Firewall Considerations - How To

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Port-Based Firewall Considerations

Configure or Modify Firewall Settings on Windows Computers

Configure or Modify Firewall Settings on Unix Computers

Configure or Modify Firewall Settings on NetWare Computers

Uninstall Firewall Configuration

Configure Firewall when Non-Default Ports are Used for Services

Application-Based Firewall Considerations

Block Unauthorized CommCell Session Connections

Block External Interface Connections

Block Local Interface Connections

Program-Based Firewall Considerations

Add Exceptions to Windows Firewall


Configure or Modify Firewall Settings on Windows Computers

Use the following procedure to perform the following tasks on Windows computers:

Before You Begin

  • Firewall wizard will stop all services on the computer, if you want to add or modify the firewall port settings and/or keep alive interval time.

    It is NOT necessary to stop the services if you want to add or modify only the host names/IP addresses of computers separated by a firewall.

Configuration Procedure

1. Open the Firewall Configuration Wizard from the following location:

<software installation path>/Base/FirewallConfig.exe

2. Click Next to continue.
3. Click the Specify list of machine across the firewall option and then specify the list of hosts separated from this computer by a firewall. Make sure you correctly describe whether the firewall allows two-way communication (but on a limited range of ports), or one-way communication (with either only remote host being able to make connections to this computer, or vice versa).

For all one-way firewalls allowing incoming connections and those one-way firewalls allowing outgoing connections without additional port filtering, skip this step.

Click Next to continue.

NOTES

  • Consider the following:
    • On the CommServe Server, this list should include all the MediaAgents and Clients that are on the other side of the firewall.
    • On the MediaAgents/Clients this should include the CommServe computer, and any other Clients/MediaAgents on the other side of the firewall with which communications will be established.
  • For each machine on the other side of the firewall that you want to configure, choose the type of firewall configuration based on the firewall setup in your environment. Choose from the following options:
    • Click on 2-way firewall if you can open certain ports as bi-directional ports.
    • Click 1-way firewall; host is reachable from this machine on the machine that is on the secure side of the firewall.
    • Click 1-way firewall; host is NOT reachable from this machine on the machine that is on the public / DMZ side of the firewall.
  • If you wish to communicate with computers in a clustered environment, ensure that you add the Host Name/IP Address of all physical nodes in the cluster (even if no CommCell components are installed) and all the virtual nodes in which CommCell components are installed.
  • Type the host name or the IP address and the GxCVD port number of the host name, and click Add to place it in the Host Name/IP Address List.
 

The following table lists the entries in the FwHosts.txt and FwPeers.txt using sample scenarios:

Description CommServe MediaAgent Agents
CommServe and MediaAgent on the friendly side; Agents on the hostile side. Agents Agents CommServe and MediaAgent
CommServe on the friendly side; Agents and MediaAgent on the hostile side MediaAgent and Agents CommServe CommServe
4. Click the Specify list of restricted open ports option and then specify the port range. Add the starting and ending port range and then click Add to place it in the Open Port List. Repeat as needed.

If firewall separating this computer from others allows incoming connections, but these connections can be made only on a limited set of ports, then configure the appropriate port range here. For all other scenarios, skip this step.

Note that if you do not specify hostname(s) as well as port number(s), then the firewall services will not be configured.

NOTES

  • Typically in a two-way firewall, the open ports must be indicated for all computers. In a one-way firewall, the ports must be specified on computers in the open side, if they are open in a restricted way. Note that the port ranges are not required for computers that are fully closed in the one-way firewall. For example, laptops which are configured as clients in the Workstation Backup Agent.
  • In a clustered environment, make sure the firewall ports specified here are open for communication on all the physical nodes as well as the virtual nodes.

Click Next to continue.

5. If desired, modify the Keep Alive interval.

Click Next to continue.

6. Optionally, select Advanced Firewall Configuration and specify a local host name interface to use for outgoing tunnel connections through the firewall. Otherwise, the interface and port is automatically selected for you by the OS.

Click Next to continue.

7. If desired, modify the Tunnel Initialization interval.

Click Next to continue.

8. Click Finish to save the changes or click Back to modify the settings.

Post-Configuration

 
  • Firewall Wizard will prompt to restart the services on the computer, if you have stopped them at the beginning of this procedure.
  • If you are configuring the firewall communication on a client for the first time, or if you are changing the range of ports, ensure that the ports specified in Step 3 are allowed connections through the firewall.

Configure or Modify Firewall Settings on UNIX Computers

Use the following procedure to perform the following tasks on UNIX computers:

Before You Begin

  • Firewall wizard will stop all services on the computer, if you want to add or modify the firewall port settings and/or keep alive interval time.

    It is NOT necessary to stop the services if you want to add or modify only the host names/IP addresses of computers separated by a firewall.

