Cisco ASA Firewall Operations via pyATS

Testbed Requirements

ASA devices in the pyATS testbed with os: asa:

yaml
devices:
  asa-fw-01:
    os: asa
    type: firewall
    connections:
      cli:
        protocol: ssh
        ip: 10.0.0.10
        port: 22
    credentials:
      default:
        username: "%ENV{NETCLAW_USERNAME}"
        password: "%ENV{NETCLAW_PASSWORD}"
      enable:
        password: "%ENV{NETCLAW_ENABLE}"

How to Call

bash
PYATS_TESTBED_PATH=$PYATS_TESTBED_PATH python3 $MCP_CALL "${PYATS_PYTHON:-python3} -u $PYATS_MCP_SCRIPT" pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"<command>"}'

Commands

System & Inventory

Version

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show version"}'

ASA software version, hardware model, serial number, RAM, flash, license, uptime, last reload reason.

Hardware Inventory

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show inventory"}'

Hardware inventory: chassis, modules, SFPs with serial numbers and PIDs.

Resource Usage

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show resource usage"}'

Per-context resource utilization: connections, xlates, hosts, NAT, routes, ACL elements. Critical for multi-context ASA — identifies contexts approaching resource limits.

Failover & High Availability

Failover Status

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show failover"}'

Failover state (Active/Standby), peer state, last failover time, failover reason, stateful failover stats. Check this first on any HA pair.

Failover Interfaces

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show failover interface"}'

Failover and stateful failover link status, IP addresses, hello interval, peer monitoring.

Interfaces

Interface Summary

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show interface ip brief"}'

Compact interface table: interface name, IP address, status (up/down), method.

Interface Detail

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show interface detail"}'

Full interface details: speed, duplex, MAC, input/output packets/bytes/errors, collision counts, CRC errors.

Interface Summary (Traffic)

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show interface summary"}'

Summary traffic stats per interface.

Interface Name Mapping

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show nameif"}'

Maps physical interface names to security zone names (e.g., GigabitEthernet0/0 → outside, GigabitEthernet0/1 → inside). Shows security level per interface.

Routing

Routing Table

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show route"}'

Full routing table: connected, static, OSPF, EIGRP, BGP routes with next-hop, interface, metric, age.

ARP Table

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show arp"}'

ARP cache: interface, IP address, MAC address, age. Cross-reference with NetBox for MAC verification.

ASP (Accelerated Security Path) Drops

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show asp drop"}'

Packets dropped by the ASP — categorized by reason: flow-drop, acl-drop, inspect-drop, rpf-violated, no-route, etc. Critical for troubleshooting — reveals why traffic is being blocked.

Security Contexts

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show context"}'
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show context detail"}'

Multi-context ASA: list all security contexts, allocated interfaces, resource class, admin state. detail shows interface allocation and URL mappings.

Traffic & Service Policies

Traffic Statistics

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show traffic"}'

Per-interface traffic rates: input/output packets/sec and bytes/sec.

Service Policy (MPF)

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show service-policy"}'

Modular Policy Framework hit counts: class-maps, inspect actions, policing, shaping, QoS. Shows connection counts per policy.

VPN Sessions

VPN Session Summary

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show vpn-sessiondb summary"}'

Summary of all active VPN sessions by type: AnyConnect, L2L, WebVPN, clientless, total sessions, peak concurrent.

All VPN Sessions

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show vpn-sessiondb"}'

Full VPN session database — all types, user, duration, bytes, encryption.

AnyConnect Sessions

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show vpn-sessiondb anyconnect"}'

AnyConnect SSL VPN sessions: username, duration, bytes tx/rx, IP assignment, tunnel group, encryption, NAC result.

AnyConnect Inactive Sessions

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show vpn-sessiondb anyconnect sort inactivity"}'

AnyConnect sessions sorted by inactivity time — useful for identifying idle sessions consuming licenses.

WebVPN Sessions

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show vpn-sessiondb webvpn"}'

Clientless WebVPN sessions: user, duration, bytes, inactivity.

VPN Load Balancing

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show vpn load-balancing"}'

VPN cluster load distribution across ASA peers — sessions per member, load percentage.

