Contents

Introduction

Background Information

How are the limits calculated?

Problem

Symptoms

Root Cause

Troubleshoot

For Issues Where the Bandwidth CERM Limit is Reached

For Issues Where the Maximum Tunnel CERM Limit is Reached

Solution

Workaround

Introduction

This document describes why you might encounter payload encryption and encrypted tunnel/Transport Layer Security (TLS) session limits and what to do in such a situation. Due to strong crypto export restrictions enforced by the United States government, a securityk9 license only allows payload encryption up to rates close to 90 Megabits per second (Mbps) and limits the number of encrypted tunnels/TLS sessions to the device. 85Mbps is enforced on Cisco devices.

Background Information

The crypto curtailment restriction is enforced on Cisco Integrated Service Router (ISR) series routers with the Crypto Export Restrictions Manager (CERM) implementation. With CERM implemented, before the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)/TLS tunnel goes live, it requests CERM to reserve the tunnel. Later, IPsec sends the number of bytes to be encrypted/decrypted as parameters and queries CERM if it can proceed with encryption/decryption. CERM checks against the bandwidth that remains and responds with yes/no to process/drop the packet. Bandwidth is not reserved by IPsec at all. Based on the bandwidth that remains, for each packet, a dynamic decision is made by CERM whether to process or to drop the packet.

When IPsec must terminate the tunnel, it must free up the earlier reserved tunnels so that CERM can add them to the free pool. Without the HSEC-K9 license, this tunnel limit is set at 225 tunnels. This is shown in the output of show platform cerm-information:

router# show platform cerm-information

Crypto Export Restrictions Manager(CERM) Information:

CERM functionality: ENABLED

----------------------------------------------------------------

Resource Maximum Limit Available

----------------------------------------------------------------

Tx Bandwidth(in kbps)   85000 85000

Rx Bandwidth(in kbps)   85000 85000

Number of tunnels       225 221

Number of TLS sessions  1000 1000

Note: On the ISR 4400/ISR 4300 Series routers that run Cisco IOS-XE®, the CERM limitations also apply, unlike on the Aggregation Services Router (ASR)1000 Series routers. They can be viewed with the output of show platform software cerm-information.

How are the limits calculated?

In order to understand how the tunnel limits are calculated, you must understand what a proxy identity is. If you already understand proxy identity, you can continue to the next section. The proxy identity is the term used in the context of IPsec that designates the traffic protected by an IPsec Security Association (SA). There is a one-to-one correspondence between a permit entry on a crypto access-list and a proxy identity (proxy ID for short). For instance, when you have a crypto access-list defined like this:

permit ip 10.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 10.0.1.0 0.0.0.255

permit ip 10.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 10.10.10.0 0.0.0.255

This translates to exactly two proxy IDs. When an IPsec tunnel is active, you have a minimum of one pair of SAs negotiated with the end point. If you use multiple transforms, this could increase up to three pairs of IPsec SAs (one pair for ESP, one for AH, and one for PCP). You can see an example of this from the output of your router. Here is the show crypto ipsec sa output:

protected vrf: (none)

local  ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0/6/0)            |

remote ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (192.168.78.0/255.255.255.0/6/0) | =>

the proxy id: permit tcp any 192.168.78.0 0.0.255

current_peer 10.254.98.78 port 500

PERMIT, flags={origin_is_acl,}

#pkts encaps: 153557, #pkts encrypt: 153557, #pkts digest: 153557

#pkts decaps: 135959, #pkts decrypt: 135959, #pkts verify: 135959

#pkts compressed: 55197, #pkts decompressed: 50575

#pkts not compressed: 94681, #pkts compr. failed: 3691

#pkts not decompressed: 85384, #pkts decompress failed: 0

#send errors 5, #recv errors 62

local crypto endpt.: 10.254.98.2, remote crypto endpt.: 10.254.98.78

path mtu 1500, ip mtu 1500, ip mtu idb GigabitEthernet0/0.1398

current outbound spi: 0xEE09AEA3(3993611939)            <======  see below

for explanation.

PFS (Y/N): Y, DH group: group2

Here are the IPsec SA pairs (inbound-outbound):

inbound esp sas:

spi: 0x12C37AFB(314800891)

transform: esp-aes ,

in use settings ={Tunnel, }

conn id: 2803, flow_id: Onboard VPN:803, sibling_flags 80000046, crypto

map: beograd

sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4561094/935)

IV size: 16 bytes

replay detection support: N

Status: ACTIVE

inbound ah sas:

inbound pcp sas:

spi: 0x8F6F(36719)

transform: comp-lzs ,

in use settings ={Tunnel, }

conn id: 2803, flow_id: Onboard VPN:803, sibling_flags 80000046, crypto

map: beograd

sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4561094/935)

replay detection support: N

Status: ACTIVE

outbound esp sas:

spi: 0xEE09AEA3(3993611939)

transform: esp-aes ,

in use settings ={Tunnel, }

conn id: 2804, flow_id: Onboard VPN:804, sibling_flags 80000046, crypto

map: beograd

sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4547825/935)

IV size: 16 bytes

replay detection support: N

Status: ACTIVE

outbound ah sas:

outbound pcp sas:

spi: 0x9A12(39442)

transform: comp-lzs ,

in use settings ={Tunnel, }

conn id: 2804, flow_id: Onboard VPN:804, sibling_flags 80000046, crypto

map: beograd

sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4547825/935)

replay detection support: N

Status: ACTIVE

In this case, there are exactly two pairs of SAs. These two pairs are generated as soon as traffic hits the crypto access-list that matches the proxy ID. The same proxy ID could be used for different peers.

