The CheckMates Blog

Welcome to "This Week in CheckMates," your weekly highlight reel for all things CheckMates!
Past and future posts will be available here: The CheckMates Blog
To have these updates show up in your preferred RSS reader add the following URL: The CheckMates Blog RSS Feed
See also our social media accounts and our podcast (RSS Feed)

Community Highlights

I decided to try a slightly different format for the "Community Highlights" section last week, and I kind of like it. Tell me what you think! Meanwhile, here are the threads to watch from the last week:

New Software Releases

• R80.20 JHF New GA Take 91
• R77.20.87 Jumbo Hotfix Accumulator for SMB Appliances
• General Availability of Cloud Management for SandBlast Agent

Upgrade to R80.x

Given that R77.30 is going End of Support in September, now is as good a time as any to get upgraded. Here are a few threads of interest:

• Optimal Steps for ClusterXL Cluster Upgrade
• R77.30 > R80.20 Verification Failure
• The database contains objects with non Unicode characters

API/CLI Examples

• How to specify a Session Name and Description in a mgmt_cli
• View network host objects via CLI

Other Topics

• Proxy ARP on Check Point R80.10
• Scheduled Policy Installation on R80.20
• Firewall Rule for Any TCP and Any UDP Port
• Management Support for UTM-1 EDGE in Upcoming R80.40

Upcoming Events

We are now maintaining our event calendar in Google Calendar.
You can browse our calendar of events here: CheckMates Calendar 
Here's where you can find @Valeri_Loukine and I over the next few weeks

• 28th August 2019: CheckMates Live Moscow
• 2nd September 2019: CheckMates Live Vienna with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 4th September 2019:
  • CheckMates Live London with @Valeri_Loukine 
  • SD-WAN Security TechTalk
• 5th September 2019: CheckMates Live Manchester with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 12th September 2019: CheckMates Live Munich with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 17th September 2019:
  • CheckMates Live Belgium
  • CheckMates Live Philadelphia with @PhoneBoy 
• 19th September 2019:
  • CheckMates Live NYC with @PhoneBoy 
• 23rd September 2019:
  • CheckMates Live New England with @PhoneBoy 
• 25th September 2019:
  • TechTalk: Fighting Cyber Security Threats with SandBlast Now
  • CheckMates Live Sweden
• 26th September 2019: CheckMates Live Denmark (Copenhagen)
• 16th October 2019: Using the Check Point API to Automate Operations TechTalk

If you would like a CheckMates Live event in your area, get in contact with us: checkmates@checkpoint.com 

Welcome to "This Week in CheckMates," your weekly highlight reel for all things CheckMates!
Past and future posts will be available here: The CheckMates Blog
To have these updates show up in your preferred RSS reader add the following URL: The CheckMates Blog RSS Feed
See also our social media accounts and our podcast (RSS Feed)

Community Highlights

Here are the threads to watch from the last week:

New Software Releases

• Endpoint Security R81.20
• Endpoint Security Versions Release Schedules
• SmartConsole R80.30 Build 8

Upgrade to R80.x

Given that R77.30 is going End of Support in September, now is as good a time as any to get upgraded. We've had a couple of success stories of customers upgrading to R80.20 and R80.30:

• R80.30: A Good News Story
• Zero Downtime Upgrade From R77.30 to R80.20

IPS and Threat Prevention

• Difference Between IPS and Threat Prevention Policy Layers
• IPS Shared Policy Layer
• IPS Utilization Report in SmartView

Other Threads:

• R80.20+ Security Gateway Architecture Logical Packet Flow
• Mitre ATT&CK Framework and Check Point (TechTalk Recording)
• CheckMates Member of the Month for August 2019: Matt-Dunn
• Export All Rules Referencing a List of IPs
• QoS Users: Influence Upcoming Enhancements!

Upcoming Events

We are now maintaining our event calendar in Google Calendar.
You can browse our calendar of events here: CheckMates Calendar 
Here's where you can find @Valeri_Loukine and I over the next few weeks

• 19th August 2019: CheckMates Live in Singapore with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 22nd August 2019: CheckMates Live Sydney with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 22nd August 2019: CheckMates Live Orange County with @PhoneBoy 
• 28th August 2019
  • SD-WAN Security TechTalk
  • CheckMates Live Moscow
• 2nd September 2019: CheckMates Live Vienna with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 4th September 2019: CheckMates Live London with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 5th September 2019: CheckMates Live Manchester with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 12th September 2019: CheckMates Live Munich with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 17th September 2019: CheckMates Live Belgium
• 25th September 2019:
  • TechTalk: Fighting Cyber Security Threats with SandBlast Now
  • CheckMates Live Sweden
• 26th September 2019: CheckMates Live Denmark (Copenhagen)

If you would like a CheckMates Live event in your area, get in contact with us: checkmates@checkpoint.com 

It's that time of the month where we recognize our best members. Put your virtual hands together for @Matt_Dunn, our CheckMates member of the Month for August 2019!

