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VM-Series Deployment Guide

Deploy the GCP Active/Passive HA

Table of Contents

Deploy the GCP Active/Passive HA

You can use the following procedures manage your existing deployment profiles.

Preparing to set-up an active/passive HA in GCP
Deploying the GCP Active/Passive HA
Testing the GCP Active/Passive HA deployment
Onboarding Internet Applications
Deleting the Resources

Preparing to set-up an active/passive HA in GCP

Enable the required APIs, generate an SSH key, and clone the Github repository using:

gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com
ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/vmseries-tutorial -t rsa
git clone https://github.com/PaloAltoNetworks/google-cloud-vmseries-ha-tutorial
cd google-cloud-vmseries-ha-tutorial

Create a terraform.tfvars file.

cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

Edit the new terraform.tfvars file and set variables for the following variables:

Variable	Description
project_id	Set to your Google Cloud deployment project.
public_key_path	Set to match the full path you created previously.
mgmt_allow_ips	Set to a list of IPv4 ranges that can access the VM-Series management interface.
prefix	(Optional) If set, this string will be prepended to the created resources.
vmseries_image_name	(Optional) Defines the VM-Series image to deploy. A full list of images can be found here.

(Optional) If you are using BYOL image (i.e. vmseries-flex-byol-*), the license can be applied during deployment by adding your VM-Series authcode to bootstrap_files/authcodes
Save your terraform.tfvars file.

Deploying the GCP Active/Passive HA

Initialize and apply the Terraform plan.


                            terraform init
                            terraform apply

Enter yes to start the deployment. After all the resources are created, the Terraform displays the following message:


                            Apply complete!
                            
                            Outputs:
                            
                            EXTERNAL_LB_IP    = "ssh paloalto@1.1.1.1 -i ~/.ssh/vmseries-tutorial"
                            EXTERNAL_LB_URL    = "https://1.1.1.1"
                            VMSERIES_ACTIVE    = "https://2.2.2.2"
                            VMSERIES_PASSIVE   = "https://3.3.3.3"

All the infrastructure should now be deployed and will boot up and configure by itself. Visit the external_nat_ip by using http://x.x.x.x after a few minutes after the deployment to find the default webpage from the workload-vm.

Testing the GCP Active/Passive HA deployment

You can now test the deployment by accessing the workload-vm that resides in the trust VPC network. All of the workload-vm traffic is routed directly through the VM-Series HA pair.

Use the output EXTERNAL_LB_URL to access the web service on the workload-vm through the VM-Series firewall.
```
gcloud compute ssh workload-vm
```
Use the output EXTERNAL_LB_SSH to open an SSH session through the VM-Series to the workload-vm.
```
ssh paloalto@1.1.1.1 -i ~/.ssh/vmseries-tutorial
```
Run a preloaded script on the workload VM, to test the failover mechanism across the VM-Series firewalls.
```
/network-check.sh
```
You will observe an output similar to the codeblock below, where x.x.x.x is the IP address is EXTERNAL_LB_IP address.
Wed Mar 12 16:40:18 UTC 2023 -- Online -- Source IP = x.x.x.x Wed Mar 12 16:40:19 UTC 2023 -- Online -- Source IP = x.x.x.x Wed Mar 12 16:40:20 UTC 2023 -- Online -- Source IP = x.x.x.x Wed Mar 12 16:40:21 UTC 2023 -- Online -- Source IP = x.x.x.x

Login to the VM-Series firewalls using the VMSERIES_ACTIVE and VMSERIES_PASSIVE output values. Notice the HA Status of the firewalls in the bottom right hand corner of the management window.
Perform a user initiated failover.
- On the Active firewall, click the Device > High Availabilty > Operational Commands.
- Click Suspend local device for high availability.
- When prompted, click OK to initiate the failover.
- You may notice that the SSH session to the workload-vm is still active. This indicates the session successfully failed over between the VM-Series firewalls. The script output should also display the same source IP address.
  Wed Mar 12 16:47:18 UTC 2023 -- Online -- Source IP = x.x.x.x Wed Mar 12 16:47:19 UTC 2023 -- Online -- Source IP = x.x.x.x Wed Mar 12 16:47:21 UTC 2023 -- Offline Wed Mar 12 16:47:22 UTC 2023 -- Offline Wed Mar 12 16:47:23 UTC 2023 -- Online -- Source IP = x.x.x.x Wed Mar 12 16:47:24 UTC 2023 -- Online -- Source IP = x.x.x.x

Onboarding Internet Applications

You can onboard and secure multiple internet facing applications through the VM-Series firewall. This is done by mapping forwarding rules on the external load balancer to NAT policies defined on the VM-Series firewall.

In Cloud Shell, deploy a virtual machine into a subnet within the trust VPC network. The virtual machine in this example runs a sample application for you.


                            gcloud compute instances create my-app2 \
                            --network-interface subnet="panw-us-central1-trust",no-address \
                            --zone=us-central1-a \
                            --image-project=panw-gcp-team-testing \
                            --image=ubuntu-2004-lts-apache-ac \
                            --machine-type=f1-micro

Record the INTERNAL_IP address of the new virtual machine.


                            name: my-app2
                            ZONE: us-central1-a
                            MACHINE_TYPE: f1-micro
                            PREEMPTIBLE:
                            INTERNAL_IP: 10.0.2.4
                            EXTERNAL_IP:
                            status: RUNNING

Create a new forwarding rule on the external TCP load balancer.


                        gcloud compute forwarding-rules create panw-vmseries-extlb-rule2 \
                        --load-balancing-scheme=EXTERNAL \
                        --region=us-central1 \
                        --ip-protocol=L3_DEFAULT \
                        --ports=ALL \
                        --backend-service=panw-vmseries-extlb

Retrieve and record the address of the new forwarding rule.


                        gcloud compute forwarding-rules describe panw-vmseries-extlb-rule2 \
                        --region=us-central1 \
                        --format='get(IPAddress)'

(output)


                        34.172.143.223

On the active VM-Series, click Policies > NAT > Add and enter a name for the rule.
Configure the Original Packet as follows:
- Source Zone: untrust
- Destination Zone: untrust
- service: service-http
- Destination Address: Set to the forwarding rule's IP address (i.e. 34.172.143.223).
In the Translated Packet tab, configure the Destination Address Translation as follows:
- Translated Type: Static IP
- Translated Address: Set to the INTERNAL_IP of the sample application (i.e. 10.0.2.4).
Click OK and commit the changes.
Access the sample application using the forwarding rule's address.
```
http://34.172.143.223/
```

Deleting the Resources

You can delete all the resources when you no longer need them.

(Optional) If you onboarded an additional application, delete the forwarding rule and sample application machine.


                            gcloud compute forwarding-rules delete panw-vmseries-extlb-rule2 \
                            --region=us-central1
                            
                            gcloud compute instances delete my-app2 \
                            --zone=us-central1-a

Delete the Terraform using the command:
```
terraform destroy
```
At the prompt to perform the actions, enter yes. After all the resources are deleted, Terraform displays the following message:
```
Destroy complete!
```

Architecture of Active/Passive HA on GCP

Securing VPC Networks with VM-Series Firewall on GCP