Setup Multi WAN¶
Multi WAN scenario’s are commonly used for failover or load balancing, but combinations are also possible with OPNsense.
Configure Failover¶
To setup Failover the following step will be taken:
- Add monitor IP’s to the gateways
- Add a gateway group
- Configure DNS for each gateway
- Use policy based routing to utilize our gateway group
- Add a firewall rule for DNS traffic that is intended for the firewall itself
Tip
Did you know you can browse quick and easy to the right page by using the search box in the top right corner of your screen? Like this:
Example configuration¶
Our example utilized two previous configured WAN gateways that both are confirmed to function separately. As DNS’s and monitor ip’s we will utilize google’s DNS services 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, of course you can use your own ‘known good’ setting.
We defined WAN and WAN2, where WAN will be our primary (default) gateway.
Step 1 - Add monitor IP’s¶
You may skip this step if you already have setup the monitoring ip and both gateways are shown as online.
To add a monitoring ip go to System->Gateways->All and click on the first pencil symbol to edit the first gateway.
Now make sure the following is configured:
| Disable Gateway Monitoring | Unchecked | Make sure monitoring is enabled |
| Monitor IP | 8.8.8.8 | We use Google’s DNS |
| Mark Gateway as Down | Unchecked |
Then click on the second pencil symbol to edit the second gateway.
Now make sure the following is configured:
| Disable Gateway Monitoring | Unchecked | Make sure monitoring is enabled |
| Monitor IP | 8.8.4.4 | We use Google’s second DNS |
| Mark Gateway as Down | Unchecked |
Step 2 - Add Gateway Group¶
Go to System->Gateways->Group and press + Add Group in the upper right corner.
Use the following settings:
| Group Name | WANGWGROUP | Enter a name for the gw routing later on |
| Gateway Priority | WANGW / Tier 1 | Select the first gateway and Tier 1 |
| .. | WAN2GW / Tier 2 | Select the second gateway and Tier 2 |
| Trigger Level | Packet Loss | Select the trigger you want to use |
| Description | Failover Group | Freely chosen description |
Tip
Trigger Level Explained
- Member Down
- Triggers when the gateway has 100% packet loss.
- Packet Loss
- Triggers when the packet loss to a gateway is higher then the defined threshold.
- High Latency
- Triggers when the latency to a gateway higher than its defined threshold.
- Packet Loss or High Latency
- Triggers for either of the above conditions.
Step 3 - Configure DNS for each gateway¶
Go to System->Settings->General and make sure each gateway has its own DNS setup: like this:
DNS servers
| 8.8.8.8 | WANGW |
| 8.8.4.4 | WAN2GW |
Step 4 - Policy based routing¶
Go to Firewall->Rules
For our example we will update the default LAN pass rule. Click on the pencil next to this rule (Default allow LAN to any rule).
Now under Gateway change selection to WANGWGROUP.
Save and Apply changes
Note
This rule will utilize the gateway group for all traffic coming from our LAN network. This also means that traffic intended for the firewall itself will be routed in this (wrong) direction. That is why Step 5 is needed for our DNS traffic going to and coming from our DNS forwarder on the firewall itself.
Step 5 - Add allow rule for DNS traffic¶
Add a rule just above the default LAN allow rule to make sure traffic to and from the firewall on port 53 (DNS) is not going to be routed to the Gateway Group that we just defined.
Start with pressing the + icon in the bottom left corner.
Enter the following details:
| Action | Pass | Allow this traffic to pass |
| Interface | LAN | |
| TCP/IP Version | IPv4 | For our example we use IPv4 |
| Protocol | TCP/UDP | Select the right protocol |
| Source | any | |
| Destination | Single host or Network | |
| Destination | 192.168.1.1/32 | IP of the firewall only hence /32 |
| Destination port range | DNS - DNS | Only DNS |
| Category | DNS | See Organize PF Rules by Category |
| Description | Local Route DNS | Freely chosen description |
| Gateway | default | Select default |
Advanced Options¶
For each gateway there are several advanced options you can use to change the default behavior/thresholds. These option can be changed under System->Gateways->All, press the pencil icon next to the Gateway you want to update.
- The current options are:
- Latency thresholds
- Low and high thresholds for latency in milliseconds.
- Packet Loss thresholds
- Low and high thresholds for packet loss in %.
- Probe Interval
- How often that an ICMP probe will be sent in seconds.
- Down
- The number of seconds of failed probes before the alarm will fire.
- Avg Delay Replies Qty
- How many replies should be used to compute average delay for controlling “delay” alarms?
- Avg Packet Loss Probes Qty
- How many probes should be used to compute average packet loss.
- Lost Probe Delay
- The delay (in qty of probe samples) after which loss is computed.
Configure Load Balancing¶
To setup load balancing follow the same configuration procedure as for Failover, but in step 2 choose same Tier for both Gateways.
This will change the behavior from failover to equal balancing between the two gateways.
Sticky Connection¶
Some web sites don’t like changing request ip’s for the same session, this may lead to unexpected behavior. To solve this you can use the option Sticky Connections, this will make sure each subsequent request from the same user to the same website is send through the same gateway.
To set this option can be set under Firewall->Settings->Advanced.
Unequal Balancing (Weight)¶
If you have a non symmetric setup with one IPS having a much higher bandwidth that the other then you can set a weight on each gateway to change the load balance. For instance if you have one line of 10Mbps and one of 20Mbps then set the weight of the first one to 1 and the second one to 2. This way the second gateway will get twice as many traffic to handle than the first.
To do so, go to System->Gateways->All and press the pencil icon next to the Gateway you want to update. The weight is defined under the advanced section.
Combining Balancing & Failover¶
To combine Load Balancing with Failover you will have 2 or more WAN connections for Balancing purposes and 1 or more for Failover. OPNsense offers 5 tiers (Failover groups) each tier can hold multiple ISP’s/WAN gateways.