201 and in the process all traffic destined to them or sourced from them will be inspected. Do not put any hosts or servers in the helper VLAN (201) or they will not be inspected.
Best Regards,
Justin

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Hi Bro
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P/S: If you think this comment is useful, please do rate them nicely :-)

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I plan to replace old core catalyst 6500 switches with new ones for the purpose of reinforcement.
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There are many catalyst 6500 switches as distribution switch connect to each core catalyst
6500 switches as attached.
I think there are two ways to replace core catalyst 6500 switches.
[One]
Replacing one core catalyst 6500 switches first, then one week later, replacing another core
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Disadvantage:
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Any problem might be happened due to this issue.
[Two]
Replacing both core catalyst 6500 switches at the same time.
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Replacement will be finished at one time
Disadvantage:
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If I were you, I will go for option 1.
This option will give us the time to observe the traffic pattern, time to get the network and EIGRP to stabilize and even to check for any issues on the IOS part.
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-amit singh

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We are planning to upgrade two of our Catalyst 6500 switches to version 15.1(2)SY1 Advanced IP Services.
The switches have dual supervisors and are currently running version 12.2(33)SXI11, but we have faced some issues and also would also like to enable some new features (e.g. BFD). The switches are running a fairly simple configuration with OSPF, MPLS and MP-BGP with about 30 VRFs.
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Then we upgraded two core switches with 15.1(1)SY mid last year another two core switches to 15.1(2)SY late last year to accomodate WS-X6904-40G. With both of these new code we had couple of bugs still not proper fix
CSCue58955: sup2t: LC file systems are not destroyed in Active upon reset"%SNMP-3-INPUT_QFULL_ERR: Packet dropped
There is workaround for this, but that will impact netflow data if you are using that.
For me 15.0(1)SY, is much better for Enterprise environment (based on my experience) compare to the two latest. But due to certain limitation we have to go for this newer codes whether you like it or not.
These bugs may be not related to you if you are not runing Sup2T, anyway just thought to share this experience
HTH
Rasika
**** Pls rate all useful responses ****

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