Configuration Procedure

1. Run the following program:

<software installation path>/Base/config_fw

2. Type 1 to continue. Firewall services are currently NOT configured.

Please select one of the options below:

1) Config Firewall Services
2) Exit

Your selection: [2]

3. Enter the port range(s), and then press Enter to continue.

NOTES

Calypso needs to know which TCP ports of this machine are available for connections initiated by machines on the other side of the firewall.

If this machine is not reachable from the other side of the firewall at all (because the FW is one-way and allows only outgoing connections), enter any unused port number here (e.g. 8600).
Otherwise please consult your FW configuration for the list of open incoming ports and enter all of them here (with the exception of port 8400).

Currently there are no ports configured. Please enter a single port number or a port range (like 8600-8620) to be added to the FW configuration:

Port range: [8600-8620]

4. Enter the number corresponding to the option you wish to perform.

NOTES

  • If you choose option 1, refer the previous step.
  • If you choose option 3, proceed to the next step.
What would you like to do:

  1) Add another open port or a range of ports

  2) Delete an existing port or a range of ports

  3) Continue with the firewalled host setup

Your choice: [3]
5. Enter the host name(s) of the computers that will need to be contacted through a firewall, and then press Enter to continue. We need to know which Calypso hosts are located on the other side of the firewall, and whether the firewall will allow direct or reverse connections to/from those hosts.

You can specify hosts by either entering their names, IP addresses or name/IP wildcards. The wildcards are available only if the firewall is symmetrical, i.e. allows to open connections to certain ports both ways.

Currently there are no firewall hosts configured.

Please enter the name or IP address of a host on the other side of the firewall. If the firewall is symmetrical, you are allowed to use wildcards, i.e. things like 192.168.* or *.firewall.company.com:

Firewalled Host: lavender.company.com

 

The following table lists the entries in the FwHosts.txt and FwPeers.txt using sample scenarios:

Description CommServe MediaAgent Agents
CommServe and MediaAgent on the friendly side; Agents on the hostile side. Agents Agents CommServe and MediaAgent
CommServe on the friendly side; Agents and MediaAgent on the hostile side MediaAgent and Agents CommServe CommServe
6. Choose the option associated with type of firewall configuration based on the firewall setup in your environment.

NOTES

  • Choose Two-way (symmetrical) firewall if you can open certain ports as bi-directional ports.
  • Choose One-way firewall; <port> is reachable from here if this computer communicates with MediaAgent/Client on the other side of the firewall.
  • Choose One-way firewall; this machine is reachable from <port> when the CommServe and any Clients/MediaAgents) communicates with this computer.
Please specify the type of the firewall separating this machine from 172.19.61.89.

  1) Two-way (symmetrical) firewall

  2) One-way firewall, 172.19.61.89 is reachable from here

  3) One-way firewall, this machine is reachable from 172.19.61.89

Your choice: [1]

7. Enter the number corresponding to the option you wish to perform.

NOTES

  • If you choose option 1, refer the previous two steps.
  • If you choose option 3, proceed to the next step.
What would you like to do:

 1) Configure another host

 2) Delete an existing host

 3) Continue with the firewall keep-alive setup

Your choice: [3] 1

8. If desired, modify the Keep Alive interval, and then press Enter to continue, or
Press Enter to accept the default.
Please specify Keep Alive interval for Calypso firewall services.

Many firewalls disconnect idle Network connections after some period of time. Some of the Calypso Services need continuous connections. Calypso keeps such connections active by sending periodic "keep-alive" packets.
Consult your firewall documentation, or contact your Network Administrator, for the exact value after which idle connections will be closed (snip time). Then enter a value, which is at least one minute less than the snip time.

Keep-alive interval, minutes [5]

9. To configure advanced firewall settings, type Yes, and then press Enter. Proceed to the next Step.

If you do not want to configure advanced firewall settings, type No, and then press Enter. Proceed to the next section.

The Generic part of the Calypso Firewall Config has been completed successfully. There are some additional advanced settings that you may want to review now. All of them can be customized later by editing the .properties file under /etc/CommVaultRegistry/Galaxy/Instance003/Firewall.

Would you like to review the advanced settings now? [no]

10. To bind the local end of tunnel connections to a specified interface, type Yes, and then press Enter. Proceed to the next Step.

If you do not want to bind the local end of tunnel connections to a specified interface, type No, and then press Enter. Skip the next Step.

Normally Calypso Firewall code doesn't bind local end of TCP/IP sockets when establishing outgoing tunnel connections relying on the OS to pick correct interface and arbitrary port automatically. Usually this doesn't cause connectivity problems because we require that the firewall must allow connections for as long as 1meither source or destination socket end is bound to one of the ports in the open range.

