Introduction

User Space Firewall (USFW) is the infrastructure in which Check Point Firewall instances run in user space mode.

Note - For VSX, USFW is the only Firewall mode available.

Motivation

• Improved memory utilization on Security Gateways with a large number of CPU cores
• Improved debugging tools and newly supported features

Security Gateways with USFW enabled by default

Hardware Platform	In R80.30 3.10	In R80.40 and higher
Virtual Machine	Yes	Yes
Open Server	Yes	Yes - if there are more than 40 CPU 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	Yes - if there are more than 40 CPU cores	Yes - if there are more than 40 CPU cores

The FWD process is isolated and affined to a dedicated CPU core, when running in USFW on an appliance with at least 20 CPU cores.
In other cases (KSFW, or less than 20 CPU cores), the FWD process is affined to all CPU cores.

Certified Appliances for USFW

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 5900
• Check Point 5600
• Check Point 5400
• Check Point 5800
• Check Point 6500
• Open Server

Best Practices

Use the factors listed below to select the best mode for your Security Gateway - User Space (USFW) or Kernel Mode (KSFW):

Factor	Testing command	Preferred Firewall mode
80% or more of the traffic undergoes the Fast path / Accelerated path	fwaccel stats -s	Kernel
70% or more of the traffic undergoes the Firewall path / Slow path	fwaccel stats -s	Kernel
30% or more of the traffic undergoes the PXL / Medium path	fwaccel stats -s	USFW
Security Gateway is configured with more CoreXL SNDs than CoreXL Firewall instances, or when SNDs are the bottleneck	fw ctl affinity -l -r	Kernel
Security Gateway is configured with more than 38 CoreXL Firewall instances	fw ctl affinity -l -r	USFW

Changing the CoreXL Firewall Mode:

• To change the Firewall mode in versions R81.10 and higher:

  1. Connect to the command line on the Security Gateway / each Cluster Member.
  2. Run: cpconfig
  3. Enter the number of the Check Point CoreXL option.
  4. Enter 3 to select Change firewall mode.
  5. Follow the instructions on the screen.
  6. Exit from the cpconfig menu.
  7. Reboot.

• To change the Firewall mode in versions R81, R80.40, and R80.30, contact Check Point Support.

Known Limitations

Known Limitations	Description	Affected versions	Mitigation
Large Scale VPN (LSV)	Large Scale VPN suffers from latency that results in disconnections of VPN clients	R80.30 3.10 R80.40	For R80.40, use the latest R80.40 Jumbo Hotfix For R80.30, or if the issue persists, contact Check Point Support
Cannot change the Firewall mode from USFW to KSFW on a Security Gateway: with less than 40 CPU cores with HyperThreading enabled	A crash occurs during boot after you changed the Firewall mode from USFW to KSFW and rebooted, while the HyperThreading is enabled	R80.30 3.10	Disable Hyper Threading before moving to KSFW
Cannot change the Firewall mode from USFW to KSFW on a Security Gateway: with more than 40 CPU cores with HyperThreading disabled	A crash occurs during boot after you changed the Firewall mode from USFW to KSFW and rebooted, while the HyperThreading is disabled	R80.30 3.10 R80.40	Not supported