IOS Features

IOS has a plethora of NAT features that span from simple 1:1 NATs to policy NATs to basic round-robin
load balancing. I've done a lot of NAT in my career, but most of it has been on an ASA. Some of these
features are not so obvious on IOS, and I've sometimes had a hard time producing
specific functionality when I had to do anything beyond a basic NAT or PAT. Here, I have deep-dived
every NAT feature I can find, including use cases. We will start with introducing the easy features, cover
some directional issues, and then move on to advanced features.
Our lab is as follows:
The subnet between R1, R2, R3 and R4 will be 192.168.0.0/24, with the fourth octet being the router
number. The link between R4 and R5 will be 30.0.0.0/24 with the fourth octet being the router number.
Each router will have a loopback of X.X.X.X where X is its router number (i.e. R3 = 3.3.3.3). R4 will
perform all the NATing.
Static 1:1 NAT
R1, R2, and R3 all have a default route pointing towards R4. These will be our "inside". R5 doesn't have a
route for anything other than its own loopback and connected 30.0.0.0/24 connected segment. This will be
our "outside".
Let's get R1 and R5 talking to each other.
R4(config)#int fa0/1
R4(config-if)#ip nat inside
R4(config-if)#int fa0/0
R4(config-if)#ip nat outside
R4(config)#ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20

R1#ping 30.0.0.5
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 30.0.0.5, timeout is 2 seconds:
..!!!
Success rate is 60 percent (3/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 48/52/60 ms
R5#debug ip icmp
ICMP packet debugging is on
R5#
*Mar 1 00:26:35.911: ICMP: echo reply sent, src 30.0.0.5, dst 30.0.0.20
Really straightforward. This flips the source address from 192.168.0.1 to 30.0.0.20 when moving from
inside to outside. From outside to inside the destination address will be flipped from 30.0.0.20 back to
192.168.0.1. R4 will ARP for 30.0.0.20 on the outside, which we can see via the alias table:
R4(config)#do show ip alias
Address Type IP Address Port
Interface 4.4.4.4
Interface 30.0.0.4
Dynamic 30.0.0.20
Interface 192.168.0.4
If for some reason we don't want R4 to ARP for 30.0.0.20, we could use no-alias:
R4(config)#ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20 no-alias
R4(config)#do sh ip alias
Interface 4.4.4.4
Interface 30.0.0.4
R5#clear arp
R5#ping 30.0.0.20
.....
Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)
Let's make R4 ARP again.
R4(config)#no ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20 no-alias
R5#ping 30.0.0.20
.!!!!
R1#debug ip icmp
ICMP packet debugging is on
R1#
You see the mapping is bidirectional, R5 can reach R1.
Let's create some more traffic and check out the NAT table.
R1#telnet 30.0.0.5
Trying 30.0.0.5 ... Open
Password required, but none set
[Connection to 30.0.0.5 closed by foreign host]
R4#sh ip nat translations

Pro Inside global Inside local Outside local Outside global
tcp 30.0.0.20:62371 192.168.0.1:62371 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23
--- 30.0.0.20 192.168.0.1 --- ---
There's some interesting stuff here. We see the entry created by our nat statement:
--- 30.0.0.20 192.168.0.1 --- ---
We'll go over this more further down the document. Let's focus on:
tcp 30.0.0.20:62371 192.168.0.1:62371 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23
Why is this here? I thought this was NAT, not PAT, so we shouldn't need all these port numbers. For that
matter we don't even care about the outside local/global addresses, really.
This is because of a feature activated by ip nat create flow-entries. This is a default-on feature to
accelerate the NAT process. If you want to disable it, you'd use:
R1#telnet 30.0.0.5
R4(config)#do sh ip nat trans
--- 30.0.0.20 192.168.0.1 --- ---
That's more what you'd expect to see, even if it is slower. I've now re-enabled ip nat create flow-entries.
Static PATs.
First we'll remove our NAT.
R4(config)#no ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20
R4(config)#ip nat inside source static tcp 192.168.0.1 19 30.0.0.20 5000
This should map port 19 (chargen) on the inside to port 5000 on the outside.
R1(config)#service tcp-small-servers ! enable chargen on R1
tcp 30.0.0.20:5000 192.168.0.1:19 --- ---
There's the translation from our static PAT.
We see that we can no longer telnet there:
R5#telnet 30.0.0.20
Trying 30.0.0.20 ...
% Connection refused by remote host
What about telnetting to port 5000?
R5#telnet 30.0.0.20 5000
Trying 30.0.0.20, 5000 ... Open
!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_àbcdefg
!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_àbcdefgh
"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_àbcdefghi
Clearly, we can reach chargen on R1.
We've also added the expected entry in the NAT table:
tcp 30.0.0.20:5000 192.168.0.1:19 30.0.0.5:13368 30.0.0.5:13368
tcp 30.0.0.20:5000 192.168.0.1:19 --- ---
What if we were translating some protocol that needed an ALG (Application Layer Gateway)? Turns out
IOS's NAT process has some fixups built-in for applications that contain IP and port information inside the
packet. This process happens be default. If you want to disable it, you'd use:
ip nat inside source static tcp 192.168.0.1 19 30.0.0.20 5000 no-payload
Dynamic NAT.
I've removed the static NAT/PAT config.
R4(config)#access-list 90 permit 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255
R4(config)#ip nat pool nat-pool 30.0.0.50 30.0.0.70 netmask 255.255.255.0
R4(config)#ip nat inside source list 90 pool nat-pool
This will perform a 1:1 NAT translation, dynamically, for the first 20 hosts on 192.168.0.0/24 on to 30.0.0.50
through 70.
R1#telnet 30.0.0.5
tcp 30.0.0.50:52584 192.168.0.1:52584 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23
--- 30.0.0.50 192.168.0.1 --- ---
We see that 192.168.0.1 has translated to 30.0.0.50 as expected. Now that this is setup we'll see
that dynamic NAT is actually reversible:
R5#telnet 30.0.0.50

