Pix not accepting gratuitous arp.

[luciano.carvalho]

Hi guys,

Here is the scenario.

Pix 525 runnig 6.3(3)

When there is a change on the Mac-Address of a host, lets say, I had to change the NIC, PIX maintain the "old" mac on arp table. To resolve the issue it's I must clear the oldmac from arp table, even if the host send a gratuitous arp.

Questions:

Is that the corrdct behavior.

Is possible to configure pix so it will accept gratuitous arp?

Thanks in advance

[mmorris11]

AFAIK the PIX/ASA only send gratuitous arps. This is defined as a security feature in the release notes. There is no mention of what it does with the gratuitous arps received but I think your experience speaks for itself. Based on the hyperdilligence of the PIX sending the gratuitous arps in order to maintain arp table integrity on adjacent devices I suppose we could infer that this also is a "feature".

HTH

[ajagadee]

Luciano,

Do you have a copy of the Gratuitous ARP packet that the Pix was dropping.

Regards,

Arul

[luciano.carvalho]

Arul,

Attached is the gratuitous arp request and response.

thanks