Sometimes, however, on hosts with several NICs it's important to force the OS to bind the local socket end to a specific network interface. There is a Calypso setting called 1mnBIND_BEFORE_CONNECT_IFACEm, which enables this behavior. If present, Calypso will bind the local end of tunnel connections to the specified interface.

Would you like to configure nBIND_BEFORE_CONNECT_IFACE? [no]

11. Type a number corresponding to one of the listed network interfaces, to use for outgoing tunnel connections through the firewall.

Press Enter to continue.

Please select network interface that should be used for all outgoing tunnel connections:

1) <ip_address>

Interface number: [1]

12. If desired, modify the Tunnel Initialization interval by typing a number.

Press Enter to continue.

When tunnel to a destination machine cannot be established because the machine is down or is not accepting connections, Calypso will retry the connection after some time. Tunnels piercing one-way firewalls are 1mPERSISTENTm meaning that Calypso will keep on trying to initialize them until success. These attempts can generate a lot of network traffic if a central machine (e.g. CommServe) suddenly goes down.

Here you can adjust the interval (called 1mnTUNNEL_INIT_INTERVALm in registry) between tunnel init attempts.

Tunnel Init Interval, seconds, [5]

13. Type 6 to exit the wizard. Firewall services are currently CONFIGURED.

Please select one of the options below:

1) Deconfig Firewall Services

2) Change Keep-Alive setting

3) Enable client FW debug messages

4) Disable client FW debug messages

5) Re-create CVFWD firewall services

6) Exit

Your selection: [6]

Post-Configuration

 
  • Restart the services on the computer, if you have stopped them at the beginning of this procedure.
  • If you are configuring the firewall communication on a client for the first time, or if you are changing the range of ports, ensure that the specified ports are allowed connections through the firewall.

Configure or Modify Firewall Settings on NetWare Computers

Use the following procedure to perform the following tasks on NetWare computers:

Before You Begin

  • Firewall wizard will stop all services on the computer, if you want to add or modify the firewall port settings and/or keep alive interval time.

    It is NOT necessary to stop the services if you want to add or modify only the host names/IP addresses of computers separated by a firewall.

  • From a Novell client, log on as a user with Supervisor rights or use an account that has Read/Write/Modify/Erase/Create/File Scan rights to the SYS:SYSTEM directory.

Configuration Procedure

1. Place the software installation disc containing the NetWare packages into the Novell client's disc drive or a mapped disc drive on another computer.
  • Click Start on the Windows task bar, and then click Run.
  • Browse the installation disc and right-click NWFirewallConfigWizard.exe and then click Open.
2. Click Next to continue.
3. Select the name of a server to configure.

NOTES

  • Later in this procedure you are offered the option to configure another server.
4. Click the Specify list of machine across the firewall option and then specify the list of hosts separated from this computer by a firewall. Make sure you correctly describe whether the firewall allows two-way communication (but on a limited range of ports), or one-way communication (with either only remote host being able to make connections to this computer, or vice versa).

For all one-way firewalls allowing incoming connections and those one-way firewalls allowing outgoing connections without additional port filtering, skip this step.

Click Next to continue.

NOTES

  • Consider the following:
    • On the CommServe Server, this list should include all the MediaAgents and Clients that are on the other side of the firewall.
    • On the MediaAgents/Clients this should include the CommServe computer, and any other Clients/MediaAgents on the other side of the firewall with which communications will be established.
  • For each machine on the other side of the firewall that you want to configure, choose the type of firewall configuration based on the firewall setup in your environment. Choose from the following options:
    • Click on 2-way firewall if you can open certain ports as bi-directional ports.
    • Click 1-way firewall; host is reachable from this machine on the machine that is on the secure side of the firewall.
    • Click 1-way firewall; host is NOT reachable from this machine on the machine that is on the public / DMZ side of the firewall.
  • If you wish to communicate with computers in a clustered environment, ensure that you add the Host Name/IP Address of all physical nodes in the cluster (even if no CommCell components are installed) and all the virtual nodes in which CommCell components are installed.
  • Type the host name or the IP address and the GxCVD port number of the host name, and click Add to place it in the Host Name/IP Address List.
5. Click the Specify list of restricted open ports option and then specify the port range. Add the starting and ending port range and then click Add to place it in the Open Port List. Repeat as needed.

If firewall separating this computer from others allows incoming connections, but these connections can be made only on a limited set of ports, then configure the appropriate port range here. For all other scenarios, skip this step.

Note that if you do not specify hostname(s) as well as port number(s), then the firewall services will not be configured.

NOTES

  • Typically in a two-way firewall, the open ports must be indicated for all computers. In a one-way firewall, the ports must be specified on computers in the open side, if they are open in a restricted way. Note that the port ranges are not required for computers that are fully closed in the one-way firewall. For example, laptops which are configured as clients in the Workstation Backup Agent.
  • In a clustered environment, make sure the firewall ports specified here are open for communication on all the physical nodes as well as the virtual nodes.

