System Requirements

This document includes the system requirements for Version 7.1.

FMC Platforms

The FMC provides a centralized firewall management console. For device compatibility with the FMC, see Threat Defense Management. For general compatibility information, see the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Compatibility Guide.

FMC Hardware

Version 7.1 supports the following FMC hardware:

  • FMC 1600

  • FMC 2600

  • FMC 4600

You should also keep the BIOS and RAID controller firmware up to date; see the Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense/Firepower Hotfix Release Notes.

FMCv

Version 7.1 supports FMCv deployments in both public and private/on-prem clouds.

With the FMCv, you can purchase licenses that enable you to manage 2, 10, 25, or 300 devices. Note that only some platforms support 300 devices. Also, two-device virtual FMCs do not support high availability. For full details on supported instances, see the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Virtual Getting Started Guide.

Table 1. Version 7.1 FMCv Platforms

Platform

Devices Managed

High Availability

2, 10, 25

300

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

YES

YES

YES

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

YES

—

—

Microsoft Azure

YES

—

—

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

YES

YES

YES

On-Prem/Private Cloud

Cisco HyperFlex

YES

—

—

Kernel-based virtual machine (KVM)

YES

—

—

Nutanix Enterprise Cloud

YES

—

—

OpenStack

YES

—

—

VMware vSphere/VMware ESXi 6.5, 6.7, or 7.0

YES

YES

YES

Cloud-Delivered Management Center

The Cisco Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center is delivered via the Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) platform, which unites management across multiple Cisco security solutions. The cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center does not have a version, and we take care of feature updates.

Note that the customer-deployed management center is often referred to as the on-prem FMC, even for virtual platforms.


Note

The cloud-delivered management center cannot manage Version 7.1 devices.

FTD Platforms

Firepower devices monitor network traffic and decide whether to allow or block specific traffic based on a defined set of security rules. For details on device management methods, see Threat Defense Management. For general compatibility information, see the Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Compatibility Guide.

FTD Hardware

Version 7.1 FTD hardware comes in a range of throughputs, scalability capabilities, and form factors.

Table 2. Version 7.1 FTD Hardware

Platform

FMC Compatibility

FDM Compatibility

Notes

Customer Deployed

Cloud Delivered

FDM Only

FDM + CDO

Firepower 1010, 1120, 1140, 1150

YES

—

YES

YES

—

Firepower 2110, 2120, 2130, 2140

YES

—

YES

YES

—

Secure Firewall 3110, 3120, 3130, 3140

YES

—

YES

YES

The Version 7.1.0 release does not include online help for these devices. For the FMC, new online help is included in Version 7.1.0.2. For FDM, see the documentation posted on Cisco.com.

Firepower 4110, 4120, 4140, 4150

Firepower 4112, 4115, 4125, 4145

YES

—

YES

YES

Requires FXOS 2.11.1.154 or later build.

We recommend the latest firmware. See the Cisco Firepower 4100/9300 FXOS Firmware Upgrade Guide.

Firepower 9300: SM-24, SM-36, SM-44 modules

Firepower 9300: SM-40, SM-48, SM-56 modules

YES

—

YES

YES

Requires FXOS 2.11.1.154 or later build.

We recommend the latest firmware. See the Cisco Firepower 4100/9300 FXOS Firmware Upgrade Guide.

ISA 3000

YES

—

YES

YES

Requires the latest ROMMON image. See the Cisco Secure Firewall ASA and Secure Firewall Threat Defense Reimage Guide.

FTDv

Version 7.1 FTDv implementations support performance-tiered Smart Software Licensing, based on throughput requirements and remote access VPN session limits. Options run from FTDv5 (100 Mbps/50 sessions) to FTDv100 (16 Gbps/10,000 sessions). For more information on supported instances, throughputs, and other hosting requirements, see the appropriate Getting Started Guide.

Table 3. Version 7.1 FTDv Platforms

Device Platform

FMC Compatibility

FDM Compatibility

Customer Deployed

Cloud Delivered

FDM Only

FDM + CDO

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

YES

—

YES

YES

Microsoft Azure

YES

—

YES

YES

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

YES

—

—

—

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

YES

—

—

—

On-Prem/Private Cloud

Cisco Hyperflex

YES

—

YES

YES

Kernel-based virtual machine (KVM)

YES

—

YES

YES

Nutanix Enterprise Cloud

YES

—

YES

YES

OpenStack

YES

—

—

—

VMware vSphere/VMware ESXi 6.5, 6.7, or 7.0

YES

—

YES

YES

Threat Defense Management

Depending on device model and version, we support the following management methods.

