Basics of Security Cloud Control

Security Cloud Control provides a unique view of policy management through a clear and concise interface. ​Below are topics that cover the basics of using Security Cloud Control for the first time.

Networking Requirements

Managing an FDM-Managed Device from the Inside Interface

Managing an FDM-managed device using the inside interface may be desirable if the dedicated MGMT interface is assigned an address that is not routable within your organization; for example, it might only be reachable from within your data center or lab.

Figure 1. Interface Addresses

Remote Access VPN Requirement

If the FDM-managed device you manage with Security Cloud Control will be managing Remote Access VPN (RA VPN) connections, Security Cloud Control must manage the device using the inside interface.

What to do next:

Continue to Manage an FDM-Managed Device from the Inside Interface for the procedure for configuring the FDM-managed device.

Manage an FDM-Managed Device from the Inside Interface

This configuration method:

  • Assumes that the FDM-managed device has not been on-boarded to Security Cloud Control.

  • Configures a data interface as the inside interface.

  • Configures the inside interface to receive MGMT traffic (HTTPS).

  • Allows the address of the cloud connector to reach the inside interface of the device.

Before you begin
Review the prerequisites for this configuration in these topics:
Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Secure Firewall device manager.

Step 2

In the System Settings menu, click Management Access.

Step 3

Click the Data Interfaces tab and click Create Data Interface.

  1. In the Interface field, select the pre-named "inside" interface from the list of interfaces.

  2. In the Protocols field, select HTTPS if it is not already.

  3. In the Allowed Networks field, select the network objects that represent the networks inside your organization that will be allowed to access the inside address of the FDM-managed device. The IP address of the SDC or cloud connector should be among the addresses allowed to access the inside address of the device.

    In the Interface Addresses diagram, the SDC's IP address, 192.168.1.10 should be able to reach 192.168.1.1.

Step 4

Deploy the change. You can now manage the device using the inside interface.

What to do next

What if you are using a Cloud Connector?

Use the procedure above and add these steps:

  • Add a step to "NAT" the outside interface to (203.0.113.2) to the inside interface (192.168.1.1). See Interface Addresses.

  • In step 3c of the procedure above, your "Allowed Network" is a network group object containing the public IP addresses of the cloud connector.

  • Add a step that creates an Access Control rule allowing access to the outside interface (203.0.113.2) from the public IP addresses of the cloud connector. See for a list of all the Cloud Connector IP addresses for the various Security Cloud Control regions.

Onboard the FDM-Managed Device

The recommended way of onboarding the FDM-managed device to Security Cloud Control is to use the registration token onboarding approach. After you configure the inside interface to allow management access from the Cloud Connector to the FDM-managed device, onboard the FDM-managed device with the user name and password. See Onboard an FDM-Managed Device Using Username, Password, and IP Address for more information. You will connect using the IP address of the inside interface. In our scenario above, that address is 192.168.1.1.

Managing an FDM-Managed Device from the Outside Interface

Managing an cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center device from the outside interface may be desirable if you have one public IP address assigned to a branch office and Security Cloud Control is managed using a Cloud Connector at another location.

Figure 2. Device Management on Outside Interface

This configuration doesn't mean that the physical MGMT interface is no longer the device's management interface. If you were in the office where the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center device was located, you would be able to connect to the address of the MGMT interface and manage the device directly.

Remote Access VPN Requirement

If the device you manage with cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center will be managing Remote Access VPN (RA VPN) connections, cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center will not be able to manage the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center device using the outside interface. See Managing an FDM-Managed Device from the Inside Interface instead.

What to do next:

Continue to Manage the FDM-Managed Device's Outside Interface for the procedure for configuring the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center device.

Manage the FDM-Managed Device's Outside Interface

This configuration method:

  1. Assumes that the FDM-managed device has not been on-boarded to Security Cloud Control.

  2. Configures a data interface as the outside interface.

  3. Configures management access on the outside interface.

  4. Allows the public IP address of the cloud connector (after it has been NAT'd through the firewall) to reach the outside interface.

Before you begin
Review the prerequisites for this configuration in these topics:
Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Secure Firewall device manager.

Step 2

In the System Settings menu, click Management Access.

Step 3

Click the Data Interfaces tab and click Create Data Interface.

  1. In the Interface field, select the pre-named "outside" interface from the list of interfaces.

  2. In the Protocols field, select HTTPS if it is not already. Security Cloud Control only needs HTTPS access.

  3. In the Allowed Networks field, create a host network object containing the public-facing IP address of the cloud connector after it gets NAT'd through the firewall.

    In the Device Management from Outside Interface network diagram, the cloud connector's IP address, 10.10.10.55, would be NAT'd to 203.0.113.2. For the Allowed Network, you would create a host network object with the value 203.0.113.2.

Step 4

Create an Access Control policy in Secure Firewall device manager that allows management traffic (HTTPS) from the public IP address of the SDC or cloud connector, to the outside interface of your FDM-managed device. In this scenario, the source address would be 203.0.113.2 and the source protocol would be HTTPS; the destination address would be 209.165.202.129 and the protocol would be HTTPS.

Step 5

Deploy the change. You can now manage the device using the outside interface.

What to do next

What if you are using a cloud connector?

The process is very similar, except for two things:

  • In step 3c of the procedure above, your "Allowed Network" is a network group object containing the public IP addresses of the cloud connector. See Connecting Devices to Security Cloud Control Through the Cloud Connector for a list of Cloud Connector IP addresses for the various Security Cloud Control regions.

  • In step 4 of the procedure above, you create an Access Control rule that allows access to the outside interface from the public IP addresses of the cloud connector.

The registration token onboarding approach is the recommended way of onboarding the FDM-managed device to Security Cloud Control. After you configure the outside interface to allow management access from the cloud connector, onboard the FDM-managed device. You will connect using the IP address of the outside interface. In our scenario, that address is 209.165.202.129.

Create a Security Cloud Control Tenant

You can provision a new Security Cloud Control tenant to onboard and manage your devices. If you use an On-Premises Firewall Management Center Version 7.2 and later, and want to integrate it with the Cisco Security Cloud, you can also create a Security Cloud Control tenant as part of the integration workflow.

Procedure

  1. Go to https://us.manage.security.cisco.com/provision.

  2. Select the region where you want to provision your Security Cloud Control tenant and click Sign Up.

  3. On the Security Cloud Sign On page, provide your credentials.

  4. If you do not have a Security Cloud Sign On account and want to create one, click Sign up now.

    1. Provide the information to create an account.

      Here are some tips:

      • Email: Enter the email address that you will eventually use to log in to Security Cloud Control.

      • Password: Enter a strong password.

    2. Click Sign up. Cisco sends you a verification email to the address you registered with.

    3. Open the email and click Activate account both on the mail and the Security Cloud Sign On page.

    4. Configure multifactor authentication using Duo on a device of your choice and click Log in with Duo and Finish.


      Note

      We recommend installing the Duo Security app on a mobile phone. Review Duo Guide to Two Factor Authentication: Enrollment Guide if you have questions about installing Duo.

  5. Provide a name for your tenant and click Create new account.

  6. A new Security Cloud Control tenant is created in the region you have chosen; you will also receive an e-mail about your Security Cloud Control tenant being created, with the details. If you are associated with multiple Security Cloud Control tenants already, on the Choose a tenant page, select the tenant you just created to log in to it. If you have created a new Security Cloud Control tenant for the first time, you get logged into your tenant directly.

    For information about logging on to your Security Cloud Control tenant for the first time, see Initial Login to Your New Security Cloud Control Tenant.

    For information about managing a Security Cloud Control tenant and various tenant settings, see Tenant Management.

Upgrade your Security Cloud Control tenant to full version

If you are using a free trial version of Security Cloud Control, you will keep seeing the You are in a free trial of Security Cloud Control banner, with the number of days left in the trial period. You can choose to upgrade your Security Cloud Control tenant to full version any time during the trial period. Contact your Cisco sales representative or contact Cisco Sales, and they can place an order on your behalf and get you the sales order number.

Once you obtain the sales order number, click Upgrade to full version on the banner and enter the order number to begin using the full version of Security Cloud Control.

Request Security Cloud Control trial period extension

If you want to continue using the trial version for 30 days, click Request for an extension.

Sign in to Security Cloud Control

To log in toSecurity Cloud Control, a customer needs an account with a SAML 2.0-compliant identity provider (IdP), a multi-factor authentication provider, and a user record in Security Cloud Control.

The IdP account contains the user's credentials and the IdP authenticates the user based on those credentials. Mutli-factor authentication provides an added layer of identity security. The Security Cloud Control user record primarily contains the username, the Security Cloud Control tenant with which they are associated, and the user's role. When a user logs in, Security Cloud Control tries to map the IdP's user ID to an existing user record on a tenant in Security Cloud Control. The user is logged in to that tenant when Security Cloud Control finds a match.

Unless your enterprise has its own single sign-on identity provider, your identity provider is Security Cloud Sign On. Security Cloud Sign On uses Duo for multi-factor authentication. Customers can integrate their own IdP with Security Cloud Control if they choose.

To log into Security Cloud Control, you must first create an account in Cisco Security Cloud Sign On, configure multi-factor authentication (MFA) using Duo Security and have your tenant Super Admin create a Security Cloud Control record.

On October 14, 2019, Security Cloud Control converted all previously-existing tenants to use Cisco Security Cloud Sign On as their identity provider and Duo for MFA.


Note

  • If you sign in to Security Cloud Control using your own single sign-on identity provider, the transition to Cisco Security Cloud Sign On did not affect you. You continue to use your own sign-on solution.

  • If you are in the middle of a free trial of Security Cloud Control, this transition did affect you.

If your Security Cloud Control tenant was created on or after October 14, 2019, see Initial Login to Your New Security Cloud Control Tenant.

If your Security Cloud Control tenant existed before October 14, 2019, see Migrate to Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Identity Provider.

Initial Login to Your New Security Cloud Control Tenant

Before You Begin

Install DUO Security. We recommend installing the Duo Security app on a mobile phone. Review Duo Guide to Two Factor Authentication: Enrollment Guide if you have questions about installing Duo.

Time Synchronization. You are going to use your mobile device to generate a one-time password. It is important that your device clock is synchronized with real time as the OTP is time-based. Make sure your device clock set automatically or manually set it to the correct time.

Security Cloud Control uses Cisco Security Cloud Sign On as its identity provider and Duo for multi-factor authentication (MFA). . If you do not have a Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account, when you create a new Security Cloud Control tenant using https://manage.security.cisco.com/provision, the provisioning flow involves various steps, including creating a Security Cloud Sign On account and configuring MFA using Duo.

MFA provides an added layer of security in protecting your user identity. Two-factor authentication, a type of MFA, requires two components, or factors, to ensure the identity of the user logging into Security Cloud Control. The first factor is a username and password, and the second is a one-time password (OTP), which is generated on demand.


Important

If your Security Cloud Control tenant existed before October 14, 2019, use Migrate to Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Identity Provider for log in instructions instead of this article.

What to do next?

Continue to, Create a New Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account and Configure Duo Multi-factor Authentication. It is a four-step process. You need to complete all four steps.

Signing in to Security Cloud Control in Different Regions

These are the URLs you use to sign in to Security Cloud Control in different AWS regions:

Table 1. Security Cloud Control URLs in Different Regions

Region

Security Cloud Control URL

Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ)

https://apj.manage.security.cisco.com

Australia (AUS)

https://aus.manage.security.cisco.com

Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)

https://eu.manage.security.cisco.com

India (IN)

https://in.manage.security.cisco.com

United States (US)

https://us.manage.security.cisco.com

Migrate to Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Identity Provider

On October 14, 2019,Security Cloud Control converted all tenants to Cisco Security Cloud Sign On as their identity provider and Duo for multi-factor authentication (MFA). To log into Security Cloud Control, you must first activate your account in Cisco Secure Sign-On and configure MFA using Duo.

Security Cloud Control requires MFA which provides an added layer of security in protecting your user identity. Two-factor authentication, a type of MFA, requires two components, or factors, to ensure the identity of the user logging into Security Cloud Control. The first factor is a username and password, and the second is a one-time password (OTP), which is generated on demand.


Note

  • If you sign in to Security Cloud Control using your own single sign-on identity provider, this transition to Cisco Security Cloud Sign On and Duo does not affect you. You continue to use your own sign-on solution.

  • If you are in the middle of a free trial of Security Cloud Control, this transition does apply to you.

  • If your Security Cloud Control tenant was created on or after October 14, 2019, see Initial Login to Your New Security Cloud Control Tenant for log in instructions instead of this article.

Before You Begin

We strongly recommend the following steps prior to migrating:

  • Install DUO Security. We recommend installing the Duo Security app on a mobile phone. Review Duo Guide to Two Factor Authentication: Enrollment Guide if you have questions about installing Duo.

  • Time Synchronization. You are going to use your mobile device to generate a one-time password. It is important that your device clock is synchronized with real time as the OTP is time-based. Make sure your device clock set automatically or manually set it to the correct time.

  • Create a New Cisco Secure Sign-On Account and Configure Duo Multi-factor Authentication. It is a four-step process. You need to complete all four steps.

Troubleshooting Login Failures after Migration

Login to Security Cloud Control Fails Because of Incorrect Username or Password

Solution If you try to log in to Security Cloud Control and you know you are using the correct username and password and your login is failing, or you try "forgot password" cannot recover a viable password, you may have tried to login without creating a new Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account, you need to sign up for a new Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account by following the instructions in Create a New Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account and Configure Duo Multi-factor Authentication.

Login to the Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Dashboard Succeeds but You Can't Launch Security Cloud Control

Solution You may have created a Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account with a different username than your Security Cloud Control tenant. Contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to standardize your user information between Security Cloud Control and Cisco Secure Sign-On.

Login Fails Using a Saved Bookmark

Solution You may be attempting to log in using an old bookmark you saved in your browser. The bookmark could be pointing to https://cdo.onelogin.com.

Solution Log in to https://sign-on.security.cisco.com.

  • Solution If you have not yet created a Cisco Secure Sign-On account, create an account.

  • Solution If you have created your new secure sign-on account, click the Security Cloud Control tile on the dashboard that corresponds to the region in which your tenant was created:

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control APJ

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control Australia

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control EU

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control India

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control US

  • Solution Update your bookmark to point to https://sign-on.security.cisco.com.

Launch a Security Cloud Control Tenant

Procedure

Step 1

Click the appropriate Security Cloud Control button for your region on the Cisco Security Cloud Sign On dashboard.

Step 2

Click the authenticator logo to choose Duo Security or Google Authenticator if you have set up both authenticators.

  • If you already have a user record on an existing tenant, you are logged into that tenant.

  • If you already have a user record on several portals, you will be able to choose which portal to connect to.

  • If you already have a user record on several tenants, you will be able to choose which Security Cloud Control tenant to connect to.

  • If you do not already have a user record on an existing tenant, you will be able to learn more about Security Cloud Control or request a trial tenant.

The Portals view retrieves and displays consolidated information from multiple tenants. See Manage Multi-Tenant Portal for more information.

The Tenant view shows several tenants on which you have a user record.

Manage Super Admins on Your Tenant

It is a best practice to limit the number of Super Admins on your tenant. Determine which users should have Super Admin privileges, review User Management, and change the roles of other users to "Admin."

Get Started With Security Cloud Control

The Get started with Security Cloud Control is an intuitive interface that guides you through sequential tasks for efficiently setting up and configuring your firewalls.

Sign in to Security Cloud Control and in the top menu, click ().

  • The On-premises management page provides links to:

    • Onboard the threat defense device to the on-premises management center using Security Cloud Control.

    • Migrate a threat defense device that is managed by an on-premises management center to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center.

    • Perform bulk provisioning of multiple threat defense devices to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center using device templates.

    • Analyze your policies, detect anomalies, and receive curated remediation recommendations.

  • The Manage firewalls page provides links to:

    • Onboard and manage threat defense, Cisco Secure Firewall ASA, and Meraki MX firewalls.

    • Set up a site-to-site VPN connection.

    • Leverage the Cisco AI Assistant to manage firewall policies and access-related documentation when needed.

    • Subscribe to receive notifications for troubleshooting common issues.

  • The Protect cloud assets page provides links to:

    • Safeguard your cloud assets by protecting data and applications across multicloud environments with consistent security measures using Multicloud Defense.

About Security Cloud Control Licenses

Security Cloud Control requires a base subscription for tenant entitlement and device licenses for managing devices. You can buy one or more Security Cloud Control base subscriptions based on the number of tenants you require and device licenses based on the device model number and the quantity. In other words, purchasing the base subscription gives you a Security Cloud Control tenant, and for every device you choose to manage using Security Cloud Control, you need separate device licenses.

For the purposes of planning your deployment, note that each Security Cloud Control tenant can manage approximately 500 devices through the Secure Device Connector (SDC) and any number of devices using the cloud connector. See Secure Device Connector (SDC) for more information.

To onboard and manage devices from Security Cloud Control, you need to purchase a base subscription and device-specific, term-based subscriptions based on the devices you want to manage.

Subscriptions

Cisco Security Cloud Control subscriptions are term-based:

  • Base - Offers subscriptions for one, three, and five years, and provides entitlement to access the Security Cloud Control tenant and onboard adequately licensed devices.

  • Device License - Offers subscriptions for one, three, and five years for any supported device you choose to manage. For example, you can choose to manage a Cisco Firepower 1010 device using Security Cloud Control for three years, if you purchase a three-year software subscription to the Cisco Firepower 1010 device.

See Software and Hardware Supported by Security Cloud Control for more information on Cisco security devices that Security Cloud Control supports.


Important

You do not require two separate device licenses to manage a high availabilty device pair in Security Cloud Control. If you have a Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) high availability pair, purchasing one FTD device license is sufficient, as Security Cloud Control considers the pair of high availability devices as one single device.


Note

You cannot manage Security Cloud Control licensing through the Cisco smart licensing portal.

Software Subscription Support

The Security Cloud Control base subscription includes software subcription support that is valid for the term of the subscription and provides access to software updates, major upgrades, and Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC), at no extra cost. While the software support is selected by default, you can also leverage the Security Cloud Control solution support based on your requirement.

Security Cloud Control Evaluation License

You can request for a 30-day Security Cloud Control trial from your SecureX account. See Request a Security Cloud Control Tenant for more information.

Cloud-Delivered Firewall Management Center and Threat Defense Licenses

You do not have to purchase a separate license to use the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center in Security Cloud Control; the base subscription for a Security Cloud Control tenant includes the cost for the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center.

Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center Evaluation License

The cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center comes provisioned with a 90-day evaluation license. After the evaluation period has elapsed, you can still onboard threat defense devices to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center. However, any manually triggered or scheduled deployments are blocked, until you register your cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center with the Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM). As your evaluation license approaches the expiry date, Security Cloud Control notifies you through alerts on the notifications window.

To know more about how to register the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center with CSSM, see Register the Management Center with the Smart Software Manager.

To learn how to get a cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center provisioned on your Security Cloud Control tenant, see Request a Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center for your Security Cloud Control Tenant.


Note

The cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center does not support specific license reservation (SLR) for devices in air-gapped networks.

Threat Defense Licenses for Cloud-Delivered Firewall Management Center

You need individual licenses for each Secure Firewall Threat Defense device managed by the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center. See Licensing in Managing Firewall Threat Defense with Cloud-Delivered Firewall Management Center in Cisco Security Cloud Control for information.

To know how Security Cloud Control handles licensing for the devices migrated to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, see Migrate Threat Defense from Management Center to Cloud.


Note

The Talos certificate for Evaluation Mode in Secure Firewall version 7.6.0 is set to expire on March 31, 2025. After this date, access to Talos-hosted services in Evaluation Mode (specifically those related to web reputation / categorization lookups) will be discontinued.

Secure Device Connector

The Secure Device Connector (SDC) is an intelligent proxy that allows your Cisco devices to communicate with Security Cloud Control. When onboarding a device that is not directly reachable over the internet to Security Cloud Control using device credentials, you can deploy an SDC in your network to proxy communications between the devices and Security Cloud Control. Alternatively, if you prefer, you can enable a device to receive direct communications through its outside interface from Security Cloud Control.

Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA), Meraki MXs, Secure Firewall Management Center devices, and generic SSH and IOS devices can be onboarded to Security Cloud Control using an SDC. Secure Firewall Threat Defense devices managed by cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center do not require onboarding using an SDC and do not support onboarding through proxies. Ensure that the threat defense devices have proper DNS settings and outbound internet connectivity to connect to cdFMC. For more information, see Onborading Overview.

The SDC monitors Security Cloud Control for commands that need to be executed on your managed devices, and messages that need to be sent to your managed devices. The SDC executes the commands on behalf of Security Cloud Control, sends messages to Security Cloud Control on behalf of the managed devices, and returns replies from the managed devices to Security Cloud Control.

The SDC uses secure communication messages signed and encrypted using AES-128-GCM over HTTPS (TLS 1.3) to communicate with Security Cloud Control. All credentials for onboarded devices and services are encrypted directly from the browser to the SDC as well as encrypted at rest using AES-128-GCM. Only the SDC has access to the device credentials. No other Security Cloud Control service has access to the credentials. See Connect Security Cloud Control to your Managed Devices for information explaining how to allow communication between an SDC and Security Cloud Control.

The SDC can be installed on any Ubuntu instance. For convenience, we provide an OVA for a hardened Ubuntu 22 instance which includes the SDC CLI pre-installed. The CLI helps you configure your VM, install all required system packages, and bootstrap the SDC as a Docker container on the host. Alternatively, you can roll your own Ubuntu instance (versions 20 through 24 are currently tested) and download the CLI separately.

Each Security Cloud Control tenant can have an unlimited number of SDCs. These SDCs are not shared between tenants, they are dedicated to a single tenant. The number of devices a single SDC can manage depends on the features implemented on those devices and the size of their configuration files. For the purposes of planning your deployment, however, expect one SDC to support approximately 500 devices.

Deploying more than one SDC for your tenant also provides these benefits:

  • You can manage more devices with your Security Cloud Control tenant without experiencing performance degradation.

  • You can deploy an SDC to an isolated network segment within your network and still manage the devices in that segment with the same Security Cloud Control tenant. Without multiple SDCs, you would need to manage the devices in those isolated network segments with different Security Cloud Control tenants.

Multiple SDCs can run on a single host, follow the bootstrap procedure for each SDC you want to run. The initial SDC on your tenant incorporates the name of your tenant and the number 1 and is displayed on the Secure Connectors tab in the Services page of Security Cloud Control. Each additional SDC is numbered in order.

For more information, see Deploy a VM for Running the Secure Device Connector and Secure Event Connector.

Connect Security Cloud Control to your Managed Devices

Security Cloud Control connects to the devices that it manages through the cloud connector or through a Secure Device Connector (SDC).

If your device can be accessed directly from the internet, you should be using the cloud connector to connect to your device. If you can, configure the device to allow inbound access on port 443 from the Security Cloud Control IP addresses in your cloud region.

If your device is not accessible from the internet, you can deploy an on-premises SDC in your network to allow Security Cloud Control to communicate with your devices.

Configure the device to allow full inbound access from your device subnets/IPs on port 443 (or whichever port you have configured for your device management).

An FDM-managed device can be onboarded to Security Cloud Control using its device credentials, a registration key, or its serial number whether it is directly accessible from the internet. If the FDM-managed device does not have direct access to the internet, but it resides on a network that does; the Security Services Exchange connector delivered as part of the device can reach the Security Services Exchange cloud allowing the FDM-managed device to be onboarded.

You need an on-premises SDC in your network to onboard:

  • An FDM-managed device that is not accessible from the cloud and the credentials onboarding method is used.

All other devices and services do not require an on-premise SDC as Security Cloud Control will connect using its cloud connector. See the next section to know the IP addresses that must be allowed for inbound access.

Connecting Devices to Security Cloud Control Through the Cloud Connector

When connecting Security Cloud Control directly to your device through the cloud connector, you should allow inbound access on port 443 (or whichever port you have configured for your device management) for the various IP addresses in the EMEA, United States, or APJ region.

If you are a customer in the Asia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) region, and you connect to Security Cloud Control at https://apj.manage.security.cisco.com, allow inbound access from the following IP addresses:

  • 54.199.195.111

  • 52.199.243.0

If you are a customer in the Australia (AUS) region, and you connect to Security Cloud Control at https://aus.manage.security.cisco.com, allow inbound access from the following IP addresses:

  • 13.55.73.159

  • 13.238.226.118

If you are a customer in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa (EMEA) region, and you connect to Security Cloud Control at https://eu.manage.security.cisco.com, allow inbound access from the following IP addresses:

  • 35.157.12.126

  • 35.157.12.15

If you are a customer in the India (IN) region, and you connect to Security Cloud Control at https://in.manage.security.cisco.com, allow inbound access from the following IP addresses:

  • 35.154.115.175

  • 13.201.213.99

If you are a customer in the United States (US) region, and you connect to Security Cloud Control at https://us.manage.security.cisco.com, allow inbound access from the following IP addresses:

  • 52.34.234.2

  • 52.36.70.147

Connecting Security Cloud Control to SDC

When connecting Security Cloud Control to your device through an SDC, the devices you want Security Cloud Control to manage must allow full inbound access from your SDC host on port 443 (or whichever port you have configured for your device management). This is configured using a management access control rule.

You must also ensure that the virtual machine on which the SDC is deployed has network connectivity to the management interface of the managed device.

Deploy a VM for Running the Secure Device Connector and Secure Event Connector

When using device credentials to connect Security Cloud Control to a device, it is a best practice to download and deploy an SDC in your network to manage the communication between Security Cloud Control and the device. Typically, these devices are nonperimeter based and do not have a public IP address, or have an open port to the outside interface.

The SDC monitors Security Cloud Control for commands that need to be executed on your managed devices, and messages that need to be sent to your managed devices. The SDC executes the commands on behalf of Security Cloud Control, sends messages to Security Cloud Control on behalf of the managed devices, and returns replies from the managed devices to Security Cloud Control.

The number of devices a single SDC can manage depends on the features that are implemented on those devices and the size of their configuration files. To plan your deployment, however, we expect one SDC to support approximately 500 devices. For more information, see Using Multiple SDCs on a Single Security Cloud Control Tenant.

This procedure describes how to install an SDC in your network, using Security Cloud Control's VM image. This is the recommended and most reliable way to create an SDC.

Before you begin

  • Security Cloud Control requires strict certificate checking and does not support Web or Content Proxy inspection between the Secure Device Connector (SDC) and the internet. If using a proxy server, disable inspection for traffic between the SDC and Security Cloud Control.

  • The SDC must have full outbound access to the internet on TCP port 443, or the port you have configured for device management.

  • The devices that are managed by Security Cloud Control must allow inbound traffic from the SDC VM’s IP address.

  • Review Connect Connect Security Cloud Control to your Managed Devices to the Secure Device Connector to ensure proper network access.

  • If you are using a proxy on your network, ensure that you have all the required details before running the host setup command. Most of the issues are related to incorrect proxy configurations. Important details are:

    • The IP/hostname of your proxy.

    • Whether or not your proxy intercepts traffic and reencrypts it using its own cert. This detail is the cause of most of the complications with the SDC VM setup.

      • If your proxy does intercept traffic, have the root certificate ready when configuring the VM. You can paste it in when prompted so that the host and the SDC know to trust the certificates generated by your proxy.

      • If your proxy does _not_ intercept traffic, then nothing else is required here.

    • The following items are most likely the same for proxied HTTP _and_ HTTPS connections. However, if you use a different proxy for each protocol, you would need all of the following for each:

      • The IP address of your proxy

      • The port your proxy uses

      • Whether your proxy requires that the connection to the proxy itself be over HTTPS (typically not the case). For example, if the address of your proxy is listed as _https://proxy.corp.com:80_ then you would answer yes. If the listed address is _http://proxy.corp.com:80_ then you would answer no. Note that both URLs use port 80, but the protocol is different.

      • The authentication details of your proxy including:

        • Whether your proxy requires auth (most do not)

        • If yes, then you’ll need the username and password available when you configure the host.

Supported Installations

  • Security Cloud Control supports installing its SDC VM OVF image using the vSphere web client or the ESXi web client.

  • Security Cloud Control does not support installing the SDC VM OVF image using the vSphere desktop client.

  • Security Cloud Control supports installing the SDC on your own Ubuntu instance. Versions 20LTS - 24LTS are currently supported.

  • ESXi 5.1 hypervisor.

System Requirements

  • System requirements for a VM with one SDC:

    • 2 vCPUs

    • 2 GB of memory

    • 64 GB of disk space

  • Each SDC you add to your host requires an additional 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM.

