NAT-T Traversal on a Cisco ASA

cisco-asaipsecnat;

I'm trying to set up a IPSec VPN connection between a Cisco ASA and a Mikrotik router (which is behind a Fritzbox in DMZ mode). I think everything is set up correctly except for that NAT-T is missing on the Cisco.

On a Mikrotik you can enable NAT-T per peer, but on the Cisco it's globally. Does enabling NAT-T there break other active tunnels? Or is it just a detection mechanism if IPSec needs to traverse NAT / DMZ devices?

Best Answer

NAT Traversal performs two tasks:

  1. Detects if both ends support NAT-T
  2. Detects NAT devices along the transmission path (NAT-Discovery)

If NAT-T is enabled and client is behind NAT, then NAT-T is used

no NAT exists, then Native IPsec (ESP) is used

So not gonna affect your current tunnels.