tcp 30.0.0.50:23 192.168.0.1:23 30.0.0.5:63636 30.0.0.5:63636

tcp 30.0.0.50:52584 192.168.0.1:52584 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23
--- 30.0.0.50 192.168.0.1 --- ---
What about the other routers?
R2#ping 30.0.0.5
!!!!!
--- 30.0.0.50 192.168.0.1 --- ---
icmp 30.0.0.51:1 192.168.0.2:1 30.0.0.5:1 30.0.0.5:1
--- 30.0.0.51 192.168.0.2 --- ---
We now see the new dynamic mapping, 192.168.0.2 = 30.0.0.51.
What if we wanted to do a bulk 1:1 NAT?
R4(config)#do clear ip nat trans *
R4(config)#no ip nat inside source list 90 pool nat-pool
R4(config)#ip nat inside source static network 192.168.0.0 30.0.0.0 /24
This will do a pretty clever thing, and match the fourth octet on a 1:1 basis when generating traffic from
inside -> outside. Outside -> inside is reversible after the inside->outside translation has taken place and is
in the table.
R3#telnet 30.0.0.5

--- 30.0.0.3 192.168.0.3 --- ---
--- 30.0.0.0 192.168.0.0 --- ---
We see .3 = .3, as anticipated.
Let's convert the earlier example to dynamic PAT instead.
Dynamic PAT
R4(config)#ip nat inside source list 90 pool nat-pool overload
Now our "nat-pool" nat pool still references 20 IPs, which is unnecessary, this would work fine with one IP
address. But let's test anyway:
R1#telnet 30.0.0.5
R2#ping 30.0.0.5
.!!!!
tcp 30.0.0.52:26904 192.168.0.1:26904 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23
icmp 30.0.0.52:2 192.168.0.2:2 30.0.0.5:2 30.0.0.5:2
We see that both our sessions are now sourced dynamically off 30.0.0.52, instead of one IP per device.
You can also PAT to an interface:

R4(config)#no ip nat inside source list 90 pool nat-pool overload
R4(config)#ip nat inside source list 90 interface fa0/0
I ran the same telnet/ping from R1 and R2 here, not shown.
tcp 30.0.0.4:30046 192.168.0.1:30046 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23
icmp 30.0.0.4:3 192.168.0.2:3 30.0.0.5:3 30.0.0.5:3
We see all the sessions coming off the interface IP, 30.0.0.4. Note I did not use the overload command
above. I could've, but it's implied when you PAT off an interface in this fashion.
Let's say you want a catch-all host behind your PAT. It would get all the traffic not going somewhere
else. This is similar to the "DMZ host" feature that's on a lot of economy routers. Let's make R2 our catch-
all:
ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.2 interface Fa0/0
Just to reconfirm that R1 can still reach from inside->outside:
R1#ping 30.0.0.5
.!!!!
I've enabled local login on R2 (not shown here).
R5#telnet 30.0.0.4
User Access Verification
Password:
R2>
tcp 30.0.0.4:23 192.168.0.2:23 30.0.0.5:52330 30.0.0.5:52330
--- 30.0.0.4 192.168.0.2 --- ---
That covers all the basics, let's move on...
NAT Table & Order of Operations
So far we've been looking at "domain based" NAT. "domains" meaning inside & outside. As we've been
seeing, the NAT table for domain-based NAT is viewed by show ip nat translations. But we haven't
examined what these entries mean too much.
We're actually going to cover four topics here:
- Examining the NAT table
- Eliminating routing by using NAT
- ip nat outside
- Nat Virtual Interface (NVI)
I've eliminated all the existing NAT configuration and we're starting from scratch.
I've also removed the default route on R1 that's pointing at R4:
R1(config)#no ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.4
R4(config)#ip nat outside source static 30.0.0.5 192.168.0.50
The idea is to have R1 perceive R5 as 192.168.0.50, and R5 to perceive R1 as 30.0.0.50.
Let's have a look at the NAT tables.