  • System requirements for a VM with one SEC (a component that is used in Cisco Security Analytics and Logging):

    • 4 vCPUs minimum

    • 8 GB of memory

  • Each SEC you add to the host requires doubling its resources, therefore, these are the requirements for a VMware ESXi host with one SDC and one SEC:

    • 6 vCPUs

    • 10 GB memory

    • 64 GB of disk space

  • The container’s IP must be in a different subnet than the SDC's IP range and the device's IP range.

Prepare for Installation

  • To configure networking manually on the host, gather the following information:

    • The static IP address that you want to use for your VM

    • The passwords to use for the cdouser (or whichever user has sudo access) and the `sdc` user (the user under which Docker runs)

    • The IP address of the DNS server your organization uses

    • The gateway IP address of the network the SDC address is on

    • The FQDN or IP address of your time/NTP server

  • The SDC virtual machine is configured to install security patches regularly and to do this, opening port 80 outbound is required.

    If your network is using allow/deny lists for outbound connections, you need to allow connections to ubuntu.com so those security updates can be applied.


    Note

    Ubuntu secures its updates with checksums and only uses HTTP, not HTTPS. To pull security updates, you must allow HTTP connections to ubuntu.com.

Deploy the VM

There are two options for deploying the VM used to run the SDC and SEC.

  1. Follow the steps below to download the VMware image provided by Security Cloud Control.

  2. To deploy Ubuntu 20, 22, or 24 yourself. If deploying your own Ubuntu instance, you may skip the following section and proceed to the Configure the VM section.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the Security Cloud Control tenant for which you are creating the SDC or SEC.

  2. In the left pane, click Administration > Secure Connectors.

  3. Select the Secure Connectors tab on the Services page, click the blue plus button, and select Secure Device Connector.

  4. Click Download the SDC VM image. This opens in a new tab.

  5. Extract all the files from the .zip file. They look similar to these:

    • CDO-SDC-VM-ddd50fa.ovf

    • CDO-SDC-VM-ddd50fa.mf

    • CDO-SDC-VM-ddd50fa-disk1.vmdk

  6. Log in to your VMware server as an administrator using the vSphere Web Client.


    Note

    Do not use the ESXi Web Client.

    Deploy the Secure Device Connector virtual machine from the OVF template by following the prompts.

  7. When the setup is complete, power on the SDC VM.

  8. Open the console for your new SDC VM.

  9. Log in with the CDO username. The default password is adm123.

Configure the VM

Now you are able to bring up the console for the VM image you deployed (or SSH into it if you rolled your own and enabled SSH), you should run the configuration script to get your host ready to run the SDC or SEC Docker container(s).

  1. If you downloaded the Security Cloud Control-provided VM, the CLI is already installed, and you can proceed to step 2. If you have deployed your own VM, SSH into it and run the command to install the CLI: 

    curl -O https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/download.defenseorchestrator.com/sdc-cli/sdc-cli-package-latest.tgz && tar -xvf sdc-cli-package-latest.tgz && chmod +x ./install.sh && ./install.sh

  2. Start the host configuration by runing the command:

    sudo sdc host configure

  3. When prompted for the password, enter adm123 for the Security Cloud Control-provided VM or whatever admin password you chose for your own VM.

  4. Follow the prompts to configure the sdc user.

  5. When prompted for the networking configuration, choose one of the following:

    • Manually configure this host with a static IP: If you want to specify the IP, gateway, DNS server, and so on, for this host and write it to the system config on the VM.

    • DHCP: If you have a DHCP server assigning static IPs to your VMs.

    • Static IP is already configured and I don't want to change my networking now.

  6. When prompted, answer the questions about your proxy configuration. Review the detailed list at the top of this topic for all the prerequisites and potential proxy configuration options.

  7. If you have configured a proxy, you will be prompted to reboot the VM for all the proxy settings to take effect. If you did not, you will not be prompted to reboot and you can move on to step 8.

  8. Set a custom internet access test URL. You only need to do this if you deny all outbound connections by default. If you do, then specify a publicly accessible web url such at https://google.com that is on your allow list.

  9. Install the latest security patches, some requires os tools and Docker server.

  10. When prompted, indicate whether you want to have the script harden your SSH configuration.

    If using our VM, proceed. If you are using your own VM and configuring SSH yourself, you may want to skip this step to avoid changing your current configuration.

  11. When prompted to enable automatic updates for the SDC or SEC and the CLI itself, it is recommended that you do this to stay up to date with bug fixes, patches, and new features. If your policies prevent you from allowing automatic updates, see Update your Secure Device Connector.

Deploy a Secure Device Connector Using Security Cloud Control's VM Image

When using device credentials to connect Security Cloud Control to a device, it is a best practice to download and deploy an SDC in your network to manage the communication between Security Cloud Control and the device. Typically, these devices are non-perimeter based, do not have a public IP address, or have an open port to the outside interface. Adaptive Security Appliances (ASAs), FDM-managed devices, Firepower Management Centers (FMCs), and SSH and IOS devices, can all be onboarded to Security Cloud Control using an SDC.

The SDC monitors Security Cloud Control for commands that need to be executed on your managed devices, and messages that need to be sent to your managed devices. The SDC executes the commands on behalf of Security Cloud Control, sends messages to Security Cloud Control on behalf of the managed devices, and returns replies from the managed devices to Security Cloud Control.

The number of devices a single SDC can manage depends on the features implemented on those devices and the size of their configuration files. For the purposes of planning your deployment, however, we expect one SDC to support approximately 500 devices. See Using Multiple SDCs on a Single Security Cloud Control Tenant for more information.

This procedure describes how to install an SDC in your network, using Security Cloud Control's VM image. This is the preferred, easiest, and most reliable way to create an SDC.

Before you begin

Review these prerequisites before you deploy the SDC:

  • Security Cloud Control requires strict certificate checking and does not support Web/Content Proxy inspection between the Secure Device Connector (SDC) and the Internet. If using a proxy server, disable inspection for traffic between the SDC and Security Cloud Control.

  • The SDC must have full outbound access to the internet on TCP port 443, or the port you have configured for device management. The devices managed by Security Cloud Control must also allow inbound traffic from this port.

  • Review Connect Cisco Security Cloud Control to the Secure Device Connector to ensure proper network access.

  • Security Cloud Control supports installing its SDC VM OVF image using the vSphere web client or the ESXi web client.

  • Security Cloud Control does not support installing the SDC VM OVF image using the vSphere desktop client.

  • ESXi 5.1 hypervisor.

  • Cent OS 7 guest operating system.

  • System requirements for a VMware ESXi host with only one SDC:

    • VMware ESXi host needs 2 CPU.

    • VMware ESXi host needs a minimum of 2 GB of memory.

    • VMware ESXi requires 64 GB disk space to support the virtual machine depending on your provisioning choice.

  • System requirements for a VM with an SDC and a single Secure Event Connector (SEC) for your tenant. (The SEC is a component used in Cisco Security Analytics and Logging).

    Each SEC that you add to the VMware ESXi host requires an additional 4 CPUs and an additional 8 GB of memory.

    Therefore, these are the requirements for a VMware ESXi host with one SDC and one SEC:

    • VMware ESXi host needs 6 CPU.

    • VMware ESXi host needs a minimum of 10 GB of memory.

    • VMware ESXi requires 64 GB disk space to support the virtual machine depending on your provisioning choice.

  • The dockers IP must be in a different subnet than the SDC's IP range and the device IP range.

  • Gather this information before you begin the installation:

    • Static IP address you want to use for your SDC.

    • Passwords for the root and cdo users that you create during the installation process.

    • The IP address of the DNS server your organization uses.

    • The gateway IP address of the network the SDC address is on.

    • The FQDN or IP address of your time server.

  • The SDC virtual machine is configured to install security patches on a regular basis and in order to do this, opening port 80 outbound is required.

Procedure

Step 1

Log on to the Security Cloud Control Tenant you are creating the SDC for.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > Secure Connectors.

Step 3

On the Services page, select the Secure Connectors tab, click the blue plus button, and select Secure Device Connector.

Step 4

In Step 1, click Download the SDC VM image. This opens in a separate tab.

Step 5

Extract all the files from the .zip file. They will look similar to these:

  • CDO-SDC-VM-ddd50fa.ovf

  • CDO-SDC-VM-ddd50fa.mf

  • CDO-SDC-VM-ddd50fa-disk1.vmdk

Step 6

Log on to your VMware server as an administrator using the vSphere Web Client.

Note

 

Do not use the ESXi Web Client.

Step 7

Deploy the Secure Device Connector virtual machine from the OVF template by following the prompts.

Step 8

When the setup is complete, power on the SDC VM.

Step 9

Open the console for your new SDC VM.

Step 10

Login with the username "CDO". The default password is adm123.

Step 11

At the prompt, type sudo sdc-onboard setup. 

 [cdo@localhost ~]$ sudo sdc-onboard setup

Step 12

When prompted for the password, enter adm123.

Step 13

Follow the prompts to create a new password for user root. Enter your password for the root user.

Step 14

Follow the prompts to create a new password for the Security Cloud Control user. Enter your password for the user

Step 15

When prompted with Please choose the Security Cloud Control domain you connect to, enter your Security Cloud Control domain information.

Step 16

Enter the following domain information of the SDC VM when prompted:

  1. IP Address/CIDR

  2. Gateway

  3. DNS Server

  4. NTP Server or FQDN

  5. Docker Bridge

    or press enter if a docker bridge is not applicable.

Step 17

When prompted with Are these values correct? (y/n), confirm your entries with y.

Step 18

Confirm your entries.

Step 19

When prompted with Would you like to setup the SDC now? (y/n), enter n.

Step 20

The VM console automatically logs you out.

Step 21

Create an SSH connection to the SDC. Login as: CDO and enter your password.

Step 22

At the prompt, type sudo sdc-onboard bootstrap. 

[cdo@localhost ~]$ sudo sdc-onboard bootstrap

Step 23

When prompted with [sudo] password, enter the password you created in step 14.

Step 24

When prompted with Please copy the bootstrap data from the Secure Connector Page of Security Cloud Control, follow this procedure:

  1. Log into Security Cloud Control.

  2. In the Actions pane, click Deploy an On-Premises Secure Device Connector.

  3. Click Copy the bootstrap data in step 2 of the dialog box and paste into the SSH window.

Step 25

When prompted with Do you want to update these setting? (y/n), enter n.

Step 26

Return to the Secure Device Connector page. Refresh the screen until you see the status of your new SDC change to Active.

Deploy a Secure Device Connector On Your VM

When using device credentials to connect Security Cloud Control to a device, it is a best practice to download and deploy a Secure Device Connector (SDC) in your network to manage the communication between Security Cloud Control and the device. Typically, these devices are non-perimeter based, do not have a public IP address, or have an open port to the outside interface. Adaptive Security Appliances (ASAs), FDM-managed devices, and Firepower Management Centers (FMCs) devices can all be onboarded to Security Cloud Control using device credentials.

The SDC monitors Security Cloud Control for commands that need to be executed on your managed devices, and messages that need to be sent to your managed devices. The SDC executes the commands on behalf of Security Cloud Control, sends messages to Security Cloud Control on behalf of the managed devices, and returns replies from the managed devices to Security Cloud Control.

The number of devices a single SDC can manage depends on the features implemented on those devices and the size of their configuration files. For the purposes of planning your deployment, however, we expect one SDC to support approximately 500 devices. See Using Multiple SDCs on a Single Security Cloud Control Tenant for more information.

This procedure describes how to install an SDC in your network by using your own virtual machine image.


Note

The preferred, easiest, and most reliable way to install an SDC is to download Security Cloud Control's SDC OVA image and install it. See Deploy a Secure Device Connector Using Security Cloud Control's VM Image for those instructions.

Before you begin

  • Security Cloud Control requires strict certificate checking and does not support a Web/Content Proxy between the SDC and the Internet.

  • The SDC must have full outbound access to the Internet on TCP port 443 in order for it to communicate with Security Cloud Control.

  • Devices that reach Security Cloud Control through the SDC must allow inbound access from the SDC on port 443.

  • Review Connect to Cisco Security Cloud Control using Secure Device Connector for networking guidelines.

  • VMware ESXi host installed with vCenter web client or ESXi web client.


    Note

    We do not support installation using the vSphere desktop client.

  • ESXi 5.1 hypervisor.

  • Cent OS 7 guest operating system.

  • System requirements for a VM with only an SDC:

    • VMware ESXi host needs 2 CPUs.

    • VMware ESXi host needs a minimum of 2 GB of memory.

    • VMware ESXi requires 64 GB disk space to support the virtual machine depending on your provisioning choice. This value assumes you are using Logical Volume Management (LVM) with the partition so you can expand required disk space as needed.

  • System requirements for a VM with an SDC and a single Secure Event Connector (SEC) for your tenant. (The SEC is a component used in Cisco Security Analytics and Logging).

    Each SEC you add to the VMware ESXi host requires an additional 4 CPUs and an additional 8 GB of memory.

    Therefore, these are the requirements for a VMware ESXi host with one SDC and one SEC:

    • VMware ESXi host needs 6 CPU.

    • VMware ESXi host needs a minimum of 10 GB of memory.

    • VMware ESXi requires 64 GB disk space to support the virtual machine depending on your provisioning choice.

  • After you have updated the CPU and memory on the VM, power on the VM and ensure that the Secure Connectors page indicates that the SDC is in the "Active" state.

  • Users performing this procedure should be comfortable working in a Linux environment and using the vi visual editor for editing files.

  • If you are installing your on-premise SDC on a CentOS virtual machine, we recommend you install Yum security patches on a regular basis. Depending on your Yum configuration, to acquire Yum updates, you may need to open outbound access on port 80 as well as 443. You will also need to configure yum-cron or crontab to schedule the updates. Work with your security-operations team to determine if any security policies need to change to allow you to get the Yum updates.


Note

Before you get started: Do not copy and paste the commands in the procedure into your terminal window, type them instead. Some commands include an "n-dash" and in the cut and paste process, these commands can be applied as an "m-dash" and that may cause the command to fail.

Procedure

Step 1

Log on to the Security Cloud Control tenant you are creating the SDC for.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > Secure Connectors.

Step 3

On the Services page, select the Secure Connectors tab, click the blue plus button, and select Secure Device Connector.

Step 4

Copy the bootstrap data in step 2 on the window to a notepad.

Step 5

Install a CentOS 7 virtual machine with at least the following RAM and disk space allotted to the SDC:

  • 8GB of RAM

  • 10GB disk space

Step 6

Once installed, configure basic networking such as specifying the IP address for the SDC, the subnet mask, and gateway.

Step 7

Configure a DNS (Domain Name Server) server.

Step 8

Configure a NTP (Network Time Protocol) server.

Step 9

Install an SSH server on CentOS for easy interaction with SDC's CLI.

Step 10

Run a Yum update and then install the packages: open-vm-tools, nettools, and bind-utils

[root@sdc-vm ~]# yum update -y 
               [root@sdc-vm ~]# yum install -y open-vm-tools net-tools bind-utils

Step 11

Install the AWS CLI package; see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/awscli-install-linux.html.

Note

 

Do not use the --user flag.

Step 12

Install the Docker CE packages; see https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/centos/#install-docker-ce

Note

 

Use the "Install using the repository" method.

Step 13

Start the Docker service and enable it to start on boot:


 [root@sdc-vm ~]# systemctl start docker
 [root@sdc-vm ~]# systemctl enable docker
 Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multiuser.target.wants/docker.service to
     /usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service.

Step 14

Create two users: "CDO" and "sdc." The CDO user will be the one you log in to run administrative functions (so you don't need to use the root user directly), and the sdc user will be the user to run the SDC docker container. 


  [root@sdc-vm ~]# useradd cdo
  [root@sdc-vm ~]# useradd sdc –d /usr/local/cdo

Step 15

Set a password for the CDO user.


  [root@sdc-vm ~]# passwd cdo
  Changing password for user cdo.
  New password: <type password> 
  Retype new password: <type password> 
  passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Step 16

Add the CDO user to the "wheel" group to give it administrative (sudo) privileges.


   [root@sdc-vm ~]# usermod -aG wheel cdo 
   [root@sdc-vm ~]#

Step 17

When Docker is installed, there is a user group created. Depending on the version of CentOS/Docker, this may be called either "docker" or "dockerroot". Check the /etc/group file to see which group was created, and then add the sdc user to this group. 


  [root@sdc-vm ~]# grep docker /etc/group
   docker:x:993:
  [root@sdc-vm ~]#
  [root@sdc-vm ~]# usermod -aG docker sdc
  [root@sdc-vm ~]#

Step 18

If the /etc/docker/daemon.json file does not exist, create it, and populate with the contents below. Once created, restart the docker daemon.

Note

 

Make sure that the group name entered in the "group" key matches the group you found in the /etc/group file the previous step.

 
[root@sdc-vm ~]# cat /etc/docker/daemon.json
         {
            "live-restore": true,
            "group": "docker"
         }
         [root@sdc-vm ~]# systemctl restart docker 
         [root@sdc-vm ~]#

Step 19

If you are currently using a vSphere console session, switch over to SSH and log in with the "CDO" user. Once logged in, change to the "sdc" user. When prompted for a password, enter the password for the "CDO" user. 

[CDO@sdc-vm ~]$ sudo su sdc
               [sudo] password for cdo: <type password for cdo user>
               [sdc@sdc-vm ~]$

Step 20

Change directories to /usr/local/CDO.

Step 21

Create a new file called bootstrapdata and paste the bootstrap data from Step 2 of the Deploy an On-Premises Secure Device Connector wizard into this file. Save the file. You can use vi or nano to create the file.

Step 22

The bootstrap data comes encoded in base64. Decode it and export it to a file called extractedbootstrapdata

[sdc@sdc-vm ~]$ base64 -d /usr/local/ CDO/bootstrapdata > /usr/local/CDO/extractedbootstrapdata
              [sdc@sdc-vm ~]$

Run the cat command to view the decoded data. The command and decoded data should look similar to this: 

[sdc@sdc-vm ~]$ cat /usr/local/ CDO/extractedbootstrapdata
               CDO_TOKEN="<token string>"
               CDO_DOMAIN="www.defenseorchestrator.com"
               CDO_TENANT="<tenant-name>"
               CDO_BOOTSTRAP_URL="https://www.defenseorchestrator.com/sdc/bootstrap/tenant-name/<tenant-name-SDC>"

Step 23

Run the following command to export the sections of the decoded bootstrap data to environment variables.

[sdc@sdc-vm ~]$ sed -e 's/^/export /g' extractedbootstrapdata > sdcenv && source sdcenv
              [sdc@sdc-vm ~]$

Step 24

Download the bootstrap bundle from Security Cloud Control. 

[sdc@sdc-vm ~]$ curl -O -H "Authorization: Bearer $CDO_TOKEN" "$CDO_BOOTSTRAP_URL"
               100 10314 100 10314 0 0 10656 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 10654
               [sdc@sdc-vm ~]$ ls -l /usr/local/ CDO/*SDC
               -rw-rw-r--. 1 sdc sdc 10314 Jul 23 13:48 /usr/local/CDO/tenant-name-SDC

Step 25

Extract the SDC tarball, and run the bootstrap.sh file to install the SDC package. 

[sdc@sdc-vm ~]$ tar xzvf /usr/local/CDO/tenant-name-SDC
               <snipped – extracted files>
               [sdc@sdc-vm ~]$
               [sdc@sdc-vm ~]$ /usr/local/ CDO/bootstrap/bootstrap.sh
               [2018-07-23 13:54:02] environment properly configured
               download: s3://onprem-sdc/toolkit/prod/toolkit.tar to toolkit/toolkit.tar
               toolkit.sh
               common.sh
               [2018-07-23 13:54:04] startup new container
               Unable to find image 'ciscodefenseorchestrator/sdc_prod:latest' locally
               sha256:d98f17101db10e66db5b5d6afda1c95c29ea0004d9e4315508fd30579b275458: Pulling from
               ciscodefenseorchestrator/sdc_prod
               08d48e6f1cff: Pull complete
               ebbd10b629b1: Pull complete
               d14d580ef2ed: Pull complete
               45421d451ab8: Pull complete
               <snipped – downloads>
               no crontab for sdc

The SDC should now show "Active" in Security Cloud Control.

What to do next

Bootstrap a Secure Device Connector on the Deployed Host

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > Secure Connectors.

Step 2

On the Services page, select the Secure Connectors tab, click the + icon, and select Secure Device Connector.

Step 3

Copy the bootstrap data in step 2 on the window to a notepad.

Step 4

SSH into your VM using the admin user, typically CDO, and your chosen password.

Step 5

Switch to the SDC user using the command: 

sudo su - sdc

Step 6

Bootstrap your new SDC using the command:

sdc bootstrap <paste-your-bootstrap-data-here>

Step 7

Select the version of the SDC you want to use.

We have three options for the SDC version:

  • SDC 2024- This is the version that most will want to run.

  • SDC 2024 with FIPS enabled- Choose this version if you are subject to FedRamp compliance.

  • SDC Legacy- This version is no longer receiving feature updates and it is recommended to run SDC 2024 instead.

Step 8

The CLI pulls the container image and starts the SDC and you can validate that your SDC is active and operational on the user interface, and also on the host by running: 

sdc show running
You should now see an SDC for your tenant.

Deploy a Secure Device Connector to vSphere Using Terraform

Before you begin

This procedure details how you can use the Security Cloud Control SDC Terraform module for vSphere in conjunction with the Security Cloud Control Terraform Provider to deploy an SDC to your vSphere. Ensure you review the following prerequisites before attempting to perform this task procedure:

  • You have vSphere datacenter version 7 and above

  • You have an admin account on the datacenter with permissions to do the following:

    • Create VMs

    • Create folders

    • Create content libraries

    • Upload files to content libraries

  • Terraform knowledge

Procedure

Step 1

Create an API-only user in Security Cloud Control and copy the API token. To know how to create an API-only user, see Create API Only Users.

Step 2

Configure the Security Cloud Control Terraform provider in your Terraform repository by following the instructions in Security Cloud Control Terraform Provider.

Example:

terraform { 
  required_providers { 
    cdo = { 
      source = "CiscoDevNet/cdo" 
      version = "0.7.0" 
    } 
  } 
} 
 
provider "cdo" { 
  base_url = “<the CDO URL you use to access CDO>” 
  api_token = “<the API Token generated in step 1>” 
}

Step 3

Write Terraform code to create a cdo_sdc resource using the Security Cloud Control Terraform provider. See the Terraform registry for Security Cloud Control-sdc resource for more information.

Example:

Resource “cdo_sdc” “my-sdc” { 
  name = “my-sdc-in-vsphere” 
}

The bootstrap_data attribute of this resource is populated with the value of the Security Cloud Control bootstrap data and is provided to the cdo_sdc Terraform module in the next step.

Step 4

Write Terraform code to create the SDC in vSphere using Security Cloud Control_sdc Terraform module.

Example:

data "cdo_tenant" "current" {} 
 
module "vsphere-cdo-sdc" { 
  source               = "CiscoDevNet/cdo-sdc/vsphere" 
  version              = "1.0.0" 
  vsphere_username     = "<replace-with-username-with-admin-privileges>" 
  vsphere_password     = "<super-secure-password>" 
  vsphere_server       = "<replace-with-address-of-vsphere-server>" 
  datacenter           = "<replace-with-datacenter-name>" 
  resource_pool        = "<replace-with-resource-pool-name>" 
  cdo_tenant_name      = data.cdo_tenant.current.human_readable_name 
  datastore            = "<replace-with-name-of-datastore-to-deploy-vm-in>" 
  network              = "<replace-with-name-of-network-to-deploy-vm-in>" 
  host                 = "<replace-with-esxi-host-address>" 
  allow_unverified_ssl = <boolean; set to true if your vsphere server does not have a valid SSL certificate> 
  ip_address           = "<sdc-vm-ip-address; must be in the subnet of the assigned network for the VM>" 
  gateway              = "<replace-with-network-gateway-address>" 
  cdo_user_password    = "<replace-with-password-for-cdo-user-in-sdc-vm>" 
  root_user_password   = "<replace-with-password-for-root-user-in-sdc-vm>" 
  cdo_bootstrap_data   = cdo_sdc.sdc-in-vsphere.bootstrap_data 
}

Note that the VM created has two users—a root user and a user called cdo—and the IP Address of the VM is configured statically. The cdo_bootstrap_data attribute is given the value of the bootstrap_data attribute generated when the cdo_sdc resource is created.

Step 5

Plan and apply your Terraform using terraform plan and terraform apply, as you would normally.

See the Security Cloud Control Automation Repository in the CiscoDevNet for a complete example.

If your SDC stays in the onboarding state, connect to the vSphere VM using remote console, log in as the CDO user, and execute the following command: 

sdc host status

Depending on the readout, you may need to manually run:

sdc host configure

Note

The Security Cloud Control Terraform modules are published as Open Source Software under the Apache 2.0 license. You can file issues on GitHub if you require support.

Deploy a Secure Device Connector on an AWS VPC Using a Terraform Module

Before you begin

Review these prerequisites before attempting to deploy an SDC on your AWS VPC:

  • Security Cloud Control requires strict certificate checking and does not support Web/Content Proxy inspection between the SDC and the Internet. If using a proxy server, disable inspection for traffic between the Secure Device Connector (SDC) andSecurity Cloud Control.

  • See Connect Cisco Security Cloud Control to the Secure Device Connector to ensure proper network access.

  • You require an AWS account, an AWS VPC with at least one subnet, and an AWS Route53-hosted zone.

  • Ensure you have the Security Cloud Control bootstrap data, your AWS VPC ID, and its subnet ID handy.

  • Ensure that the private subnet to which you deploy the SDC has a NAT gateway attached.

  • Open traffic on the port on which your firewall management HTTP interface is running, from your firewalls to the Elastic IP attached to the NAT gateway.

Procedure

Step 1

Add the following lines of code in your Terraform file; make sure you manually enter inputs for variables:

module "example-sdc" {
  source             = "git::https://github.com/cisco-lockhart/terraform-aws-cdo-sdc.git?ref=v0.0.1"
  env                = "example-env-ci"
  instance_name      = "example-instance-name"
  instance_size      = "r5a.xlarge"
  cdo_bootstrap_data = "<replace-with-cdo-bootstrap-data>"
  vpc_id             = <replace-with-vpc-id>
  subnet_id          = <replace-with-private-subnet-id>
}

See the Secure Device Connector Terraform module for a list of input variables and descriptions.

Step 2

Register instance_id as an output in your Terraform code: 

output "example_sdc_instance_id" {
  value = module. example-sdc.instance_id
}

You can use the instance_id to connect to the SDC instance for troubleshooting using the AWS Systems Manager Session Manager (SSM). See Outputs in the Secure Device Connector Terraform module for a list of available outputs.

What to do next

For any troubleshooting of your SDC, you need to connect to the SDC instance using AWS SSM. See AWS Systems Manager Session Manager to know more about how to connect to your instance. Note that the ports to connect to the SDC instance using SSH are not exposed because of security reasons.


Note

The Security Cloud Control Terraform modules are published as Open Source Software under the Apache 2.0 license. You can file issues on GitHub if you require support.

Migrate an On-Premises Secure Device Connector and Secure Event Connector from a CentOS 7 Virtual Machine to an Ubuntu Virtual Machine

Cisco Security Cloud Control's on-premises Secure Device Connector (SDC) has been installed on CentOS 7 virtual machines up to this point. Since CentOS 7 is now end-of-life and has been deprecated by Security Cloud Control, we have created this migration process to help you migrate all SDCs from CentOS 7 to an Ubuntu virtual machine.

Before You Migrate

  • The SDC must have full outbound access to the internet on TCP port 443.

  • The Ubuntu virtual machine running the SDC must have network access to the management interfaces of the devices it communicates with, such as ASAs and Cisco IOS devices.

  • Any networking rules created for the IP address or FQDN of the old SDC VM to reach your devices should be recreated with the IP address or FQDN of the new SDC VM.

  • The migration will take 10 to 15 minutes. During this time, your device will continue to enforce security policy and route network traffic, but you will not be able to communicate with it through the SDC.

Prerequisites

Deploy a new host by following the instructions on Deploy a VM for Running the Secure Device Connector and Secure Event Connector.

Host Configuration

Follow this procedure if you are migrating the SDC and/or SEC:

  1. Download the new VM image here.

  2. Unzip the CDO-SDC_VM.zip file. You should see three VM files named similarly to the following:

    • CDO-SDC-VM-708cd33-2024-05-30-2031-disk1.vmdk

    • CDO-SDC-VM-708cd33-2024-05-30-2031.mf

    • CDO-SDC-VM-708cd33-2024-05-30-2031.ovf

  3. Deploy the VM you just downloaded.

  4. Note the static IP address or FQDN you assigned to the new VM.

  5. Using SSH, log in to the new VM as the CDO user.

  6. At the prompt, enter the command:

    sudo sdc host configure

    Note

    • Follow the prompts in the migration script closely. The script is well-documented and will guide you through the migration process, explaining each step.

