SmartConsole Versions

[kramer97]

Hi all,

I'm just curious, if I install SmartConsole 80.30, can I manage firewalls and devices which are running R77 or even 80.10? Or does the smart console versions have to match 1:1 to the firewall os infrastructure versions?

Thanks

[PhoneBoy]

No, you have to have the precise version of SmartConsole/SmartDashboard as the management server you are connecting to.

[Bob_Zimmerman]

Expanding on this, in case there's some confusion. Check Point's product involves several parts.

SmartConsole goes on a Windows workstation. It is the visual interface which lets you define objects and rules, but it doesn't store any of them, and it doesn't process traffic.

SmartCenter is an application which is often installed on Check Point's OS. For a while, it could be installed on Windows, Solaris, or Redhat, but I don't know if that is still the case. It is a service which stores the objects and rules defined using SmartConsole. It has no GUI of its own, though you can interact with current versions using an API, and a command-line tool which interacts with this API. It is not involved in processing traffic.

I no longer know the proper name for the firewall itself (it was Firewall-1 for a while, then VPN-1), but it's a separate piece of software. For a while, it could be installed on Windows, Solaris, or Redhat, but this was really rare, and I'm pretty sure that hasn't been supported in years. Remotely current firewalls mostly run Check Point's "appliance" OS, GAiA. The firewall filters traffic, but has no GUI of its own, and has very limited ability to change the filtering configuration.

The SmartCenter and the firewall can be installed on the same system (called a "standalone deployment"), or you can have one SmartCenter which manages one or more firewalls (called a "distributed deployment".

The SmartConsole version and the SmartCenter version must match.

In a standalone deployment, SmartCenter and firewall version must match.

In a distributed deployment, a SmartCenter of a given version can manage several earlier firewall versions. For example, R80.20 can manage R77 firewalls. Some SmartCenter versions can manage newer minor versions. For example, SmartCenter R80.20 can, with an update, manage R80.40 firewalls, but it cannot manage R81.

[G_W_Albrecht]

From the R80.40 Release Notes:

Supported Platforms

Check Point Product	Red Hat Enterprise Linux	VMware ESXi	Microsoft Hyper-V*
Security Management Server	7.3 or higher	5.x, 6.x	Windows 2012 R2, 2016 (64-bit only)*
Multi-Domain Security Management Server	7.3 or higher	5.x, 6.x	Windows 2012 R2, 2016 (64-bit only)*
Security Gateway	Not Supported	5.x, 6.x	Windows 2016 (64 bit only)

[Bob_Zimmerman]

So management is no longer supported on Solaris or Windows, and firewall is no longer supported on RHEL either. Good to know. Even in 2010, installations on OSs other than Check Point's trimmed Linux distribution (SecurePlatform at the time) weren't common. IPSO was the second most common I saw, and it's gone now.

[PhoneBoy]

Solaris was last supported back in the R65 days at least for management.
Windows and IPSO were last supported in R77.30.

[the_rock]

Yes, you can...as long as fw are lower versions that mgmt, you can manage them.

Andy