I personally don't care for the layout of the domain-based NAT table. Here's the way I decipher it.
These are both source NATs. The top one is created by ip nat outside, the bottom one is created by ip
nat inside. I'm going to generate a traffic flow so that we can see the outcome of this better.
(Note I've fixed something behind-the-scenes here so that I can demonstrate this point first. We'll discuss
later.)
I've created a ping on R1:
SOURCE: 192.168.0.1
DESTINATION: 192.168.0.50
R4 performed two NATs:
1) A source NAT from 192.168.0.1 to 30.0.0.50
2) A reverse source NAT of 192.168.0.50 to 30.0.0.5. The source NAT is for the outside->inside direction
(30.0.0.5 -> 192.168.0.50), and this is the "reversible" method we've been discussing.
That's all fine and dandy, but here's my quicky method for seeing what this all means:
If inside->outside, our pre-translation packet is the inside pair (inside local, outside local) or "1 -> 2"
(192.168.0.1 -> 192.168.0.50) and our post-translation packet is the outside pair (inside global -> outside
global) or "3 -> 4" (30.0.0.50 -> 30.0.0.5).

Outside -> Inside is exactly flipped:
Original packet is (Outside Global, Inside Global) or "1 -> 2" (30.0.0.5 -> 30.0.0.50); and our post-
translation packet is the inside pair, reversed (Outside Local -> Inside Local) or "3 -> 4" (192.168.0.50 ->
192.168.0.1).
As such, we are now able to get by on translations and ARPs, no routing is required.... sort of.
I mentioned I'd "fixed" something undisclosed above, let's look at what would have gone wrong here. I
removed the fix.
Disabling CEF so that we can debug the transit packets...
R4(config-if)#no ip route-cache
R4(config-if)#no ip route-cache
R4(config-if)#do debug ip packet
IP packet debugging is on
R4(config-if)#do debug ip nat
IP NAT debugging is on
R1#telnet 192.168.0.50
Trying 192.168.0.50 ...
% Connection refused by remote host
Clearly broken, what'd R4's debug have to say?
R4(config-if)#
*Mar 1 07:41:33.458: IP: tableid=0, s=192.168.0.1 (FastEthernet0/1), d=192.168.0.50 (FastEthernet0/1),

routed via RIB
*Mar 1 07:41:33.458: IP: s=192.168.0.1 (FastEthernet0/1), d=192.168.0.50 (FastEthernet0/1), len 44, rcvd
*Mar 1 07:41:33.466: IP: tableid=0, s=192.168.0.50 (local), d=192.168.0.1 (FastEthernet0/1), routed via
FIB
*Mar 1 07:41:33.466: IP: s=192.168.0.50 (local), d=192.168.0.1 (FastEthernet0/1), len 40, sending
The issue is on line 1. We're routing from Fa0/1 to Fa0/1. That's because even though R4 ARPed for
192.168.0.50, it sees the egress interface as the one it came in on.
This is where order of operations comes in. Inside->Outside and Outside->Inside NAT are handled
differently.
Inside->Outside "routes first" and NATs second. I put "routes first" in quotes, because it's more like "picks
an interface first" (which I suppose is routing). Outside->Inside nat NATs first and "routes second".
Problem is, the packet is basically deemed invalid before the NAT even happens. We need a more specific
route to fix this issue. This is what I "fixed" earlier.
R4(config)#ip route 192.168.0.50 255.255.255.255 fa0/0
This /32 route will push traffic for 192.168.0.50 on to the outside interface.
R1#telnet 192.168.0.50
Trying 192.168.0.50 ... Open
Now we can connect!
R4(config)#
*Mar 1 07:53:13.510: IP: tableid=0, s=192.168.0.1 (FastEthernet0/1), d=192.168.0.50 (FastEthernet0/0),
routed via RIB

*Mar 1 07:53:13.510: NAT: s=192.168.0.1->30.0.0.50, d=192.168.0.50 [49922]
*Mar 1 07:53:13.514: NAT: s=30.0.0.50, d=192.168.0.50->30.0.0.5 [49922]