    • At the end of the migration script, you will receive a message indicating that your SDC has been migrated to the new VM. The SDC will retain its name after the migration.

SDC Migration

Procedure:

  1. Using SSH, log in to the old (CentOS) SDC as the CDO user.

  2. Install the CLI using the command:

    curl -O https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/download.defenseorchestrator.com/sdc-cli/sdc-cli-package-latest.tgz && tar -xvf sdc-cli-package-latest.tgz && chmod +x ./install.sh && ./install.sh

  3. Run the following command and follow the prompts:

    sudo sdc migrate now

Verification:

  1. Log in to your Security Cloud Control tenant.

  2. Select the SDC you migrated, and in the Actions pane, click Request Heartbeat.


Note

Ensure that the SDC is in the Active state.

SEC Migration

Procedure:

  1. Using SSH, log in to the old (CentOS) SDC as the CDO user.

  2. Install the CLI using the command:

    curl -O https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/download.defenseorchestrator.com/sdc-cli/sdc-cli-package-latest.tgz && tar -xvf sdc-cli-package-latest.tgz && chmod +x ./install.sh && ./install.sh

  3. Run the following command and follow the prompts:

    sudo sdc eventing migrate

  4. You can configure your devices to point to the new IP address of the SEC or you can shut down the old host and assign the new host the same IP address that the old host had so that the devices do not need to be updated.

Verification:

For information on the state of the SEC, see Use Health Check to Learn the State of your Secure Event Connector.

Additional Instructions

Do Not Restart Your Old SDC

After the migration is complete, do not restart your old SDC on the original virtual machine.

Revert Failed Migration

If the migration fails for any reason, or the result is not what you are expecting and you want to revert to the old SDC, follow the instructions below:

  1. Log in to the new VM and switch to the SDC user.

  2. Ensure the SDC is not currently running on the new VM using the command:

    docker ps

  3. If the SDC is running, run the command:

    sdc stop

  4. Confirm that the SDC has stopped running by executing docker ps again.

  5. Log in to the old VM and run the command:

    sdc migrate revert

  6. When the old SDC is active and visible in the UI, return to the new VM and execute the command:

    sdc delete <your-tenant-name-here>

  7. Refresh the browser completely, click on the SDC, and verify that the IP of the old host appears in the sidebar.

    If the new IP still appears despite following these steps, request a new health check, refresh the browser, and check again.

  8. To revert the SEC migration,run the command: 
    sdc eventing revert

Change the IP Address of a Secure Device Connector

Before you begin

  • You must be an admin to perform this task.

  • The SDC must have full outbound access to the Internet on TCP port 443, or the port you have configured for device management.


Note

You will not be required to re-onboard any devices to Security Cloud Control after changing the SDC's IP address.

Procedure

Step 1

Create an SSH connection to your SDC or open your virtual machine's console, and log in as the CDO user.

Step 2

To view your SDC VM's network interface configuration information before changing the IP address, use the command:

[cdo@localhost ~]$ ip addr

Step 3

To change the IP address of the interface, re-initiate the host configuration using the command:

[cdo@localhost ~]$ sdc host configure network

Step 4

Enter your password at the prompt.

Step 5

The configure script will then ask you about your networking configuration, write the new config file with the new IP and apply that configuration.

Note

 

You will lose your SSH connection at this time.

Step 6

Create an SSH connection using the new IP address you assigned to your SDC and log in.

Step 7

Your SDC should start automatically, but if it does not, run the following commands:

[cdo@localhost ~]$ sudo su - sdc
[cdo@localhost ~]$ sdc start

Note

 

If you are performing this procedure in the VM's console, when you confirm the values are correct, the connectivity status test is automatically run and the status is shown.

Step 8

You can also check your SDC's connectivity through the Security Cloud Control user interface. To do that, open the Security Cloud Control application and navigate to Administration > Secure Connectors page.

Step 9

Refresh the page once and select the secure connector whose IP address you changed.

Step 10

On the Actions pane, click Request Heartbeat. You should see the Heartbeat requested successfully message, and the Last Heartbeat should display the current date and time.

Remove a Secure Device Connector


Warning

This procedure deletes your Secure Device Connector (SDC). It is not reversible. After taking this action, you will not be able to manage the devices connected to that SDC until you install a new SDC and reconnect your devices. Reconnecting your devices may requires you to re-enter the administrator credentials for each device you need to reconnect.

To remove the SDC from your tenant, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

Remove any devices connected to the SDC you want to delete.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > Secure Connectors.

Step 3

On the Services page with the Secure Connectors tab selected, click the blue plus button and select Secure Device Connector.

Step 4

In the Secure Connectors table, select the SDC you want to remove. Its device count should now be zero.

Step 5

In the Actions pane, click Remove. You receive this warning:

Warning

 

You are about to delete <sdc_name>. Deleting the SDC is not reversible. Deleting the SDC will require you to create and onboard a new SDC before you can onboard, or re-onboard, your devices.

Because you currently have onboarded devices, removing the SDC will require you to reconnect those devices and provide credentials again after setting up a new SDC.

  • If you have any questions or concerns, click Cancel and contact Security Cloud Control support.

  • If you wish to proceed, enter <sdc_name> in the text box below and click OK.

Step 6

In the confirmation dialog box, if you wish to proceed, enter your SDC's name as it is stated in the warning message.

Step 7

Click OK to confirm the SDC removal.

Move an ASA from one SDC to Another

Security Cloud Control supports the use of more than one SDC per tenant. You can move a managed ASA from one SDC to another using this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the ASA tab.

Step 3

Select the ASA or ASAs you want to move to a different SDC.

Step 4

In the Device Actions pane, click Update Credentials.

Step 5

Click the Secure Device Connector button and select the SDC you want to move the device to.

Step 6

Enter the administrator username and password Security Cloud Control uses to log into the device and click Update. Unless they were changed, the administrator username and password are the same credentials you used to onboard the ASA. You do not have to deploy these changes to the device.

Note

 

If all the ASAs use the same credentials, you can move ASAs in bulk from one SDC to another. If the ASAs have different credentials, you have to move them from one SDC to another one at a time.

Rename a Secure Device Connector

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, choose Tools & Services > Secure Connectors.

Step 2

Select the SDC you want to rename.

Step 3

In the Details pane, click the edit icon next to the name of the SDC.

Step 4

Rename the SDC.

This new name will appear wherever the SDC name appears in the Security Cloud Control interface including the Secure Device Connectors filter of the Security Devices pane.

Update your Secure Device Connector

Use this procedure as a troubleshooting tool. Usually, the SDC is updated automatically and you should not have to use this procedure. In case of errors, you may need to initiate a manual update.

Procedure

Step 1

Connect to your SDC. You can connect using SSH or use the console view in your Hypervisor.

Step 2

Log in to the SDC as the admin user, typically cdo.

Step 3

Switch to the SDC user to update the SDC docker container:

 [cdo@sdc-vm ~]$ sudo su sdc
                [sudo] password for cdo: <type password for cdo user>
                [sdc@sdc-vm ~]$

Step 4

Upgrade the SDC:

sdc upgrade

Note

 

Recommended updates and maintenance on the SDC Virtual Machine

Ensure that you monitor and apply updates to the SDC VM running on Ubuntu Linux following your organisation's internal IT security and patch management policies. We highly recommend regularly reviewing and applying relevant security patches to ensure that the SDC VM remains secure and functions optimally within your network environment.

Using Multiple SDCs on a Single Security Cloud Control Tenant

Deploying more than one SDC for your tenant allows you to manage more devices without experiencing performance degradation. The number of devices a single SDC can manage depends on the features implemented on those devices and the size of their configuration files.

You can install an unlimited number of SDCs on a tenant. Each SDC could manage one network segment. These SDCs would connect the devices in those network segments to the same Security Cloud Control tenant. Without multiple SDCs, you would need to manage the devices in isolated network segments with different Security Cloud Control tenants.

  • The procedure for deploying a second or subsequent SDC is the same for deploying your first SDC.

  • The initial SDC for your tenant incorporates the name of your tenant and the number 1. Each additional SDC is numbered in order.

Security Cloud Control Devices that Use the Same SDC

Follow this procedure to identify all the devices that connect to Security Cloud Control using the same SDC:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

If there is any filter criteria already specified, click the clear button at the top of the Security Devices page to show all the devices and services you manage with Security Cloud Control.

Step 5

Click the filter button to expand the filter menu.

Step 6

In the Secure Device Connectors section of the filter, check the name of the SDC(s) you're interested in. The Security Devices page displays only the devices that connect to Security Cloud Control through the SDC you checked in the filter.

Step 7

(Optional) Check additional filters in the filter menu to refine your search further.

Step 8

(Optional) When you're done, click the clear button at the top of the Security Devices page to show all devices and services you manage with Security Cloud Control.

Open Source and Third-Party License in SDC

================================================================================

* amqplib *

amqplib copyright (c) 2013, 2014

Michael Bridgen <mikeb@squaremobius.net>

This package, "amqplib", is licensed under the MIT License. A copy maybe found in the file LICENSE-MIT in this directory, or downloaded from

http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

================================================================================

* async *

Copyright (c) 2010-2016 Caolan McMahon

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copyof this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to dealin the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rightsto use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sellcopies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software isfurnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included inall copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THEAUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHERLIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS INTHE SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* bluebird *

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2013-2015 Petka Antonov

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copyof this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to dealin the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rightsto use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sellcopies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software isfurnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included inall copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THEAUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHERLIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS INTHE SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* cheerio *

Copyright (c) 2012 Matt Mueller <mattmuelle@gmail.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copyof this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to dealin the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rightsto use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sellcopies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software isfurnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included inall copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THEAUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHERLIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS INTHE SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* command-line-args *

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Lloyd Brookes <75pound@gmail.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copyof this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to dealin the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rightsto use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sellcopies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software isfurnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in allcopies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THEAUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHERLIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS INTHE SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* ip *

This software is licensed under the MIT License.

Copyright Fedor Indutny, 2012.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copyof this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to dealin the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rightsto use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sellcopies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software isfurnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in allcopies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THEAUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHERLIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS INTHE SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* json-buffer *

Copyright (c) 2013 Dominic Tarr

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge,to any person obtaining a copy of this software andassociated documentation files (the "Software"), todeal in the Software without restriction, includingwithout limitation the rights to use, copy, modify,merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sellcopies of the Software, and to permit persons to whomthe Software is furnished to do so,subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission noticeshall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIESOF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FORANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* json-stable-stringify *

This software is released under the MIT license:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy ofthis software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal inthe Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights touse, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies ofthe Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in allcopies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESSFOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS ORCOPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHERIN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR INCONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* json-stringify-safe *

The ISC License

Copyright (c) Isaac Z. Schlueter and Contributors

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for anypurpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the abovecopyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIESWITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OFMERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FORANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGESWHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN ANACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF ORIN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* lodash *

Copyright JS Foundation and other contributors <https://js.foundation/>

Based on Underscore.js, copyright Jeremy Ashkenas,

DocumentCloud and Investigative Reporters & Editors<http://underscorejs.org/>

This software consists of voluntary contributions made by manyindividuals. For exact contribution history, see the revision historyavailable at https://github.com/lodash/lodash

The following license applies to all parts of this software except as

documented below:

====

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaininga copy of this software and associated documentation files (the"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, includingwithout limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and topermit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject tothe following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall beincluded in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OFMERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ANDNONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BELIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTIONOF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTIONWITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

====

Copyright and related rights for sample code are waived via CC0. Samplecode is defined as all source code displayed within the prose of thedocumentation.

CC0: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

====

Files located in the node_modules and vendor directories are externallymaintained libraries used by this software which have their ownlicenses; we recommend you read them, as their terms may differ from theterms above.

================================================================================

* log4js *

Copyright 2015 Gareth Jones (with contributions from many other people)

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions andlimitations under the License.

================================================================================

* mkdirp *

Copyright 2010 James Halliday (mail@substack.net)

This project is free software released under the MIT/X11 license:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copyof this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to dealin the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rightsto use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sellcopies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software isfurnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included inall copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THEAUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHERLIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS INTHE SOFTWARE.

================================================================================

* node-forge *

New BSD License (3-clause)

Copyright (c) 2010, Digital Bazaar, Inc.

All rights reserved.

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================================================================================

* request *

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================================================================================

* rimraf *

The ISC License

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================================================================================

* uuid *

Copyright (c) 2010-2012 Robert Kieffer

MIT License - http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php

================================================================================

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================================================================================

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Open Source Initiative OSI - The MIT License

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Copyright (c) 2011 Brian Cavalier

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaininga copy of this software and associated documentation files (the"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, includingwithout limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and topermit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject tothe following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall beincluded in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OFMERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ANDNONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BELIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTIONOF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTIONWITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.================================================================================

Devices, Software, and Hardware Supported by Security Cloud Control

Security Cloud Control is a cloud-based management solution enabling the management of security policies and device configurations across multiple security platforms. Security Cloud Control centrally manages policy and configuration across:

  • Cisco Secure Firewall ASA, both on-premises and virtual

  • Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD), both on-premises and virtual

  • Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, on-premises

  • Cisco Meraki MX

  • Cisco IOS devices

  • Cisco Umbrella

  • AWS Security Groups

The documentation describes devices, software, and hardware Security Cloud Control supports. It does not point out software and devices that Security Cloud Control does not support. If we do not explicitly claim support for a software version or a device type, then we do not support it.

Cisco Secure Firewall ASA

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) is a security device integrating firewall, VPN, and intrusion prevention capabilities. It protects networks from unauthorized access, cyber threats, and data breaches, offering robust security services in a single platform. Security Cloud Control supports the management of ASA devices, offering features to streamline configuration management and ensure regulatory compliance across the network infrastructure.

Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense

Firewall Threat Defense integrates traditional firewall features with advanced threat protection capabilities. It offers comprehensive security functions, including intrusion prevention, application control, URL filtering, advanced malware protection, and so on. An FTD can be deployed on ASA hardware appliances, and Cisco firewall hardware appliances, and in virtual environments. Managing threat defense devices is possible through various management interfaces, such as Cisco Firewall Management Center, Security Cloud Control, and Firewall Device Manager.

For more information on software and hardware compatibility, see the Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Compatibility Guide.

Firewall Device Manager is a web-based management interface explicitly designed for threat defense device management. It provides a simplified approach for configuring and monitoring threat defense devices, making it ideal for smaller-scale deployments or organizations preferring an intuitive interface.

FDM offers basic configuration capabilities for network settings, access control policies, NAT rules, VPN configuration, monitoring, and basic troubleshooting. Typically accessed through a web browser, FDM is directly available on the FTD device, eliminating the need for additional management servers or appliances.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

Security Cloud Control simplifies the management of on-premises Firewall Management Center by establishing a secure integration, discovering security devices, and enabling centralized policy management. Security policies such as firewall rules, VPN settings, and intrusion prevention policies can be efficiently managed and deployed across all devices under FMC.

Cisco Meraki MX

The Meraki MX appliance is an enterprise-grade security and SD-WAN next-generation firewall appliance, designed for decentralized deployments. Security Cloud Control supports managing layer 3 network rules on Meraki MX devices. When you onboard a Meraki device to Security Cloud Control, it communicates with the Meraki dashboard to manage that device. Security Cloud Control securely transfers configuration requests to the Meraki dashboard, which then applies the new configuration to the device. Key features of Security Cloud Control's support for Cisco Meraki MX include centralized policy management, backup and restore, monitoring and reporting, compliance checking, and automation capabilities.

Cisco IOS Devices

Cisco IOS can manage and control network functions, including routing, switching, and other networking protocols. It offers a set of features and commands to configure and maintain Cisco network devices, enabling efficient communication and management within networks of varying sizes and complexities.

Cisco Umbrella

Security Cloud Control manages Cisco Umbrella through integrations such as the Umbrella ASA Integration, which allows administrators to include their Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) within their Umbrella configuration using per-interface policies. This integration enables the ASA to redirect DNS queries to Umbrella, enhancing network security by leveraging Umbrella's DNS security, web filtering, and threat intelligence capabilities.

AWS Security Groups

Security Cloud Control offers a simplified management interface for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). Key features include monitoring AWS Site-to-Site VPN connections, tracking changes to AWS devices, and viewing AWS Site-to-Site VPN tunnels.

Secure Firewall Threat Defense Device Support Specifics

Secure Firewall Threat Defense is Cisco's next generation firewall. It can be installed on a variety of hardware and virtual platforms; see the Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Compatibility Guide.

Threat Defense with Secure Firewall Device Manager

You can add Security Cloud Control managment to threat defense Version 6.4+ with device manager. However, this option is only available upon request for those who already have device manager support enabled on their tenant. See:

Snort

Snort 3 is the default inspection engine for threat defense starting in threat defense Version 6.7 (with device manager) and Version 7.0 (with management center).


Important

If you are still using the Snort 2 inspection engine, switch to Snort 3 now for improved detection and performance. Snort 2 will be deprecated in a future release and will eventually prevent threat defense upgrade.

Browsers Supported in Security Cloud Control

Security Cloud Control supports the latest version of these browsers:

  • Google Chrome

  • Mozilla Firefox

Security Cloud Control Platform Maintenance Schedule

Security Cloud Control updates its platform every week with new features and quality improvements. Updates are made during a 3 hour period according to this schedule:

Day of the Week

Time of Day

(24-hour time, UTC)

Thursday

09:00 UTC - 12:00 UTC

During this maintenance period, you can still access your tenant and if you have a cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center or Multicloud Defense Controller, you can access those portals as well. Additionally, the devices you have onboarded to Security Cloud Control continue to enforce their security policies.


Note

  • We advise against using Security Cloud Control to deploy configuration changes on the devices it manages during maintenance periods.

  • If there is any issue that stops Security Cloud Control from communicating, we address that failure on all affected tenants as quickly as possible, even if it is outside the maintenance window.

Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center Maintenance Schedule

Customers who have a cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center deployed on their tenant are notified approximately 1 week before Security Cloud Control updates the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center environment. Super Admin and Admin users of the tenant are notified by email. Security Cloud Control also displays a banner on its home page notifying all users of upcoming updates.


Note

  • We advise you not to use cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center to deploy configuration changes on the devices it manages during maintenance periods.

  • If there is any issue that stops Security Cloud Control or cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center from communicating, that failure is addressed on all affected tenants as quickly as possible, even if it is outside the maintenance window.

Manage a Security Cloud Control Tenant

Security Cloud Control gives you the ability to customize certain aspects of your tenant, users, and notification preferences. Review the following settings available for customized configuration:

General Settings

See the following topics regarding general Security Cloud Control Settings:

General Preferences

Select the desired language and theme for the Security Cloud Control UI to display in. This selection only affects the user who makes this change.

Change the Security Cloud Control Web Interface Appearance

You can change the way the web interface appears.

Procedure

Step 1

From the drop-down list under your username, choose Preferences.

Step 2

In the General Preferences area, select a Theme:

  • Light

  • Dark

Tenant Settings

Enable Change Request Tracking

Enabling change request tracking affects all users of your tenant. To enable Change Request Tracking, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

Click the slider under Change Request Tracking.

Once confirmed, you see the Change Request toolbar appear in the lower left corner of the interface and the Change Request drop-down menu in the Change Log.

Prevent Cisco Support from Viewing your Tenant

Cisco support will associate its users with your tenant to resolve support tickets or proactively fix issues that affect more than one customer. However, if you prefer, you can prevent Cisco support from accessing your tenant by changing your account settings. To do so, slide the toggle button under Prevent Cisco support from viewing this tenant to show a green check mark.

To prevent Cisco support from viewing your tenant, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

Click the slider under Prevent Cisco support from viewing this tenant.

Enable the Option to Auto-accept Device Changes

Enabling auto-accept for device changes allows Security Cloud Control to automatically accept any changes made directly on the device. If you leave this option disabled, or disable it at a later time, you are required to review each device conflict before you can accept it.

To enable auto-accept for device changes, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

Click the slider under Enable the option to auto-accept device changes.

Default Conflict Detection Interval

This interval determines how often Security Cloud Control polls onboarded devices for changes. This selection affects all devices managed with this tenant, and can be changed at any time.


Note

This selection can be overridden via the Conflict Detection option available from the Security Devices page after you have selected one or multiple devices.

To configure this option and select a new interval for conflict detection, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

Click the drop-down menu for Default Conflict Detection Interval and select a time value.

Enable the Option to Schedule Automatic Deployments

Enabling the option to schedule automatic deployments allows you to schedule future deployments at a date and time when it is convenient. Once enabled, you can schedule a single or a recurring automatic deployment. To schedule an automatic deployment, see Schedule an Automatic Deployment.

Note that changes made on Security Cloud Control for a device are not automatically deployed to the device if it has pending changes of its own . If a device is not in the Synced state, such as Conflict Detected or Not Synced, scheduled deployments are not executed. The jobs page lists any instance where a scheduled deployment fails.

If Enable the Option to Schedule Automatic Deployments is turned off, all scheduled deployments are deleted.


Important

If you use Security Cloud Control to create more than one scheduled deployment for a device, the new deployment overwrites the existing deployment. If you create more than one scheduled deployment a device using API, you must delete the existing deployment prior to schedule the new deployment.

To enable the option to schedule automatic deployments, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

Click the slider under Enable the option to schedule automatic deployments.

Web Analytics

Web analytics provides anonymous product usage information to Cisco based on page hits. The information includes pages viewed, the time spent on a page, browser versions, product version, device hostname, and so forth. This information can help Cisco determine feature usage patterns and help Cisco improve the product. All usage data is anonymous and no sensitive data is transmitted.

Web analytics is enabled by default. To disable web analytics, or to enable in the future, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

Click the toggle under Web Analytics.

Share Event Data with Cisco Talos

When you enable the Enable event data sharing with Talos toggle button, data about malicious events present in your device is shared with Talos, Cisco's threat intelligence organization. Sharing event data helps Talos improve its threat detection and response capabilities, allowing it to provide more targeted security updates for your network and better protection against emerging threats.

For more information about Talos, see the Cisco Talos product page.

Sharing event data with Talos is enabled by default. To opt out, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left navigation bar, click Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

Click the Enable event data sharing with Talos toggle button to disable the setting.

Note

 

Sharing event data enables Talos to provide relevant security insights for your network. Disabling this setting might limit your ability to fully leverage Talos' capabilities, potentially impacting your network's defense against evolving threats.

Configure a Default Recurring Backup Schedule

To make backup schedules across your devices consistent, use this setting to configure your own default recurring backup schedule. When you schedule a backup for a particular device, you can use the default settings or change them. Changing the default recurring backup schedule does not change any existing scheduled backups or recurring backup schedules.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

In the Tenant Settings area, find the Default Recurring Backup Schedule section, and in Frequency field select daily, weekly, or monthly backup.

Step 3

Select the time of day, in 24-hour time, you want the backup to occur. Note that you schedule the time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

  • For weekly backups: Check the days of the week on which you want the backup to occur.

  • For monthly backups: Click in the Days of Month field and add whichever days of the month you want to the schedule the backup. Note: If you enter day 31 but a month doesn't have 31 days in it, the backup will not take place. Give the scheduled backup time a name and a description.

Step 4

Click Save.

See Configure a Recurring Backup Schedule for a Single FTD for additional information.

Tenant ID

Your tenant ID identifies your tenant. This information will be helpful if you need to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Tenant Name

Your tenant name also identifies your tenant. Note that the tenant name is not the organization name. This information will be helpful if you need to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Security Cloud Control Platform Navigator

The platform navigator is a nine-block applications cross-launcher () that appears on the top right corner of Security Cloud Control. You can readily cross-launch to the following Cisco networking and security applications:

Networking Applications

  • Catalyst—Cisco Catalyst products include a wide variety of network switches, wireless controllers, wireless access points, and edge platforms and routers, supporting enterprise-class business needs to heavy-duty and rugged networking environments.

  • Intersight—Cisco Intersight is a cloud operations platform that consists of optional, modular capabilities of advanced infrastructure, workload optimization, and Kubernetes services. Cisco Intersight infrastructure services include the deployment, monitoring, management, and support of your physical and virtual infrastructure. It supports Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) and Cisco HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), and other third-party Intersight-connected targets.

  • IoT Operations Dashboard—Cisco IoT Operations Dashboard is a cloud-based IoT services platform that empowers operations teams to securely connect, maintain, and gain insights from industrial networking devices and connected industrial assets at massive scale. With one comprehensive view of all their connected industrial assets, operation teams can uncover valuable insights that help them streamline operations and drive business continuity.

  • Meraki—Cisco Meraki is an IT and IoT cloud-managed platform that provides a centralized management platform for Cisco Meraki devices.

  • Spaces—Cisco Spaces is a cloud-based location services platform through which organizations can gain insights into how people and things move throughout their physical spaces. With these insights, they can deliver contextual engagements that are valuable and relevant. Besides looking at where people go, organizations can also drive operational efficiencies by monitoring the location, movement, and utilization of assets.

  • ThousandEyes—Cisco ThousandEyes is a cloud service suite that helps monitor and measure the availability and performance of web applications, services, and networks. It provides end-to-end visibility from any user to any application over any network, enabling enterprises to swiftly get to the source of issues, resolve them faster, and manage performance effectively.

  • Workflows—Cisco Workflows is a cloud-hosted automation application that is part of the larger Cisco Networking Cloud vision. Workflows provides an entitlement to cross-domain automation capabilities to current Cisco customers by streamlining repetitive and error-prone tasks across both Cisco and third-party applications through custom and premade automation templates and a plethora of adapter options, both provided by Cisco and build your own, to reach targets in the cloud or on-premises.

Security Applications

  • Duo Security—Cisco Duo is a user-centric zero-trust security platform with two-factor authentication to protect access to sensitive data for all users, devices, and applications. It offers features such as adaptive policies, single sign-on (SSO), and advanced endpoint visibility, making it a comprehensive solution for securing remote access and maintaining business continuity.

  • Secure Access—Cisco Secure Access simplifies IT operations through a single, cloud-managed console, unified client, centralized policy creation, and aggregated reporting. Extensive security capabilities converged in one solution (ZTNA, SWG, CASB, FWaaS, DNS security, RBI and more) mitigate security risk by applying zero trust principles and enforcing granular security policies. Market leading Talos threat intelligence fuels unmatched threat blocking to mitigate risk and speed investigations.

  • Secure Endpoint—Cisco Secure Endpoint, formerly known as Cisco AMP for Endpoints, is a cloud-managed endpoint security solution designed to prevent breaches and rapidly detect, contain, and remediate threats. It is an instant check of your files against a cloud-based scanner with advanced tracking features that enable security analysts to determine and isolate initial sources of outbreaks, and it provides a retrospective quarantine of files that are discovered to be malicious.

  • Cisco Security Provisioning and Administration—Cisco Security Provisioning and Administration is a web application that provides centralized management of Cisco Secure product instances, user identity, and user access management across Cisco Security Cloud. Security Cloud Control administrators can create new Security Cloud enterprises, manage users in an enterprise, claim domains, and integrate their organization’s SSO identity provider, among other tasks.

  • XDR—Cisco Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is a cloud-based solution designed to simplify security operations and empower security teams to detect, prioritize, and respond to sophisticated threats. By integrating both Cisco and third-party security solutions into a unified platform, Cisco XDR offers a comprehensive approach to threat management. Integrated with the threat intelligence provided by Talos, Cisco XDR enriches incident data with additional context and asset insights, reducing false positives and enhancing overall threat detection, response, and forensic capabilities.

View Security Cloud Control Notifications

Click the notifications icon to view the most recent alerts that have occurred or affected the devices you have onboarded to your tenant. The selections that you make in the Notification Settings page impact the types of notifications displayed in Security Cloud Control. Continue reading for more information.

This drop-down page is grouped into three tabs: Overview, All, and Dismissed.

Overview Tab

The Overview tab displays a combination of the most recent high-prioroty alerts and events that you are subscribed to. High prioroty events are the following:

  • Deployment Failed

  • Backup Failed

  • Upgrade Failed

  • Migrate FTD to cdFMC Failed

  • Device went offline

  • Device HA state changed

  • Device certificates expiring

You can configure which alerts you want to receive by clicking the Notification Settings in the Notifications window or by selecting UserID > User Preferences page. The User ID button in the upper right corner of the dashboard.

All Tab

The All tab displays all notifications regardless of their prioroty ranking, including email subscription notifications and all of the items listed as high priority.

Dismissed Tab

The Dismissed tab displays notifications you have dismissed. You can dsimiss individual notifications by clicking the "x" of the notification.

