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Reinstall Smoothwall Appliance parent and child nodes

Updated

The Smoothwall Support Team may request that you reinstall your centrally managed Smoothwall setup using the steps outlined in this article.

Step 1: Reinstall the nodes

Reinstall each node in this order: 

  1. Parent node, or skip this step if it is working as expected.
  2. Child node.

Step 2: Link the nodes

Skip this step if your nodes are:

  • Part of the same local network.
  • Contactable over an already established VPN tunnel.
  • Contactable over an already established MPLS network.

Otherwise, link your nodes using the method allowed by your organisation's network management and security policies.

Option 1: Use a VPN tunnel

Link your two or more Smoothwall Appliances using an IPSec tunnel.

Option 2: Use the WAN address

You may choose to use this option if you don’t have a licence for the Tunnel module, or the child node is behind a separate Firewall. You must lock down access to only the WAN address of the parent device, so you don’t leave access open to the internet.

Important

If a child node is behind an external third-party Firewall, set up Port forwarding in that Firewall for ports 222, 81, and 441 to direct traffic through the firewall to the LAN IP of the child Smoothwall.

  1. Find the WAN addresses of your parent and child nodes.
  2. Sign in to the child node.
  3. Go to Network > Settings > Address object manager and add a new address object with the WAN address of the parent node.
  4. Add a Smoothwall access rule with these settings:
    • Source IP: Add the parent's WAN address using the address object created in step 3.
    • Inbound Interfaces: Select the WAN address of the child node.
    • Services: SSH-Based Admin (222).
    • Action: Accept.

Step 3: Set up central management

Complete the full process to set up central management and link the child and parent nodes again.