Routing concepts
This section contains the following topics:
- Default route
- Adding or editing a static route
- Configuring FQDNs as a destination address in static routes
- Routing table
- Viewing the routing database
- Kernel routing table
- Route look-up
- Blackhole routes
- Reverse path look-up
- Asymmetric routing
- Routing changes
- Static route tags
- Defining a preferred source IP for local-out egress interfaces
Default route
The default route has a destination of 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
, representing the least specific route in the routing table. It is a catch all route in the routing table when traffic cannot match a more specific route. Typically this is configured with a static route with an administrative distance of 10
. In most instances, you will configure the next hop interface and the gateway address pointing to your next hop. If your FortiGate is sitting at the edge of the network, your next hop will be your ISP gateway. This provides internet access for your network.
Sometimes the default route is configured through DHCP. On some entry-level models, the WAN interface is preconfigured in DHCP mode. Once the WAN interface is plugged into the network modem, it will receive an IP address, default gateway, and DNS server. FortiGate will add this default route to the routing table with a distance of 5
, by default. This will take precedence over any default static route with a distance of 10
. Therefore, take caution when you are configuring an interface in DHCP mode, where Retrieve default gateway from server is enabled. You may disable it and/or change the distance from the Network > Interfaces page when you edit an interface.
Adding or editing a static route
To add a static route using the GUI:
-
Go to Network > Static Routes and click Create New.
-
Enter the following information:
Dynamic Gateway
When enabled, a selected DHCP/PPPoE interface will automatically retrieve its dynamic gateway.
Destination
-
Subnet
Enter the destination IP address and netmask. A value of
0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
creates a default route. -
Named Address
Select an address or address group object. Only addresses with static route configuration enabled will appear on the list. This means a geography type address cannot be used.
-
Internet Service
Select an Internet Service. These are known IP addresses of popular services across the Internet.
Interface
Select the name of the interface that the static route will connect through.
Gateway Address
Enter the gateway IP address. When selecting an IPsec VPN interface or SD-WAN creating a blackhole route, the gateway cannot be specified.
Administrative Distance
Enter the distance value, which will affect which routes are selected first by different protocols for route management or load balancing. The default is 10.
Advanced Options
Optionally, expand Advanced Options and enter a Priority. When two routes have an equal distance, the route with a lower priority number will take precedence. The default is 1.
-
-
Click OK.
Configuring FQDNs as a destination address in static routes
You can configure FQDN firewall addresses as destination addresses in a static route, using either the GUI or the CLI.
In the GUI, to add an FQDN firewall address to a static route in the firewall address configuration, enable the Static Route Configuration option. Then, when you configure the static route, set Destination to Named Address.
To configure an FQDN as a destination address in a static route using the CLI:
config firewall address edit 'Fortinet-Documentation-Website' set type fqdn set fqdn docs.fortinet.com set allow-routing enable next end
config router static edit 0 set dstaddr Fortinet-Documentation-Website ... next end
Routing table
A routing table consists of only the best routes learned from the different routing protocols. The most specific route always takes precedence. If there is a tie, then the route with a lower administrative distance will be injected into the routing table. If administrative distances are also equal, then all the routes are injected into the routing table, and Cost and Priority become the deciding factors on which a route is preferred. If these are also equal, then FortiGate will use Equal cost multi-path to distribute traffic between these routes.
Viewing the routing table in the GUI
You can view routing tables in the FortiGate GUI under Dashboard > Network > Static & Dynamic Routing by default. Expand the widget to see the full page. Additionally, if you want to convert the widget into a dashboard, click on the Save as Monitor icon on the top right of the page.
You can also monitor policy routes by toggling from Static & Dynamic to Policy on the top right corner of the page. The active policy routes include policy routes that you created, SD-WAN rules, and Internet Service static routes. It also supports downstream devices in the Security Fabric.
