Introduction 

User-space Firewall (USFW) is the infrastructure that allows Check Point Firewall instances to run in user-space mode.

Note: For VSX USFW is the only mode available.
 

Motivation

• Improved Memory utilization on Security Gateways with high number of cores
• Allows utilizing improved debugging tools and new supported features 

Appliances with USFW enable by default  

Appliance	R80.30 3.10	R80.40 and higher
VM	Yes	Yes
Open server	Yes	Above 40 cores
Check Point 3600	Yes	Yes
Check Point 3800	Yes	Yes
Check Point 6200	Yes	Yes
Check Point 6400	Yes	Yes
Check Point 6600	Yes	Yes
Check Point 6700	Yes	Yes
Check Point 6900	Yes	Yes
Check Point 7000	Yes	Yes
Check Point 16000T	Yes	Yes
Check Point 16200	Yes	Yes
Check Point 16600HS	Yes	Yes
Check Point 23500	Yes	No
Check Point 23900	Yes	Yes
Check Point 26000	Yes	Yes
Check Point 28000	Yes	Yes
Other Check Point appliances	Above 40 cores	Above 40 cores

When running in USFW on at least 20 cores Appliance, the FWD process is isolated and affined to a dedicated CPU.
Otherwise, the FWD process will be affined to all CPUs, same as in KMFW. 

Certified USFW Appliances

Appliances that can move to USFW but do not run in USFW by default:

• Check Point 15600
• Check Point 15400
• Check Point 23800
• Check Point 5600
• Check Point 5400
• Check Point 5800
• Check Point 6500
• Open server

Best Practices

Use the below factors to decide on the best mode for your Security Gateway User-Space or Kernel Mode

Factor	Testing command	Preferred mode
Setup with above 80% fast path	fwaccel stats -s	Kernel
Setup that is configured with more CoreXL SNDs than Firewall instances, or when SNDs are the bottle neck	fw ctl affinity -l -r	Kernel
Setup with above 70% Firewall path / Slow path	fwaccel stats -s	Kernel
Setup with above 30% PXL / Medium path	fwaccel stats -s	USFW
Running with more than 38 Firewall instances	fw ctl affinity -l -r	USFW

Known Limitations

Known Limitations	Description	Affected versions	Mitigation
Large scale VPN	Large scale VPN suffers from latency that results in client disconnections	R80.30 3.10 / R80.40	For R80.40, use the latest  R80.40 Jumbo Hotfix. For R80.30 or if issue persists, contact Check Point Support
Unable to switch to kernel mode with Hyper Threading below 40 cores	Switching back to kernel mode with Hyper Threading results in crash on boot	R80.30 3.10	Disable Hyper Threading before moving to kernel mode
Unable to switch to kernel mode with above 40 cores without Hyper Threading	Switching back to kernel mode with 40 cores even after disabling Hyper Threading results in crash on boot	R80.30 3.10 / R80.40	Not supported