Opting to Dismiss notifications from the drop-down menu dismisses notifications from both the "Overview" and "All" tabs. They will remain in the Dismiss tab for 30 days, after which they will be removed from Security Cloud Control.

Search Notifications

When viewing the notifications drop-down window, for any of the tabs mentioned above, you can use the search bar at the top of the drop-down to query for key words or alerts.

User Notification Preferences

Notifications are generated by Security Cloud Control whenever a device associated with your tenant experiences a specific event, such as whenever a device associated with your tenant experiences a specific action, a device certificate is expiring or has expired, or a background log search starts, finishes or fails. The following notifications are enabled by default and displayed for every user that is affiliated with the tenant regardless of the user role. You can modify your personal notification preference to only show alerts you are interested in. Note that these preference are yours only and do not affect other users associated with the tenant.


Note

Changes made to the notifications listed below are automatically updated in real time and do not require deployment.

View your personal preferences in the Username ID > Preferences > Notification Preferences page. Your Username ID is always located in the upper right corner of Security Cloud Control across all pages. From this page you can configure the following "Notify Me in Security Cloud Control When" alerts.

Send Alerts for Device Workflows

  • Deployments - This action does not include integration instances for SSH or IOS devices.

  • Backups - This action is only applicable for FDM-managed devices.

  • Upgrades - This action is only applicable for ASA and FDM-managed devices.

  • Migrate threat defense to cloud - This action is applicable when changing the threat defense

    device manager from Management Center to Security Cloud Control.

Send Alerts for Device Events

  • Went offline - This action applies to all devices associated with your tenant.

  • Back online - This action applies to all the devices associated with your tenant.

  • Conflict detected - This action applies to all the devices associated with your tenant.

  • HA state changed - This action indicates the device within an HA or failover pair, the current state, and the state it changed from. This action applies to all HA and failover configurations associated with your tenant.

  • Site-to-Site session disconnected - This action applies to all site-to-site VPN configurations configured in your tenant.

Send Alerts for Background Log Search

  • Search started - Receive a notification when a search starts. This applies to both immediate and scheduled searches.

  • Search completed - Receive a notification when a search ends. This applies to both immediate and scheduled searches.

  • Search failed - Receive a notification when a search fails. This applies to both immediate and scheduled searches. Check the parameters or the query and try again.

Opt Out of Notification Preferences

By default, all events are enabled and generate notifications. To opt out of notifications generated by the events mentioned above, you must manually uncheck the notification types. Note that you must click Save to confirm any changes.

Email Alerts

Enable the Email Alerts toggle to receive any of the alerts mentioned above. Check which alerts you would like to receive by email and click the Save button. By default, the Use Security Cloud Control notification settings above is checked. This means that you will receive email alerts on all of the same notifications and events as you have checked in the "Send Alerts When..." sections mentioned on this page.

If you only want some of the events or alerts mentioned above forwarded to your email, uncheck the Use Security Cloud Control notification settings above". This action generates an additional location to modify and personalize the available alerts. This may help reduce redundancy.

Tenant Notification Settings

From the navigation bar to the left, click Settings > Notification Settings.

All users associated with your tenant will automatically receive these alerts. In addition, some or all of these alerts can be forwarded to specific emails or services.


Note

You must have an Super Admin user role to change these settings. See User Roles for more information.

Email Subscribers

Add or modify the emails that receive alerts from your Security Cloud Control tenant. See Enable Email Subscribers for more information.

Service Integrations

Enable Incoming Webhooks on your messaging app and receive Security Cloud Control notifications directly to your app dashboard. See Enable Service Inegrations for Security Cloud Control Notifications for more information.

Enable Email Subscribers

An email notification from Security Cloud Control denotes the type of action and the affected devices. For further information about the current state of your devices and the content of the action, we recommend logging into Security Cloud Control and examining the Change Log of the affected devices.


Warning

Be sure to enter the correct email if you are adding a mailer. Security Cloud Control does not check email addresses against known users associated with your tenant.

Add an Email Subscription
Before you begin

You must be an Admin to view the email subscription list, and a SuperAdmin to add, remove, or edit email subscriptions.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > Notification Settings.

Step 2

Click the + icon in the upper right corner of the page.

Step 3

Enter a valid email address in the text field.

Step 4

Check and uncheck the appropriate checkboxes for events and alerts you want the subscriber to notified about.

Step 5

Click Save. At any point, click Cancel to creating the new email subscription for the tenant.

Edit Email Subscriptions
Before you begin

You must be an Admin to view the email subscription list, and a SuperAdmin to add, remove, or edit email subscriptions.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > Notification Settings.

Step 2

Locate the email addres you want to enable to edit for email subscriptions.

Step 3

Click the Edit icon.

Step 4

Edit the following attributes:

  • Email address

  • Send Alerts When.… Device Workflows

  • Send Alerts When... Device Events

  • Send Alerts When... Background Log Search

Step 5

Click Ok. At any point, click Cancel to negate any changes made to the email subscription.

Delete an Email Subscription

Use the following procedure to delete a mailer from the email subscription list.:

Before you begin

You must be an Admin to view the email subscription list, and a SuperAdmin to add, remove, or edit email subscriptions.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > Notification Settings.

Step 2

Locate the user you want to remove from email subscriptions for the tenant.

Step 3

Click the Remove icon for the user you want to remove.

Step 4

Confirm you want to remove the user from the subscription list. Note that this does not affect the user functionality in any way.

Enable Service Integrations for Security Cloud Control Notifications

Enable service integration to forward Security Cloud Control notifications through a specified messaging application or service. You need to generate a webhook URL from your messaging application and point Security Cloud Control to that webhook in Security Cloud Control's Notification Settings page to receive notifications.

Security Cloud Control natively supports Cisco Webex and Slack as service integrations. Messages sent to these services are specially formatted for channels and automated bots.


Note

You must check the appropriate boxes for the notifications you want to receive per webhook.

Incoming Webhooks for Webex Teams
Before you begin

Security Cloud Control notifications appear in a designated workspace or as an automated bot in a private message. You must have the following before completing this procedure:

  • A Webex account.

  • A Security Cloud Control account and tenant.

Use the following procedure to allow incoming webhooks for Webex Teams:

Procedure

Step 1

Open the Webex apphub.

Step 2

Click Connect at the top of the page.

Step 3

Scroll to the bottom of the page and configure the following:

  • Webhook name - Provide a name to identify the messages provided by this application.

  • Select a space - Use the drop-down menu to choose a Webex Space. The Space must already exist in Webex team and you must have access to this space. If a space does not exist, you can create a new space in Webex Teams and refresh the application's configuration page to display the new space.

Note

 

If a Webex incoming webhook has been configured in the past and you are re-enabling it, the previous webhooks are preserved at the bottom of this page. You can delete previous webhooks if they are no longer needed or if the Webex space no longer eists.

Step 4

Select Add. The Webex Space you chose will receive a notification that the application is added.

Step 5

Copy the Webhook URL.

Step 6

Log into Security Cloud Control.

Step 7

In the left pane, click Administration > Notification Settings.

Step 8

Examine and confirm the notifications that are checked are correct. If they are not, we strongly recommend modifiying the notification selection before you connect to a service integration.

Step 9

Scroll to Service Integrations.

Step 10

Click the blue plus button.

Step 11

Enter a Name. This name appears in Security Cloud Control as a configured service integration. It does not appear in any events forwarded to the configured service.

Step 12

Expand the drop-down menu and select Webex as the Service Type.

Step 13

Paste the webhook URL that you generated from the service.

Step 14

Click OK.

Incoming Webhooks for Slack

Security Cloud Control notifications appear in a designated channel or as an automated bot in a private message. For more information on how Slack handles incoming webhooks, see Slack Apps for more information.

Use the following procedure to allow incoming webhooks for Slack:

Procedure

Step 1

Log into your Slack account.

Step 2

In the panel to the left, scroll to the bottom and select Add Apps.

Step 3

Search application directory for Incoming Webhooks and locate the app. Select Add.

Step 4

If you are not the admin of your Slack workspace, you must send a request to the admin of your org and wait for the app to be added to your account. Select Request Configuration. Enter an optional message and select Submit Request.

Step 5

Once the Incoming Webhooks app is enabled for your workspace, refresh the Slack settings page and select Add New Webhook to Workspace.

Step 6

​​​​​Use the drop-down menu to select the Slack channel you want the Security Cloud Control notifications to appear in. Select Authorize. If you navigate away from this page while waiting for the request to get enabled, simply log into Slack and select the workspace name in the upper left corner. From the drop-down menu, select Customize Workspace and select Configure Apps. Navigate to Manage > Custom Integrations. Select Incoming Webhooks to open app's landing page and then select Configurationfrom the tabs. This lists all the users within your workspace that has this app enabled. You can only see and edit your account's configuration. Select your workspace name to edit the configuration and move forward.

Step 7

The Slack settings page redirects you to the configuration page for the app. Locate and copy the webhook URL.

Step 8

Log into Security Cloud Control.

Step 9

In the left pane, click Administration > Notification Settings.

Step 10

Examine and confirm the notifications that are checked are correct. If they are not, we strongly recommend modifiying the notification selection before you connect to a service integration.

Step 11

Scroll to Service Integrations.

Step 12

Click the blue plus button.

Step 13

Enter a Name. This name appears in Security Cloud Control as a configured service integration. It does not appear in any events forwarded to the configured service.

Step 14

Expand the drop-down menu and select Slack as the Service Type.

Step 15

Paste the webhook URL that you generated from the service.

Step 16

Click OK.
Incoming Webhooks for a Custom Integration
Before you begin

Security Cloud Control does not format messages for custom integration. If you opt to integrate a custom service or application, Security Cloud Control sends a JSON message.

Refer to the service's documentation on how to enable incoming webhooks and generate a webhook URL. Once you have a webhook URL, use the procedure below to enable webhooks:

Procedure

Step 1

Generate and copy the webhook URL from the custom service or application of your choice.

Step 2

Log into Security Cloud Control.

Step 3

In the left pane, click Administration > Notification Settings.

Step 4

Examine and confirm the notifications that are checked are correct. If they are not, we strongly recommend modifiying the notification selection before you connect to a service integration.

Step 5

Scroll to Service Integrations.

Step 6

Click the blue plus button.

Step 7

Enter a Name. This name appears in Security Cloud Control as a configured service integration. It does not appear in any events forwarded to the configured service.

Step 8

Expand the drop-down menu and select Custom as the Service Type.

Step 9

Paste the webhook URL that you generated from the service.

Step 10

Click OK.

Logging Settings

View your monthly event logging limit and how many days are left until the limit resets. Note that stored logging represents the compressed event data that the Cisco cloud received.

Click View Historical Usage to see all of the logging your tenant has received over the past 12 months.

There are also links you can use to request additional storage.

Integrate Your SAML Single Sign-On with Security Cloud Control

Security Cloud Control uses Cisco Secure Sign-On as its SAML single sign-on identity provider (IdP) and Duo Security for multifactor authentication (MFA). This is Security Cloud Control's preferred authentication method.

If, however, customers want to integrate their own SAML single sign-on IdP solution with Security Cloud Control, they can as long as their IdP supports SAML 2.0 and identity provider-initiated workflow.

To integrate your own or third-party identity provider (IdP) with Cisco Security Cloud Sign On, see Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Identity Provider Integration Guide.

If you need more support to integrate your own SAML solution with Security Cloud Control, contact support and create a case.


Attention

When you open a case, ensure that you choose Manually Select A Technology and select SecureX - Sign-on and Administration for your request to reach the right team.

Renew SSO Certificate

Your Identity Provider (IdP) is usually integrated with SecureX SSO. Open a Cisco TAC case and provide the metadata.xml file. For more information, see Cisco SecureX Sign-On Third-Party Identity Provider Integration Guide.


Attention

When you open a case, ensure that you choose Manually Select A Technology and select SecureX - Sign-on and Administration for your request to reach the right team.

(legacy only) If your Identity Provider (IdP) integration is directly with Security Cloud Control, open a support ticket with Security Cloud Control TAC and provide the metadata.xml file.

API Tokens

Developers use Security Cloud Control API tokens when making Security Cloud Control REST API calls. The API token must be inserted in the REST API authorization header for a call to succeed. API tokens are "long-lived" access tokens which do not expire; however, you can renew and revoke them.

You can generate API tokens from within Security Cloud Control. These tokens are only visible immediately after they're generated and for as long as the General Settings page is open. If you open a different page in Security Cloud Control and return to the General Settings page, the token is no longer visible, although it is clear that a token has been issued.

Individual users can create their own tokens for a particular tenant. One user cannot generate a token on behalf of another. Tokens are specific to an account-tenant pair and cannot be used for other user-tenant combinations.

API Token Format and Claims

The API token is a JSON Web Token (JWT). To learn more about the JWT token format, read the Introduction to JSON Web Tokens.

The Security Cloud Control API token provides the following set of claims:

  • id - user/device uid

  • parentId - tenant uid

  • ver - the version of the public key (initial version is 0, for example, cdo_jwt_sig_pub_key.0)

  • subscriptions - Security Services Exchange subscriptions (optional)

  • client_id - "api-client"

  • jti - token id

Token Management

Generate an API Token
Procedure

Step 1

From the drop-down list under your username, click Preferences > General Preferences.

Step 2

In My Tokens, click Generate API Token.

Step 3

Save the token in a secure location in accordance with your enterprise's best practices for maintaining sensitive data.

Renew an API Token

The API token does not expire. However, users may choose to renew their API token if the token is lost, compromised, or to conform to their enterprise's security guidelines.

Procedure

Step 1

From the drop-down list under your username, click Preferences > General Preferences.

Step 2

In My Tokens, click Renew. Security Cloud Control generates a new token.

Step 3

Save the new token in a secure location in accordance with your enterprise's best practices for maintaining sensitive data.

Revoke an API Token
Procedure

Step 1

From the drop-down list under your username, click Preferences > General Preferences.

Step 2

In My Tokens, click Revoke. Security Cloud Control revokes the token.

Relationship Between the Identity Provider Accounts and Security Cloud Control User Records

To log in to Security Cloud Control, a customer needs an account with a SAML 2.0-compliant identity provider (IdP), a multi-factor authentication provider, and a user record in Security Cloud Control. The IdP account contains the user's credentials and the IdP authenticates the user based on those credentials. Mutli-factor authentication provides an added layer of identity security. The Security Cloud Control user record primarily contains the username, the Security Cloud Control tenant with which they are associated, and the user's role. When a user logs in, Security Cloud Control tries to map the IdP's user ID to an existing user record on a tenant in Security Cloud Control. When Security Cloud Control finds a match, the user is logged in to that tenant.

Unless your enterprise has its own single sign-on identity provider, your identity provider is Cisco Security Cloud Sign On. Cisco Security Cloud Sign On uses Duo for mutli-factor authentication. Customers can integrate their own IdP with Security Cloud Control if they choose.

Login Workflow

This is a simplified description of how the IdP account interacts with the Security Cloud Control user record to log in a Security Cloud Control user:

Procedure

Step 1

The user requests access to Security Cloud Control by logging in to a SAML 2.0-compliant identity provider (IdP) such as Cisco Security Cloud Sign On (https://sign-on.security.cisco.com) for authentication.

Step 2

The IdP issues a SAML assertion that the user is authentic, and a portal displays the applications the user can access. One of the tiles represents Security Cloud Control.

Step 3

Security Cloud Control validates the SAML assertion, extracts the username and attempts to find a user record among its tenants that corresponding to that username.

  • If the user has a user record on a single tenant on Security Cloud Control, Security Cloud Control grants the user access to the tenant and the user's role determines the actions they can take.

  • If the user has a user record on more than one tenant, Security Cloud Control presents the authenticated user with a list of tenants they can choose from. The user picks a tenant and is allowed to access the tenant. The user's role on that specific tenant determines the actions they can take.

  • If Security Cloud Control does not have a mapping for the authenticated user to a user record on a tenant, Security Cloud Control displays a landing page giving users the opportunity to learn more about Security Cloud Control or request a free trial.

Creating a user record in Security Cloud Control does not create an account in the IdP and creating an account in the IdP does not create a user record in Security Cloud Control.

Similarly, deleting an account on the IdP does not mean you have deleted the user record from Security Cloud Control; although, without the IdP account, there is no way to authenticate a user to Security Cloud Control. Deleting the Security Cloud Control user record does not mean you have deleted the IdP account; although, without the Security Cloud Control user record, there will be no way for an authenticated user to access a Security Cloud Control tenant.

Implications of this Architecture

Customers Who Use Cisco Security Cloud Sign On

For customers who use Security Cloud Control's Cisco Security Cloud Sign On identity provider, a Super Admin can create a user record in Security Cloud Control and a user can self-register themselves with Security Cloud Control. If the two usernames match, and the user is properly authenticated, the user can log in to Security Cloud Control.

Should the Super Admin ever need to prevent a user from accessing Security Cloud Control, they can simply delete the Security Cloud Control user's user record. The Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account will still exist and if the Super Admin ever wants to restore the user, they can by creating a new Security Cloud Control user record with the same username as the one used for Cisco Security Cloud Sign On.

Should a customer ever run into a problem with Security Cloud Control that requires a call to our Technical Assistance Center (TAC), the customer could create a user record for the TAC engineer so they could investigate the tenant and report back to the customer with information and suggestions.

Customers Who Have Their Own Identity Provider

For customers who have their own identity provider, they control both the identity provider accounts and the Security Cloud Control tenants. These customers can create and manage identity provider accounts and user records in Security Cloud Control.

Should they ever need to prevent a user from accessing Security Cloud Control, they can delete the IdP account, the Security Cloud Control user record, or both.

If they ever need help from Cisco TAC, they can create both the identity provider account and a Security Cloud Control user record, with a read-only role, for their TAC engineer. The TAC engineer would then be able to access the customer's Security Cloud Control tenant, investigate, and report back the customer with information and suggestions.

Cisco Managed Service Providers

If Cisco Managed Service Providers (MSPs) use Security Cloud Control's Cisco Security Cloud Sign On IdP, they can self-register for Cisco Security Cloud Sign On and their customers can create a user record for them in Security Cloud Control so that the MSP can manage the customer's tenant. Of course, the customer has full control to delete the MSP's record when they choose to.

Manage Multi-Tenant Portal

Security Cloud Control Multi-Tenant Portal view retrieves and displays information from all devices across multiple tenants. This multi-tenant portal shows the device status, software versions running on them, and many more.

Before you begin

  • The multi-tenant portal is only available if the feature is enabled on your tenant. To enable multi-tenant portal for your tenant, open a support ticket with Cisco TAC.

  • Once the support ticket is resolved and the portal is created, users with the Super Admin role on the portal have the ability to add tenants to it.

  • We recommend you to clear cache and cookies from your web browser to avoid certain browser-related issues that may occur.

Multi-Tenant Portal

The portal provides the following menus:

  • Security Devices

    • Displays all the devices onboarded to the tenants added to the portal. Use the Search and Filter options to search for devices.

    • You can click a device to view details such as Model, Onboarding Method, Firewall Mode, Software Version, and so on.

    • You can manage a device only from the Security Cloud Control tenant that manages it. The multi-tenant portal provides the Manage devices link that directs you to the Security Cloud Control tenant page.

      You can see this link if you have an account on that tenant, and the tenant is in the same region as the portal. If you don't have permission to access the tenant, you may not see the Manage devices link. Contact the Super Admin in your organization for permission.

    • You can export the details to a comma-separated value (.csv) file. This information helps you analyze the devices or send it to someone who doesn't have access. Every time you export the data, Security Cloud Control creates a new .csv file, where the file created has a date and time in its name.

    • The column picker allows you to select or clear the device properties to view in the table. If you customize the table, Security Cloud Control remembers your selection the next time you sign in.
      Figure 3. Security Devices

    Note

    If the tenant managing the device is in a different region, you see the link to sign in to Security Cloud Control in that region. If you don't have access to Security Cloud Control in that region or the tenant in that region, you will not be able to manage the device.

  • Tenants

    • Displays all the tenants added to the portal.

    • Only users with Super Admin roles can add tenants to the portal.

    • You can search by tenant name and export the tenants' information to a comma-separated value (.csv) file.

  • Settings

    • In General Settings, you can view the Portal Settings details.

    • In User Management, you can view a list of all Users, Active Directory Groups, and Audit Logs. For more information, see User Management.


Note

If you are a multitenant portal Super Admin, you can use API endpoints to:

Add a Tenant to a Multi-Tenant Portal

A user with the Super Admin role can add tenants to the portal. You can add tenants across multiple regions. For example, you can add a tenant from the Europe region into the US region and conversely.


Important

We recommend that you create an API-Only user for your tenant and generate an API token for authenticating to Security Cloud Control.


Note

If you want to add multiple tenants to the portal, generate API tokens from each tenant and paste them into a text file. You can then easily add the tenants one after another to the portal without switching to the tenant every time to generate a token.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Tenants.

Step 2

Click Add Tenant.

Step 3

To add a new tenant, click Next.

Note

 

  1. To import existing tenants, check the Would you like to import existing tenant? checkbox.

  2. Add existing tenants from Security Cloud Control by pasting multiple API tokens separated by commas.

  3. Click Import.

Step 4

Under Tenant Details, enter the Display Name and Tenant Name. Click Next.

Step 5

Under Provisioning,

  • Enable the Enable Multicloud Defense toggle to provision multicloud defense for your tenant.

  • Enable the Enable Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center toggle to provision cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center for your tenant.

  • Click Next.

Step 6

Under Define Users, either add users manually one by one, or download the CSV template, fill in the necessary details, and upload the file. Added users are displayed in the User list section.

Step 7

Click Create Tenant.

Tenant creation is complete, and provisioning may take a few minutes.

Delete a Tenant from a Multi-Tenant Portal

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Tenants.

Step 2

Click the corresponding delete icon appearing on the right to remove the tenant that you want.

Step 3

Click Remove. Note that the associated devices are also removed from the portal.

Manage-Tenant Portal Settings

Security Cloud Control enables to customize certain aspects of your Multi-Tenant Portal and individual user accounts on the Settings page. Access the settings page by clicking Settings in the left pane.

Settings

General Settings

Web analytics provides anonymous product usage information to Cisco based on page hits. The information includes pages viewed, the time spent on a page, browser versions, product version, device hostname, and so forth. This information can help Cisco determine feature usage patterns and help Cisco improve the product. All usage data is anonymous, and no sensitive data is transmitted.

Web analytics is enabled by default. To disable web analytics or to enable in the future, follow this procedure:

  1. In the left pane, click Administration > General Settings.

  2. Click the slider under Web Analytics.

User Management

You can see all the user records associated with the Mult-Tenant Portal on the User Management screen. You can add, edit, or delete a user account. For more information, see User Management.

Switch Tenant

If you have more than one portal tenants, you can switch between different portal or tenants without signing out from Security Cloud Control.

Procedure

Step 1

On the multi-tenant portal, click your tenant menu appearing on the top right corner.

Step 2

Click Switch tenant.

Step 3

Choose the portal or tenant that you want to view.

The Cisco Success Network

Cisco Success Network is a user-enabled cloud service. When you enable Cisco Success Network, a secure connection is established between the device and the Cisco cloud to stream usage information and statistics. Streaming telemetry provides a mechanism to select data of interest from the device and to transmit it in a structured format to remote management stations for the following benefits:

  • To inform you of available unused features that can improve the effectiveness of the product in your network.

  • To inform you of additional technical support services and monitoring that might be available for your product.

  • To help Cisco improve our products.

The device establishes and maintains the secure connection at all times, and allows you to enroll in the Cisco Success Network. After you have registered the device, you can change the Cisco Success Network setting.


Note

  • For threat defense high availability pairs, the selection of the active device overrides the Cisco Success Network setting on the standby device.

  • Security Cloud Control does not manage the Cisco Success Network settings. The settings managed through, and telemetry information is provided by, the Firewall Device Manager user interface.

Enable or Disable the Cisco Success Network

During initial system setup, you are prompted to register the device with Cisco Smart Software Manager. If you instead elected to use the 90-day evaluation license, you must register the device before the end of the evaluation period. To enroll the device, either register the device with Cisco Smart Software Manager (on the Smart Licensing page) or enroll with Security Cloud Control by entering a registration key.

When you register the device, your virtual account allocates the license to the device. Registering the device also registers any optional licenses that you have enabled.

You can turn off this connection at any time by disabling Cisco Success Network, although you can only disable this option through the Firewall Device Manager UI. Disabling will disconnect the device from the cloud. Disconnection does not impact the receipt of updates or the operation of the Smart Licensing capabilities, which continue to operate normally. See the Connecting to the Cisco Success Network section of the System Administration chapter of the Firepower Device Manager configuration Guide, Version 6.4.0 or later for more information.

Manage Users in Security Cloud Control

Before you create or edit a user record in Security Cloud Control, read Relationship Between Identity Provider Accounts and Security Cloud Control User Records to learn how the identity provider (IdP) account and the user record interact. Security Cloud Control users need a record and a corresponding IdP account so they can be authenticated and access the Security Cloud Control tenant.

Unless your enterprise has its own IdP, Cisco Secure Sign-On is the identity provider for all Security Cloud Control tenants. The rest of this article assumes you are using Cisco Secure Sign-On as your identity provider.

You can see all the user records associated with your tenant on the User Management screen. This includes any Cisco support engineer who is temporarily associated with your account to resolve a support ticket.

View the User Records Associated with your Tenant

Procedure

In the left pane, Administration > User Management.

Note

 

To prevent Cisco support from accessing your tenant, enable the Prevent Cisco support from viewing this tenant toggle in the General Settings page.

Active Directory Groups in User Management

For tenants that have a high turnover for large quantities of users, you can map Security Cloud Control to your Active Directory (AD) groups instead of adding individual users to Security Cloud Control for an easier way to manage your user lists and user roles. Any user changes, such as a new user addition or removing existing users, can now be done in Active Directory and no longer need to be done in Security Cloud Control.

You must have a SuperAdmin user role to add, edit, or delete an Active Directory group from the User Management page. See User Roles for more information.

In the left pane, choose Settings > User Management

Active Directory Groups

  • In the left pane, click Administration > User Management > Active Directory Groups.

  • This page displays the role of the Active Directory group as assigned in your Active Directory manager.

  • Users within an Active Directory group are not listed individually in either the Active Directory Groups tab or the Users tab.

Audit Logs

Audit Logs in Security Cloud Control record user-related and system-level actions. Key events that are captured by the Audit Logs include:

  • User Login: Records every instance of user authentication.

  • Tenant Association and Disassociation: Tracks user associations with, or disassociations from, tenants.

  • User Role Change: Records any modifications to user roles.

  • Active Directory Groups: Records any addition, deletion, and role changes within AD groups.

Procedure:

  1. In the left pane, click Administration > User Management.

  2. Click the Audit Logs tab. A list of events and activities in the current tenant you are logged into is displayed.

  3. Use the Search text box to find logs for a specific user.

  4. Click the filter icon to refine your search results and view specific events. You can filter the logs based on the Time Range and Event Action.

  5. Click Export to download the details in CSV format.

Figure 4. Audit Logs

Multi-role Users

As an extension along the IAM capabilities in Security Cloud Control, it is now possible for a user to have multiple roles.

A user can be part of multiple groups in Active Directory, and those groups can be defined in Security Cloud Control with different Security Cloud Control roles. The final permissions that a user gets on login are a combination of the roles of all the Active Directory groups that are defined in Security Cloud Control that the user is part of. For instance, if a user is part of two Active Directory groups and both the groups are added in Security Cloud Control with two different roles such as edit-only and deploy-only, the user would have both edit-only and deploy-only permissions. This applies to any number of groups and roles.

Active Directory group mappings must only be defined one time in Security Cloud Control, and managing access and permissions for users can after be achieved exclusively in Active Directory by adding, removing, or moving users between different groups.


Note

If a user is both an individual user and part of an Active Directory group on the same tenant, the user role of the individual user overrides the user role of the Active Directory group.

API Endpoints for Active Directory Groups

If you are a super admin, you can use API endpoints to do the following:

The aforementioned links point to the corresponding sections of the Cisco DevNet website.

Prerequisites for Adding an Active Directory Group to Security Cloud Control

Before adding an Active Directory group mapping to Security Cloud Control as a form of user management, you must have your Active Directory that is integrated with Security Cloud Sign On. If your Active Directory Identity Provider (IdP) is not already integrated, see identity provider integration guide to integrate a custom Active Directory IdP integration with the following information:

  • Your Security Cloud Control tenant name and region

  • Domain to define custom routing for (for example: @cisco.com, @myenterprise.com)

  • Certificate and federation metadata in the XML format

After your Active Directory integration is complete, add the following custom SAML claims in your Active Directory. The SAML claims and attributes are required, for you to be able to successfully sign-in to your Security Cloud Control tenant after your Active Directory integration is done. These values are case sensitive:

  • SamlADUserGroupIds - This attribute describes all group associations that a user has on Active Directory. For example, in Azure select + Add a group claim as seen in the screenshot below:

    Figure 5. Custom Claims Defined in Active Directory

  • SamlSourceIdpIssuer - This attribute uniquely identifies an Active Directory instance. For example, in Azure select + Add a group claim and scroll to locate the Azure Active Directory Identifier as seen in the screenshot below:

    Figure 6. Locate the Azure Active Directory Identifier

Add an Active Directory Group for User Management

You must have a SuperAdmin user role to add, edit, or delete an Active Directory group.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > User Management.