The following figure show an example of the static and dynamic routes in the Routing Monitor:
To view more columns, right-click on the column header to select the columns to be displayed:
Field |
Description |
---|---|
IP Version |
Shows whether the route is IPv4 or IPv6. |
Network |
The IP addresses and network masks of destination networks that the FortiGate can reach. |
Gateway IP |
The IP addresses of gateways to the destination networks. |
Interfaces |
The interface through which packets are forwarded to the gateway of the destination network. |
Distance |
The administrative distance associated with the route. A lower value means the route is preferable compared to other routes to the same destination. |
Type |
The type values assigned to FortiGate routes (Static, Connected, RIP, OSPF, or BGP):
|
Metric |
The metric associated with the route type. The metric of a route influences how the FortiGate dynamically adds it to the routing table. The following are types of metrics and the protocols they are applied to:
|
Priority |
In static routes, priorities are 0 by default. When two routes have an equal distance, the route with the lower priority number will take precedence. |
VRF |
Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) allows multiple routing table instances to co-exist. VRF can be assigned to an Interface. Packets are only forwarded between interfaces with the same VRF. |
Up Since |
The total accumulated amount of time that a route learned through RIP, OSPF, or BGP has been reachable. |
Viewing the routing table in the CLI
Viewing the routing table using the CLI displays the same routes as you would see in the GUI.
If VDOMs are enabled on the FortiGate, all routing-related CLI commands must be run within a VDOM and not in the global context.
To view the routing table using the CLI:
# get router info routing-table all Codes: K - kernel, C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, B - BGP O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2 E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2 i - IS-IS, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2, ia - IS-IS inter area * - candidate default Routing table for VRF=0 S* 0.0.0.0/0 [1/0] via 172.31.0.1, MPLS [1/0]via 192.168.2.1, port1 [1/0] via 192.168.122.1, port2 S 1.2.3.4/32 [10/0] via 172.16.100.81, VLAN100 C 10.10.2.0/24 is directly connected, hub C 10.10.2.1/32 is directly connected, hub O 10.10.10.0/24 [110/101] via 192.168.2.1, port1, 01:54:18 C 10.253.240.0/20 is directly connected, wqt.root S 110.2.2.122/32 [22/0] via 2.2.2.2, port2, [3/3] C 172.16.50.0/24 is directly connected, WAN1-VLAN50 C 172.16.60.0/24 is directly connected, WAN2-VLAN60 C 172.16.100.0/24 is directly connected, VLAN100 C 172.31.0.0/30 is directly connected, MPLS C 172.31.0.2/32 is directly connected, MPLS B 192.168.0.0/24 [20/0] via 172.31.0.1, MPLS, 00:31:43 C 192.168.2.0/24 is directly connected, port1 C 192.168.20.0/24 is directly connected, port3 C 192.168.99.0/24 is directly connected, Port1-VLAN99 C 192.168.122.0/24 is directly connected, port2 Routing table for VRF=10 C 172.16.101.0/24 is directly connected, VLAN101
Examining an entry:
B 192.168.0.0/24 [20/0] via 172.31.0.1, MPLS, 00:31:43
Value |
Description |
---|---|
B |
BGP. The routing protocol used. |
192.168.0.0/24 |
The destination of this route, including netmask. |
[20/0] |
|
172.31.0.1 |
The gateway or next hop. |
MPLS |
The interface that the route uses. |
00:31:43 |
The age of the route in |
Viewing the routing database
The routing database consists of all learned routes from all routing protocols before they are injected into the routing table. This likely lists more routes than the routing table as it consists of routes to the same destinations with different distances. Only the best routes are injected into the routing table. However, it is useful to see all learned routes for troubleshooting purposes.