*Mar 1 07:53:13.514: IP: s=30.0.0.50 (FastEthernet0/1), d=30.0.0.5 (FastEthernet0/0), g=30.0.0.5, len 44,
forward
And now we're seeing traffic going from Fa0/1 to Fa0/0, and then the two pre-discussed NATs happening.
A slightly cleaner way to make this happen:
R4(config)#no ip route 192.168.0.50 255.255.255.255 fa0/0
R4(config)#ip nat outside source static 30.0.0.5 192.168.0.50 add-route
The "add-route" command creates the static route towards 192.168.0.50 on Fa0/0 automatically:
R4(config)#do sh ip route static
192.168.0.0/24 is variably subnetted, 2 subnets, 2 masks
S 192.168.0.50/32 [1/0] via 30.0.0.5
There's another method, as well. NVI-based NAT.
I've read a lot of blogs saying NVI-based NAT is the "new NAT method". I don't think this is the case, or at
least not yet. Refer to this article from Cisco:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk648/tk361/technologies_q_and_a_item09186a00800e523b.shtml
"NVI stands for NAT Virtual Interface. It allows NAT to translate between two different VRFs."
There's a lot of features that aren't available on NVI-based NAT yet (such as SNAT, and some route-map
configurations), and based on the above statement, I am wondering if they're planned for the future?
Anyway, how does this help our NAT/route order-of-operation problem?
NVI-based NAT "double routes". It picks an egress interface, NATs, and then re-picks an egress
interface. This behavior is symmetric for both "inside" and "outside". In fact, as we will see, NVI NAT
eliminates the concept of inside and outside completely.
I've removed all the existing NAT configuration from R4.
R4(config-if)#ip nat enable

R4(config)#ip nat source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.50
R4(config)#ip nat source static 30.0.0.5 192.168.0.50
That's it - no inside, no outside, just simple translations.
R1#ping 192.168.0.50
!!!!!
R4#show ip nat nvi translations
Pro Source global Source local Destin local Destin global
--- 192.168.0.50 30.0.0.5 --- ---
icmp 30.0.0.50:16 192.168.0.1:16 192.168.0.50:16 30.0.0.5:16
--- 30.0.0.50 192.168.0.1 --- ---
Note the new "show" command for NVI.

You'll also note no reference of inside or outside on the show output, everything is considered source or
destination. This makes the debugging, nat statements, etc much easier to figure out.
A couple catches on NVI NAT. As I mentioned above, SNAT (discussed later) is unsupported, as are
route-maps for 1:1 static NATs (also discussed later).
Before we push on to policy NATs, let's take a quick look at a way to use IOS NAT as a poor man's load
balancer.
I've enabled telnet on R1, R2 and R3; let's distribute inbound telnet connections from R5 amongst the three
in a round-robin fashion. I've also given all three routers a default route aimed at R4. I've removed all the
existing NAT config, again.
R4(config-if)#exit
R4(config)#ip access-list sta vip
R4(config-std-nacl)#permit 30.0.0.25
R4(config-std-nacl)#exit
R4(config)#ip nat pool server-pool 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 type rotary
R4(config)#ip nat inside destination list vip pool server-pool
In this case, 30.0.0.25 is our virtual IP (VIP) on the outside.
and...
R5#telnet 30.0.0.25
Trying 30.0.0.25 ...
% Connection timed out; remote host not responding
That was anti-climatic.
I'm not sure what causes the problem, but sometimes when I set this up, the router refuses to automatically
ARP for the VIP:
Interface 4.4.4.4
Interface 30.0.0.4
But we can force the behavior:
R4(config)#ip alias 30.0.0.25 23
Interface 4.4.4.4
Interface 30.0.0.4
Alias 30.0.0.25 23
and now it should work:
R5#telnet 30.0.0.25
Password:
R1>exit
R5#telnet 30.0.0.25
Password:
R2>exit
R5#telnet 30.0.0.25
Password:
R3>
Now that we have that working, what if R1-R3 want to access the outside?
R1#ping 30.0.0.5
.....
Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)
No luck, we haven't setup an inside->outside translation.

Let's build a dynamic PAT.
R4(config)#ip access-list sta inside
R4(config-std-nacl)#permit 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255
R4(config)#ip nat inside source list inside interface fa0/0
R1#ping 30.0.0.5
!!!!!
Now we have outside->inside load balancing, and inside->outside dynamic PAT.
If you've ever used a "lesser" router and tried to forward a range of ports (say TCP 10 through 30) from the
outside to an inside address, you probably did it with relative ease. You may have also struggled trying to
get this to work in the Cisco world, which does "port forwards" one at a time via static PAT. There's a
workaround to be had using this same NAT Rotary feature:
First we remove the old config:
R4(config)#no ip nat pool server-pool 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 type rotary
R4(config)#no ip nat inside destination list vip pool server-pool
Then we implement the workaround. We want to forward TCP 10 - 30 to R1.
Create a rotary pool of just R1:
R4(config)#no ip nat pool server-pool 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 type rotary
Create an access-list specifying the traffic to "rotary load-balance" to our single server:
R4(config)#ip access-list extended port-forwarding
R4(config-ext-nacl)#permit tcp any any range 10 30
R4(config-ext-nacl)#exit
And apply the policy:

