SMB Firewall Managing locally or Cloud Managed

[Sanjay_S]

Hi Team,

May i know if the SMB device can be managed locally or via Cloud? 

Currently it is already been managed via MDS, need to move away from MDS. So please suggest what is the best way to do this?

Regards,

Sanjay S

[Chris_Atkinson · Accepted solution]

Yes there are multiple available options, some of which are included in the appliance license.

- Local (self contained)

- SMP (Spark Management Platform)

- Central (SMS / MDM)

Smart-1 Cloud is an additional option most similar from a MGMT perspective but that will need a separate license 

[Sanjay_S]

Hi @Chris_Atkinson ,

Thank you for explaining. Is there any document that you can share to migrate from MDS to Local or SMP or Smart-1 Cloud please?

I think that will help me proceeding with the migration.

Regards,

Sanjay S

[G_W_Albrecht]

Not really needed - you can switch in WebGUI from Centrally Managed / MDS to locally managed - that s all it is. If you need management by SMP in Infinity portal you have to follow the instructions there.

[Sanjay_S]

Thank you for your response @G_W_Albrecht 

That looks to be simple.

Once i switch it to Locally managed, Do i need to create all the policies manually again in the firewall?

Will this require any downtime at all? What will happen to the current policy that has been pushed from MDS?

These inputs will be really helpful for my migration and planning,

Regards,

Sanjay S

[G_W_Albrecht]

Current policy is not applicable. There is a difference between centrally and locally managed in the rule base, so you will have to document rules, network objects & services, servers and others to create a new rule base.

[Sanjay_S]

Thank you @G_W_Albrecht 

So when we do it locally managed then we have to create the policies, objects, NAT rules etc. Then there will be downtime during the migration for sure. Is there any way i can be prepared with the local policies before i move to locally managed? Just to avoid any  miss config or any sort of misses during the window? 

This is single firewall not even cluster. So any suggestion on what is the best way to achieve this?

Regards,

Sanjay S

[G_W_Albrecht]

Do not forget that most rules are set automatically when in local management and the Standard Policy mode is used. E.g. defining an internal (Web)server needs only the server creation, rules are added as an effect of this. Just document all objects and services used in the current rule base and plan a good time for the change. If anything does not work you should be able to quickly get back to central management (switch to it, establish SIC and install policy).

[Sanjay_S]

Thank you @G_W_Albrecht .

I will plan as you suggested. And also will look into any locally  managed SMBB device use case documents if i get so that i will be confident on this 🙂

[G_W_Albrecht]

Best experience would be to play with a Lab SMB 😉