To view the routing database using the CLI:
# get router info routing-table database Codes: K - kernel, C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, B - BGP O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2 E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2 i - IS-IS, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2, ia - IS-IS inter area > - selected route, * - FIB route, p - stale info Routing table for VRF=0 S *> 0.0.0.0/0 [1/0] via 172.31.0.1, MPLS *> [1/0] via 192.168.2.1, port1 *> [1/0] via 192.168.122.1, port2 S *> 1.2.3.4/32 [10/0] via 172.16.100.81, VLAN100 C *> 10.10.2.0/24 is directly connected, hub C *> 10.10.2.1/32 is directly connected, hub O *> 10.10.10.0/24 [110/101] via 192.168.2.1, port1, 02:10:17 C *> 10.253.240.0/20 is directly connected, wqt.root S *> 110.2.2.122/32 [22/0] via 2.2.2.2, port2, [3/3] C *> 172.16.50.0/24 is directly connected, WAN1-VLAN50 C *> 172.16.60.0/24 is directly connected, WAN2-VLAN60 C *> 172.16.100.0/24 is directly connected, VLAN100 O 172.31.0.0/30 [110/201] via 192.168.2.1, port1, 00:47:36 C *> 172.31.0.0/30 is directly connected, MPLS
Selected routes are marked by the >
symbol. In the above example, the OSPF route to destination 172.31.0.0/30
is not selected.
Kernel routing table
The kernel routing table makes up the actual Forwarding Information Base (FIB) that used to make forwarding decisions for each packet. The routes here are often referred to as kernel routes. Parts of this table are derived from the routing table that is generated by the routing daemon.
To view the kernel routing table using the CLI:
# get router info kernel tab=254 vf=0 scope=0 type=1 proto=11 prio=0 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0/0->0.0.0.0/0 pref=0.0.0.0 gwy=172.31.0.1 flag=04 hops=0 oif=31(MPLS) gwy=192.168.2.1 flag=04 hops=0 oif=3(port1) gwy=192.168.122.1 flag=04 hops=0 oif=4(port2) tab=254 vf=0 scope=0 type=1 proto=17 prio=0 192.168.122.98/255.255.255.255/0->1.1.1.1/32 pref=0.0.0.0 gwy=192.168.122.1 dev=4(port2) tab=254 vf=0 scope=0 type=1 proto=17 prio=0 172.31.0.2/255.255.255.255/0->1.1.1.1/32 pref=0.0.0.0 gwy=172.31.0.1 dev=31(MPLS) tab=254 vf=0 scope=0 type=1 proto=17 prio=0 192.168.2.5/255.255.255.255/0->1.1.1.1/32 pref=0.0.0.0 gwy=192.168.2.1 dev=3(port1) tab=254 vf=0 scope=0 type=1 proto=11 prio=0 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0/0->1.2.3.4/32 pref=0.0.0.0 gwy=172.16.100.81 dev=20(VLAN100) tab=254 vf=0 scope=0 type=1 proto=17 prio=0 192.168.122.98/255.255.255.255/0->8.8.8.8/32 pref=0.0.0.0 gwy=192.168.122.1 dev=4(port2)
The kernel routing table entries are:
Value |
Description |
---|---|
tab |
Table number: It will either be |
vf |
Virtual domain of the firewall: It is the VDOM index number. If VDOMs are not enabled, this number is |
type |
Type of routing connection. Valid values include:
|
proto |
Type of installation that indicates where the route came from. Valid values include:
|
prio |
Priority of the route. Lower priorities are preferred. |
->0.0.0.0/0 (->x.x.x.x/mask) |
The IP address and subnet mask of the destination. |
pref |
Preferred next hop along this route. |
gwy |
Gateway: The address of the gateway this route will use. |
dev |
Outgoing interface index: This number is associated with the interface for this route. If VDOMs are enabled, the VDOM is also included here. If an interface alias is set for this interface, it is also displayed here. |
Route look-up
Route look-up typically occurs twice in the life of a session. Once when the first packet is sent by the originator and once more when the first reply packet is sent from the responder. When a route look-up occurs, the routing information is written to the session table. If routing changes occur during the life of a session, additional routing look-ups may occur.
FortiGate performs a route look-up in the following order:
- Policy-based routes: If a match occurs and the action is to forward, traffic is forwarded based on the policy route.
