Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for enhancing security and fault tolerance for VPN gateways connecting clients in a public network with entities in a private network. According to various embodiments, primary and standby VPN gateways serving the same private network are configured with the same virtual IP address to allow public network clients the ability to efficiently switchover to a standby VPN gateway upon failure of the primary VPN gateway. Cryptography operations are executed using the virtual IP address. Routes can also be injected into the private network to enhance failover efficiency.

Abstract: Approaches for applying service polices to encrypted packets are disclosed. One approach comprises examining an encrypted packet, determining whether an identifier associated with a service is present in an encrypted packet, and if it is determined that the identifier is present in the encrypted packet, applying the service to the encrypted packet. In an embodiment, the identifier is the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) ID of the encrypted packet.