Using Enclave with your firewall

Typically, Enclave is compatible with your firewall without requiring adjustments because it uses NAT traversal techniques to enable direct, peer-to-peer connectivity between enrolled systems.

However, in some cases the NAT implementation in your firewall might be a "hard" NAT, which makes it difficult to establish direct peer-to-peer connectivity, and forces Enclave to use relay servers to establish connectivity.

If you've already checked to ensure which firewall ports should be open to use Enclave, disabled TLS/HTTPs traffic inspection and continue to experience general connection issues with the Enclave platform, you may want to check our troubleshooting guide guide, or our real-time platform status monitoring pages.

If you have successfully enrolled systems which are connected to the Enclave platform, but are connecting to other peers using traffic relays, you may want to check if your firewall is listed below or configured to use a "hard" NAT mode which might prevent direct connections.

Firewall compatibility

Firewall	Expected behavior	Workaround for direct connections
Barracuda	Relay	Open a firewall port and increase Max UDP sessions
CheckPoint	Connects directly
Cisco	Relay	Open a firewall port
Fortinet	Connects directly
OPNsense	Relay	Enable static NAT port mapping
Palo Alto Networks	Relay	Use Persistent Dynamic IP and Port
pfSense	Relay	Enable static NAT port mapping
Sophos	Connects directly	Disable traffic inspection for Enclave
UniFi Gateways	Relay	Allow peer-to-peer traffic

Barracuda

Consider forcing Enclave to use a specific port number and then opening that firewall port to enable direct connections. This firewall does not permit administrators to modify the NAT configuration.

Also consider increasing the maximum number of supported UDP sessions allowed to prevent the firewall from restricting available UDP ports. Modify the Max UDP parameter in your firewall configuration.

Cisco

Consider forcing Enclave to use a specific port number and then opening that firewall port to enable direct connections. Cisco Umbrella endpoint security will not allow direct connections, and your traffic will always be relayed.

OPNsense

Enable static NAT port mapping.

Palo Alto Networks

Use Persistent Dynamic IP and Port (DIPP) in the NAT Policy Rule > Translated Packet > Source Address Translation > Translation Type setting to allow Enclave to establish direct connections through the firewall.

pfSense

Create a static NAT port mapping:

1. Navigate to Firewall > NAT, Outbound tab.
2. Select Hybrid Outbound NAT rule generation.
3. Click Save.
4. Click ↑ Add to create a new NAT rule to the top of the list.

Now configure a new rule as shown:

1. for Address Family select IPv4+IPv6
2. for Protocol, select UDP
3. for Source, select Any
4. Check Static Port in the Translation section.
5. Restart Enclave on any systems behind the pfSence firewall to test connectivity.

Sophos

Systems enrolled to your Enclave tenant are expected to connect directly with default firewall settings, but general connectivity to the Enclave platform may require disabling TLS traffic inspection. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Create a new FQDN Host Group for the target domains discover.enclave.io and relays.enclave.io. More information about the domains and IP addresses Enclave uses is available here.
2. Create a new SSL/TLS inspection rule for Enclave. Select Do not decrypt, with maximum compatibility mode as the destination for the new host group.
3. Navigate to Rules and Policies and then select the Traffic to WAN rule group. Select and edit the #Default_Network_Policy rule to add the new host group into the exclusion list by adding it as a new item in the Destination networks field.

See also:

• Sophos Firewall: Website TLS inspection exclusion and performance considerations

Unify Gateway

In the UniFi gateway, go to Settings > Firewall & Security > Edit threat categories, and uncheck P2P.

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Last updated April 11, 2024