Terminology and Topologies in F5 Guided Configuration for SSL Orchestrator

This implementation requires a Certificate Authority PKI (public key infrastructure) certificate and matching private key for SSL Forward Proxy. Your TLS clients must trust this CA certificate to sign server certificates.

An inspection zone refers to the network region between separate ingress and egress BIG-IP® devices where cleartext data is available for inspection. Basically, an extra inline service can be placed at the end of every service chain for additional inspection. You cannot configure a decrypt zone in the scenario where a single BIG-IP system handles both ingress and egress traffic because the inspection zone does not exist.

F5 Guided Configuration for SSL Orchestrator is meant to guide you through setting up a particular use case on the SSL Orchestrator system. Each template requests minimal input and provides contextual help to assist users during setup.

The current version displays on the landing page. When a later upgrade becomes available, you can use the available link next to the version number to download it from devcentral.f5.com, then upload and install it Guided Configuration for SSL Orchestrator link.

To go to the landing page, save any work you have done in the right pane before you click

SSL Orchestrator

Configuration

, or click the

Home

icon in the menu steps.

See the

Setting up F5 Guided Configuration for SSL Orchestrator

section for detailed steps on installing and upgrading to the newest version.

You can configure inline HTTP explicit proxy (EP) or transparent proxy (TP) settings with SSL Orchestrator configured as either an explicit or transparent proxy for extended SSL visibility and existing or new deployments. Using SSL Orchestrator, the inline proxy device can be in either transparent or explicit mode, irrespective of SSL Orchestrator's mode.

Each ICAP service uses the ICAP protocol (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3507) to refer HTTP traffic to one or more Content Adaptation device(s) for inspection and possible modification. You can add an ICAP service to any TCP service chain, but only HTTP traffic is sent to it, as we do not support ICAP for other protocols. You can configure up to ten ICAP services using F5® SSL Orchestrator™.

Inline services pass traffic through one or more service (inspection) devices at Layer2 (MAC)/Bump-in-the-wire or Layer3 (IP). Each service device communicates with the SSL Orchestrator device over two VLANs called

Inward

and

Outward

which carry traffic toward the intranet and the Internet respectively. You can configure up to ten inline services, each with multiple defined devices, using SSL Orchestrator.

Receive-only services refer to services that only receive traffic for inspection, and do not send it back to the BIG-IP system. Each receive-only service provides a packet-by-packet copy of the traffic (e.g. plaintext) passing through it to an inspection device. You can configure up to ten receive-only services using SSL Orchestrator.

The SSL Orchestrator uses a visual per-request policy engine, or Visual Policy Editor (VPE), to define traffic flows through the security services. Security policies are available within the VPE with each element, or box, representing a corresponding macro whose information (and output) influences the next element and its macro, until the traffic is either allowed or blocked.

SSL Orchestrator service chains process specific connections based on rules which look at protocol, source and destination addresses, and so on. These service chains can include five types of services (HTTP services, Layer 2 inline services, Layer 3 inline services, receive-only/TAP services, and ICAP services) you define, as well as any decrypt zone between separate ingress and egress devices.

A SNAT (Secure Network Address Translation) is a feature that defines routable alias IP addresses that the BIG-IP system substitutes for client IP source addresses when making connections to hosts on the external network. A SNAT pool is a pool of translation addresses that you can map to one or more original IP addresses. Translation addresses in a SNAT pool should not be self IP addresses.

By selecting the strict update option (on the Guided Configuration Welcome screen in a column labelled

Protected/Unprotected Configurations

) for deployed configurations, you cannot manually modify any settings produced by the application. Once you disable this option (click on the lock symbol), you can manually change your configuration. F5 recommends you keep this setting enabled (locked) to avoid misconfigurations that can result in an unusable application and limit F5's ability to support your product. The strict update check box is enabled/selected by default.

A Sync-Failover device group (part of the Device Service Clustering (DSC®) functionality) contains BIG-IP devices that synchronize their configuration data and failover to one another when a device becomes unavailable. In this configuration, a Sync-Failover device group supports a maximum of two devices.

You can operate in transparent and/or explicit proxy mode. A transparent proxy intercepts normal communication without requiring any special client configuration; clients are unaware of the proxy in the network. In this implementation, the transparent proxy scheme can intercept all types of TLS and TCP traffic. It can also process UDP and forward other types of IP traffic. The explicit proxy scheme supports only HTTP(S) per RFC2616. In addition, transparent proxy supports direct routing for policy-based routing (PBR) and Web Cache Communication Protocol (WCCP) that are dependent on networking services to support both protocols, while explicit proxy supports manual browser settings for proxy auto-config (PAC) and Web Proxy Autodiscovery Protocol (WPAD) that require additional iRule configurations (not included) to provide the PAC/WPAD script content.

When using the Topology screen, you can set up SSL Orchestrator in an array of topologies that define the type of traffic (transparent or explicit) and the direction of traffic flow (inbound or outbound) you wish to inspect.

These deployment settings, which can be modified as needed without un-deploying a configuration, are complimented by SSL settings that assist you in defining inbound and outbound decryption, setting your service types (such as HTTP, ICAP, Layer 2 (L2)/Layer 3 (L3) inline, and receive-only/TAP services), creating your service chains and security policies that can be managed through a visual policy editor.

Available topologies are based on your initial network setup. Topologies that are not supported by your network setup or licensing will not show as an enabled option.

SSL Orchestrator provides the installation of default or custom outbound interception rules for greater support in defining your listeners and the flexibility to create your own outbound and inbound interception rules.