Step 3

Click the Active Directory Groups tab.

Step 4

Click the add Active Directory group () button.

Step 5

Provide the following information:

  • Group Name: Enter a unique name. This name does not have to match the group name in your Active Directory. Security Cloud Control does not support special characters for this field.

  • Group Identifier: Manually enter the Group Identifier from your Active Directory. The value of the group identifier should be the same as the group identifier in the custom claim definition. It could be any value that corresponds to the unique identity of the group, for example, my-favourite-group, 12345, and so forth.

  • AD Issuer: Manually enter the Active Directory Issuer value from your Active Directory.

  • Role: Select a user role. This determines the role for all the users included in this Active Directory group. See User Roles for more information.

  • (Optional) Notes: Add any notes that are applicable to this Active Directory group.

Step 6

Select OK.

Edit an Active Directory Group for User Management

Before you begin

Note that editing an Active Directory Group's user management in Security Cloud Control only allows you to modify how Security Cloud Control limits the Active Directory group. You cannot edit the Active Directory group itself in Security Cloud Control. You must use Active Directory to edit the list of users within an Active Directory group.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > User Management.

Step 3

Click the Active Directory Groups tab.

Step 4

Identify the Active Directory Group you want to edit and click the edit icon.

Step 5

Modify the following values:

  • Group Name: Enter a unique name. Security Cloud Control does not support special characters for this field.

  • Group Identifier: Manually enter the Group Identifier from your Active Directory. The value of the group identifier should be the same as the group identifier in the custom claim definition. It could be any value that corresponds to the unique identity of the group, for example, my-favourite-group, 12345 and so forth.

  • AD Issuer: Manually enter the Active Directory Issuer value from your Active Directory.

  • Role: This determines the role for all the users included in this Active Directory group. See User Roles for more information.

  • Notes: Add any notes that are applicable to this Active Directory group.

Step 6

Click OK.

Delete an Active Directory Group for User Management

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > User Management.

Step 3

Click the Active Directory Groups tab.

Step 4

Identify the Active Directory Group you want to delete.

Step 5

Click the delete icon.

Step 6

Click OK to confirm you want to delete the Active Directory group.

Create a New Security Cloud Control User

These two tasks are necessary for creating a new Security Cloud Control user. They do not have to be done in sequence:

After these tasks are done, then the user can open Security Cloud Control from the Cisco Secure Sign-On dashboard.

Create a Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account for the New User

Creating a Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account can be done by the new user at any time, without needing to know the name of the assigned tenant.

About Logging in to Security Cloud Control

Security Cloud Control uses Cisco Secure Sign-On as its identity provider and Duo for multi-factor authentication (MFA). To log into Security Cloud Control, you must first create your account in Cisco Security Cloud Sign On and configure MFA using Duo.

Security Cloud Control requires MFA which provides an added layer of security in protecting your user identity. Two-factor authentication, a type of MFA, requires two components, or factors, to ensure the identity of the user logging into Security Cloud Control. The first factor is a username and password, and the second is a one-time password (OTP), which is generated on demand.


Important

If your Security Cloud Control tenant existed before October 14, 2019, use Migrate to Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Identity Provider for log in instructions instead of this article.

Before You Log In

Install DUO Security

We recommend installing the Duo Security app in a mobile phone. Review Duo Guide to Two Factor Authentication: Enrollment Guide if you have questions about installing Duo.

Time Synchronization

You are going to use your mobile device to generate a one-time password. It is important that your device clock is synchronized with real time as the OTP is time-based. Make sure your device clock set automatically or manually set it to the correct time.

Create a New Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account and Configure Duo Multi-factor Authentication

The initial sign-on workflow is a four-step process. You need to complete all four steps.

Procedure

Step 1

Sign Up for a New Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account.

  1. Open https://sign-on.security.cisco.com.

  2. At the bottom of the sign in screen, click Sign up now.

  3. Provide the following information to create enterprise account.

    Here are some tips:

    • Email: Enter the email address that you will eventually use to log in to Security Cloud Control.

    • Password: Enter a strong password.

  4. Click Sign up.

    Cisco sends you a verification email to the address you registered with. Open the email and click Activate account.

Step 2

Set up Multi-factor Authentication Using Duo

We recommend using a mobile device when setting up multi-factor authentication.

  1. In the Set up multi-factor authentication screen, click Configure factor.

  2. Click Start setup and follow the prompts to choose a mobile device and verify the pairing of that mobile device with your account.

    For more information, see Duo Guide to Two Factor Authentication: Enrollment Guide. If you already have the Duo app on your device, you'll receive an activation code for this account. Duo supports multiple accounts on one device.

  3. At the end of the wizard click Continue to Login.

  4. Log in to Cisco Security Cloud Sign On with the two-factor authentication.

Step 3

(Optional) Setup Google Authenticator as an additional authenticator

  1. Choose the mobile device you are pairing with Google Authenticator and click Next.

  2. Follow the prompts in the setup wizard to setup Google Authenticator.

Step 4

Configure Account Recovery Options for your Cisco Security Cloud Sign On

  1. Choose a recovery phone number for resetting your account using SMS.

  2. Choose a security image.

  3. Click Create My Account.

Create a User Record with Your Security Cloud Control Username

Only a Security Cloud Control user with Super Admin privileges can create the Security Cloud Control user record. The Super Admin must create the user record with the same email address that was specified in the Create Your Security Cloud Control Username task above.

Use the following procedure to create a user record with an appropriate user role:

Procedure

Step 1

Login to Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

In the left pane, choose Settings > User Management.

Step 3

Click to add a new user to your tenant.

Step 4

Provide the email address of the user.

Note

 

The user's email address must correspond to the email address of the Cisco Secure Log-On account.

Step 5

From the Role drop-down list, select the user's role.

Step 6

Click OK.

The New User Opens Security Cloud Control from the Cisco Secure Sign-On Dashboard

Procedure

Step 1

Click the appropriate Security Cloud Control tile on the Cisco Secure Sign-on dashboard for your tenant's region.

Step 2

Click the authenticator logo to choose Duo Security or Google Authenticator if you have set up both authenticators.

  • If you already have a user record on an existing tenant, you are logged into that tenant.

  • If you already have a user record on several portals, you will be able to choose which portal to connect to.

  • If you already have a user record on several tenants, you will be able to choose which Security Cloud Control tenant to connect to.

  • If you do not already have a user record on an existing tenant, you will be able to learn more about Security Cloud Control or request a trial tenant.

The Portals view retrieves and displays consolidated information from multiple tenants. See Manage Multiple Security Cloud Control Tenants for more information.

The Tenant view shows several tenants on which you have a user record.

User Roles in Security Cloud Control

There are a variety of user roles in Security Cloud Control: Read-Only, Edit-Only, Deploy-only, Admin, and Super Admin. User roles are configured for each user on each tenant. If a Security Cloud Control user has access to more than one tenant, they may have the same user ID but different roles on different tenants. A user may have a read-only role on one tenant and a Super Admin role on another. When the interface or the documentation refers to a Read-only user, an Admin user, or a Super Admin user we are describing that user's permission level on a particular tenant.

Read-only Role

A user assigned the Read-Only role sees this blue banner on every page:

Users with the Read-Only role can do the following:

  • View any page or any setting in Security Cloud Control.

  • Search and filter the contents of any page.

  • Compare device configurations, view the change log, and see VPN mappings.

  • View every warning regarding any setting or object on any page.

  • Generate, refresh, and revoke their own API tokens. Note that if a read-only user revokes their own token, they cannot recreate it.

  • Contact support through our interface and can export a change log.

Read-Only users cannot do the following:

  • Create, update, configure, or delete anything on any page.

  • Onboard devices.

  • Step-through the tasks needed to create something like an object or a policy, but not be able to save it.

  • Create Security Cloud Control user records.

  • Change user role.

  • Attach or detach access rules to a policy.

Edit-Only Role

Users with the Edit-Only role can do the following:

  • Edit and save device configurations, including but not limited to objects, policies, rulesets, interfaces, VPN, etc.

  • Allow configuration changes that are made through the Read Configuration action.

  • Utilize the Change Request Management action.

Edit-Only users cannot do the following:

  • Deploy changes to a device or to multiple devices.

  • Discard staged changes or changes that are detected through OOB.

  • Upload AnyConnect Packages, or configure these settings.

  • Schedule or manually start image upgrades for devices.

  • Schedule or manually start a security database upgrade.

  • Manually switch between Snort 2 and Snort 3 versions.

  • Create a template.

  • Change the existing OOB Change settings.

  • Edit System Management settings.

  • Onboard devices.

  • Delete devices.

  • Delete VPN sessions or user sessions.

  • Create Security Cloud Control user records.

  • Change user role.

Deploy-Only Role

Users with the Deploy-Only role can do the following:

  • Deploy staged changes to a device, or to multiple devices.

  • Revert or restore configuration changes for ASA devices.

  • Schedule or manually start image upgrades for devices.

  • Schedule or manually start a security database upgrade.

  • Utilize the Change Request Management action.

Deploy-Only users cannot do the following:

  • Manually switch between Snort 2 and Snort 3 versions.

  • Create a template.

  • Change the existing OOB Change settings.

  • Edit System Management settings.

  • Onboard devices.

  • Delete devices.

  • Delete VPN sessions or user sessions.

  • Create, update, configure, or delete anything on any page.

  • Onboard devices.

  • Step-through the tasks needed to create something like an object or a policy, but not be able to save it.

  • Create Security Cloud Control user records.

  • Change user role.

  • Attach or detach access rules to a policy.

VPN Sessions Manager Role

The VPN Sessions Manager role is designed for administrators monitoring remote access VPN connections, not site to site VPN connections.

Users with the VPN Sessions Manager role can do the following:

  • View any page or any setting in Security Cloud Control.

  • Search and filter the contents of any page.

  • Compare device configurations, view the change log, and see RA VPN mappings.

  • View every warning regarding any setting or object on any page.

  • Generate, refresh, and revoke their own API tokens. Note that if a VPN Sessions Manager user revokes their own token, they cannot recreate it.

  • Contact support through our interface and export a change log.

  • Terminate existing RA VPN sessions.

VPN Sessions Manager users cannot do the following:

  • Create, update, configure, or delete anything on any page.

  • Onboard devices.

  • Step-through the tasks needed to create something like an object or a policy, but not be able to save it.

  • Create Security Cloud Control user records.

  • Change user role.

  • Attach or detach access rules to a policy.

Admin Role

Admin users have complete access to most aspects of Security Cloud Control. Admin users can do the following:

  • Create, read, update, and delete any object or policy in Security Cloud Control and configure any setting.

  • Onboard devices.

  • View any page or any setting in Security Cloud Control.

  • Search and filter the contents of any page.

  • Compare device configurations, view the change log, and see VPN mappings.

  • View every warning regarding any setting or object on any page.

  • Generate, refresh, and revoke their own API tokens. If their token is revoked, they can contact support through our interface and can export a change log.

Admin users cannot do the following:

  • Create Security Cloud Control user records.

  • Change user role.

Super Admin Role

Super Admin users have complete access to all aspects of Security Cloud Control. Super Admins can do the following:

  • Change a user role.

  • Create user records.


Note

Though Super Admins can create a Security Cloud Control user record, that user record is not all that is needed for a user to log in to your tenant. The user also needs an account with the identity provider used by your tenant. Unless your enterprise has its own single sign-on identity provider, your identity provider is Cisco Security Cloud Sign On. Users can self-register for their Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account; see Initial Login to Your New Security Cloud Control Tenant for more information.

  • Create, read, update, and delete any object or policy in Security Cloud Control and configure any setting.

  • Onboard devices.

  • View any page or any setting in Security Cloud Control.

  • Search and filter the contents of any page.

  • Compare device configurations, view the change log, and see VPN mappings.

  • View every warning regarding any setting or object on any page.

  • Generate, refresh, and revoke their own API tokens. If their token is revoked, they can

  • Contact support through our interface and can export a change log.

Change The Record of the User Role

The user record is the currently recorded role of a user. By looking at the users associated with your tenant, you can determine what role each use has by their record. By changing a user role, you change the user record. User's roles are identified by their role in the User Management table. See User Management for more information.

You must be a Super Admin to change the user record. If your tenant has no Super Admins, contact Security Cloud Control support.

Add a User Account to Security Cloud Control

Security Cloud Control users need a Security Cloud Control record and a corresponding IdP account so they can be authenticated and access your Security Cloud Control tenant. This procedure creates the user's Security Cloud Control user record, not the user's account in Cisco Security Cloud Sign On. If the user does not have an account in Cisco Security Cloud Sign On, they can self-enroll by navigating to https://sign-on.security.cisco.com and clicking Sign up at the bottom of the Sign in screen.


Note

You will need to have the role of Super Admin on Security Cloud Control to perform this task.

Create a User Record

Use the following procedure to create a user record with an appropriate user role:

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > User Management.

Step 3

Click the blue plus button () to add a new user to your tenant.

Step 4

Provide the email address of the user.

Note

 

The user's email address must correspond to the email address of the Cisco Secure Log-On account.

Step 5

Select the user's role from the drop-down menu.

Step 6

Click v.

Note

 

Though Super Admins can create a Security Cloud Control user record, that user record is not all that is needed for a user to log in to your tenant. The user also needs an account with the identity provider used by your tenant. Unless your enterprise has its own single sign-on identity provider, your identity provider is Cisco Secure Sign-on. Users can self-register for their Cisco Secure Sign-On account; see Initial Login to Your New Security Cloud Control Tenant for more information.

Create API Only Users

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > User Management.

Step 3

Click the blue plus button () to add a new user to your tenant.

Step 4

Select the API Only User checkbox.

Step 5

In the Username field, enter a name for the user and click OK.

Important

 

the user name can't be an email address or contain the '@' character as the '@yourtenant' suffix will be automatically appended to the user name.

Step 6

Select the user's role from the drop-down menu.

Step 7

Click OK.

Step 8

Click the User Management tab.

Step 9

In the Token column for the new API Only user, click Generate API Token to obtain an API token.

Edit a User Record for a User Role

You will need to have the role of Super Admin to perform this task. If the Super Admin changes the role of a Security Cloud Control user that is logged in, once their role has been changed, the user is automatically logged out of their session. Once the user logs back in, they assume their new role.


Note

You will need to have the role of Super Admin on Security Cloud Control to perform this task.


Caution

Changing the role of a user record will delete an API token associated with the user record if there is one. The user must generate a new API token once the user role changes.

Edit a User Role


Note

If a Security Cloud Control user is logged in, and a Super Admin changes their role, the user must log out and log back in again for the change to take affect.

To edit the role defined in the user record, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > User Management.

Step 3

Click the edit icon in the user's row.

Step 4

Select the user's new role from the Role drop-down menu.

Step 5

If the user record shows that there is an API token associated with the user, you will need to confirm that you want to change the user's role and delete the API token as a result.

Step 6

Click v.

Step 7

If Security Cloud Control deleted the API token, contact the user so that they may create a new API Token.

Delete a User Record for a User Role

Deleting a user record in Security Cloud Control prevents the associated user from logging in to Security Cloud Control by breaking the mapping of the user record with the Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account. When you delete a user record, you are also deleting the API token associated with that user record should there be one. Deleting a user record in Security Cloud Control does not delete the user's IdP account in Cisco Security Cloud Sign On.


Note

You will need to have the role of Super Admin on Security Cloud Control to perform this task.

Delete a User Record

To delete the role defined in the user record, see the following procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Administration > User Management.

Step 3

Click the trash can icon in the row of the user you want to delete.

Step 4

Click OK.

Step 5

Confirm that you want to remove the account from the tenant by clicking OK.

Security Cloud Control Services Page

The Services page displays a list of services that Security Cloud Control provides. Selecting the FMC tab lists the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center that is linked to the Security Cloud Control account and all the on-premises management centers onboarded to Security Cloud Control. The devices that are managed by these on-prem management centers are listed in the Security Devices page. The Services page also lists the secure connectors under the Secure Connectors tab.

You can click the FMC tab and onboard an on-premises management center by clicking the blue plus icon (), and perform device actions using the options in the right pane. You can also see device information such as version, number of devices being managed by the management center, device type, and the synchronization status of the device. Clicking on the managed devices icon takes you to the Security Devices page, where devices managed by the selected on-premises management center are filtered automatically and displayed. The Services page also allows you to select more than one on-premises management center at a time for you to perform actions on a group of management centers all at once. You cannot select any on-premises management center while the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is selected. To add a new secure connector or perform actions on existing secure connectors, choose the Secure Connectors tab and click .

In the left pane, click Administration > Firewall Management Center.

For your cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, the Services page displays the following information:

  • If you do not have a cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center deployed on your tenant, click Enable Cloud-Delivered FMC. See Enable Cloud-Delivered Firewall Management Center on Your Security Cloud Control Tenant for more information.

  • The number of Secure Firewall Threat Defense devices deployed on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center.

  • Status of the connection between Security Cloud Control and the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center page.

  • The last heartbeat of the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center. This represents the last time the status of the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center itself and the number of devices that it manages were synchronized with the table on this page.

  • The hostname of the selected cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center.

Choose Cloud-Delivered FMC and using the links in the Actions, Management, or Settings pane, you open the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center user interface to perform the configuration tasks that are associated with the link you clicked.

Actions:

  • Check For Changes: The Device Count and Status information in the table will be updated with the information available the last time this page and the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center were synchronized. Synchronization happens every 10 minutes.

  • Deployment: Takes you to the device configuration deployment page on cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center. See Deploy Configuration Changes.

  • Workflows: Takes you to the Workflows page to monitor every process that Security Cloud Control runs when communicating with devices. See Workflows page.

  • API Explorer: Takes you to the page that lists the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center REST APIs. See Secure Firewall Management Center REST API Guide.

Management:

  • Devices: Takes you to the threat defense device listing page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal. See Configure Devices.

  • Policies: Takes you to the policies page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal to edit system-provided access control policies and create custom access control policies. See Manage Access Control Policies.

  • Objects: Takes you to the policies page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal to manage reusable objects. See Object Management.

  • NAT: Takes you to the policies page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal to configure Network Address Translation policies on the threat defense devices. See Manage NAT policies.

  • Site to Site VPN: Takes you to the site-to-site VPN dashboard page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal to configure site-to-site VPN policy between two sites. See Site-to-Site VPNs.

  • Remote Access VPN: Takes you to the remote access VPN dashboard page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal to configure a remote access VPN configuration. See Remote Access VPN.

  • Platform Settings: Takes you to the platform settings page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal configure a range of unrelated features whose values you might want to share among several devices. See Platform Settings.

System:

  • Configuration: Takes you to the system configuration settings page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal to configure system configuration settings. See System Configuration.

  • Smart Licenses: Takes you to the smart licenses page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal to assign licenses to devices. See Assign Licenses to Devices.

  • AMP Management: Takes you to the AMP management page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal that provides intelligence that the system uses to detect and block malware on your network. See Cloud Connections for Malware Protection.

  • Device Health: Takes you to the health monitoring page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal that tracks various health indicators to ensure that the hardware and software in the system are working correctly. See About Health Monitoring.

  • Audit: Takes you to the audit log page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal to show the generated audit record for each user interaction with the web interface.

  • Cisco Cloud Events: Takes you to the configure Cisco Cloud events page on the Security Cloud Control portal to configure cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center to send events directly to SAL (SaaS). See Send Events to SAL (SaaS).

After opening the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center page, click the blue question mark button and select Page-level Help to learn more about the page you are on and what further action you can take.

Support to Open Security Cloud Control and Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center Applications on Different Tabs

As you configure threat defense devices or objects in the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, you can open the appropriate configuration pages in additional browser tabs to work simultaneously in the Security Cloud Control and the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portals without logging off. For example, you can create an object on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center and simultaneously monitor event logs on Security Cloud Control that are generated from the security policies.

This feature is available for all Security Cloud Control links that navigate to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal. To open the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal in a new tab:

On the Security Cloud Control portal, press and hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) button, then click the corresponding link.


Note

A single click opens the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center page in the same tab.

Here are some examples of opening the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal page in a new tab:

  • Choose Tools & Services > Firewall Management Center and select Cloud-Delivered FMC.

    In the right pane, press and hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) button, and then click the page that you want to access.

  • Choose Objects > Other FTD Objects.

  • Click the search icon in the top-right corner of the Security Cloud Control page and enter the search strings in the search field that appears.

    From the search result, press and hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) button, and then click the arrow icon.

  • Choose Dashboard > Quick Actions.

    Press and hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) button, and then click Manage FTD Policies or Manage FTD Objects.


Note

When you switch to a new Security Cloud Control tenant, the corresponding cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center portal already opened in a new tab logs out.

Related Topics

Security Cloud Control Device and Service Management

Security Cloud Control provides the ability to view, manage, filter, and evaluate your onboarded devices on the Security Devices page. From the Security Devices page you can:

  • Onboard devices and services for Security Cloud Control management.

  • View the configuration state and connectivity state of managed devices and services.

  • View onboarded devices and templates categorized in separate tabs. See About Security Devices Page.

  • Evaluate and take action on individual devices and services.

  • View device and service specific information and resolve issues.

  • View device health status for threat defense devices managed by:

    For threat defense devices managed by the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, you can also see the node status for devices in a cluster.

  • Search for a device or template by name, type, IP address, model name, serial number, or labels. Search is not case-sensitive. Providing multiple search terms brings up devices and services that match at least one of the terms. See Page Level Search.

  • Filter for a device or template filter by device type, hardware and software versions, snort version, configuration status, connection states, conflict detection, and secure device connectors, and labels. See Filters.

Changing a Device's IP Address in Security Cloud Control

When you onboard an device to Security Cloud Control using an IP address, Security Cloud Control stores that IP address in its database and communicates with the device using that IP address. If the IP address of the device changes, you can update the IP address stored in Security Cloud Control to match the new address. Changing the device's IP address on Security Cloud Control does not change device's configuration.

To change the IP address, Security Cloud Control uses to communicate with a device, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

You can use the filter and search functionalities to find the required device.

Step 4

Select the device whose IP address it is you want to change.

Step 5

Above the Device Details pane, click the edit button next to the device's IP address.

Step 6

Enter the new IP address in the field and click the blue check button.

No change is made to the device itself, so the device's Configuration Status will continue to show that it is Synced.

Changing a Device's Name in Security Cloud Control

All devices, models, templates, and services are given a name when they are onboarded or created in Security Cloud Control. You can change that name without changing the configuration of the device itself.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Device tab to locate the device.

Step 3

Select the device whose name it is you want to change.

Step 4

Above the Device Details pane, click the edit button next to the device's name.

Step 5

Enter the new name in the field and click the blue check button.

No change is made to the device itself, so the device's Configuration Status will continue to show that it is Synced.

Export a List of Devices and Services

This article explains how to export your list of devices and services to a comma-separated value (.csv) file. Once in that format, you can open the file in a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel to sort and filter the items in your list.

The export button is available in the devices and the templates tab. You are also allowed to export details from devices under the selected device type tab.

Before you export your list of devices and services, look at the filter pane and determine if the Security Devices page is displaying the information you want to export. Clear all your filters to see all of your managed devices and services, or filter the information to display a subset of all your devices and services. The export function exports what you can see in the Security Devices page.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab to export details from devices under that tab or click All to export details from all devices.

You can use the filter and search functionalities to find the required device.

Step 4

Click Export list to CSV:

Step 5

If prompted, save the .csv file.

Step 6

Open the .csv file in a spreadsheet application to sort and filter the results.

Export Device Configuration

You can only export one device configuration at a time. Use the following procedure to export a device's configuration to a JSON file:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

You can use the filter and search functionalities to find the required device.

Step 4

Select the device you want so it is highlighted.

Step 5

In the Actions pane, select Export Configuration.

Step 6

Select Confirm to save the configuration as a JSON file.

Bulk Reconnect Devices to Security Cloud Control

Security Cloud Control allows an administrator to attempt to reconnect more than one managed device to Security Cloud Control at the same time. When a device Security Cloud Control manages is marked "unreachable," Security Cloud Control can no longer detect out of band configuration changes or manage the device. There could be many different reasons for the disconnect. Attempting to reconnect the devices is a simple first step in restoring Security Cloud Control's management of the device.


Note

If you are reconnecting devices having new certificates, Security Cloud Control automatically reviews and accepts the new certificates on the devices and continues to reconnect with them. However, if you are reconnecting with only one device, Security Cloud Control prompts you to review and accept the certificate manually to continue to reconnect with it.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate devices.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Use the filter to look for devices whose connectivity status is "unreachable."

Step 4

From the filtered results, select the devices you want to attempt to reconnect.

Step 5

Click Reconnect . Notice that Security Cloud Control only provides command buttons for actions that can be applied to all the selected devices.

Step 6

Look at the notifications tab for the progress of the bulk device reconnect action. If you want more information about how the actions in the bulk device reconnect job succeeded or failed, click the blue Review link and you will be directed to the Monitor Jobs in Security Cloud Control.

Tip

 

If a reconnect failure was caused because the device's certificate or credentials have changed, you will have to reconnect to those devices individually to add the new credentials and accept the new certificate.

Moving Devices Between Tenants

Once you have onboarded devices to a Security Cloud Control tenant, you cannot migrate the devices from one Security Cloud Control tenant to another. If you want to move your devices to a new tenant, you need to remove the devices from the old tenant and re-onboard them to the new tenant.

Device Certificate Expiry Detection

The management certificate is used for accessing FDM-managed and ASA devices from Security Cloud Control, while the Cisco Secure Client (formerly AnyConnect) is necessary for using virtual private network features on ASA, FDM-managed, and FTD devices from Security Cloud Control.

Security Cloud Control actively monitors the expiration status of these certificates and notifies the user when these certificates are nearing their expiration date or have expired. This prevents any disruptions in device operations due to certificate expiry. You should renew the corresponding certificate to address this issue.

The management certificate expiry check applies to ASA and FDM-managed devices, while the Secure Client certificate expiry check applies to ASA, FDM-managed, and FTD devices.

View Certificate Expiry Notification

In the top right corner, click the Notifications ( ) icon to view the most recent alerts that have occurred or affected the devices you have onboarded to your tenant. The High Priority section displays the certificate expiration notifications.

These notifications are sent 30, 14, and 7 days before the certificate expiration date and then every day thereafter until the certificate either expires or is renewed with a valid certificate. You can also subscribe to receive these notifications by email on the Notification Settings section of the user preferences page. For more information, see User Notification Preferences.

Write a Device Note

Use this procedure to create a single, plain-text, note file for a device.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device or model you want to create a note for.

Step 5

In the Management pane on the right, click Notes. .

Step 6

Click the editor button on the right and select the Default text editor, Vim, or Emacs text editors.

Step 7

Edit the Notes page.

Step 8

Click Save.

The note is saved in the tab.

About Security Devices Page

The Security Devices page shows all physical and virtual onboarded devices and templates created from the onboarded devices. The page classifies devices and templates based on their type and displays them in the corresponding tabs dedicated to each device type. You can use search functionality or apply a filter to find devices within the selected device type tab.

You can view the following details on this page:

  • The Devices tab shows all the live devices that are onboarded to Security Cloud Control.

  • The Templates shows all the template devices created from live devices or configuration files imported to Security Cloud Control.

Security Cloud Control Labels and Filtering

Labels are used for grouping devices or objects. You can apply labels to one or more devices during onboarding or at any time after onboarding. You can apply labels to objects after you create them. Once you have applied labels to devices or objects, you can filter the contents of the device table or objects table by that label.


Note

A label applied to a device is not extended to its associated objects, and a label applied to a shared object is not extended to its associated objects.

You can create a label group by using the following syntax “group name:label”. For example, Region:East or Region:West. If you were to create these two labels, the group label would be Region and you could choose from East or West in that group.

Applying Labels to Devices and Objects

To apply a label to devices, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices to add a label to a device.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Objects to add a label to an object.

Step 3

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 4

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 5

Select one or more devices or model in the generated table.

Step 6

In the Add Groups and Labels field on the right, specify a label for the device.

Step 7

Click blue + icon.

Filters

You can use many different filters on the Security Devices and Objects pages to find the devices and objects you are looking for.