R4(config)#ip nat inside destination list port-forwarding pool server-pool
And test:
R5#telnet 30.0.0.4
Password:
R1>exit
Telnet (TCP 23) works.
R5#telnet 30.0.0.4 19
Trying 30.0.0.4, 19 ... Open
chargen (TCP 19) works as well.
Let's move on to policy NAT now.
Policy NAT with Extended Access Lists
The simplest way to create a policy NAT is to just use an extended access list. Up until now, we've been
using standard access-lists, which create a simple logic: If the source is on this list, change it. Now we can
say things like "If source is on this list and you're headed towards a specific IP range, then change it". In
my experience, this is most useful for VPNs, where you want to PAT towards the Internet but dynamic NAT
to another range over the VPN tunnel. I'm not going to build that elaborate of a lab, but now you have a
reference point for production use.
Some additions to our diagram:

I've given R4 two options for routing "outside": R5 and R6.
R5 has the same IPs as before - the interface IPs between R4 and R5 are 30.0.0.0/24
R6 is using 31.0.0.0/24 between R4 and R6.
Pretend R7 doesn't exist for now-- we'll get there.
I've removed all the existing NAT config on R4.
Now that you can reach either R5 or R6 from R4, we need to NAT differently depending on which direction
we're going.
One access-list for traffic headed towards R5:
R4(config)#ip access-list ext towards-r5
R4(config-ext-nacl)#permit ip 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255 30.0.0.0 0.0.0.255
Another access-list for traffic headed towards R6:
R4(config)#ip access-list ext towards-r6

R4(config-ext-nacl)#permit ip 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255 30.1.0.0 0.0.0.255
Match them in the NAT statements with the appropriate interface:
R4(config)#ip nat inside source list towards-r5 interface fa0/0 overload
R4(config)#ip nat inside source list towards-r6 interface fa1/0 overload
R1#ping 30.0.0.5
!!!!!
R1#ping 30.1.0.6
!!!!!
Pings to R5 and R6 succeed -
R4#sh ip nat trans
icmp 30.1.0.4:22 192.168.0.1:22 30.1.0.6:22 30.1.0.6:22
icmp 30.0.0.4:23 192.168.0.1:23 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23
and are appropriately NATed.
Now if you're paying attention, you may have already noticed the limitation of this method when used
with my diagram. "Pretend R7 doesn't exist", I said. What if we're trying to reach 7.7.7.7 using the
extended-access list policy NAT method? Both our access-lists would read the same:
permit ip 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255 7.7.7.7 0.0.0.0
That's not going to work. In fact, what if the destination was the Internet? Your access-lists might look like:
permit ip 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255 any

That's not going to work either.
Here's where route-maps come in to policy PATs.
Policy NAT with Route-Maps
Cleanup from earlier...
R4(config)#no ip nat inside source list towards-r5 interface fa0/1 overload
R4(config)#no ip nat inside source list towards-r6 interface fa1/0 overload
Build
R4(config)#ip access-list extended towards-outside
R4(config-ext-nacl)#permit ip 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255 any
Route-maps can do two functions:
1) match access-lists
2) match egress interfaces or next-hops
Some examples will also show them setting interfaces (or next-hops), but I've not seen a functional
difference between using "set interface" and "match interface" with policy NAT. If anyone knows a
difference, please comment!
R4(config)#route-map towards-r6 permit 10
R4(config-route-map)#match ip address towards-outside
R4(config-route-map)#match interface FastEthernet1/0
R4(config-route-map)#match ip address towards-outside
R4(config-route-map)#match interface FastEthernet0/0
R4(config)#ip nat inside source route-map towards-r5 interface FastEthernet0/0 overload
R4(config)#ip nat inside source route-map towards-r6 interface FastEthernet1/0 overload
R4(config)#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 30.0.0.5
R4(config)#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 30.1.0.6 10
This would simulate a poor man's redundant Internet solution - different static IPs on different ISPs, routing
out one at a time. If Fa0/0 goes down, Fa1/0 will take over. Let's give it a try:
R1#ping 7.7.7.7
!!!!!
R4#sh ip nat trans

icmp 30.0.0.4:40 192.168.0.1:40 7.7.7.7:40 7.7.7.7:40
And now for the failover test:
R4#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
R4(config-if)#shut
R1#ping 7.7.7.7
!!!!!
R4#sh ip nat trans

icmp 30.1.0.4:41 192.168.0.1:41 7.7.7.7:41 7.7.7.7:41
Note that the "match ip address" clause in the route-map is really not necessary in this case, but I included
it to show the functionality. "match interface" is sufficient to make the NAT decision.
We saw earlier than dynamic NAT is typically reversible. Not so much with route-maps for dynamic NAT.
Reversible Dynamic NAT with Route-Maps

R4(config-route-map)#no match interface FastEthernet0/0 ! interface not supported w/ reversible
R4(config)#no ip nat inside source route-map towards-r5 interface FastEthernet0/0 overload
R4(config-if)#no shut
R4(config)#ip nat pool dynamic-pool 30.0.0.10 30.0.0.100 netmask 255.255.255.0