Click Next to continue.

 

The following table lists the entries in the FwHosts.txt and FwPeers.txt using sample scenarios:

Description CommServe MediaAgent Agents
CommServe and MediaAgent on the friendly side; Agents on the hostile side. Agents Agents CommServe and MediaAgent
CommServe on the friendly side; Agents and MediaAgent on the hostile side MediaAgent and Agents CommServe CommServe
6. If desired, modify the Keep Alive interval.

Click Next to continue.

7. Optionally, select Advanced Firewall Configuration and specify a local host name interface to use for outgoing tunnel connections through the firewall. Otherwise, the interface and port is automatically selected for you by the OS.

Click Next to continue.

8. If desired, modify the Tunnel Initialization interval.

Click Next to continue.

9. Click Yes if you want to configure another server and repeat steps 3 to 8 to configure another server.

 or click No to continue.

10. Click Finish to save the changes or click Back to modify the settings.
11. Click OK and then unload and load the software as directed.

Post-Configuration

  If you are configuring the firewall communication on a client for the first time, or if you are changing the range of ports, ensure that the ports specified in step 3 are allowed connections through the firewall.

Uninstall Firewall Configuration

To uninstall the firewall configuration on Window & NetWare computers:

  1. Delete the following files from the <software installation path>/Base/ folder:
  2. Stop and restart the services in the computer. See the following pages for step-by-step instructions:

 

To uninstall the firewall configuration on UNIX computers:

  1. Run the following program and select the deconfigure option:

    <software installation path>/Base/config_fw


Configure Firewall Services when Remote Computers use Non-Default Ports

  1. Stop all services on the computer.
  2. Open the following file:

    <software installation path>/Base/FwPeers.txt

    The file contains a list of hosts located on the other side of the firewall.  For example in a 1-way firewall FwPeers.txt may contain entries similar to the following:

    190.20.44.73 190.20.44.73

    cricket.company.com cricket.company.com

     

    And in a 2-way firewall FwPeers.txt may contain entries similar to the following:

    190.20.44.73

    cricket.company.com

  3. Add another column at the end to store the port numbers. For example in a 1-way firewall FwPeers.txt may contain entries similar to the following:
    The ports used by Bull Calypso services (by default, ports 8400, 8401, 8402, and 8403) must not be used for configurations in the FwPort.txt file. Verify the service port assignments before using a port for firewall configurations.

    190.20.44.73 190.20.44.73 8405

    cricket.company.com cricket.company.com 8405

     

    And in a 2-way firewall FwPeers.txt may contain entries similar to the following:

    190.20.44.73 8405

    cricket.company.com 8405

  4. Save the file and restart the services in the computer.

Block Unauthorized CommCell Session Connections

To block an unauthorized CommCell session connection:

  1. To block unauthorized CommCell sessions, create the nEnableSessionBlacklist registry key and set the value to '1'. When this registry key is set to '1', unauthorized CommCell session are identified and blocked.

    To disable session blacklisting, set the registry key value to '0'.

  2. To maintain a log file containing the list of clients that are blacklisted using session blacklisting, create the nEnableSessionBlacklistLogging registry key and set the value to '1'. The list of blacklisted clients will be stored in the blacklist.log file located at <Software_Installation_Path>/Log Files folder.

    If you do not wish to maintain the log, set the registry key value to '0'.


Block External Interface Connections

To block an external interface connection:

  1. Stop all services on the computer.
  2. In the <Software_Installation_Path>/Base folder, create a text file InterfaceBlacklist.txt.
  3. Add the IP addresses of the external computers from which you wish to block connections, one IP address per line. Note that wild characters are not supported. For example, an entry like 172.19.*.* cannot be resolved.

    To allow connections from a computer, remove the corresponding IP address from InterfaceBlacklist.txt.

  4. Connections from IP addresses listed in the InterfaceBlacklist.txt file are blocked.

Block Local Interface Connections

To block a local interface connection:

  1. Stop all services on the computer.
  2. In the <Software_Installation_Path>/Base folder, create a text file LocalInterfaceBlacklist.txt.
  3. Add the IP addresses (or host names) of the local computers from which you wish to block connections, one IP address (or hostname) per line. Note that wild characters are not supported. For example, an entry like 172.19.*.* cannot be resolved.

    To allow connections from a computer, remove the corresponding IP address from LocalInterfaceBlacklist.txt.

  4. Connections from IP addresses listed in the LocalInterfaceBlacklist.txt file are blocked.

Add Exceptions to Windows Firewall

To add program based exceptions to Windows Firewall:

  1. From the <Software_Installation_Path>/Base folder, locate the file AddFWExclusions.bat.
  2. Double-click the batch file to execute the commands.
  3. All applicable CommCell communication programs and services are added to the Windows Firewall Exception list.

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