When configuring the SSL Configuration screen, you can set up or manage your forward proxy (for outbound traffic) or reverse proxy (for inbound traffic) scenarios by creating a new SSL profile or selecting to use an existing SSL profile you have previously created. You can setup and manage client and server cipher types (group or string), and select certificate, key, and chain configuration details required to process SSL traffic.

For outbound scenarios, click

Show Advanced Setting

to see an option to enable or disable SSL forward proxy bypass on receiving a handshake failure, protocol version, or unsupported extension alert message during the server-side SSL handshake so that SSL traffic bypasses the BIG-IP system untouched, without decryption/encryption.

You can enable or disable SSL forward proxy bypass when failing to get a client certificate that the server asks for so that SSL traffic bypasses the BIG-IP system untouched, without decryption/encryption.

For outbound and inbound scenarios, you can also control whether SSL Orchestrator should ignore/drop untrusted/expired server certificates. Additionally, you can specify an OCSP responder or a CRL file to validate server certificates.

When configuring the Service screen, you can create services such as HTTP, ICAP, Layer 2 and Layer 3 inline, receive only TAP, and other services.

To use a previously created service, select the check box next to the name of the desired service type and click

Save & Next

. You can edit any previously created service by clicking directly on the name.To create a new service, click

Add Service

.

When configuring the Service Chain screen, you can process specific connections based on security policy rules which look at protocol, source, and destination addresses to define an ordered list of services. These service chains can include an ordered list of services you define, as well as any decrypt zone between separate ingress and egress devices. Select services that have already been created from the available list, filter as necessary, and add them to the

Selected Service Chain Order

list.

This service chain list can also be reordered by using the direction arrow buttons.

To use a previously created service chain, select the check box next to the name of the desired service chain type and click

Save & Next

. You can edit any previously created service chain by clicking directly on the name. To create a new service chain, click

Add

.

When configuring the Security Policy screen, you can provide security policy configuration details, including policy conditions, rules, and custom policy details, for your SSL Orchestrator deployment. By default, SSL Orchestrator provides

Pinners_Rule

and

All Traffic

rules.

Pinners_Rule

consists of domain names of some TLS- (SSL-) based services from well-known businesses that support software which may not work well when their connections are intercepted and decrypted by the SSL Orchestrator solution. You can also use the

All Traffic

default rule that allows the interception of all traffic.

Click

Add

to create a new security policy rule. You can specify conditions, match type (match any/match all), and choose the action (reject/allow) for the specified traffic. You can also select a service chain and specify if SSL forward proxy traffic will be intercepted or bypassed.

You can select

Server Certificates Status Check

if you want to add a new per-request policy agent for server certificate status and to allow administrators to select ignore/mask options and generate a blocking page for untrusted and expired server certificates. In addition, you can select

Proxy Connect

if you want to add an upstream explicit proxy to your security rule chaining. You can add multiple proxy devices, or pool members, as necessary.

When selecting a new rule Condition, we recommend you follow these tips:

When configuring the Interception Rule screen, you can set up both outbound and inbound scenarios.

Your inbound interception rules can also be optionally (through advanced properties) configured to service individual applications.

The BIG-IP receives traffic after a connection travels through the specified service chain and directs the traffic to the final destination. When configuring the Egress Setting screen, you can select whether or not you want the system to let all SSL traffic use the default route, or if you want to specify Internet gateways (routers). If you want to override the default routing and choose to use specific gateways, you can define the ratios within the pool of routers to load balance the traffic.

To create egress settings, you must set both SNAT (Secure Network Address Translation) settings and your selected gateway routes for SSL intercept traffic. When managing SNAT settings, you define routable alias IP addresses that the BIG-IP system substitutes for client IP source addresses when making connections to hosts on the external network. You can use an existing SNAT (and thus define a SNAT pool), the SNAT Auto Map functionality, or create new SNAT settings or none at all. Create a BIG-IP SNAT pool to define a pool of distinct host addresses for SNAT to use. A SNAT pool is a pool of translation addresses that you can map to one or more original IP addresses. Translation addresses in a SNAT pool should not be self IP addresses.

For gateway addresses, enter multiple gateways if you have multiple systems and wish to load balance across them. If you do enter multiple addresses, you can also use the ratio value to control the load balancing. For example, if you have two devices, and one handles twice as much traffic as the other, you can set the ratio to 1 on the smaller device, and 2 on the larger one. Create a BIG-IP gateway pool if you add more than one gateway (routers) that specifies the routes of all SSL intercept traffic.

When using the Log Settings screen, you can enable logging for selected facilities at various levels of severity to describe the system messages. Facilities describe the specific element of the system generating the message: Per-Request Policy, FTP, IMAP, POP3, SMTPS, SSL Orchestrator Generic.

The following levels describe the severity of the message and are listed in order of the severity of the messages they handle:

Emergency
: Specifies the emergency system panic messages.
Alert
: Serious errors that require administrator intervention.
Critical
: Critical errors, including hardware and file system failures.
Error
: Non-critical, but possibly very important, error messages.
Warning
: Warning messages that should at least be logged for review.
Notice
: Messages that contain useful information, but may be ignored.
Information
: Messages that contain useful information, but may be ignored.
Debug
: Messages that are only necessary for troubleshooting.

Generally, higher levels contain all the messages for lower levels. For example, the

Alert

level will generally also report all messages from the

Emergency

level, and the

Debug

level will generally also report all messages for all levels.

After completing your configuration, or when updating, you can use the Summary screen to review and change configuration settings as necessary for each topology. Select the arrow to review the topology details or select the pencil to edit most field content and re-save.