Customer-Deployed FMC

All devices support remote management with a customer-deployed FMC, which must run the same or newer version as its managed devices. This means:

  • You can manage older devices with a newer FMC, usually a few major versions back. However, we recommend you always update your entire deployment. New features and resolved issues often require the latest release on both the FMC and its managed devices.

  • You cannot upgrade a device past the FMC. Even for maintenance (third-digit) releases, you must upgrade the FMC first.

Table 4. Customer-Deployed FMC-Device Compatibility

FMC Version

Oldest Device Version You Can Manage

7.3

6.7

7.2

6.6

7.1

6.5

7.0

6.4

6.7

6.3

6.6

6.2.3

6.5

6.2.3

6.4

6.1

6.3

6.1

6.2.3

6.1

6.2.2

6.1

6.2.1

6.1

6.2

6.1

6.1

5.4.0.2/5.4.1.1

6.0.1

5.4.0.2/5.4.1.1

6.0

5.4.0.2/5.4.1.1

5.4.1

5.4.1 for ASA FirePOWER on the ASA-5506-X series, ASA5508-X, and ASA5516-X.

5.3.1 for ASA FirePOWER on the ASA5512-X, ASA5515-X, ASA5525-X, ASA5545-X, ASA5555-X, and ASA-5585-X series.

5.3.0 for Firepower 7000/8000 series and legacy devices.

Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center

The cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center can manage FTD devices running:

  • Version 7.2+

  • Version 7.0.3 and later maintenance releases

The cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center cannot manage FTD devices running Version 7.1, or Classic devices running any version. You cannot upgrade a cloud-managed device from Version 7.0.x to Version 7.1 unless you unregister and disable cloud management. We recommend you upgrade the device directly to Version 7.2+.

You can add a cloud-managed device to a Version 7.2+ customer-deployed management center for event logging and analytics purposes only. Or, you can send security events to the Cisco cloud with Security Analytics and Logging (SaaS).

FDM

You can use FDM to locally manage a single FTD device.

Optionally, add Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) to remotely manage multiple FTD devices, as an alternative to the FMC. Although some configurations still require FDM, CDO allows you to establish and maintain consistent security policies across your FTD deployment.

Browser Requirements

Browsers

We test with the latest versions of these popular browsers, running on currently supported versions of macOS and Microsoft Windows:

  • Google Chrome

  • Mozilla Firefox

  • Microsoft Edge (Windows only)

If you encounter issues with any other browser, or are running an operating system that has reached end of life, we ask that you switch or upgrade. If you continue to encounter issues, contact Cisco TAC.


Note

We do not perform extensive testing with Apple Safari, nor do we extensively test Microsoft Edge with FMC walkthroughs. However, Cisco TAC welcomes feedback on issues you encounter.

Browser Settings and Extensions

Regardless of browser, you must make sure JavaScript, cookies, and TLS v1.2 remain enabled. If you are using Microsoft Edge, do not enable IE mode.

Note that some browser extensions can prevent you from saving values in fields like the certificate and key in PKI objects. These extensions include, but are not limited to, Grammarly and Whatfix Editor. This happens because these extensions insert characters (such as HTML) in the fields, which causes the system to see them invalid. We recommend you disable these extensions while you’re logged into our products.

Screen Resolution

Interface

Minimum Resolution

FMC

1280 x 720

FDM

1024 x 768

Firepower Chassis Manager for the Firepower 4100/9300

1024 x 768

Securing Communications

When you first log in, the system uses a self-signed digital certificate to secure web communications. Your browser should display an untrusted authority warning, but also should allow you to add the certificate to the trust store. Although this will allow you to continue, we do recommend that you replace the self-signed certificate with a certificate signed by a globally known or internally trusted certificate authority (CA).

To begin replacing the self-signed certificate:

  • FMC: Choose System > Configuration, then click HTTPS Certificates.

  • FDM: Click Device, then the System Settings > Management Access link, then the Management Web Server tab.

For detailed procedures, see the online help or the configuration guide for your product.


Note

If you do not replace the self-signed certificate:

  • Google Chrome does not cache static content, such as images, CSS, or JavaScript. Especially in low bandwidth environments, this can extend page load times.

  • Mozilla Firefox can stop trusting the self-signed certificate when the browser updates. If this happens, you can refresh Firefox, keeping in mind that you will lose some settings; see Mozilla's Refresh Firefox support page.

Browsing from a Monitored Network

Many browsers use Transport Layer Security (TLS) v1.3 by default. If you are using an SSL policy to handle encrypted traffic, and people in your monitored network use browsers with TLS v1.3 enabled, websites that support TLS v1.3 may fail to load. For more information, see the software advisory titled: Failures loading websites using TLS 1.3 with SSL inspection enabled.