- Forwarding Information Base, otherwise known as the kernel routing table.
- If no match occurs, the packet is dropped.
Searching the routing table
When there are many routes in your routing table, you can perform a quick search by using the search bar to specify your criteria, or apply filters on the column header to display only certain routes. For example, if you want to only display static routes, you may use "static" as the search term, or filter by the Type field with value Static.
Route look-up on the other hand provides a utility for you to enter criteria such as Destination, Destination Port, Source, Protocol and/or Source Interface, in order to determine the route that a packet will take. Once you click Search, the corresponding route will be highlighted.
You can also use the CLI for a route look-up. The CLI provides a basic route look-up tool.
To look-up a route in the CLI:
# get router info routing-table details 4.4.4.4 Routing table for VRF=0 Routing entry for 0.0.0.0/0 Known via "static", distance 1, metric 0, best * 172.31.0.1, via MPLS distance 0 * 192.168.2.1, via port1 distance 0 * 192.168.122.1, via port2 distance 0
Blackhole routes
Sometimes upon routing table changes, it is not desirable for traffic to be routed to a different gateway. For example, you may have traffic destined for a remote office routed through your IPsec VPN interface. When the VPN is down, traffic will try to re-route to another interface. However, this may not be viable and traffic will instead be routed to your default route through your WAN, which is not desirable. Traffic may also be routed to another VPN, which you do not want. For such scenarios, it is good to define a blackhole route so that traffic is dropped when your desired route is down. Upon reconnection, your desired route is once again added to the routing table and your traffic will resume routing to your desired interface. For this reason, blackhole routes are created when you configure an IPsec VPN using the IPsec wizard.
For FortiOS 7.4.0, SSL VPN web mode, explicit web proxy, and interface mode IPsec VPN features will not work with the following configuration:
Configuring an IP pool as the source NAT IP address in a regular firewall policy works as before. For details, see Technical Tip: IP pool and virtual IP behaviour changes in FortiOS 6.4, 7.0, 7.2, and 7.4. |
To create a blackhole route in the GUI:
- Go to Network > Static Routes.
- Click Create New. The New Static Route screen appears.
- Specify a Destination type.
- Select Blackhole from the Interface field.
- Type the desired Administrative Distance.
- Click OK.
Route priority for a Blackhole route can only be configured from the CLI. |
Reverse path look-up
Whenever a packet arrives at one of the interfaces on a FortiGate, the FortiGate determines whether the packet was received on a legitimate interface by doing a reverse look-up using the source IP address in the packet header. This protects against IP spoofing attacks. If the FortiGate does not have a route to the source IP address through the interface on which the packet was received, the FortiGate drops the packet as per Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF) check. There are two modes of RPF – feasible path and strict. The default feasible RPF mode checks only for the existence of at least one active route back to the source using the incoming interface. The strict RPF check ensures the best route back to the source is used as the incoming interface.
To configure a strict Reverse Path Forwarding check in the CLI:
config system settings set strict-src-check enable end
You can remove RPF state checks without needing to enable asymmetric routing by disabling state checks for traffic received on specific interfaces. Disabling state checks makes a FortiGate less secure and should only be done with caution for troubleshooting purposes.
To remove Reverse Path Forwarding checks from the state evaluation process in the CLI:
config system interface edit <interface_name> set src-check disable next end
Asymmetric routing
Asymmetric routing occurs when request and response packets follow different paths that do not cross the same firewall.
In the following topology, traffic between PC1 and PC2 takes two different paths.
Traffic from PC1 to PC2 goes through the FortiGate, while traffic from PC2 to PC1 does not.
In TCP, if the packets in the request and response directions follow different paths, the FortiGate will block the packets, since the TCP three-way handshake is not established through the FortiGate.
Scenario 1: PC1 starts a TCP connection with PC2
- The TCP SYN is allowed by the FortiGate.
- The TCP SYN/ACK bypasses the FortiGate.
- The TCP ACK is blocked by the FortiGate.