R4(config)#ip nat inside source route-map towards-r5 pool dynamic-pool reversible
The reversible keyword is required in order to make this scenario happen with route-maps.
Static NAT with Route-Maps
I've cleared all the NAT off R4 again.
I showed how to do policy-PAT already, but 1:1 is a whole different story. Let's say this is a server farm,
we have two different ISPs, but we're not running BGP and we have separate IP ranges statically assigned
from both ISPs. How do we do a hot/cold failover but maintain the static NAT?
Let's make 192.168.0.1 our "server" and try to forward traffic from two outside IPs towards it.
% 192.168.0.1 already mapped (192.168.0.1 -> 30.0.0.1)
You had probably already guessed that that wasn't going to work.
Here's the route-map method to accomplish this:

R4(config)#no ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.1
R4(config)#ip access-list extended towards-outside
R4(config)#ip route inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.1 route-map R1TOANY_VIAISP1
R4(config)#ip route inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.1.0.1 route-map R1TOANY_VIAISP2
--- 30.0.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
--- 30.1.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
We still have these in place:
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 30.0.0.5
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 30.1.0.6 10
Verification -
R5#telnet 30.0.0.1
Password:
R1>
R4(config-if)#shut
R6#telnet 30.1.0.1
Password:
R1>
R4(config-if)#no shut
There's another way to accomplish something similar. The extendable command makes sort of a reverse-
PAT function for 1:1 NATs.
R4(config)#no ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.1 route-map R1TOANY_VIAISP1
R4(config)#no ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.1.0.1 route-map R1TOANY_VIAISP2
R4(config)#ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.1 extendable
R4(config)#ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.1.0.1 extendable
--- 30.0.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
--- 30.1.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
Hmm, the NAT table looks about the same.
R5#telnet 30.0.0.1
Password:
R1>
tcp 30.0.0.1:23 192.168.0.1:23 30.0.0.5:16608 30.0.0.5:16608
--- 30.0.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
--- 30.1.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
We'd expect an entry like this based on the default ip nat create flow-entries. However, this time, it's
taken... more literally. The router is doing what I can only describe as a bi-directional PAT.
R6#telnet 30.1.0.1

Password:
R1>
tcp 30.0.0.1:23 192.168.0.1:23 30.0.0.5:16608 30.0.0.5:16608
tcp 30.1.0.1:23 192.168.0.1:23 30.1.0.6:16284 30.1.0.6:16284
--- 30.0.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
--- 30.1.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
Those entries are there for more than just acceleration, they're actually required now. In fact, I got curious
and disabled ip nat create flow-entries:
R4(config)#no ip nat create flow-entries
R4(config)#do clear ip nat trans *
<sample telnets were done here, not shown>
tcp 30.0.0.1:23 192.168.0.1:23 30.0.0.5:59295 30.0.0.5:59295
tcp 30.1.0.1:23 192.168.0.1:23 30.1.0.6:16284 30.1.0.6:16284
tcp 30.1.0.1:23 192.168.0.1:23 30.1.0.6:63205 30.1.0.6:63205
--- 30.0.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
--- 30.1.0.1 192.168.0.1 --- ---
Tough luck, you're getting the flow entries anyway, because this process doesn't work without them.
Arbitrary IPs; Redistributing NAT
Here's something I was always curious about - NATing to totally arbitrary IPs in IOS.
You've certainly gathered by now that you can NAT to anything, even IPs that aren't on any of your
interfaces. That's generally pretty useless because other devices aren't aware how to reach the IPs,
whether your router ARPs for them or not.

I've cleared all the prior NAT configuration. I'd like to NAT 192.168.0.0/24, our inside range, to
207.50.50.0/24. I don't want to put 207.50.50.0/24 on an interface. I'm going to use NVI NAT for the
example, but something similar could be accomplished with domain NAT.
R4(config)#interface fa0/0
R4(config)#interface fa0/1
R4(config)#ip nat pool arbitrary 207.50.50.1 207.50.50.200 prefix-length 24 add-route
You may remember "add-route" from domain NAT; here it is for NVI NAT. Note it's applied on the pool with
NVI NAT instead of in the NAT statement itself.
R4(config)#ip access-list extended inside-range
R4(config)#ip nat source list inside-range pool arbitrary
NAT is all setup now.
R4(config)#do sh ip route static
S 207.50.50.0/24 [0/0] via 0.0.0.0, NVI0
This static route can now be introduced into our outside routing protocol through redistribution. Or, you
could just use a bgp "network" statement: network 207.50.50.0 mask 255.255.255.0. In our case, the
outside is presently running OSPF, so:
R4(config)#router ospf 1
R4(config-router)#redistribute static subnets
Verify -
R5#sh ip route ospf
O E2 207.50.50.0/24 [110/20] via 30.0.0.4, 00:19:24, FastEthernet0/0