To filter, click in the left-hand pane of the Security Devices, Policies, and Objects tabs:

The Security Devices filter allows you to filter by device type, hardware and software versions, snort version, configuration status, connection states, conflict detection, and secure device connectors, and labels. You can apply filters to find devices within a selected device type tab. You can use filters to find devices within the selected device type tab.


Note

When the FTD tab is opened, the filter pane provides filters to show FDM-managed devices based on the management application through which the devices are accessed from Security Cloud Control.

  • FDM: Devices managed using FTD API or FDM.

  • FMC-FTD: Devices managed using Firepower Management Center.

  • FTD: Devices managed using FTD Management.

The object filter allows you to filter by device, issue type, shared objects, unassociated objects, and object type. You can include system objects in your results or not. You can also use the search field to search for objects in the filter results that contain a certain name, IP address, or port number.

The object type filter allows you to filter objects by type, such as network object, network group, URL object, URL group, service object, and service group. The shared objects filter allows filtering objects having default values or override values.

When filtering devices and objects, you can combine your search terms to create several potential search strategies to find relevant results.

In the following example, filters are applied to search objects that are "Issues (Used OR Inconsistent) AND Shared Objects with Additional Values.

Use Security Cloud Control Search Functionality

The Security Cloud Control platform has a highly efficient search function that makes it easy to find anything you need. The search bar on each page is tailored to the content of that page, while the global search allows for a comprehensive search across the entire tenant. This saves time and effort, as you can quickly locate the necessary information.

Global Search

The global search feature allows you to quickly locate and navigate to devices managed by Security Cloud Control.

All search results are based on the indexing option you choose. The indexing options are as follows:

  • Full Indexing—Requires that you invoke the full indexing process. This process scans all the devices and objects in the system and displays them in the search index only after you invoke the indexing. To invoke full indexing, you must have administrative privileges.

    For more information, see Initiate Full Indexing.

  • Incremental Indexing—An event-based indexing process where the search index automatically updates each time that a device or an object is added, modified, or deleted.

The information that you enter in the search field is not case-sensitive. You can perform a global search using the following entities:

  • Device Name—Supports partial device names, URL, IP address or range.

  • Object Types—Supports object name, object descriptions, and configured values.

  • Policy Types—Supports policy name, policy description, rule name, and rule comments.

    Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center and On-Prem FMC managed in Security Cloud Control support the following policy types:

    • Access Control Policy

    • Prefilter Policy

    • Threat Defense NAT Policy

When you type a search expression, the interface begins to display search results and you do not need to press Enter to execute a search.

The search results display all devices and objects that match your search strings. If your search string matches more than device or object, the results appear under categories (devices, objects, and connected_fmc).

By default, the first item in the search result is highlighted and the related information for that item appears in the right pane. You can scroll through the search results and click any item to view the corresponding information. You can click the arrow icon besides the item to navigate to the corresponding page.


Note

  • Global search does not display duplicate search results. For objects, the UID of the shared object is used to navigate to the Object view.

  • If you delete a device from Security Cloud Control, all associated objects are removed from the global search index.

  • If you delete an object from the policy and retain the device before you initiate full indexing, the object remains in the global search index because it is associated with the device.

Initiate Full Indexing

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > General Settings.

Step 2

In Global Search, click Initiate Full Indexing to trigger indexing.

Note

 

Initiating full indexing clears existing indexing of the Security Cloud Control tenant.

Step 3

Click here to view the global search workflow.

Perform a Global Search

Procedure

Step 1

Log into Security Cloud Control.

Step 2

Click the search icon in the top-right corner of the Security Cloud Control page and enter the search strings in the search field that appears.

Alternatively, you can press and hold the Ctrl key and the / key simultaneously on Windows, or the Command key and / key on Mac, to open the search bar.

The search results display a list of possible items as you begin entering the search strings. The search results appear under four categories: All, Devices, Objects, Policies, and Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center. The right pane displays information for a selected search result.

Step 3

From the search result, select a device or an object, and click the arrow icon to navigate from the search results to the corresponding device and object page. From the search result, select an item, and click the arrow icon to navigate from the search results to the corresponding page.

Note

 

Selecting a search result for devices in the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, allows you to navigate to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center user interface within Security Cloud Control.

For information on cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, see Managing Firewall Threat Defense with Cloud-Delivered Firewall Management Center in Cisco Security Cloud Control.

Step 4

Click X to close the search bar.

Objects

An object is a container of information that you can use in one or more security policies. Objects make it easy to maintain policy consistency. You can create a single object, use it different policies, modify the object, and that change is propagated to every policy that uses the object. Without objects, you would need to modify all the policies, individually, that require the same change.

When you onboard a device, Security Cloud Control recognizes all the objects used by that device, saves them, and lists them on the Objects page. From the Objects page, you can edit existing objects and create new ones to use in your security policies.

Security Cloud Control calls an object used on multiple devices a shared object and identifies them in the Objects page with this badge .

Sometimes a shared object develops some "issue" and is no longer perfectly shared across multiple policies or devices:

  • Duplicate objects are two or more objects on the same device with different names but the same values. These objects usually serve similar purposes and are used by different policies. Duplicate objects are identified by this issue icon:

  • Inconsistent objects are objects on two or more devices with the same name but different values. Sometimes users create objects in different configurations with same name and content but over time the values of these objects diverge which creates the inconsistency. Inconsistent objects are identified by this issue icon:

  • Unused objects are objects that exist in a device configuration but are not referenced by another object, an access-list, or a NAT rule. Unused objects are identified by this issue icon:

You can also create objects for immediate use in rules or policies. You can create an object that is unassociated with any rule or policy. Before 28 June 2024, when you use an unassociated object in a rule or policy, Security Cloud Control created a copy of it and used the copy. Because of this behavior, you might have observed that there were two instances of the same object in the Objects menu. However, Security Cloud Control does not do that anymore. You can use an unassociated object in a rule or a policy but there are no duplicate objects that Security Cloud Control creates.

You can view the objects managed by Security Cloud Control by navigating to the Objects menu or by viewing them in the details of a network policy.

Security Cloud Control allows you to manage network and service objects across supported devices from one location. With Security Cloud Control, you can manage objects in these ways:

  • Search for and filter all your objects based on a variety of criteria.

  • Find duplicate, unused, and inconsistent objects on your devices and consolidate, delete, or resolve those object issues.

  • Find unassociated objects and delete them if they are unused.

  • Discover shared objects that are common across devices.

  • Evaluate the impact of changes to an object on a set of policies and devices before committing the change.

  • Compare a set of objects and their relationships with different policies and devices.

  • Capture objects in use by a device after it has been on-boarded to Security Cloud Control.


Note

Out-of-band changes that are done to objects are detected as overrides to the object. When such a change happens, the edited value gets added to the object as an override, which can be viewed by selecting the object. To know more about out-of-band changes on devices, see Out-of-Band Changes on Devices.

If you have issues with creating, editing, or reading objects from an onboarded device, see Troubleshoot Security Cloud Control for more information.

Object Types

The following table describes the objects that you can create for your devices and manage using Security Cloud Control.

Table 2. Common Objects

Object Type

Description

Network

Network groups and network objects (collectively referred to as network objects) define the addresses of hosts or networks.

URL

Use URL objects and groups (collectively referred to as URL objects) to define the URL or IP addresses of web requests. You can use these objects to implement manual URL filtering in access control policies or blocking in Security Intelligence policies.

Table 3. FDM-Managed Device Object Types

Object

Description

Application Filter

An application filter object defines the applications used in an IP connection, or a filter that defines applications by type, category, tag, risk, or business relevance. You can use these objects in policies to control traffic instead of using port specifications.

AnyConnect Client Profile

AnyConnect Client Profile objects are file objects and represent files used in configurations, typically for remote access VPN policies. They can contain an AnyConnect Client Profile and AnyConnect Client Image files.

Certificate Filter

Digital certificates provide digital identification for authentication. Certificates are used for SSL (Secure Socket Layer), TLS (Transport Layer Security), and DTLS (Datagram TLS) connections, such as HTTPS and LDAPS.

DNS Group

DNS servers are needed to resolve fully-qualified domain names (FQDN), such as www.example.com, to IP addresses. You can configure different DNS group objects for management and data interfaces.

Geolocation

A geolocation object defines countries and continents that host the device that is the source or destination of traffic. You can use these objects in policies to control traffic instead of using IP addresses.

IKEv1 Policy

An IKEv1 policy object contain the parameters required for IKEv1 policies when defining VPN connections.

IKEv2 Policy

An IKEv2 policy objects contain the parameters required for IKEv2 policies when defining VPN connections.

IKEv1 IPSEC Proposal

IPsec Proposal objects configure the IPsec proposal used during IKE Phase 1 negotiations. The IPsec proposal defines the combination of security protocols and algorithms that secure traffic in an IPsec tunnel.

IKEv2 IPSEC Proposal

IPsec Proposal objects configure the IPsec proposal used during IKE Phase 2 negotiations. The IPsec proposal defines the combination of security protocols and algorithms that secure traffic in an IPsec tunnel.

Network

Network groups and network objects (collectively referred to as network objects) define the addresses of hosts or networks.

Security Zone

A security zone is a grouping of interfaces. Zones divide the network into segments to help you manage and classify traffic.

Service

Service objects, service groups, and port groups are reusable components that contain protocols or ports considered part of the TCP/IP protocol suite.

SGT Group

A SGT dynamic object identifies source or destination addresses based on an SGT assigned by ISE and can then be matched against incoming traffic.

Syslog Server

A syslog server object identifies a server that can receive connection-oriented or diagnostic system log (syslog) messages.

URL

Use URL objects and groups (collectively referred to as URL objects) to define the URL or IP addresses of web requests. You can use these objects to implement manual URL filtering in access control policies or blocking in Security Intelligence policies.

Shared Objects

Security Cloud Control calls objects on multiple devices with the same name and same contents, shared objects. Shared objects are identified by this icon
on the Objects page. Shared objects make it easy to maintain policies because you can modify an object in one place and that change affects all the other policies that use that object. Without shared objects, you would need to modify all the policies individually that require the same change.

When looking at a shared object, Security Cloud Control shows you the contents of the object in the object table. Shared objects have exactly the same contents. Security Cloud Control shows you a combined or "flattened" view of the elements of the object in the details pane. Notice that in the details pane, the network elements are flattened into a simple list and not directly associated with a named object.

Object Overrides

An object override allows you to override the value of a shared network object on specific devices. Security Cloud Control uses the corresponding value for the devices that you specify when configuring the override. Although the objects are on two or more devices with the same name but different values, Security Cloud Control doesn't identify them as Inconsistent objects only because these values are added as overrides.

You can create an object whose definition works for most devices, and then use overrides to specify modifications to the object for the few devices that need different definitions. You can also create an object that needs to be overridden for all devices, but its use allows you to create a single policy for all devices. Object overrides allow you to create a smaller set of shared policies for use across devices without giving up the ability to alter policies when needed for individual devices.

For example, consider a scenario where you have a printer server in each of your offices, and you have created a printer server object print-server. You have a rule in your ACL to deny printer servers from accessing the internet. The printer server object has a default value that you want to change from one office to another. You can do this by using object overrides and maintain rule and "printer-server" object consistent across all locations, although their values may be different.

Out-of-band changes that are done to objects are detected as overrides to the object. When such a change happens, the edited value gets added to the object as an override, which can be viewed by selecting the object. To know more about out-of-band changes, see Out-of-Band Changes on Devices.


Note

Security Cloud Control allows you to override objects associated with the rules in a ruleset. When you add a new object to a rule, you can override it only after you attach a device to the ruleset and save the changes. See Configure Rulesets for an FTD for more information.


Note

If there are inconsistent objects, you can combine them into a single shared object with overrides. For more information, see Resolve Inconsistent Object Issues.

Unassociated Objects

You can create objects for immediate use in rules or policies. You can also create an object that is unassociated with any rule or policy. When you use that unassociated object in a rule or policy, Security Cloud Control creates a copy of it and uses the copy. The original unassociated object remains among the list of available objects until it is either deleted by a nightly maintenance job, or you delete it.

Unassociated objects remain in Security Cloud Control as a copy to ensure that not all configurations are lost if the rule or policy associated with the object is deleted accidentally.

In the left pane, click Objects > and check the Unassociated checkbox.

Compare Objects

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects and choose an option.

Step 2

Filter the objects on the page to find the objects you want to compare.

Step 3

Click the Compare button .

Step 4

Select up to three objects to compare.

Step 5

View the objects, side-by-side, at the bottom of the screen.

  • Click the up and down arrows in the Object Details title bar to see more or less of the Object Details.

  • Expand or collapse the Details and Relationships boxes to see more or less information.

Step 6

(Optional) The Relationships box shows how an object is used. It may be associated with a device or a policy. If the object is associated with a device, you can click the device name and then click View Configuration to see the configuration of the device. Security Cloud Control shows you the device's configuration file and highlights the entry for that object.

Filters

You can use many different filters on the Security Devices and Objects pages to find the devices and objects you are looking for.

To filter, click in the left-hand pane of the Security Devices, Policies, and Objects tabs:

The Security Devices filter allows you to filter by device type, hardware and software versions, snort version, configuration status, connection states, conflict detection, and secure device connectors, and labels. You can apply filters to find devices within a selected device type tab. You can use filters to find devices within the selected device type tab.


Note

When the FTD tab is opened, the filter pane provides filters to show FDM-managed devices based on the management application through which the devices are accessed from Security Cloud Control.

  • FDM: Devices managed using FTD API or FDM.

  • FMC-FTD: Devices managed using Firepower Management Center.

  • FTD: Devices managed using FTD Management.

The object filter allows you to filter by device, issue type, shared objects, unassociated objects, and object type. You can include system objects in your results or not. You can also use the search field to search for objects in the filter results that contain a certain name, IP address, or port number.

The object type filter allows you to filter objects by type, such as network object, network group, URL object, URL group, service object, and service group. The shared objects filter allows filtering objects having default values or override values.

When filtering devices and objects, you can combine your search terms to create several potential search strategies to find relevant results.

In the following example, filters are applied to search objects that are "Issues (Used OR Inconsistent) AND Shared Objects with Additional Values.

Object Filters

To filter, click in the left-hand pane of the Objects tab:

  • Filter by Device: Lets you pick a specific device so that you can see objects found on the selected device.

  • Issues: Lets you pick unused, duplicate, and inconsistent objects to view.

  • Ignored Issues: Lets you view all the objects whose inconsistencies you had ignored.

  • Shared Objects: Lets you view all the objects that Security Cloud Control has found to be shared on more than one device. You can choose to see shared objects with only default values or override values, or both.

  • Unassociated Objects: Lets you view all the objects that are not associated with any rule or policy.

  • Object Type: Lets you select an object type to see only those type of objects that you have selected, such as network objects, network groups, URL objects, URL groups, service objects, and service groups.

Sub filters – Within each main filter, there are sub-filters you can apply to further narrow down your selection. These sub-filters are based on Object Type – Network, Service, Protocol, etc.

The selected filters in this filter bar would return objects that match the following criteria:

* Objects that are on one of two devices. (Click Filter by Device to specify the devices.) AND are

* Inconsistent objects AND are

* Network objects OR Service objects AND

* Have the word "group" in their object naming convention

Because Show System Objects is checked, the result would include both system objects and user-defined objects.

Show System-Defined Objects Filter

Some devices come with pre-defined objects for common services. These system objects are convenient because they are already made for you and you can use them in your rules and policies. There can be many system objects in the objects table. System objects cannot be edited or deleted.

Show System-Defined Objects is off by default. To display system objects in the object table, check Show System-Defined Objects in the filter bar. To hide system objects in the object table, leave Show System Objects unchecked in the filter bar.

If you hide system objects, they will not be included in your search and filtering results. If you show system objects, they will be included in your object search and filtering results.

Configure Object Filters

You can filter on as few or as many criteria as you want. The more categories you filter by, the fewer results you should expect.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Open the filter panel by clicking the filter icon at the top of the page. Uncheck any filters that have been checked to make sure no objects are inadvertently filtered out. Additionally, look at the search field and delete any text that may have been entered in the search field.

Step 3

If you want to restrict your results to those found on particular devices:

  1. Click Filter By Device.

  2. Search all the devices or click a device tab to search for only devices of a certain kind.

  3. Check the device you want to include in your filter criteria.

  4. Click OK.

Step 4

Check Show System Objects to include system objects in your search results. Uncheck Show System Objects to exclude system objects from your search results.

Step 5

Check the object Issues you want to filter by. If you check more than one issue, objects in any of the categories you check are included in your filter results.

Step 6

Check Ignored issues if you want to see the object that had issues but was ignored by the administrator.

Step 7

Check the required filter in Shared Objects if you are filtering for objects shared between two or more devices.

  • Default Values: Filters objects having only the default values.

  • Override Values: Filters objects having overridden values.

  • Additional Values: Filters objects having additional values.

Step 8

Check Unassociated if you are filtering for objects that are not part of any rule or policy.

Step 9

Check the Object Types you want to filter by.

Step 10

You can also add an object name, IP address, or port number to the Objects search field to find objects with your search criteria among the filtered results.

When to Exclude a Device from Filter Criteria

When adding a device to filtering criteria, the results show you the objects on a device but not the relationships of those objects to other devices. For example, assume ObjectA is shared between ASA1 and ASA2. If you were to filter objects to find shared objects on ASA1, you would find ObjectA but the Relationships pane would only show you that the object is on ASA1.

To see all the devices to which an object is related, don't specify a device in your search criteria. Filter by the other criteria and add search criteria if you choose to. Select an object that Security Cloud Control identifies and then look in the Relationships pane. You will see all the devices and policies the object is related to.

Unignore Objects

One way to resolve unused, duplicate, or inconsistent objects is to ignore them. You may decide that though an object is unused, a duplicate, or inconsistent, there are valid reasons for that state and you choose to leave the object issue unresolved. At some point in the future, you may want to resolve those ignored objects. As Security Cloud Control does not display ignored objects when you search for object issues, you will need to filter the object list for ignored objects and then act on the results.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects and choose an option.

Step 2

Filter and search for ignored objects.

Step 3

In the Object table, select the object you want to unignore. You can unignore one object at a time.

Step 4

Click Unignore in the details pane.

Step 5

Confirm your request. Now, when you filter your objects by issue, you should find the object that was previously ignored.

Deleting Objects

You can delete a single object or mulitple objects.

Delete a Single Object


Caution

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

Changes you make to the ASA, FDM, and FTD network objects and groups are reflected in the corresponding cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center network object or group. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the changes to the on-premises management center on which you have these objects.

Deleting a network object or group from either page deletes the object or group from both pages.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the object you want to delete by using object filters and the search field, and select it.

Step 3

Review the Relationships pane. If the object is used in a policy or in an object group, you cannot delete the object until you remove it from that policy or group.

Step 4

In the Actions pane, click the Remove icon .

Step 5

Confirm that you want to delete the object by clicking OK.

Step 6

Review and deploy the changes you made, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Delete a Group of Unused Objects

As you onboard devices and start resolving object issues, you find many unused objects. You can delete up to 50 unused objects at a time.

Procedure

Step 1

Use the Issues filter to find unused objects. You can also use the Device filter to find objects that are not associated with a device by selecting No Device. Once you have filtered the object list, the object checkboxes appear.

Step 2

Check the Select all checkbox in the object table header to select all the objects found by the filter that appear in the object table; or, check individual checkboxes for individual objects you want to delete.

Step 3

In the Actions pane, click the Remove icon .

Step 4

Review and deploy now the changes you made, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Network Objects

A network object can contain a host name, a network IP address, a range of IP addresses, a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), or a subnetwork expressed in CIDR notation. Network groups are collections of network objects and other individual addresses or subnetworks you add to the group. Network objects and network groups are used in access rules, network policies, and NAT rules. You can create, update, and delete network objects and network groups using Security Cloud Control.

Note that not all platforms support network objects, such as Cisco Merkai and Multicloud Defense; when you share dynamic objects, Security Cloud Control automatically translates the appropriate information from the originating platform or device into a set of usable information that Security Cloud Control can use.

Table 4. Pemitted Values of Network Objects

Device type

IPv4 / IPv6

Single Address

Range of addresses

Fully Qualified Domain Name

Subnet using CIDR Notation

FTD

IPv4 and IPv6

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Multicloud Defense

IPv4 and IPv6

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes
Table 5. Pemitted Contents of a Network Group

Device type

IP Value

Network Object

Network Groups

FTD

No

Yes

Yes

Multicloud Defense

Yes

Yes

Yes

Reusing Network Objects Across Products

If you have a Security Cloud Control tenant with a cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center and one or more on-premises management centers onboarded to your tenant:

  • When you create a Secure Firewall Threat Defense, FDM-managed threat defense, ASA, or Meraki network object or group, a copy of the object is also added to the objects list on the Objects page used when configuring cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, and vice versa.

  • When you create a Secure Firewall Threat Defense, FDM-managed threat defense, or ASA network object or group, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each On-Premises Firewall Management Center for which Discover & Manage Network Objects is enabled. From this list, you can choose and deploy the object to the on-premises management center on which you want to use the object and discard the ones that you do not want. Navigate , Administration > Firewall Management Center select the on-premises management center, and click Objects to see your objects in the On-Premises Firewall Management Center user interface and assign them to policies.

Changes you make to network objects or groups on either page apply to the object or group instance on both pages. Deleting an object from one page also deletes the corresponding copy of the object from the other page.

Exceptions:

  • If a network object of the same name already exists for cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, the new Secure Firewall Threat Defense, FDM-managed threat defense, ASA, or Meraki network object will not be replicated on the Objects page of Security Cloud Control.

  • Network objects and groups in onboarded threat defense devices that are managed by on-premises Secure Firewall Management Center are not replicated and cannot be used in cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center.

    Note that for on-premises Secure Firewall Management Center instances that have been migrated to cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, network objects and groups are replicated to the Security Cloud Control objects page if they are used in policies that were deployed to FTD devices.

  • Sharing Network Objects between Security Cloud Control and cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is automatically enabled on new tenants but must be requested for existing tenants. If your network objects are not being shared with cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center, contact TAC to have the features enabled on your tenant.

  • Sharing network objects between Security Cloud Control and On-Premises Management Center is not automatically enabled on Security Cloud Control for new on-premises management centers onboarded to Security Cloud Control. If your network objects are not being shared with On-Premises Management Center, ensure Discover & Manage Network Objects toggle button is enabled for the on-premises management center in Settings or contact TAC to have the features enabled on your tenant.

Viewing Network Objects

Network objects you create using Security Cloud Control and those Security Cloud Control recognizes in an onboarded device's configuration are displayed on the Objects page. They are labeled with their object type. This allows you to filter by object type to quickly find the object you are looking for.

When you select a network object on the Objects page, you see the object's values in the Details pane. The Relationships pane shows you if the object is used in a policy and on what device the object is stored.

When you click on a network group you see the contents of that group. The network group is a conglomerate of all the values given to it by the network objects.

Create or Edit a Firepower Network Object or Network Groups

A Firepower network object can contain a hostname, an IP address, or a subnet address expressed in CIDR notation. Network groups are conglomerates of network objects and network groups that are used in access rules, network policies, and NAT rules. You can create, read, update, and delete network objects and network groups using Security Cloud Control.

Firepower network objects and groups can be used by ASA, threat defense, FDM-managed, and Meraki devices. See Reusing Network Objects Across Products.


Note

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

When you create an FTD, FDM, or ASA network object or group on the Objects page, a copy of the object is automatically added to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center and vice-versa. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the objects to the on-premises management center on which you want these objects.

Caution

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

Changes you make to the ASA, FDM, and FTD network objects and groups are reflected in the corresponding cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center network object or group. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the changes to the on-premises management center on which you have these objects.

Deleting a network object or group from either page deletes the object or group from both pages.
Table 6. IP addresses that can be added to network objects

Device type

IPv4 / IPv6

Single Address

Range of addresses

Partially Qualified Domain Name (PQDN)

Subnet using CIDR Notation
Firepower IPv4 / IPv6 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Create a Firepower Network Object

Note

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

When you create an FTD, FDM, or ASA network object or group on the Objects page, a copy of the object is automatically added to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center and vice-versa. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the objects to the on-premises management center on which you want these objects.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click the blue plus button to create an object.

Step 3

Click FTD > Network.

Step 4

Enter an Object Name.

Step 5

Select Create a network object.

Step 6

In the Value section:

  • Select eq and enter a single IP address, a subnet address expressed in CIDR notation, or a Partially Qualified Domain Name (PQDN).

  • Select range and enter an IP address range.

Note

 

Do not set a host bit value. If you enter a host bit value other than 0, Security Cloud Control unsets it while creating the object, because the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center only accepts IPv6 objects with host bits not set.

Step 7

Click Add.

Attention: The newly created network objects aren't associated with any FDM-managed device as they aren't part of any rule or policy. To see these objects, select the Unassociated objects category in object filters. For more information, see Object Filters. Once you use the unassociated objects in a device's rule or policy, such objects are associated with that device.

Create a Firepower Network Group

A network group can contain network objects and network groups. When you create a new network group, you can search for existing objects by their name, IP addresses, IP address range, or FQDN and add them to the network group. If the object isn't present, you can instantly create that object in the same interface and add it to the network group.


Note

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

When you create an FTD, FDM, or ASA network object or group on the Objects page, a copy of the object is automatically added to the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center and vice-versa. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the objects to the on-premises management center on which you want these objects.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click the blue plus button to create an object.

Step 3

Click FTD > Network.

Step 4

Enter an Object Name.

Step 5

Select Create a network group.

Step 6

In the Values field, enter a value or name. When you start typing, Security Cloud Control provides object names or values that match your entry.

Step 7

You can choose one of the existing objects shown or create a new one based on the name or value that you have entered.

Step 8

If Security Cloud Control finds a match, to choose an existing object, click Add to add the network object or network group to the new network group.

Step 9

If you have entered a value or object that is not present, you can perform one of the following:

  • Click Add as New Object With This Name to create a new object with that name. Enter a value and click the checkmark to save it.

  • Click Add as New Object to create a new object. The object name and value are the same. Enter a name and click the checkmark to save it.

It's is possible to create a new object even though the value is already present. You can make changes to those objects and save them.

Note: You can click the edit icon to modify the details. Clicking the delete button doesn't delete the object itself; instead, it removes it from the network group.

Step 10

After adding the required objects, click Save to create a new network group.

Step 11

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Edit a Firepower Network Object

Caution

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

Changes you make to the ASA, FDM, and FTD network objects and groups are reflected in the corresponding cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center network object or group. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the changes to the on-premises management center on which you have these objects.

Deleting a network object or group from either page deletes the object or group from both pages.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the object you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Select the network object and click the edit icon in the Actions pane.

Step 4

Edit the values in the dialog box in the same fashion that you created them in "Create a Firepower Network Group".

Note

 
Click the delete icon next to remove the object from the network group.

Step 5

Click Save. Security Cloud Control displays the devices that will be affected by the change.

Step 6

Click Confirm to finalize the change to the object and any devices affected by it.

Edit a Firepower Network Group

Caution

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

Changes you make to the ASA, FDM, and FTD network objects and groups are reflected in the corresponding cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center network object or group. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the changes to the on-premises management center on which you have these objects.

Deleting a network object or group from either page deletes the object or group from both pages.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the network group you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Select the network group and click the edit icon in the Actions pane.

Step 4

Change the object name and description if needed.

Step 5

If you want to change the objects or network groups that are already added to the network group, perform the following steps:

  1. Click the edit icon appearing beside the object name or network group to modify them.

  2. Click the checkmark to save your changes. Note: You can click the remove icon to delete the value from a network group.

Step 6

If you want to add new network objects or network groups to this network group, you have to perform the following steps:

  1. In the Values field, enter a new value or the name of an existing network object. When you start typing, Security Cloud Control provides object names or values that match your entry. You can choose one of the existing objects shown or create a new one based on the name or value that you have entered.

  2. If Security Cloud Control finds a match, to choose an existing object, click Add to add the network object or network group to the new network group.

  3. If you have entered a value or object that is not present, you can perform one of the following:

    • Click Add as New Object With This Name to create a new object with that name. Enter a value and click the checkmark to save it.

    • Click Add as New Object to create a new object. The object name and value are the same. Enter a name and click the checkmark to save it.

It's is possible to create a new object even though the value is already present. You can make changes to those objects and save them.

Step 7

Click Save. Security Cloud Control displays the policies that will be affected by the change.

Step 8

Click Confirm to finalize the change to the object and any devices affected by it.

Step 9

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Add an Object Override

Caution

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

Changes you make to the ASA, FDM, and FTD network objects and groups are reflected in the corresponding cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center network object or group. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the changes to the on-premises management center on which you have these objects.

