BIG-IQ Network Security is a platform designed for the central management of security firewalls for multiple BIG-IP systems, where firewall administrators have installed and provisioned the Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) module.

The BIG-IQ Network Security system provides:

• Device discovery with import of firewalls referenced by discovered devices
• Management of shared objects (address lists, port lists, rule lists, policies, and schedules)
• L3/L4 firewall policy support, including staged and enforced policies
• Firewall audit log used to record every firewall policy change and event
• Role-based access control
• Deployment of configurations from snapshots, and the ability to preview differences between snapshots
• Multi-user editing through a locking mechanism

Managing a firewall configuration includes discovering, importing, editing, and deploying changes to the firewall configuration, as well as consolidation of shared firewall objects (policies, rule lists, rules, address lists, port lists, and schedules). BIG-IQ Network Security provides a centralized management platform so you can perform all these tasks from a single location. Rather than log in to each device to manage the security policy locally, it is more expedient to use one interface to manage many devices. Not only does this simplify logistics, but you can maintain a common set of firewall configuration objects and deploy a common set of policies, rule lists, and other shared objects to multiple, similar devices from a central interface.

Bringing a device under central management means that its configuration is stored in the BIG-IQ Network Security database, which is the authoritative source for all firewall configuration entities. This database is also known as the working configuration or working-configuration set.

Once a device is under central management, do not make changes locally (on the BIG-IP device) unless there is an exceptional need. If changes are made locally for any reason, reimport the device to reconcile those changes with the BIG-IQ Network Security working configuration set. Unless local changes are reconciled, the deployment process overwrites any local changes.

In addition, BIG-IQ Network Security is aware of functionality that exists in one BIG-IP system version but not in another. This means, for example, that it prohibits using policies on BIG-IP devices that do not have the software version required to support them.

BIG-IQ Web Application Security enables enterprise-wide management and configuration of multiple BIG-IP devices from a central management platform. You can centrally manage BIG-IP devices and security policies, and import policies from files on those devices.

For each device that it discovers, the system creates an additional virtual server to hold all security policies that are not related to any virtual server on the device. To deploy a policy to a device, the policy must be attached to one of the device's virtual servers. You can deploy policies to a device that already has the policy by overwriting it. If the policy does not yet exist on the device, you have the option to deploy it as a new policy attached to an available virtual server or as an inactive policy.

From this central management platform, you can perform the following actions:

• Import ASM policies from files.
• Import ASM policies from discovered devices.
• Distribute policies to devices.
• Export policies, including an option to export policy files in XML format.

The BIG-IQ Security system interface provides many features to assist you in completing tasks.

Within the BIG-IQ Security system, multiple firewall editors can edit shared firewall policy objects simultaneously. This is accomplished through a locking mechanism that avoids conflicts and merges. Initially, the user interface presents all firewall configuration objects as read-only. When a firewall editor initiates an editing session, she locks the object. Once an object is locked, no one can modify or delete that object except the holder of the lock or users with privileges sufficient to break the lock (admin, Firewall_Manager, or Security_Manager).

BIG-IQ Security uses a single repository to hold firewall policies. With this single-copy design, multiple editors share the editing task through a locking mechanism. The system saves each editorial change.

Each firewall editor has her own copy of a firewall policy (a point-in-time snapshot of the policy managed by BIG-IQ across all devices) and can make changes. When done, an editor can push the changes to the preferred state as one, complete set of changes. Then, a firewall administrator can review a policy change as a single entity before committing it.

For example:

1. If a firewall editor needs to edit Portlist_1, AddressList_2, and Rulelist_5, the editor locks those objects.
2. When the edit pass is complete, the editor saves the object, which clears the lock.

If an editor wants to edit an object that is already locked, the system informs the editor that the object is locked and provides a way to clear the lock if the editor has sufficient privileges.

When the lock is cleared, the next firewall editor receives the latest version of the object and any referenced shared objects. Thus, merges and conflicts are avoided.

Deleting an object automatically clears all locks associated with it.

BIG-IQ Security supports:

• Multiple, independent locks.
• Locking/unlocking at the firewall level. Locking a firewall locks all shared objects referenced by all of the device’s firewalls/rules.
• Locking/unlocking on an object-by-object basis where the object is defined as a shared object or a firewall.