Setting up a centrally managed system

Use this page to set your Smoothwall as the parent or child node in a centrally managed system.

Prerequisites

  • Check that all the Smoothwall Filter and Firewall hardware appliances that you intend to include in the system have the latest updates applied.
  • Check that you have administrator access to all the Smoothwall Filter and Firewall hardware appliances that you want to include in the system.
  • Check that there's network access from the parent node to the child nodes.
  • Ports:
    • SSH/TCP 222
    • ICMP Ping

Procedure

  1. Configure the parent node:
    1. Sign in to the Smoothwall Filter and Firewall that you want to function as the parent node.
    2. On the SYSTEM menu, under the Central management submenu, click Settings.
    3. Under the Local node options section, from Node role select "Parent".
    4. Select the Node identification method:
      • To allow each individual node to use their own IP address or host name, select the Use individual node setting option.
      • To use a specified host name instead of the individual node's host name for redirect requests, select the All nodes use the host name option and enter the host name that you want to use. The host name specified here is used instead of the individual node's host name for redirected requests. This overrides the host name set on the Hostname page (see our help topic, Changing the system's host name and how it identifies itself to the network).
    5. Under the Manage central management keys section, click Download and save the key in a secure location.
    6. Click Save.
  2. Configure the child node:
    1. From the Smoothwall Filter and Firewall hardware appliance that you want to add as a child node, on the SYSTEM menu, under the Central management submenu, click Settings.
    2. Under the Local node options section, from Node role, select "Child".
    3. Under the Manage central management keys section, click Choose File and open the file that you downloaded from the parent node.
    4. Click Save.

Note: If you're reconfiguring a child node to be the child of a new parent, reboot the child node to apply the changes.

Follow-up tasks

Add the child node details to the parent node:

  1. On the SYSTEM menu, under the Administration submenu, click Admin options.
  2. Select SSH so it's turned on, click Save.
  3. On the SYSTEM menu, under the Central management submenu, click Child nodes.
  4. Click Add node and enter the child node details and click Confirm.
  5. Repeat the previous steps on any other Smoothwall Filter and Firewall hardware appliances that you want to use as child nodes.