IPSec / IKEv2

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show crypto ikev2 sa"}'

IKEv2 Security Associations: peer, state (READY), local/remote IDs, encryption, PRF, DH group, lifetime.

IP Pool

bash
pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show ip local pool vpn-pool"}'

VPN IP address pool usage: available, in use, range. Monitor for pool exhaustion — running out of addresses blocks new VPN connections.

Workflows

1. ASA Health Check

show version → ASA version, model, uptime, last reload
→ show failover → HA state (Active/Standby), peer health
→ show interface ip brief → interface up/down state
→ show resource usage → context resource utilization
→ show asp drop → dropped packet analysis
→ Severity-sort → GAIT

2. VPN Monitoring Dashboard

show vpn-sessiondb summary → total sessions by type, peak concurrent
→ show vpn-sessiondb anyconnect → active AnyConnect users
→ show vpn-sessiondb anyconnect sort inactivity → idle sessions
→ show ip local pool vpn-pool → address pool utilization
→ show vpn load-balancing → cluster distribution
→ show crypto ikev2 sa → IKEv2 tunnel state
→ Flag: pool > 80% used, sessions near license limit, idle > 8h
→ GAIT

3. ASA Failover Verification

show failover → verify Active/Standby state
→ show failover interface → failover link health
→ show interface ip brief → all interfaces match expected state
→ show route → routing table consistent with active role
→ show vpn-sessiondb summary → VPN sessions present on active unit
→ GAIT

4. ASA Security Audit

show version → verify supported ASA version (cross-reference NVD CVE)
→ show asp drop → analyze drop reasons for anomalies
→ show service-policy → policy hit counts, inspect actions
→ show context detail → verify context isolation (multi-context)
→ show traffic → per-interface throughput baseline
→ GAIT

5. VPN Troubleshooting

show vpn-sessiondb anyconnect → verify user session exists
→ show crypto ikev2 sa → IKEv2 tunnel established?
→ show interface ip brief → outside interface up?
→ show route → default route present?
→ show ip local pool vpn-pool → addresses available?
→ show asp drop → packets being dropped for this flow?
→ show service-policy → inspect policies blocking traffic?
→ GAIT

Parallel Operations

Run ASA health checks across multiple firewalls concurrently:

bash
# ASA Pair - Primary
PYATS_TESTBED_PATH=$PYATS_TESTBED_PATH python3 $MCP_CALL "${PYATS_PYTHON:-python3} -u $PYATS_MCP_SCRIPT" pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-01","command":"show failover"}'

# ASA Pair - Secondary
PYATS_TESTBED_PATH=$PYATS_TESTBED_PATH python3 $MCP_CALL "${PYATS_PYTHON:-python3} -u $PYATS_MCP_SCRIPT" pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-fw-02","command":"show failover"}'

# Remote Site ASA
PYATS_TESTBED_PATH=$PYATS_TESTBED_PATH python3 $MCP_CALL "${PYATS_PYTHON:-python3} -u $PYATS_MCP_SCRIPT" pyats_run_show_command '{"device_name":"asa-remote-01","command":"show failover"}'

Integration with Other Skills

| Skill | Integration | |-------|-------------| | pyats-network | Core pyATS commands for IOS-XE/NX-OS devices alongside ASA firewalls | | pyats-security | CIS benchmark-style audits complement ASA-specific security checks | | pyats-parallel-ops | pCall pattern for fleet-wide ASA health checks | | fmc-firewall-ops | FMC manages FTD; ASA is managed directly — different platforms, similar mission | | ise-posture-audit | ISE NAC results correlate with ASA VPN session NAC status | | netbox-reconcile | Cross-reference ASA interfaces, IP assignments with NetBox | | nvd-cve | Scan ASA version against NVD vulnerability database | | servicenow-change-workflow | Gate ASA config changes behind ServiceNow CRs | | gait-session-tracking | Every ASA command logged in GAIT |

Guardrails

• All commands are read-only — show commands only
• No config changes — never use configure terminal or write memory via this skill
• Monitor VPN pool usage — alert when pool utilization exceeds 80%
• Check failover before maintenance — always verify HA state before any maintenance window
• Cross-reference with SoT — compare interface IPs and routes with NetBox
• Record in GAIT — every command execution must be logged