- Subsequent TCP packets are blocked by the FortiGate.
Scenario 2: PC2 starts a TCP connection with PC1
- The TCP SYN bypasses the FortiGate.
- The TCP SYN/ACK is blocked by the FortiGate.
- Subsequent TCP packets are blocked by the FortiGate.
In ICMP, consider the following scenarios.
Scenario 1: PC1 pings PC2
- The ICMP request passes through the FortiGate. A session is created.
- The ICMP reply bypasses the FortiGate, but reaches PC1. The ping is successful.
- The ICMP request passes through the FortiGate, and it matches the previous session.
- The ICMP reply bypasses the FortiGate, but it reaches PC1. The ping is successful.
- Subsequent ICMP requests are allowed by the FortiGate.
Scenario 2: PC2 pings PC1
- The ICMP request bypasses the FortiGate, but it reaches PC1.
- The ICMP reply passes through the FortiGate. No session is matched, and the packet is dropped.
- Subsequent ICMP replies are blocked by the FortiGate.
If an ICMP request does not pass through the FortiGate, but the response passes through the FortiGate, then by default it blocks the packet as invalid.
Permitting asymmetric routing
If required, the FortiGate can be configured to permit asymmetric routing.
To permit asymmetric routing:
config system settings set asymroute enable end
This setting should be used only when the asymmetric routing issue cannot be resolved by ensuring both directions of traffic pass through the FortiGate.
When asymmetric routing is enabled and occurs, the FortiGate cannot inspect all traffic. Potentially malicious traffic may pass through and compromise the security of the network.
Asymmetric routing behaves as follows when it is permitted by the FortiGate:
TCP packets
Scenario 1: PC1 starts a TCP connection with PC2
- The TCP SYN is allowed by the FortiGate. The FortiGate creates a session, checks the firewall policies, and applies the configuration from the matching policy (UTM inspection, NAT, traffic shaping, and so on).
- The TCP SYN/ACK bypasses the FortiGate.
- The TCP ACK is allowed by the FortiGate. The packet matches the previously created session.
- Subsequent TCP packets are allowed by the FortiGate. The packets in the session can also be offloaded where applicable.
Scenario 2: PC2 starts a TCP connection with PC1
- The TCP SYN bypasses the FortiGate.
- The TCP SYN/ACK is allowed by the FortiGate. No session is matched. The packet passes to the CPU and is forwarded based on the routing table.
- The TCP ACK bypasses the FortiGate.
- Subsequent TCP packets are allowed by the FortiGate. The FortiGate acts as a router that only makes routing decisions. No security inspection is performed.
ICMP packets
Scenario 1: PC1 pings PC2
- There is no difference from when asymmetric routing is disabled.
Scenario 2: PC2 pings PC1
- The ICMP request bypasses the FortiGate, but it reaches PC1.
- The ICMP reply passes through the FortiGate. No session is matched. The packet passes to the CPU and is forwarded based on the routing table.
- Subsequent ICMP replies are allowed by the FortiGate. The FortiGate acts as a router that only makes routing decisions. No security inspection is performed.
UDP packets
Asymmetric routing does not affect UDP packets. UDP packets are checked by the session table regardless of asymmetric routing. A policy is required to allow UDP.
Routing changes
When routing changes occur, routing look-up may occur on an existing session depending on certain configurations.
Routing changes without SNAT
When a routing change occurs, FortiGate flushes all routing information from the session table and performs new routing look-up for all new packets on arrival by default. You can modify the default behavior using the following commands:
config system interface edit <interface> set preserve-session-route enable next end
By enabling preserve-session-route
, the FortiGate marks existing session routing information as persistent. Therefore, routing look-up only occurs on new sessions.
Routing changes with SNAT
When SNAT is enabled, the default behavior is opposite to that of when SNAT is not enabled. After a routing change occurs, sessions with SNAT keep using the same outbound interface as long as the old route is still active. This may be the case if the priority of the static route was changed. You can modify this default behavior using the following commands:
config system global set snat-route-change enable end
By enabling snat-route-change
, sessions with SNAT will require new route look-up when a routing change occurs. This will apply a new SNAT to the session.