Deleting a network object or group from either page deletes the object or group from both pages.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the object to which you want to add an override, using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Select the network object and click the edit icon in the Actions pane.

Step 4

Enter the value in the Override Values dialog box and click + Add Value.

Important

 
The override you are adding must have the same type of value that the object contains. For example, to a network object, you can configure an override only with a network value and not a host value.

Step 5

Once you see that the value is added, click the cell in the Devices column in Override Values.

Step 6

Click Add Devices, and choose the device to which you want the override to be added. The device you select must contain the object to which you are adding the override.

Step 7

Click Save. Security Cloud Control displays the devices that will be affected by the change.

Step 8

Click Confirm to finalize the addition of the override to the object and any devices affected by it.

Note

 
You can add more than one override to an object. However, you must select a different device, which contains the object, each time you are adding an override.

Step 9

See Object Overrides to know more about object overrides and Edit Object Overrides to edit an existing override.

Edit Object Overrides

You can modify the value of an existing override as long as the object is present on the device.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Security Cloud Control navigation bar on the left, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the object having override you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Select the object having override and click the edit icon in the Actions pane.

Step 4

Modify the override value:

  • Click the edit icon to modify the value.

  • Click on the cell in the Devices column in Override Values to assign new devices. You can select an already assigned device and click Remove Overrides to remove overrides on that device.

  • Click arrow in Override Values to push and make it as the default value of the shared object.

  • Click the delete icon next to the override you want to remove.

Step 5

Click Save. Security Cloud Control displays the devices that will be affected by the change.

Step 6

Click Confirm to finalize the change to the object and any devices affected by it.

Step 7

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Add Additional Values to a Shared Network Group

The values in a shared network group that are present on all devices associated with it are called "default values". Security Cloud Control allows you to add "additional values" to the shared network group and assign those values to some devices associated with that shared network group. When Security Cloud Control deploys the changes to the devices, it determines the contents and pushes the "default values" to all devices associated with the shared network group and the "additional values" only to the specified devices.

For example, consider a scenario where you have four AD main servers in your head office that should be accessible from all your sites. Therefore, you have created an object group named "Active-Directory" to use in all your sites. Now you want to add two more AD servers to one of your branch offices. You can do this by adding their details as additional values specific to that branch office on the object group "Active-Directory". These two servers do not participate in determining whether the object "Active-Directory" is consistent or shared. Therefore, the four AD main servers are accessible from all your sites, but the branch office (with two additional servers) can access two AD servers and four AD main servers.


Note

If there are inconsistent shared network groups, you can combine them into a single shared network group with additional values. See Resolve Inconsistent Object Issues for more information.


Caution

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

Changes you make to the ASA, FDM, and FTD network objects and groups are reflected in the corresponding cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center network object or group. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the changes to the on-premises management center on which you have these objects.

Deleting a network object or group from either page deletes the object or group from both pages.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the shared network group you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Click the edit icon in the Actions pane.

  • The Devices field shows the devices the shared network group is present.

  • The Usage field shows the rulesets associated with the shared network group.

  • The Default Values field specifies the default network objects and their values associated with the shared network group that was provided during their creation. Next to this field, you can see the number of devices that contain this default value, and you can click to see their names and device types. You can also see the rulesets associated with this value.

Step 4

In the Additional Values field, enter a value or name. When you start typing, Security Cloud Control provides object names or values that match your entry.

Step 5

You can choose one of the existing objects shown or create a new one based on the name or value that you have entered.

Step 6

If Security Cloud Control finds a match, to choose an existing object, click Add to add the network object or network group to the new network group.

Step 7

If you have entered a value or object that is not present, you can perform one of the following:

  • Click Add as New Object With This Name to create a new object with that name. Enter a value and click the checkmark to save it.

  • Click Add as New Object to create a new object. The object name and value are the same. Enter a name and click the checkmark to save it.

It's is possible to create a new object even though the value is already present. You can make changes to those objects and save them.

Step 8

In the Devices column, click the cell associated with the newly added object and click Add Devices.

Step 9

Select the devices that you want and click OK.

Step 10

Click Save. Security Cloud Control displays the devices that will be affected by the change.

Step 11

Click Confirm to finalize the change to the object and any devices affected by it.

Step 12

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Edit Additional Values in a Shared Network Group

Caution

If cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

Changes you make to the ASA, FDM, and FTD network objects and groups are reflected in the corresponding cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center network object or group. In addition, an entry is created in the Devices with Pending Changes page for each on-premises management center with Discover & Manage Network Objects enabled, from which you can choose and deploy the changes to the on-premises management center on which you have these objects.

Deleting a network object or group from either page deletes the object or group from both pages.
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the object having the override you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Click the edit icon in the Actions pane.

Step 4

Modify the override value:

  • Click the edit icon to modify the value.

  • Click the cell in the Devices column to assign new devices. You can select an already assigned device and click Remove Overrides to remove overrides on that device.

  • Click arrow in Default Values to push and make it an additional value of the shared network group. All devices associated with the shared network group are automatically assigned to it.

  • Click arrow in Override Values to push and make it as default objects of the shared network group.

  • Click the delete icon next to remove the object from the network group.

Step 5

Click Save. Security Cloud Control displays the devices that will be affected by the change.

Step 6

Click Confirm to finalize the change to the object and any devices affected by it.

Step 7

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Deleting Network Objects and Groups in Security Cloud Control

If Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is deployed on your tenant:

Deleting a network object or group from the Objects page deletes the replicated network object or group from the Objects page on the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center and vice-versa.

URL Objects

URL objects and URL groups are used by Firepower devices. Use URL objects and groups (collectively referred to as URL objects) to define the URL or IP addresses of web requests. You can use these objects to implement manual URL filtering in access control policies or blocking in Security Intelligence policies. A URL object defines a single URL or IP address, whereas a URL group defines more than one URL or IP address.

Before You Begin

When creating URL objects, keep the following points in mind:

  • If you do not include a path (that is, there is no / character in the URL), the match is based on the server's hostname only. The hostname is considered a match if it comes after the :// separator, or after any dot in the hostname. For example, ign.com matches ign.com and www.ign.com, but it does not match verisign.com.

  • If you include one or more / character, the entire URL string is used for a substring match, including the server name, path, and any query parameters. However, we recommend that you do not use manual URL filtering to block or allow individual web pages or parts of sites, as servers can be reorganized and pages moved to new paths. Substring matching can also lead to unexpected matches, where the string you include in the URL object also matches paths on unintended servers or strings within query parameters.

  • The system disregards the encryption protocol (HTTP vs HTTPS). In other words, if you block a website, both HTTP and HTTPS traffic to that website is blocked, unless you use an application condition to target a specific protocol. When creating a URL object, you do not need to specify the protocol when creating an object. For example, use example.com rather than http://example.com.

  • If you plan to use a URL object to match HTTPS traffic in an access control rule, create the object using the subject common name in the public key certificate used to encrypt the traffic. Also, the system disregards subdomains within the subject common name, so do not include subdomain information. For example, use example.com rather than www.example.com.

    However, please understand that the subject common name in the certificate might be completely unrelated to a web site's domain name. For example, the subject common name in the certificate for youtube.com is *.google.com (this of course might change at any time). You will get more consistent results if you use the SSL Decryption policy to decrypt HTTPS traffic so that URL filtering rules work on decrypted traffic.


    Note

    URL objects will not match HTTPS traffic if the browser resumes a TLS session because the certificate information is no longer available. So even if you carefully configure the URL object, you might get inconsistent results for HTTPS connections.

Create or Edit an FDM-Managed URL Object

URL objects are reusable components that specify a URL or IP address.

To create a URL object, follow these steps:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > URL.

Step 3

Enter an object name and description.

Step 4

Select Create a URL object.

Step 5

Enter the specific URL or IP address for your object.

Step 6

Click Add.

Create a Firepower URL Group

A URL group can be made up of one or more URL objects representing one or more URLs or IP addresses. The Firepower Device Manager and Firepower Management Center also refer to these objects as "URL Objects."

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > URL.

Step 3

Enter an object name and description.

Step 4

Select Create a URL group.

Step 5

Add an existing object by clicking Add Object, selecting an object, and clicking Select. Repeat this step to add more objects.

Step 6

Click Add when you are done adding URL objects to the URL group.

Edit a Firepower URL Object or URL Group
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Filter the objects to find the object you want to edit and then select the object in the object table.

Step 3

In the details pane, click to edit.

Step 4

Edit the values in the dialog box in the same fashion that you created them in the procedures above.

Step 5

Click Save.

Step 6

Security Cloud Control displays the policies that will be affected by the change. Click Confirm to finalize the change to the object and any policy affected by it.

Application Filter Objects

Application filter objects are used by Firepower devices. An application filter object defines the applications used in an IP connection, or a filter that defines applications by type, category, tag, risk, or business relevance. You can use these objects in policies to control traffic instead of using port specifications.

Although you can specify individual applications, application filters simplify policy creation and administration. For example, you could create an access control rule that identifies and blocks all high risk, low business relevance applications. If a user attempts to use one of those applications, the session is blocked.

You can select applications and application filters directly in a policy without using application filter objects. However, an object is convenient if you want to create several policies for the same group of applications or filters. The system includes several pre-defined application filters, which you cannot edit or delete.


Note

Cisco frequently updates and adds additional application detectors via system and vulnerability database (VDB) updates. Thus, a rule blocking high risk applications can automatically apply to new applications without you having to update the rule manually.


Note

When an FDM-managed device is onboarded to Security Cloud Control, it converts the application filters to application filter objects without altering the rule defined in Access Rule or SSL Decryption. Because of a configuration change, the device's configuration status is changed to 'Not Synced' and requires configuration deployment from Security Cloud Control. In general, FDM does not convert the application filters to application filter objects until you manually save the filters.

Create and Edit a Firepower Application Filter Object

An application filter object allows you to target hand-picked applications or a group of applications identified by the filters. This application filter objects can be used in policies.

Create a Firepower Application Filter Object

To create an application filter object, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > Application Filter.

Step 3

Enter an object name for the object and optionally, a description.

Step 4

Click Add Filter and select the applications and filters to add to the object.

The initial list shows applications in a continually scrolling list. Click Advanced Filter to see the filter options and to get an easier view for selecting applications. Click Add when you have made your selections. You can repeat the process to add additional applications or filters.

Note

 

Multiple selections within a single filter criteria have an OR relationship. For example, Risk is High OR Very High. The relationship between filters is AND, so Risk is High OR Very High, AND Business Relevance is Low OR Very Low. As you select filters, the list of applications in the display updates to show only those that meet the criteria. You can use these filters to help you find applications that you want to add individually, or to verify that you are selecting the desired filters to add to the rule.

Risks: The likelihood that the application is used for purposes that might be against your organization's security policy, from very low to very high.

Business Relevance: The likelihood that the application is used within the context of your organization's business operations, as opposed to recreationally, from very low to very high.

Types: The type of application.

  • Application Protocol: Application protocols such as HTTP and SSH, which represent communications between hosts.

  • Client Protocol: Clients such as web browsers and email clients, which represent software running on the host.

  • Web Application: Web applications such as MPEG video and Facebook, which represent the content or requested URL for HTTP traffic.

Categories: A general classification for the application that describes its most essential function.

Tags: Additional information about the application, similar to category.

For encrypted traffic, the system can identify and filter traffic using only the applications tagged SSL Protocol. Applications without this tag can only be detected in unencrypted or decrypted traffic. Also, the system assigns the decrypted traffic tag to applications that the system can detect in decrypted traffic only, not encrypted or unencrypted.

Applications List (bottom of the display): This list updates as you select filters from the options above the list, so you can see the applications that currently match the filter. Use this list to verify that your filter is targeting the desired applications when you intend to add filter criteria to the rule. To add a specific application or applications to your object, select them from the filtered list. Once you select the applications, the filter will no longer apply. If you want the filter itself to be the object, do not select an application from the list. Then the object will represent ever application identified by the filter.

Step 5

Click OK to save your changes.

Edit a Firepower Application Filter Object
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the object you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Select the object you want to edit.

Step 4

Click the edit icon in the Actions pane of the details panel.

Step 5

Edit the values in the dialog box in the same fashion that you created them in the procedures above.

Step 6

Click Save.

Step 7

Security Cloud Control displays the policies that will be affected by the change. Click Confirm to finalize the change to the object and any policy affected by it.

Geolocation Objects

A geolocation object defines countries and continents that host the device that is the source or destination of traffic. You can use these objects in policies to control traffic instead of using IP addresses. For example, using geographical location, you could easily restrict access to a particular country without needing to know all of the potential IP addresses used there.

You can typically select geographical locations directly in a policy without using geolocation objects. However, an object is convenient if you want to create several policies for the same group of countries and continents.

Update Geolocation Database

To ensure that you are using up-to-date geographical location data to filter your traffic, Cisco strongly recommends that you regularly update the geolocation database (GeoDB). At this time, this is not a task that you can perform using Security Cloud Control. See the following sections of the Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Configuration Guide for Firepower Device Manager for the version your device is running to learn more about the GeoDB and how to update it.

  • Updating System Databases and Feeds

  • Updating System Databases

Create and Edit a Firepower Geolocation Filter Object

You can create a geolocation object by itself on the object page or when creating a security policy. This procedure creates a geolocation object from the object page.

To create a geolocation object, follow these steps:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > Geolocation.

Step 3

Enter an object name for the object and optionally, a description.

Step 4

In the filter bar, start typing the name of a country or a region and you are presented with a list of possible matches.

Step 5

Check the country, countries, or regions that you want to add to the object.

Step 6

Click Add.

Edit a Geolocation Object
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, choose Objects.

Step 2

Use the filter panes and search field to locate your object.

Step 3

In the Actions pane, click Edit.

Step 4

You can change the name of the object and add or remove countries and regions to your object.

Step 5

Click Save.

Step 6

You will be notified if any devices are impacted. Click Confirm.

Step 7

If a device or policy was impacted, open the Security Devices page and Preview and Deploy the changes to the device.

DNS Group Objects

Domain Name System (DNS) groups define a list of DNS servers and some associated attributes. DNS servers are needed to resolve fully-qualified domain names (FQDN), such as www.example.com, to IP addresses. You can configure different DNS group objects for management and data interfaces.

FDM-managed devices must have a DNS server configured prior to creating a new DNS Group Object. You can either add a DNS Server to the Firepower Threat Defense Device Settings in Security Cloud Control or create a DNS server in firewall device manager and then sync the FDM-managed configuration to Security Cloud Control. To create or modify the DNS server settings in firewall device manager, see Configuring DNS for Data and Management Interfaces in the Cisco Firepower Device Manager Configuration Guide, Version 6.4. or later.

Create a DNS Group Object

Use the following procedure to create a new DNS group object in Security Cloud Control:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > DNS Group.

Step 3

Enter an Object Name.

Step 4

(Optional) Add a description.

Step 5

Enter the IP address of a DNS server. You can add up to six DNS servers; click the Add DNS Server. If you want to remove a server address, click the delete icon.

Note

 

The list is in priority order: the first server in the list is always used, and subsequent servers are used only if a response is not received from the servers above it. Although you can add up to six servers, only the first 3 servers listed will be used for the management interface.

Step 6

Enter the Domain Search Name. This domain is added to hostnames that are not fully-qualified, for example, serverA instead of serverA.example.com.

Step 7

Enter the amount of Retries. The number of times, from 0 to 10, to retry the list of DNS servers when the system does not receive a response. The default is 2. This setting applies to DNS groups used on the data interfaces only.

Step 8

Enter the Timeout value. The number of seconds, from 1 to 30, to wait before trying the next DNS server. The default is 2 seconds. Each time the system retries the list of servers, this timeout doubles. This setting applies to DNS groups used on the data interfaces only.

Step 9

Click Add.

Edit a DNS Group Object

You can edit a DNS group object that was created in Security Cloud Control or in firewall device manager. Use the following procedure to edit an existing DNS group object:

Procedure

Step 1

In the Security Cloud Control navigation bar on the left, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the DNS Group Object you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Select the object and click the edit icon in the Actions pane.

Step 4

Edit any of the following entries:

  • Object Name.

  • Description.

  • DNS Server. You can edit, add, or remove DNS servers from this list.

  • Domain Search Name.

  • Retries.

  • Timeout.

Step 5

Click Save.

Step 6

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Delete a DNS Group Object

Use the following procedure to delete a DNS Group Object from Security Cloud Control:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the DNS Group Object you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Select the object and click the Remove icon .

Step 4

Confirm you want to delete the DNS group object and click Ok.

Step 5

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Add a DNS Group Object as an FDM-Managed DNS Server

You can add a DNS group object as the preferred DNS Group for either the Data Interface or the Management Interface. See FDM-Managed Device Settings for more information.

Certificate Objects

Digital certificates provide digital identification for authentication. Certificates are used for SSL (Secure Socket Layer), TLS (Transport Layer Security), and DTLS (Datagram TLS) connections, such as HTTPS and LDAPS.

See the About Certificates and Configuring Certificates following sections of the Resuable Objects chapter of the Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Configuration Guide for Firepower Device Manager for the version your device is running.

About Certificates

Digital certificates provide digital identification for authentication. A digital certificate includes information that identifies a device or user, such as the name, serial number, company, department, or IP address. A digital certificate also includes a copy of the public key for the user or device. Certificates are used for SSL (Secure Socket Layer), TLS (Transport Layer Security), and DTLS (Datagram TLS) connections, such as HTTPS and LDAPS.

You can create the following types of certificate:

  • Internal certificates—Internal identity certificates are certificates for specific systems or hosts. You can generate these yourself using the OpenSSL toolkit or get them from a Certificate Authority. You can also generate a self-signed certificate.

    The system comes with the following pre-defined internal certificates, which you can use as is or replace: DefaultInternalCertificate and DefaultWebServerCertificate

  • Internal Certificate Authority (CA) certificates—Internal CA certificates are certificates that the system can use to sign other certificates. These certificates differ from internal identity certificates with respect to the basic constraints extension and the CA flag, which are enabled for CA certificates but disabled for identity certificates. You can generate these yourself using the OpenSSL toolkit or get them from a Certificate Authority. You can also generate a self-signed internal CA certificate. If you configure self-signed internal CA certificates, the CA runs on the device itself.

    The system comes with the following pre-defined internal CA certificate, which you can use as is or replace: NGFW-Default-InternalCA

  • Trusted Certificate Authority (CA) certificates—A trusted CA certificate is used to sign other certificates. It is self-signed and called a root certificate. A certificate that is issued by another CA certificate is called a subordinate certificate.

    Certificate Authorities (CAs) are trusted authorities that "sign" certificates to verify their authenticity, thereby guaranteeing the identity of the device or user. CAs issue digital certificates in the context of a PKI, which uses public-key or private-key encryption to ensure security. A CA can be a trusted third party, such as VeriSign, or a private (in-house) CA that you establish within your organization. CAs are responsible for managing certificate requests and issuing digital certificates.

    The system includes many trusted CA certificates from third party Certificate Authorities. These are used by SSL decryption policies for Decrypt Re-Sign actions.

For more information, see the Certificate Types Used by Feature section of the Reusable Objects chapter of the Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Configuration Guide for Firepower Device Manager for the version your device is running.

Certificate Types Used by Feature

You need to create the right type of certificate for each feature. The following features require certificates.

Identity Policies (Captive Portal)—Internal Certificate

(Optional.) Captive portal is used in identity policies. Users must accept this certificate when authenticating to the device for purposes of identifying themselves and receiving the IP address associated with their usernames. If you do not supply a certificate, the device uses an automatically generated certificate.

SSL Decryption Policy—Internal, Internal CA, and Trusted CA Certificates.

(Required.) The SSL decryption policy uses certificates for the following purposes:

  • Internal certificates are used for known key decryption rules.

  • Internal CA certificates are used for decrypt re-sign rules when creating the session between the client and FDM-managed device.

  • Trusted CA certificates

    • They are used indirectly for decrypt re-sign rules when creating the session between the FDM-managed device and server. Unlike the other certificates, you do not directly configure these certificates in the SSL decryption policy; they simply need to be uploaded to the system. The system includes a large number of trusted CA certificates, so you might not need to upload any additional certificates.

    • When creating an Active Directory Realm object and configuring the directory server to use encryption.

Configuring Certificates

Certificates used in identity policies or SSL decryption policies must be an X509 certificate in PEM or DER format. You can use OpenSSL to generate certificates if needed, obtain them from a trusted Certificate Authority, or create self-signed certificates.

Use these procedures to configure certificate objects:

Uploading Internal and Internal CA Certificates

Internal identity certificates are certificates for specific systems or hosts. You can generate these yourself using the OpenSSL toolkit or get them from a Certificate Authority. You can also generate a self-signed certificate.

Internal Certificate Authority (CA) certificates (Internal CA certificates) are certificates that the system can use to sign other certificates. These certificates differ from internal identity certificates with respect to the basic constraints extension and the CA flag, which are enabled for CA certificates but disabled for identity certificates. You can generate these yourself using the OpenSSL toolkit or get them from a Certificate Authority. You can also generate a self-signed internal CA certificate. If you configure self-signed internal CA certificates, the CA runs on the device itself.

For information on the features that use these certificates, see Certificate Type Used by Feature.

Procedure

This procedure creates an internal or internal CA certificate by uploading a certificate file or pasting existing certificate text into a text box. If you want to generate a self signed certificate, see Generating Self-Signed Internal and Internal CA Certificates.

To create an internal or internal CA certificate object, or when adding a new certificate object to a policy, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

Do one of the following:

  • Create the certificate object in the Objects page:

    1. In the left pane, click Objects.

    2. Click the plus button and select FTD > Certificate

  • Click Create New Object when adding a new certificate object to a policy.

Step 2

Enter a Name for the certificate. The name is used in the configuration as an object name only, it does not become part of the certificate itself.

Step 3

In step 1, select Internal Certificate or Internal CA.

Step 4

In step 2, select Upload to upload the certificate file.

Step 5

In step 3, in the Server Certificate area, paste the certificate contents in the text box or upload the certificate file as explained in the wizard. If you paste the certificate into the text box, the certificate must include the BEGIN CERTIFICATE and END CERTIFICATE lines. For example: 

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
 MIICMTCCAZoCCQDdUV3NGK/cUjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADBdMQswCQYDVQQGEwJV
UzETMBEGA1UECAwKU29tZS1TdGF0ZTEhMB8GA1UECgwYSW50ZXJuZXQgV2lkZ2l0
(...5 lines removed...)
shGJDReRYJQqilhHZrYTWZAYTrD7NQPHutK+ZiJng67cPgnNDuXEn55UwMOQoHBp
HMUwmhiGZlzJM8BpX2Js2yQ3ms30pr8rO+gPCPMCAwEAATANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsF
AAOBgQCB02CebA6YjJCGr2CJZrQSeUwSveRBpmOuoqm98o2Z+5gJM5CkqgfxwCUn
RV7LRfQGFYd76V/5uor4Wx2ZCjqy6+zuQEm4ZxWNSZpA9UBixFXJCs9MBO4qkG5D
vlk3WYJfcgyJ10h4E4b0W2xiixBU+xoOTLRATnbKY36EWAG5cw==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Step 6

In step 3, in the Certificate Key area, paste the key contents into the Certificate Key text box or upload the key file as explained in the wizard. If you paste the key into the text box, the key must include the BEGIN PRIVATE KEY or BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY and END PRIVATE KEY or END PRIVATE KEY lines.

Note

 

The key cannot be encrypted.

Step 7

Click Add.

Uploading Trusted CA Certificates

A trusted Certificate Authority (CA) certificate is used to sign other certificates. It is self-signed and called a root certificate. A certificate that is issued by another CA certificate is called a subordinate certificate.

For information on the features that use these certificates, see Certificate Type Used by Feature.

Obtain a trusted CA certificate from an external certificate authority, or create one using your own internal CA, for example, with OpenSSL tools. Then, use the following procedure to upload the certificate.

Procedure
Procedure

Step 1

Do one of the following:

  • Create the certificate object in the Objects page:

    1. In the left pane, click Objects.

    2. Click > FTD > Certificate.

  • Click Create New Object when adding a new certificate object to a policy.

Step 2

Enter a Name for the certificate. The name is used in the configuration as an object name only, it does not become part of the certificate itself.

Step 3

In step 1, select External CA Certificate and click Continue. The wizard advances to step 3.

Step 4

In step 3, in the Certificate Contents area, paste the certificate contents in the text box or upload the certificate file as explained in the wizard.

The certificate must follow these guidelines:

  • The name of the server in the certificate must match the server Hostname / IP Address. For example, if you use 10.10.10.250 as the IP address but ad.example.com in the certificate, the connection fails.

  • The certificate must be an X509 certificate in PEM or DER format.

  • The certificate you paste must include the BEGIN CERTIFICATE and END CERTIFICATE lines. For example:

    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIFgTCCA2mgAwIBAgIJANvdcLnabFGYMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMFcxCzAJBgNV
BAYTAlVTMQswCQYDVQQIDAJUWDEPMA0GA1UEBwwGYXVzdGluMRQwEgYDVQQKDAsx
OTIuMTY4LjEuMTEUMBIGA1UEAwwLMTkyLjE2OC4xLjEwHhcNMTYxMDI3MjIzNDE3
WhcNMTcxMDI3MjIzNDE3WjBXMQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzELMAkGA1UECAwCVFgxDzAN
BgNVBAcMBmF1c3RpbjEUMBIGA1UECgwLMTkyLjE2OC4xLjExFDASBgNVBAMMCzE5
Mi4xNjguMS4xMIICIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAg8AMIICCgKCAgEA5NceYwtP
ES6Ve+S9z7WLKGX5JlF58AvH82GPkOQdrixn3FZeWLQapTpJZt/vgtAI2FZIK31h
(...20 lines removed...)
hbr6HOgKlOwXbRvOdksTzTEzVUqbgxt5Lwupg3b2ebQhWJz4BZvMsZX9etveEXDh
PY184V3yeSeYjbSCF5rP71fObG9Iu6+u4EfHp/NQv9s9dN5PMffXKieqpuN20Ojv
2b1sfOydf4GMUKLBUMkhQnip6+3W
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Step 5

Click Add.

Generating Self-Signed Internal and Internal CA Certificates

Internal identity certificates are certificates for specific systems or hosts. You can generate these yourself using the OpenSSL toolkit or get them from a Certificate Authority. You can also generate a self-signed certificate.

Internal Certificate Authority (CA) certificates (Internal CA certificates) are certificates that the system can use to sign other certificates. These certificates differ from internal identity certificates with respect to the basic constraints extension and the CA flag, which are enabled for CA certificates but disabled for identity certificates. You can generate these yourself using the OpenSSL toolkit or get them from a Certificate Authority. You can also generate a self-signed internal CA certificate. If you configure self-signed internal CA certificates, the CA runs on the device itself.

You can also create these certificates using OpenSSL, or obtain them from a trusted CA, and upload them. For more information, see Uploading Internal and Internal CA Certificates.

For information on the features that use these certificates, see Certificate Type Used by Feature.


Note

New self-signed certificates are generated with a 5-year validity term. Be sure to replace certificates before they expire.

Warning

Upgrading devices that have self-signed certificates may experience issues; see New Certificate Detected for more information.

Procedure

This procedure generates a self-signed certificate by entering the appropriate certificate field values in a wizard. If you want to create an internal or internal CA certificate by uploading a certificate file, see Uploading Internal and Internal CA Certificates.

To generate a self-signed certificate, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

Do one of the following:

  • Create the certificate object in the Objects page:

    1. In the left pane, click Objects.

    2. Click > FTD > Certificate.

  • Click Create New Object when adding a new certificate object to a policy.

Step 2

Enter a Name for the certificate. The name is used in the configuration as an object name only, it does not become part of the certificate itself.

Step 3

In step 1, select Internal Certificate or Internal CA.

Step 4

In step 2, select Self-Signed to create the self-signed certificate in this step.

Step 5

Configure at least one of the following for the certificate subject and issuer information.

  • Country (C)— Select the country code from the drop-down list.

  • State or Province (ST)— The state or province to include in the certificate.

  • Locality or City (L)— The locality to include in the certificate, such as the name of the city.

  • Organization (O)— The organization or company name to include in the certificate.

  • Organizational Unit (Department) (OU)— The name of the organization unit (for example, a department name) to include in the certificate.

  • Common Name (CN)— The X.500 common name to include in the certificate. This could be the name of the device, web site, or another text string. This element is usually required for successful connections. For example, you must include a CN in the internal certificate used for remote access VPN.

Step 6

Click Add.

About IPsec Proposals

IPsec is one of the most secure methods for setting up a VPN. IPsec provides data encryption at the IP packet level, offering a robust security solution that is standards-based. With IPsec, data is transmitted over a public network through tunnels. A tunnel is a secure, logical communication path between two peers. Traffic that enters an IPsec tunnel is secured by a combination of security protocols and algorithms called a transform set. During the IPsec security association (SA) negotiation, peers search for a transform set that is the same at both peers.

