Re: Palo Alto Firewalls

[Chris Golden <cgolden () LEEUNIVERSITY EDU>]

We are using OSPF on the PAN 5020’s but not BGP.  We have some Brocade CER’s for that.

-Chris



From: Peter Setlak <psetlak () COLGATE EDU<mailto:psetlak () COLGATE EDU>>
Reply-To: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () 
LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>>
Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 at 10:44 AM
To: "SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>" <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE 
EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Palo Alto Firewalls

It was suggested to us by the sales Engineer that while the Palo Alto CAN do BGP, it should not be used for it as it is 
not built to handle a large convergence. We use separate edge routers built for BGP which gives us the performance we 
want and some added protection, for instance, ACLs on certain subnets that can keep some traffic from ever hitting the 
PA in the first place.


On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 9:23 AM, Jeremiah Cherwien <jcherwien001 () luthersem edu<mailto:jcherwien001 () luthersem 
edu>> wrote:
Not looking to hijack this thread, but have any of you running the Palo's used the BGP feature?

We're mid implementation with a 3020, and the last slated item is to enable BGP on the Palo to take the place of 
several linux boxes that are running Quagga (Our routers).  Seeing this thread makes me wonder the wisdom in this, so 
I'm curious for other's thoughts/results.

Miah


On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 11:38 PM, Will Froning <will.froning () gmail com<mailto:will.froning () gmail com>> wrote:
Hello Shayne,

These PA questions come up a lot, if you haven't checked the archives you might find some gems. I've also CC'd the Palo 
Alto Network's EDU list that was created a couple years back.


On 18 Mar 2014, at 4:30, T. Shayne Ghere wrote:

1.)     How many Palo Alto Firewalls did you purchase?

We have a pair of 4050s and 5060s. We are looking to upgrade the 4050s as they are 5 years old.


2.)    If you purchased just one, what do you have in place in case of a
failure?

We always go for a pair.


3.)    If you purchased two for failover capability, are you using them
active active, or active passive?

Active-Passive. We've considered going active-active (A-A), but there's always a fear it will introduce more 
complication than what it is intended to solve. Having said that, I like the idea of using A-A as a way to grow into 
more bandwidth.


4.)    If you advertise or use full BGP tables (routes), and Palo Alto
doesn't support this, how did you solve this if you have multiple Service
Providers?

We considered moving BGP to the firewall briefly, but decided to let our routers do the routing. Part of the problem 
with the PAN is it's a really good hammer, so you tend to see everything as a nail.

There are some great cost saving possible when you consolidate all your edge functions onto the PAN, but at the same 
time it can make troubleshooting impossibly tough.


5.)    Did you look at any other vendors and why did you pick Palo Alto?

Most recently we looked at Sourcefire. They do't have all the bells and whistles (AV & SSL decryption) we want. When we 
got our first pair 5+ years ago we looked at everything on the market, but the landscape has completely changed since 
then.

If money is the limiting factor, consider going for a pair of 5020s in active-active. You won't get the 10G interface, 
but the PAN supports trunking/bundling.

Thanks,
Will

--
Will Froning
Will.Froning () GMail com<mailto:Will.Froning () GMail com>



--
Jeremiah L. Cherwien
Assistant Director, IT Services
Office of Technology
Luther Seminary
2481 Como Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108
Ph:  651-641-3512<tel:651-641-3512>

"Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes"
<http://www.luthersem.edu/>



--
Thank you,

Peter J. Setlak
Network Security Analyst, GSEC, GLEG, GCPM
Colgate University
---
psetlak () colgate edu<mailto:psetlak () colgate edu>
(315) 228-7151
Case-Geyer 450

Colgate IT Security - http://colgate.edu/itsecurity

Think Green! Please consider the environment before printing this email.

Engage with Colgate University:
News blog<http://blogs.colgate.edu/>, Twitter<https://twitter.com/#%21/colgateuniv>, 
Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/colgateuniversity>, Google+<https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113333907606560373469/>, 
Delicious<http://www.delicious.com/colgatenewsmakers>, YouTube<http://www.youtube.com/cuatchannel13>, 
Flickr<http://www.flickr.com/photos/colgateuniversity/>, Pinterest<http://pinterest.com/colgateuniv/>, 
LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/company/colgate-university/>