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Cisco ASA 5500 Series Configuration Guide using the CLI
Chapter67 Configuring Connection Profiles, Group Policies, and Users
Connection Profiles
IPsec Tunnel-Group Connection Parameters
IPsec parameters include the following:
A client authentication method: preshared keys, certificates, or both.
For IKE connections based on preshared keys, this is the alphanumeric key itself (up to 128
characters long), associated with the connection policy.
Peer-ID validation requirement—This parameter specifies whether to require validating the
identity of the peer using the peer’s certificate.
If you specify certificates or both for the authentication method, the end user must provide a
valid certificate in order to authenticate.
An extended hybrid authentication method: XAUTH and hybrid XAUTH.
You u se isakmp ikev1-user-authentication command to implement hybrid XAUTH authentication
when you need to use digital certificates for ASA authentication and a different, legacy method for
remote VPN user authentication, such as RADIUS, TACACS+ or SecurID.
ISAKMP (IKE) keepalive settings. This feature lets the ASA monitor the continued presence of a
remote peer and report its own presence to that peer. If the peer becomes unresponsive, the ASA
removes the connection. Enabling IKE keepalives prevents hung connections when the IKE peer
loses connectivity.
There are various forms of IKE keepalives. For this feature to work, both the ASA and its remote
peer must support a common form. This feature works with the following peers:
Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client
Cisco VPN Client (Release 3.0 and above)
Cisco VPN 3000 Client (Release 2.x)
Cisco VPN 3002 Hardware Client
Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrators
Cisco IOS software
Cisco Secure PIX Firewall
Non-Cisco VPN clients do not support IKE keepalives.
If you are configuring a group of mixed peers, and some of those peers support IKE keepalives and
others do not, enable IKE keepalives for the entire group. The feature does not affect the peers that
do not support it.
If you disable IKE keepalives, connections with unresponsive peers remain active until they time
out, so we recommend that you keep your idle timeout short. To change your idle timeout, see
“Configuring Group Policies” section on page67-39.
Note To reduce connectivity costs, disable IKE keepalives if this group includes any clients
connecting via ISDN lines. ISDN connections normally disconnect if idle, but the IKE keepalive
mechanism prevents connections from idling and therefore from disconnecting.
If you do disable IKE keepalives, the client disconnects only when either its IKE or IPsec keys
expire. Failed traffic does not disconnect the tunnel with the Peer Timeout Profile values as it
does when IKE keepalives are enabled.