Static route tags
When a static route is configured with a route tag, it is matched in the route map, and then used to set the route's metric and advertise to the BGP neighbor. In the following example, route tag 565 is used, and router R1 receives the advertised route from the FortiGate router R5.
To configure the FortiGate:
-
Configure the static route:
config router static edit 1 set dst 77.7.7.7 255.255.255.255 set distance 2 set device "R560" set tag 565 next end
-
Configure the route map:
config router route-map edit "map1" config rule edit 2 set match-tag 565 set set-metric 2301 next end next end
-
Configure the BGP neighbor:
config router bgp config neighbor edit "10.100.1.2" set route-map-out "map1" next end end
On its neighbor side, router R1 receives the advertised route from the FortiGate router R5.
-
Verify the BGP routing table:
# get router info routing-table bgp Routing table for VRF=0 B 77.7.7.7/32 [20/2301] via 10.100.1.1 (recursive is directly connected, R150), 03:18:53, [1/0]
-
Verify the network community:
# get router info bgp network 77.7.7.7/32 VRF 0 BGP routing table entry for 77.7.7.7/32 Paths: (1 available, best #1, table Default-IP-Routing-Table) Advertised to non peer-group peers: 2.2.2.2 3.3.3.3 10.100.1.5 2000::2:2:2:2 Original VRF 0 20 10.100.1.1 from 10.100.1.1 (5.5.5.5) Origin incomplete metric 2301, localpref 200, valid, external, best Last update: Wed Oct 5 16:48:28 2022
Defining a preferred source IP for local-out egress interfaces
The preferred source IP can be configured on a static route so that local-out traffic is sourced from that IP. In the following example, a source IP is defined per static route. Local traffic that uses the static route will use the source IP instead of the interface IP associated with the route.
To configure preferred source IPs for static routes:
-
Configure the static routes:
config router static edit 22 set dst 172.17.254.0 255.255.255.0 set gateway 172.16.200.254 set preferred-source 1.1.1.1 set distance 2 set device "port1" next edit 23 set dst 172.17.254.0 255.255.255.0 set gateway 172.16.203.2 set preferred-source 1.1.1.2 set distance 2 set device "agg1" next end
-
Configure the primary DNS server IP address:
config system dns set primary 172.17.254.148 end
To verify the configuration:
-
Verify the kernel routing table:
# get router info kernel ... tab=254 vf=0 scope=0 type=1 proto=11 prio=1 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0/0->172.17.254.0/24 pref=0.0.0.0 gwy=172.16.200.254 flag=14 hops=0 oif=9(port1) pref=1.1.1.1 gwy=172.16.203.2 flag=14 hops=0 oif=33(agg1) pref=1.1.1.2
-
Verify the routing table for 172.17.254.148:
# get router info routing-table details 172.17.254.148 Routing table for VRF=0 Routing entry for 172.17.254.0/24 Known via "static", distance 2, metric 0, best * vrf 0 172.16.200.254, via port1, prefsrc 1.1.1.1 * vrf 0 172.16.203.2, via agg1, prefsrc 1.1.1.2
-
Run a sniffer trace after some traffic passes:
# diagnose sniffer packet any "host 172.17.254.148" 4 interfaces=[any] filters=[host 172.17.254.148] 1.319811 port1 out 1.1.1.1.1371 -> 172.17.254.148.53: udp 43 1.320095 port1 in 172.17.254.148.53 -> 1.1.1.1.1371: udp 310 1.921718 port1 out 1.1.1.1.1371 -> 172.17.254.148.53: udp 27 2.031520 port1 in 172.17.254.148.53 -> 1.1.1.1.1371: udp 213
When DNS traffic leaves the FortiGate and is routed through port1, the source address 1.1.1.1 is used.