There are separate IPsec proposal objects based on the IKE version, IKEv1, or IKEv2:

  • When you create an IKEv1 IPsec proposal, you select the mode in which IPsec operates, and define the required encryption and authentication types. You can select single options for the algorithms. If you want to support multiple combinations in a VPN, create and select multiple IKEv1 IPsec Proposal objects.

  • When you create an IKEv2 IPsec proposal, you can select all of the encryption and hash algorithms allowed in a VPN. The system orders the settings from the most secure to the least secure and negotiates with the peer until a match is found. This allows you to potentially send a single proposal to convey all the allowed combinations instead of the need to send each allowed combination individually as with IKEv1.

The Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP) is used for both IKEv1 and IKEv2 IPsec proposals. It provides authentication, encryption, and antireplay services. ESP is IP protocol type 50.


Note

We recommend using both encryption and authentication on IPsec tunnels.

The following topics explain how to configure IPsec proposals for each IKE version:

Managing an IKEv1 IPsec Proposal Object

IPsec Proposal objects configure the IPsec proposal used during IKE Phase 2 negotiations. The IPsec proposal defines the combination of security protocols and algorithms that secure traffic in an IPsec tunnel. There are separate objects for IKEv1 and IKEv2. Currently, Security Cloud Control supports IKEv1 IPsec proposal objects.

The Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP) is used for both IKEv1 and IKEv2 IPsec proposals. It provides authentication, encryption, and anti-replay services. ESP is IP protocol type 50.


Note

We recommend using both encryption and authentication on IPsec tunnels.
Create or Edit an IKEv1 IPsec Proposal Object

There are several pre-defined IKEv1 IPsec proposals. You can also create new proposals to implement other combinations of security settings. You cannot edit or delete system-defined objects.

The following procedure explains how you can create and edit objects directly through the Objects page. You can also create IKEv1 IPsec Proposals objects while editing the IKEv1 IPsec settings in a Site-to-Site VPN connection by clicking the Create New IKEv1 Proposal link shown in the object list.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Do one of these things:

  • Click and select FTD > IKEv1 IPsec Proposal to create the new object.

  • In the object page, select the IPsec proposal you want to edit and click Edit in the Actions pane at the right.

Step 3

Enter an object name for the new object.

Step 4

Select the Mode in which the IKEv1 IPsec Proposal object operates.

  • Tunnel mode encapsulates the entire IP packet. The IPSec header is added between the original IP header and a new IP header. This is the default. Use tunnel mode when the firewall is protecting traffic to and from hosts positioned behind the firewall. Tunnel mode is the normal way regular IPSec is implemented between two firewalls (or other security gateways) that are connected over an untrusted network, such as the Internet.

  • Transport mode encapsulates only the upper-layer protocols of an IP packet. The IPSec header is inserted between the IP header and the upper-layer protocol header (such as TCP). Transport mode requires that both the source and destination hosts support IPSec, and can only be used when the destination peer of the tunnel is the final destination of the IP packet. Transport mode is generally used only when protecting a Layer 2 or Layer 3 tunneling protocol such as GRE, L2TP, and DLSW.

Step 5

Select the ESP Encryption (Encapsulating Security Protocol encryption) algorithm for this proposal. For an explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use.

Step 6

Select the ESP Hash or integrity algorithm to use for authentication. For an explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use.

Step 7

Click Add.

Managing an IKEv2 IPsec Proposal Object

IPsec Proposal objects configure the IPsec proposal used during IKE Phase 2 negotiations. The IPsec proposal defines the combination of security protocols and algorithms that secure traffic in an IPsec tunnel.

When you create an IKEv2 IPsec proposal, you can select all of the encryption and hash algorithms allowed in a VPN. The system orders the settings from the most secure to the least secure and negotiates with the peer until a match is found. This allows you to potentially send a single proposal to convey all the allowed combinations instead of the need to send each allowed combination individually as with IKEv1.

Create or Edit an IKEv2 IPsec Proposal Object

There are several pre-defined IKEv2 IPsec proposals. You can also create new proposals to implement other combinations of security settings. You cannot edit or delete system-defined objects.

The following procedure explains how you can create and edit objects directly through the Objects page. You can also create IKEv2 IPsec Proposals objects while editing the IKEv2 IPsec settings in a VPN connection by clicking the Create New IPsec Proposal link shown in the object list.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Do one of these things:

  • Click and select FTD > IKEv2 IPsec Proposal to create the new object.

  • In the object page, select the IPsec proposal you want to edit and click Edit in the Actions pane at the right.

Step 3

Enter an object name for the new object.

Step 4

Configure the IKE2 IPsec proposal objects:

  • Encryption—The Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP) encryption algorithm for this proposal. Select all the algorithms that you want to allow. The system negotiates with the peer, starting from the strongest to the weakest algorithm until a match is agreed upon. For an explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use.

  • Integrity Hash—The hash or integrity algorithm to use for authentication. Select all the algorithms that you want to allow. The system negotiates with the peer, starting from the strongest to the weakest algorithm until a match is agreed upon. For an explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use.

Step 5

Click Add.

About Global IKE Policies

Internet Key Exchange (IKE) is a key management protocol that is used to authenticate IPsec peers, negotiate and distribute IPsec encryption keys, and automatically establish IPsec security associations (SAs).

The IKE negotiation comprises two phases. Phase 1 negotiates a security association between two IKE peers, which enables the peers to communicate securely in Phase 2. During Phase 2 negotiation, IKE establishes SAs for other applications, such as IPsec. Both phases use proposals when they negotiate a connection. An IKE proposal is a set of algorithms that two peers use to secure the negotiation between them. IKE negotiation begins by each peer agreeing on a common (shared) IKE policy. This policy states which security parameters are used to protect subsequent IKE negotiations.

IKE policy objects define the IKE proposals for these negotiations. The objects that you enable are the ones used when the peers negotiate a VPN connection: you cannot specify different IKE policies per connection. The relative priority of each object determines which of these policies are tried first, with the lower number being a higher priority. The connection is not established if the negotiation fails to find a policy that both peers can support.

To define the global IKE policy, you select which objects to enable for each IKE version. If the pre-defined objects do not satisfy your requirements, create new policies to enforce your security policy.

The following procedure explains how to configure the global policy through the Objects page. You can also enable, disable, and create policies when editing a VPN connection by clicking Edit for the IKE Policy settings.

The following topics explain how to configure IKE policies for each version:

Managing IKEv1 Policies

About IKEv1 Policy

Internet Key Exchange (IKE) version 1 policy objects contain the parameters required for IKEv1 policies when defining VPN connections. IKE is a key management protocol that facilitates the management of IPsec-based communications. It is used to authenticate IPsec peers, negotiate and distribute IPsec encryption keys, and automatically establish IPsec security associations (SAs).

There are several pre-defined IKEv1 policies. If any suit your needs, simply enable them by clicking the State toggle. You can also create new policies to implement other combinations of security settings. You cannot edit or delete system-defined objects.

Create or Edit an IKEv1 Policy

The following procedure explains how you can create and edit objects directly through the Objects page. You can also create an IKEv1 policy while editing the IKE settings in a Site-to-Site VPN connection by clicking the Create New IKEv1 Policy link shown in the object list.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Do one of these things:

  • Click and select FTD > IKEv1 Policy to create a new IKEv1 policy.

  • In the object page, select the IKEv1 policy you want to edit and click Edit in the Actions pane at the right.

Step 3

Enter an object name, up to 128 characters.

Step 4

Configure the IKEv1 properties.

  • Priority—The relative priority of the IKE policy, from 1 to 65,535. The priority determines the order of the IKE policy compared by the two negotiating peers when attempting to find a common security association (SA). If the remote IPsec peer does not support the parameters selected in your highest priority policy, it tries to use the parameters defined in the next lowest priority. The lower the number, the higher the priority.

  • Encryption—The encryption algorithm used to establish the Phase 1 security association (SA) for protecting Phase 2 negotiations. For an explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use.

  • Diffie-Hellman Group—The Diffie-Hellman group to use for deriving a shared secret between the two IPsec peers without transmitting it to each other. A larger modulus provides higher security but requires more processing time. The two peers must have a matching modulus group. For an explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Diffie-Hellman Modulus Group to Use.

  • Lifetime—The lifetime of the security association (SA), in seconds, from 120 to 2147483647 or blank. When the lifetime is exceeded, the SA expires and must be renegotiated between the two peers. As a general rule, the shorter the lifetime (up to a point), the more secure your IKE negotiations will be. However, with longer lifetimes, future IPsec security associations can be set up more quickly than with shorter lifetimes. The default is 86400. To specify an unlimited lifetime, enter no value (leave the field blank).

  • Authentication—The method of authentication to use between the two peers. For more information, see Deciding Which Authentication Method to Use.

    • Preshared Key—Use the preshared key that is defined on each device. These keys allow for a secret key to be shared between two peers and to be used by IKE during the authentication phase. If the peer is not configured with the same preshared key, the IKE SA cannot be established.

    • Certificate—Use the device identity certificates for the peers to identify each other. You must obtain these certificates by enrolling each peer in a Certificate Authority. You must also upload the trusted CA root and intermediate CA certificates used to sign the identity certificates in each peer. The peers can be enrolled in the same or a different CA. You cannot use self-signed certificates for either peer.

  • Hash—The hash algorithm for creating a message digest, which is used to ensure message integrity. For an explanation of the options, see Encryption and Hash Algorithms Used in VPN.

Step 5

Click Add.

Managing IKEv2 Policies

About IKEv2 Policy

Internet Key Exchange (IKE) version 2 policy objects contain the parameters required for IKEv2 policies when defining VPN connections. IKE is a key management protocol that facilitates the management of IPsec-based communications. It is used to authenticate IPsec peers, negotiate and distribute IPsec encryption keys, and automatically establish IPsec security associations (SAs).

There are several pre-defined IKEv2 policies. If any suit your needs, simply enable them by clicking the State toggle. You can also create new policies to implement other combinations of security settings. You cannot edit or delete system-defined objects.

Create or Edit an IKEv2 Policy

The following procedure explains how you can create and edit objects directly through the Objects page. You can also create an IKEv2 policy while editing the IKE settings in a Site-to-Site VPN connection by clicking the Create New IKEv2 Policy link shown in the object list.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Security Cloud Control navigation bar on the left, click Objects.

Step 2

Do one of these things:

  • Click and select FTD > IKEv2 Policy to create a new IKEv2 policy.

  • In the object page, select the IKEv2 policy you want to edit and click Edit in the Actions pane at the right.

Step 3

Enter an object name, up to 128 characters.

Step 4

Configure the IKEv2 properties.

  • Priority—The relative priority of the IKE policy, from 1 to 65,535. The priority determines the order of the IKE policy compared by the two negotiating peers when attempting to find a common security association (SA). If the remote IPsec peer does not support the parameters selected in your highest priority policy, it tries to use the parameters defined in the next lowest priority. The lower the number, the higher the priority.

  • State—Whether the IKE policy is enabled or disabled. Click the toggle to change the state. Only enabled policies are used during IKE negotiations.

  • Encryption—The encryption algorithm used to establish the Phase 1 security association (SA) for protecting Phase 2 negotiations. Select all algorithms that you want to allow, although you cannot include both mixed-mode (AES-GCM) and normal mode options in the same policy. (Normal mode requires that you select an integrity hash, whereas mixed-mode prohibits a separate integrity hash selection.) The system negotiates with the peer, starting from the strongest to the weakest algorithm until a match is agreed upon. For an explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use.

  • Diffie-Hellman Group—The Diffie-Hellman group to use for deriving a shared secret between the two IPsec peers without transmitting it to each other. A larger modulus provides higher security but requires more processing time. The two peers must have a matching modulus group. Select all the algorithms that you want to allow. The system negotiates with the peer, starting from the strongest to the weakest group until a match is agreed upon. For an explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Diffie-Hellman Modulus Group to Use.

  • Integrity Hash—The integrity portion of the hash algorithm for creating a message digest, which is used to ensure message integrity. Select all the algorithms that you want to allow. The system negotiates with the peer, starting from the strongest to the weakest algorithm until a match is agreed upon. The integrity hash is not used with the AES-GCM encryption options. For an explanation of the options, see Encryption and Hash Algorithms Used in VPN.

  • Pseudo-Random Function (PRF) Hash—The pseudo-random function (PRF) portion of the hash algorithm, which is used as the algorithm to derive keying material and hashing operations required for the IKEv2 tunnel encryption. In IKEv1, the Integrity and PRF algorithms are not separated, but in IKEv2, you can specify different algorithms for these elements. Select all the algorithms that you want to allow. The system negotiates with the peer, starting from the strongest to the weakest algorithm until a match is agreed upon. For an explanation of the options, see Encryption and Hash Algorithms Used in VPN.

  • Lifetime—The lifetime of the security association (SA), in seconds, from 120 to 2147483647 or blank. When the lifetime is exceeded, the SA expires and must be renegotiated between the two peers. As a general rule, the shorter the lifetime (up to a point), the more secure your IKE negotiations will be. However, with longer lifetimes, future IPsec security associations can be set up more quickly than with shorter lifetimes. The default is 86400. To specify an unlimited lifetime, enter no value (leave the field blank).

Step 5

Click Add.

RA VPN Objects

Security Zone Object

A security zone is a grouping of interfaces. Zones divide the network into segments to help you manage and classify traffic. You can define multiple zones, but a given interface can be in one zone only.

The Firepower system creates the following zones during initial configuration and they are displayed in Security Cloud Control's object page. You can edit zones to add or remove interfaces, or you can delete the zones if you no longer use them.

  • inside_zone-Includes the inside interface. This zone is intended to represent internal networks.

  • outside_zone-Includes the outside interface. This zone is intended to represent networks external to your control, such as the internet.

Typically, you would group interfaces by the role they play in your network. For example, you would place the interface that connects to the internet in the outside_zone security zone, and all of the interfaces for your internal networks in the inside_zone security zone. Then, you could apply access control rules to traffic coming from the outside zone and going to the inside zone.

Before creating zones, consider the access rules and other policies you want to apply to your networks. For example, you do not need to put all internal interfaces into the same zone. If you have 4 internal networks, and you want to treat one differently than the other three, you can create two zones rather than one. If you have an interface that should allow outside access to a public web server, you might want to use a separate zone for the interface.

Create or Edit a Firepower Security Zone Object

A security zone is a grouping of interfaces. Zones divide the network into segments to help you manage and classify traffic. You can define multiple zones, but a given interface can be in one zone only. For more information see, Security Zone Object.

A security zone object is not associated with a device unless it is used in a rule for that device.

Create a Security Zone Object

To create a security zone object, follow these instructions:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > Security Zone to create the object.

Step 3

Give the object a name and, optionally, a description.

Step 4

Select the interfaces to put in the security zone.

Step 5

Click Add.
Edit a Security Zone Object

After onboarding an FDM-managed device, you will find there are already at least two security zones, one is the inside_zone and the other is the outside_zone. These zones can be edited or deleted. To edit any security zone object, follow these instructions:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Find the object you want to edit:

  • If you know the name of the object, you can search for it in the Objects page:

    • Filter the list by security zone.

    • Enter the name of the object in the search field.

    • Select the object.

  • If you know the object is associated with a device, you can search for it starting on the Security Devices page.

    • In the left pane, click Security Devices.

    • Click the Devices tab.

    • Click the apporpriate tab.

    • Use the device filter and search bar to locate your device.

    • Select the device.

    • In the Management pane at the right, click Objects.

    • Use the object filter and search bar to locate the object you are looking for.

Note

 

If the security zone object you created is not associated with a rule in a policy for your device, it is considered "unassociated" and you will not see it among the search results for a device.

Step 3

Select the object.

Step 4

Click the Edit icon in the Actions pane at the right.

Step 5

After editing any of the attributes of the object. Click Save.

Step 6

After clicking Save you receive a message explaining how these changes will affect other devices. Click Confirm to save the changes or Cancel.

Service Objects

Firepower Service Objects

FTD service objects, service groups, and port groups are reusable components that contain protocols or ports considered part of the IP protocol suite.

FTD service groups are collections of service objects. A service group may contain objects for one or more protocols. You can use the objects and groups in security policies for purposes of defining network traffic matching criteria, for example, to use access rules to allow traffic to specific TCP ports. The system includes several pre-defined objects for common services. You can use these objects in your policies; however, you cannot edit or delete system-defined objects.

Firepower Device Manager and Firepower Management Center refer to service objects as port objects and service groups and port groups.

See Create and Edit Firepower Threat Defense Service Objects for more information.

Protocol Objects

Protocol objects are a type of service object that contain less-commonly used or legacy protocols. Protocol objects are identified by a name and protocol number. Security Cloud Control recognizes these objects in ASA and Firepower (FDM-managed device) configurations and gives them their own filter of "Protocols" so you can find them easily.

See Create and Edit Firepower Threat Defense Service Objects for more information.

ICMP Objects

An Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) object is a service object specifically for ICMP and IPv6-ICMP messages. Security Cloud Control recognizes these objects in ASA and Firepower configurations when those devices are onboarded and Security Cloud Control gives them their own filter of "ICMP" so you can find the objects easily.

Using Security Cloud Control, you can rename or remove ICMP objects from an ASA configuration. You can use Security Cloud Control to create, update, and delete ICMP and ICMPv6 objects in a Firepower configuration.


Note

For the ICMPv6 protocol, AWS does not support choosing specific arguments. Only rules that allow all ICMPv6 messages are supported.

See Create and Edit Firepower Threat Defense Service Objects for more information.

Create and Edit Firepower Service Objects

To create a firepower service object, follow these steps:

firewall device manager (FDM-managed) service objects are reusable components that specify a TCP/IP protocol and a port. The firewall device manager, On-Premises Firewall Management Center and Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center refer to these objects as "Port Objects."

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > Service.

Step 3

Enter an object name and description.

Step 4

Select Create a service object.

Step 5

Click the Service Type button and select the protocol for which you want to create an object.

Step 6

Configure the protocol as follows:

Step 7

Click Add.

Step 8

Review and deploy the changes you made now, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Create a Firepower Service Group

A service group can be made up of one or more service objects representing one or more protocols. The service objects need to be created before they can be added to the group. The Firepower Device Manager and Firepower Management Center refer to these objects as "Port Objects."

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > Service.

Step 3

Enter an object name and description.

Step 4

Select Create a service group.

Step 5

Add an object to the group by clicking Add Object.

  • Click Create to create a new object as you did above in Create a Firepower Service Object above.

  • Click Choose to add an existing service object to the group. Repeat this step to add more objects.

Step 6

Click Add when you are done adding service objects to the service group.

Step 7

Review and deploy the changes you made now, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Edit a Firepower Service Object or Service Group
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Filter the objects to find the object you want to edit and then select the object in the object table.

Step 3

In the Actions pane, click Edit .

Step 4

Edit the values in the dialog box in the same fashion that you created them in the procedures above.

Step 5

Click Save.

Step 6

Security Cloud Control displays the policies that will be affected by the change. Click Confirm to finalize the change to the object and any policy affected by it.

Step 7

Review and deploy the changes you made now, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Security Group Tag Group

Security Group Tags

About Security Group Tags

If you use Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) to define and use security group tag (SGT) for classifying traffic in a Cisco TrustSec network, you can write access control rules that use SGT as matching criteria. Thus, you can block or allow access based on security group membership rather than IP addresses.

In ISE, you can create a SGT and assign host or network IP addresses to each tag. If you assign an SGT to a user's account, the SGT is assigned to the user's traffic. After you configure FDM-managed device to connect to an ISE server and create the SGT, you can create SGT groups in Security Cloud Control and build access control rules around them. Note that you must configure ISE's SGT Exchange Protocol (SXP) mapping before you can associate an SGT to an FDM-managed device. See Security Group Tag Exchange Protocol in the Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide of the version you are currently running for more information.

When an FDM-managed device evaluates SGT as a traffic matching criteria for an access control rule, it uses the following priority:

  1. The source SGT defined in the packet, if any. No destination matching is done using this technique. For the SGT to be in the packet, the switches and routers in the network must be configured to add them. See the ISE documentation for information on how to implement this method.

  2. The SGT assigned to the user session, as downloaded from the ISE session directory. You need to enable the option to listen to session directory information for this kind of SGT matching, but this option is on by default when you first create the ISE identity source. The SGT can be matched to source or destination. Although not required, you would also normally set up a passive authentication identity rule, using the ISE identity source along with an AD realm, to collect user identity information.

  3. The SGT-to-IP address mapping downloaded using SXP. If the IP address is within the range for an SGT, then the traffic matches the access control rule that uses the SGT. The SGT can be matched to source or destination.


    Note

    You cannot use the information retrieved from ISE directly in an access control rule. Instead, you need to create SGT groups, which refer to the downloaded SGT information. Your SGT groups can refer to more than one SGT, so you can apply policy based on a relevant collections of tags if that is appropriate.

Version Support

Security Cloud Control currently supports SGT and SGT groups on FDM-managed devices running Version 6.5 and later. an FDM-managed device allows you to configure and connect to an ISE server in Version 6.5 and later but not does not support SGT configuration in the UI until Version 6.7.

From the FDM-managed UI, this means that an FDM-managed device running Version 6.5 or later can download SXP mappings of SGTs but cannot be manually added to objects or access control rules. To make changes to the SGTs for devices running Version 6.5 or Version 6.6, you must use the ISE UI. If the device running Version 6.5 is onboarded to Security Cloud Control, however, you can see the current SGTs associated with the device and create SGT groups.

SGT in Security Cloud Control
Security Group Tags

SGTs are read-only in Security Cloud Control. You cannot create or edit an SGT in Security Cloud Control. To create an SGT, see the Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide of the version your are currently running.

SGT Groups

Note

An FDM-managed device refers to groups of SGTs as SGT dynamic objects. In Security Cloud Control, these lists of tags are currently called SGT groups. You can create an SGT group in Security Cloud Control without referring to the FDM-managed device or ISE UI.

Use SGT groups to identify source or destination addresses based on an SGT assigned by ISE. You can then use the objects in access control rules for purposes of defining traffic matching criteria. You cannot use the information retrieved from ISE directly in an access control rule. Instead, you need to create SGT groups, which refer to the downloaded SGT information.

Your SGT groups can refer to more than one SGT, so you can apply policy based on relevant collections of tags if that is appropriate.

In order to create an SGT group in Security Cloud Control, you must have at least one SGT already configured and SGT mappings from an ISE server configured for the FDM-managed console of the device you want to use. Note that if more than one FDM-managed device is associated with the same ISE server, an SGT or SGT group can be applied to more than one device. If a device is not associated with an ISE server, you cannot include SGT objects in your access control rule, or apply an SGT group to that device configuration.

SGT Groups in Rules

SGT groups can be added to access control rules; they appear as source or destination network objects. For more information about how networks work in rules, see Source and Destination Criteria in an FDM Access Control Rule.

You can create an SGT group from the Objects page. See Create an SGT Group for more information.

Create an SGT Group

To create an SGT group that can be used for an access control rule, use the following procedure:

Before you begin

You must have the following configurations or environments configured prior to creating a security group tag (SGT) group:

  • FDM-managed device must be running at least Version 6.5.

  • You must configure the ISE identity source to subscribe to SXP mappings and enable deploy changes. To manage SXP mappings, see Configure Security Groups and SXP Publishing in ISE of the Firepower Device Manager Configuration Guide for the version you're using, Version 6.7 and later.

  • All SGTs must be created in ISE. To create an SGT, see the Cisco Identity Services Engine Configuration Guide of the version your are currently running.

Procedure

Step 1

On the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click > FTD > Network.

Step 3

Enter an Object Name.

Step 4

(Optional) Add a description.

Step 5

Click SGT and use the drop-down menu to check all the applicable SGTs you want included in the group. You can sort the list by SGT name.

Step 6

Click Save.

Note

 

You cannot create or edit SGTs in Security Cloud Control, you can only add or remove them from an SGT group. To create or edit an SGT, see the Cisco Identity Services Engine Configuration Guide of the version you are currently running.

Edit an SGT Group

To edit an SGT group, use the following procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the SGT group you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 3

Select the SGT group and click the edit icon in the Actions pane.

Step 4

Modify the SGT group. Edit the name, description, or the SGTs associated with the group.

Step 5

Click Save.

Note

 

You cannot create or edit SGTs in Security Cloud Control, you can only add or remove them from an SGT group. To create or edit an SGT, see the Cisco Identity Services Engine Configuration Guide of the version you are currently running.

Add an SGT Group to an Access Control Rule

To add an SGT group to an access control rule, use the following procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 3

Click the FTD tab and select the device you want to add the SGT group to.

Step 4

In theManagement pane, select Policy.

Step 5

Click the blue plus button for either the Source or Destination objects and select SGT Groups.

Step 6

Locate the SGT group(s) you want to edit by using object filters and search field.

Step 7

Click Save.

Step 8

Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices.

Note

 

If you need to create an additional SGT group, click Create New Object. Fill in the required information mentioned in Create an FTD SGT Group and Add the SGT group to the rule.

Syslog Server Objects

FDM-managed devices have a limited capacity to store events. To maximize storage for events, you can configure an external server. A system log (syslog) server object identifies a server that can receive connection-oriented or diagnostic syslog messages. If you have a syslog server set up for log collection and analysis, you can use the Security Cloud Control to create objects to define them and use the objects in the related policies.

Create and Edit Syslog Server Objects

To create a new syslog server object, follow these steps:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click the Create Object button .

Step 3

Select Syslog Server under FDM-managed device object types

Step 4

Configure the syslog server object properties:

  • IP Address—Enter the IP address of the syslog server.

  • Protocol Type—Select the protocol that your syslog server uses to receive messages. If you select TCP, the system can recognize when the syslog server is not available, and stops sending events until the server is available again.

  • Port Number—Enter a valid port number to use for syslog. If your syslog server uses default ports, enter 514 as the default UDP port or 1470 as the default TCP port. If the server does not use default ports, enter the correct port number. The port must be in the range 1025 to 65535.

  • Select an interface—Select which interface should be used for sending diagnostic syslog messages. Connection and intrusion events always use the management interface. Your interface selection determines the IP address associated with syslog messages. Note that you can only select one of the options listed below. You cannot select both. Select one of the following options:

    • Data Interface—Use the data interface you select for diagnostic syslog messages. Select an interface from the generated list. If the server is accessible through a bridge group member interface, select the bridge group interface (BVI). If it is accessible through the Diagnostic interface (the physical management interface), we recommend that you select Management Interface instead of this option. You cannot select a passive interface. For connection and intrusion syslog messages, the source IP address will either be for the management interface, or for the gateway interface if you route through data interfaces.

    • Management Interface—Use the virtual management interface for all types of syslog messages. The source IP address will either be for the management interface, or for the gateway interface if you route through data interfaces.

Step 5

Click Add.

Step 6

Review and deploy now the changes you made, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Edit Syslog Server Objects

To edit an existing syslog server object, follow these steps:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Locate the desired syslog server object and select it. You can filter the object list by the syslog server object type.

Step 3

In the Actions pane, click Edit.

Step 4

Make the desired edits and click Save.

Step 5

Confirm the changes you made.

Step 6

Review and deploy now the changes you made, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Create a Syslog Server Object for Secure Logging Analytics (SaaS)

Create a syslog server object with the IP address, TCP port, or UDP port of the Secure Event Connector (SEC) you want to send events to. You would create one syslog object for every SEC that you have onboarded to your tenant but you would only send events from one rule to one syslog object representing one SEC.

Prerequisite

This task is part of a larger workflow. See Implementing Secure Logging Analytics (SaaS) for FDM-Managed Devices before you begin.

Procedure
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects.

Step 2

Click the Create Object button .

Step 3

Select Syslog Server under FDM-managed device object types.

Step 4

Configure the syslog server object properties. To find these properties of the SEC, from the navigation pane on the left, choose Tools & Services > Secure Connectors. Then select the Secure Event Connector you want to configure the syslog object for and look in the Details pane on the right.

  • IP Address—Enter the IP address of the SEC.

  • Protocol Type—Select TCP or UDP.

  • Port Number—Enter port 10125 if you selected TCP or 10025 if you selected UDP.

  • Select an interface—Select the interface configured to reach the SEC.

Note

 

FDM-managed device supports one syslog object per IP address so you will have to choose between using TCP and UDP.

Step 5

Click Add.

What to do next

Continue with Step 3 of Existing Security Cloud Control Customer Workflow to Implement Secure Logging Analytics (SaaS) and Send Events through the Secure Event Connector to the Cisco Cloud.