Welcome to "This Week in CheckMates," your weekly highlight reel for all things CheckMates!
Past and future posts will be available here: The CheckMates Blog
To have these updates show up in your preferred RSS reader add the following URL: The CheckMates Blog RSS Feed
See also our social media accounts and our podcast (RSS Feed)

Community Highlights

Here are the threads to watch from the last week:

New Releases

• R80.30 JHF 19 is now GA
• R80.10 SmartConsole Build 137
• R80.30 is now Recommended Version

Moving from 4400 (R77.30) to 6500 (R80.20)

This could be useful in other "appliance move and upgrade" scenarios as well.

Hardware for Home Lab

VMware or similar all the way.

Status on Security Management as a Service

It's in Early Availability.

CDT versus SmartUpdate

SmartUpdate is legacy, but you'll see CDT gui-ified in an upcoming version.

Inline Layer in R80.20 After Migration from R77.30

We cover this in the Migrate to R80.x presentations we've done at local user groups and via TechTalks.

Create Network with Tag and Associate with a Group

Easy to do with the API.

How to Report on Zero Hit Rules

No report in SmartEvent currently, but you can get the information via API.

Check Point IP290 and R77.10

This looks like a prime candidate for a hardware and software refresh as both of these things are End of Support.

Upcoming Events

We are now maintaining our event calendar in Google Calendar.
You can browse our calendar of events here: CheckMates Calendar 
Here's where you can find @Valeri_Loukine and I over the next few weeks

• 14th August 2019: TechTalk: Check Point and the MITRE ATT&CK Framework
• 19th August 2019: CheckMates Live in Singapore with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 22nd August 2019: CheckMates Live Sydney with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 22nd August 2019: CheckMates Live Orange County with @PhoneBoy 
• 28th August 2019: SD-WAN Security TechTalk
• 2nd September 2019: CheckMates Live Vienna with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 4th September 2019: CheckMates Live London with @_Val_ 
• 5th September 2019: CheckMates Live Manchester with @_Val_ 
• 12th September 2019: CheckMates Live Munich with @_Val_ 
• 25th September 2019: TechTalk: Fighting Cyber Security Threats with SandBlast Now

If you would like a CheckMates Live event in your area, get in contact with us: checkmates@checkpoint.com 

Welcome to "This Week in CheckMates," your weekly highlight reel for all things CheckMates!
Past and future posts will be available here: The CheckMates Blog
To have these updates show up in your preferred RSS reader add the following URL: The CheckMates Blog RSS Feed
See also our social media accounts and our podcast (RSS Feed)

Community Highlights

Here are the threads to watch from the last week:

R80.30 JHF Take 19 is GA

For those waiting for the first GA jumbo before upgrading to R80.30, now you've got it!

ClusterXL Synchronization Network Bandwidth

Gigabit is usually sufficient, but it can be higher.

One-liner Show Office Mode IP User Timeout

We like these kinds of one-liners on CheckMates.

VPN Community Shared Secret Keys Are Not Shown

By design in R80+.

Object Categories Not Displaying Correctly

Funny thing is, I ran into a similar issue during a CheckMates Live event this week. We are aware of the issues.

R80.20 Management Feature Release Abandoned?

Use R80.30 instead.

Multiple Types of Objects in Source Column Leading to Policy Verification Failure

Mixing Access Roles and regular network objects in a source is blocked by design.

Not Able to Set session-timeout with mgmt_cli

Specifically when using --root true.

Upcoming Events

We are now maintaining our event calendar in Google Calendar.
You can browse our calendar of events here: CheckMates Calendar 
Here's where you can find @Valeri_Loukine and I over the next few weeks

• 14th August 2019: TechTalk: Check Point and the MITRE ATT&CK Framework
• 19th August 2019: CheckMates Live in Singapore with @_Val_ 
• 22nd August 2019: CheckMates Live Sydney with @_Val_ 
• 22nd August 2019: Network Security as a Service and Hyperscale Security in Orange County with @PhoneBoy 
• 28th August 2019: SD-WAN Security TechTalk
• 2nd September 2019: CheckMates Live Vienna with @Valeri_Loukine 
• 25th September 2019: TechTalk: Fighting Cyber Security Threats with SandBlast Now

If you would like a CheckMates Live event in your area, get in contact with us: checkmates@checkpoint.com