R5#debug ip icmp
R1#ping 30.0.0.5
!!!!!
R5#
Something similar could also be accomplished by creating a static route to null0 - ip route 207.50.50.0
255.255.255.0 null0 - and redistributing it.
Stateful NAT (SNAT)
We're still missing one big topic in this article still: SNAT, or Stateful NAT. It's a way of sharing NAT tables
across multiple routers, typically via HSRP, for the purpose of hot/hot shared NAT or hot/cold shared
NAT. This method could literally take a blog to itself... in fact, it did! I had to put it into production a few
months ago, so I took the time to blog about it then:
http://brbccie.blogspot.com/2013/03/stateful-nat-with-asymmetric-routing.html
Hope you enjoyed,
Jeff Kronlage
0 0
 06/30/13--10:40: Netflow
This post will be geared towards CCIE lab topics. I will use Solarwinds' freebie Netflow analyzer in some
examples, but the topics, in general, will be geared towards exporting data, not towards collecting it.
Let's kick off with a discussion of versions. Anyone who's used Netflow before knows version 5 is the one
typically used, with some newer implementations using version 9. So what's the story on all the "lost
versions"?
v1 - First implementation, still supported on 12.4T, restricted to IPv4 without subnet masks.
v2-v4 - Internal Cisco versions, never released
v5 - Most commonly used version, IPv4-only, supports subnet masks
v6 - I couldn't find any information at all
v7 - Extension of v5, reportedly used on some Catalyst switches
v8 - First version to support aggregation. v8's improvements made it into v9
v9 - Latest Cisco standard, supports IPv6, aggregation, and Flexible Netflow (FNF).
"v10" - aka IPFIX, this is the open standard for Netflow and will presumably replace it eventually. It's called
"v10" because the version header in the packet of IPFIX is "10", and is basically an open standard
implementation of v9.
We will be focusing primarily on v5 and v9, and touching a little bit on v8. There's no good argument for
using v1, and IOS 12.4(15)T only supports v1, v5, v8 (limited) and v9. IPFIX/v10 isn't available in
12.4(15)T. Fortunately - or perhaps unfortunately for those who are looking at this document for reasons
other than academic reasons - the Catalyst 3560 that is on the lab exam doesn't support Netflow at all, so
we're not going to touch on Catalyst Netflow at all. Of note, more modern 3560s, such as the 3560-X, do
support Netflow.
If you want to know more about the various Netflow versions, here is a fantastic explanation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcDQi7M1uo4
At a high-level, here is how Netflow works:

- "Flows" are identified by the collector. Prior to v9, flows are identified as having the same
source IP, source port, destination IP, destination port, protocol (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc), and
input interface. If they all match, they're considered the same flow.
- Flows are collected to the Netflow cache on the router
- After a timeout, either due to length of the flow exceeding a maximum, the flow explicitly
terminating (FIN/RST flag), or no packets being received for the flow for a length of time, the
data is collected, along with other appropriate flows, and sent to the Netflow collector. The
default timeouts are 30 minutes for active flows, and 15 seconds for inactive flows.
- The Netflow collector collects, and then presents, the data in whatever format you chose.
On a side note, I mentioned above that the protocol is determined on a high-level by protocol number: TCP,
UDP, ICMP, etc. In newer versions of IOS (15.0+), NBAR can be integrated into Netflow for more granular
protocol results. As that is presently outside the scope of the CCIE lab, I will not be discussing it here.
Let's look at some basic Netflow v5 usage. Here is our lab topology:
R7 (Lo0 7.7.7.7) and R8 (Lo0 8.8.8.8) will be communicating with each other, with R1 running Netflow, and
exporting to the Windows XP VM running Solarwinds Free Real-Time Netflow Analyzer:
http://www.solarwinds.com/products/freetools/netflow-analyzer.aspx
We'll enable TCP small servers so that we can utilize chargen to create TCP flows.
R7(config)#service tcp-small-servers
R8(config)#service tcp-small-servers
R7#telnet 8.8.8.8 19 /source-interface lo0
Trying 8.8.8.8, 19 ... Open

<ctrl-c>
R8#telnet 7.7.7.7 19 /source-int lo0
Trying 7.7.7.7, 19 ... Open
<ctrl-c>
Even after terminating the output with ctrl-c, the session is still running in the background:
R7#show tcp brief
TCB Local Address Foreign Address (state)
6603F1F0 7.7.7.7.12570 8.8.8.8.19 ESTAB
6603E708 7.7.7.7.19 8.8.8.8.51405 ESTAB
Now let's setup Netflow on R1:
R1(config-if)#ip flow ingress
R1(config-if)#exit
R1(config)#ip flow-export version 5
R1(config)#ip flow-export destination 172.16.0.100 2055
It's unlikely you'd be able to start collection in Solarwinds at this point. The freebie Solarwinds will only let
you start collection if it's receiving Netflow packets, and it's unlikely any flows have been sent yet, as the
time-out for ongoing flows is presently set to 1 hour. Let's turn it down:
R1(config)#ip flow-cache timeout active 1
We'll go ahead and turn down the inactive flow timer as well:
R1(config)#ip flow-cache timeout inactive 10