Note: When you examine the output of show cry ipsec sa, you see that there is a current outbound Security Parameter Index (SPI) of 0x0 for the inactive entries and an existing SPI when the tunnel is up.

In the context of CERM, the router counts the number of active proxy ID/peer pairs. This means that if you had, for example, ten peers for which you have 30 permit entries in each of the crypto access-lists, and if there is traffic that matches all of those access-lists, you end up with 300 proxy ID/peer pairs which is above the 225 limit imposed by CERM. A quick way to count the number of tunnels that CERM considers is to use the show crypto ipsec sa count command and look for the IPsec SA total count as shown here:

router#show crypto ipsec sa count

IPsec SA total: 6, active: 6, rekeying: 0, unused: 0, invalid: 0

The number of tunnels is then easily calculated as the total IPsec SA count divided by two.

Problem

Symptoms

These messages are seen in the syslog when the crypto curtailment limits are exceeded:

%CERM-4-RX_BW_LIMIT : Maximum Rx Bandwidth limit of [dec] Kbps reached for Crypto

functionality with temporary license for securityk9 technology package.

%CERM-4-TLS_SESSION_LIMIT : Maximum TLS session limit of [dec] reached for Crypto

functionality with temporary license for securityk9 technology package.

%CERM-4-TUNNEL_LIMIT : Maximum tunnel limit of [dec] reached for Crypto functionality

with temporary license for securityk9 technology package.

%CERM-4-TX_BW_LIMIT : Maximum Tx Bandwidth limit of [dec] Kbps reached for Crypto

functionality with temporary license for securityk9 technology package.

Root Cause

It is not uncommon for routers to be connected via Gigabit interfaces, and as explained previously, the router starts to drop traffic when it reaches 85 Mbps inbound or outbound. Even in cases where Gigabit interfaces are not in use or the average bandwidth utilization is clearly well below this limit, transit traffic can be bursty. Even if the burst is for a few milliseconds, it is enough to trigger the curtailed crypto bandwidth limit. And in these situations, the traffic that exceeds 85Mbps is dropped and accounted in show platform cerm-information output:

router#show platform cerm-information | include pkt

Failed encrypt pkts: 42159817

Failed decrypt pkts: 0

Failed encrypt pkt bytes: 62733807696

Failed decrypt pkt bytes: 0

Passed encrypt pkts: 506123671

Passed decrypt pkts: 2452439

Passed encrypt pkt bytes: 744753142576

Passed decrypt pkt bytes: 1402795108

For example, if you connect a Cisco 2911 to a Cisco 2951 via IPsec Virtual Tunnel Interface (VTI) and deliver an average of 69 mps of traffic with a packet generator, where the traffic is delivered in bursts of  6000 packets at a throughput of 500 Mbps, you see this in your syslogs:

router#

Apr  2 11:52:30.028: %CERM-4-TX_BW_LIMIT: Maximum Tx Bandwidth limit of 85000 Kbps

reached for Crypto functionality with securityk9 technology package license.

router#show platform cerm-information | include pkt

Failed encrypt pkt bytes: 62930990016

Failed decrypt pkt bytes: 0

Passed encrypt pkt bytes: 747197374528

Passed decrypt pkt bytes: 1402795108

router#show platform cerm-information | include pkt

Failed encrypt pkt bytes: 62931497424

Failed decrypt pkt bytes: 0

Passed encrypt pkt bytes: 747203749120

Passed decrypt pkt bytes: 1402795108

router#

As you can see, the router constantly drops the bursty traffic. Note the %CERM-4-TX_BW_LIMIT syslog messageis rate-limited to one message per minute.

Router#

Apr  2 11:53:30.396: %CERM-4-TX_BW_LIMIT: Maximum Tx Bandwidth limit of 85000 Kbps

reached for Crypto functionality with securityk9 technology package license.

BIOS#

Apr  2 11:54:30.768: %CERM-4-TX_BW_LIMIT: Maximum Tx Bandwidth limit of 85000 Kbps

reached for Crypto functionality with securityk9 technology package license.

Troubleshoot

For Issues Where the Bandwidth CERM Limit is Reached

Complete these steps:

1. Mirror the traffic on the connected switch.

2. Use Wireshark in order to analyze the captured trace by going down to two to 10 msec time period granularity.

Traffic with micro bursts greater than 85Mbps is an expected behavior.

For Issues Where the Maximum Tunnel CERM Limit is Reached

Collect this output periodically in order to help identify one of these three conditions:

- The number of tunnels has exceeded the CERM limit.

- There is a tunnel count leak (number of crypto tunnels as reported by crypto statistics exceeds the actual number of tunnels).

- There is a CERM count leak (number of CERM tunnel count as reported by CERM statistics exceeds the actual number of tunnels).

Here are the commands to use:

show crypto eli detail

show crypto isa sa count

show crypto ipsec sa count

show platform cerm-information

Solution

The best solution for users with a permanent securityk9 license that encounter this issue is to purchase the HSEC-K9 license. For information on these licenses, refer to Cisco ISR G2 SEC and HSEC Licensing.

Workaround

One possible workaround for those who absolutely do not need the increased bandwidth is to implement a traffic shaper on the neighboring devices on both sides in order to smooth out any traffic bursts. The queue depth might have to be tuned based on the burstiness of the traffic in order for this to be effective.

Unfortunately this workaround is not applicable in all deployment scenarios, and often does not work well with microbursts, which are traffic bursts that occur in very short time intervals.