syncing, encryption and decryption

I have just checked, and there are no firewalls enabled on those machines.

@jimp:

Look at the config that shows up in /var/etc/ipsec/ipsec.conf, especially "esp =", what does that look like?

If you have multiple P2s on that P1, this bug might be a possibility: https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/6263

I do have multiple P2s on the P1, so that bug is probably why I can't get it to use GCM (since I haven't gone through and disabled all of the other crypto types).

Doesn't fully explain why the selection / ordering isn't working though.  The Palo Alto is supposed to be offering GCM first and then CBC last.  Only thing I can think of is that the GCM is failing for some reason, and it's falling back to CBC?

Woah, this is kind of ugly.  I guess this is due to "auto" for the length, maybe combined with the fact that I have so many P2 entries (the same config line might be repeated for each P2)?

esp = aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes192-sha384-ecp384,aes128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm128-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm96-sha384-ecp384,aes256gcm64-sha384-ecp384!

I'm seeing each P2 entry in there as individual "con1xxx" and each one has an identical esp= line.

I could pare down to like 3-4 P2 entries if I had a way to "carve out" (exclude) individual /24s from a /16 tunnel… I think this is something strongswan can do but it isn't exposed in pfSense and I'm not about to start mucking around behind the scenes and breaking stuff.  ;)

A routed /30 style tunnel would also do the trick (and I'd even prefer it)... I know strongswan can do this too (it's possible with Ubiquiti) but ISTR there are tunnel interface problems in BSD that make this not an option.

Thanks for your reply jimp.

I will start a new thread.

Just to check, did you try this bit? https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/L2TP/IPsec#Firewall_traffic_blocked_outbound

I had a very similar problem and the sloppy state bit fixed the problem for me. It's not that a specific firewall rule is blocking something, it's the state handling that interferes on the L2TP virtual interface.

After helpful discussion on the irc - thank you rawtaz - the problem could be solved.

Generally, I have to add an additional static route for the remote network. When I create this route, I could deactivate complete NAT handling and it works as expected.

Fixed. While doing a trace I realized that when a packet would leave a VM in site 10 it wouldn't make it past the core switch which does intervlan routing. I went digging into it and found out that when I was setting up the VM for site 30, interface vlan 1 on the switch received an IP from the pfSense LAN interface DHCP. So the core switch though that 10.10.30.0/24 was directly connected to VLAN1 instead of following the standard routing table.
After flushing the IP on int vlan 1 everything started to work as expected.

Finally got it to work. The trick was to set 'Local Network' in the Phase 2 settings to 'Network', Address 0.0.0.0/0.
I think the dropdown portion of this setting changed since 2.1.x.

Traffic is now forced through tunnel. Still no banner, but that's a detail.

Glad to help. That should give you at least something to show the other side.

Did you allow ICMP in the IPSec FW rule?

Try to enable "Disable Firewall Scrub" in SystemAdvancedFirewall & NAT

many many thanks for your replay  :) ;)

Use DNS.