I've fired up the collector on the 172.16.0.100:
As you can see, we've started capturing some traffic.
You probably noticed my use of ip flow ingress on all interfaces that are passing traffic. This is a new
command with Netflow v9. The old command was ip route-cache flow. It's still supported but it's almost
functionality identical to ip flow ingress. The one small difference is with sub-interfaces. If you apply ip
flow ingress to a main interface, you're going to get the native VLAN traffic reported only. If you want the
entire interface, you apply ip route-cache flow to the main interface, and it basically acts as a macro,
applying ip flow ingress to every sub-interface (even ones created in the future) for you.
One of the most baffling things for me was the ip flow egress command. There's some very important
things to know about its usage. First of all, do not use it unless you are using Netflow v9. Netflow v5
doesn't have a concept of ingress and egress. There's no field in the v5 packet for direction.
So how do you collect egress traffic information on v1 or v5? This is simple. ip flow ingress is applied to
every interface and the collector reverses the information behind the scenes. Logically, if the collector can
see all the ingress flows, it would know about all the egress flows, too (what comes in most go out!). We'll
talk more about ip flow egress when we get to Netflow v9.
Random Sampled Netflow
As you might imagine, a busy Netflow exporter could not only create a lot of extra CPU and memory usage
for the router, but it could create too much traffic on the wire or even swamp the collector. Sampled
Netflow was created to fix this problem. Sampled Netflow would take every 1 out of X packets and sample
it. The problem with this mechanism is that it may continuously miss flows that are happen in between 1
and X. Say you are looking at every 1 in 100 packets, and you continuously have a burst every 50th
packet. Sampled Netflow will never see this burst. Introducing random sampled Netflow, which still grabs
every 1 in X packet, but introduces a random element so that it's not precisely every 1 in 100. Sampled
Netflow isn't supported on any equipment on the CCIE lab, but random sampled Netflow is.
Implementation is reasonable simple:
R1(config)#flow-sampler-map NETFLOW-TEST
R1(config-sampler)#mode random one-out-of 10
R1(config-sampler)#exit
R1(config-if)#no ip flow ingress
R1(config-if)#flow-sampler NETFLOW-TEST

Note I've turned off ip flow ingress on all interfaces first. ip flow ingress trumps random sampled
Netflow.

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IOS has a plethora of NAT features that span from simple 1:1 NATs to policy NATs to basic round-robin

some directional issues, and then move on to advanced features.

Our lab is as follows:

perform all the NATing.

Static 1:1 NAT

Let's get R1 and R5 talking to each other.

R4(config-if)#ip nat inside

R4(config)#ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 30.0.0.5, timeout is 2 seconds:

Success rate is 60 percent (3/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 48/52/60 ms

ICMP packet debugging is on

R4(config)#do show ip alias

Address Type IP Address Port

R4(config)#ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20 no-alias

Address Type IP Address Port

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 30.0.0.20, timeout is 2 seconds:

Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)

Let's make R4 ARP again.

R4(config)#no ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20 no-alias

R4(config)#ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 30.0.0.20, timeout is 2 seconds:

Success rate is 80 percent (4/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 28/54/80 ms

ICMP packet debugging is on

You see the mapping is bidirectional, R5 can reach R1.

Trying 30.0.0.5 ... Open

Password required, but none set

[Connection to 30.0.0.5 closed by foreign host]

R4#sh ip nat translations

tcp 30.0.0.20:62371 192.168.0.1:62371 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23

--- 30.0.0.20 192.168.0.1 --- ---

--- 30.0.0.20 192.168.0.1 --- ---

Pro Inside global Inside local Outside local Outside global

tcp 30.0.0.20:62371 192.168.0.1:62371 30.0.0.5:23 30.0.0.5:23

Trying 30.0.0.5 ... Open

Password required, but none set

[Connection to 30.0.0.5 closed by foreign host]

R4(config)#do sh ip nat trans

Pro Inside global Inside local Outside local Outside global

--- 30.0.0.20 192.168.0.1 --- ---

First we'll remove our NAT.

R4(config)#no ip nat inside source static 192.168.0.1 30.0.0.20

R4(config)#ip nat inside source static tcp 192.168.0.1 19 30.0.0.20 5000

R4(config)#do sh ip nat trans

Pro Inside global Inside local Outside local Outside global

tcp 30.0.0.20:5000 192.168.0.1:19 --- ---

There's the translation from our static PAT.

We see that we can no longer telnet there:

Trying 30.0.0.20 ...

% Connection refused by remote host

What about telnetting to port 5000?

R5#telnet 30.0.0.20 5000

Trying 30.0.0.20, 5000 ... Open

Clearly, we can reach chargen on R1.

We've also added the expected entry in the NAT table:

R4(config)#do sh ip nat trans

Pro Inside global Inside local Outside local Outside global