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The Services Menu

The Endian 4i Edge Appliance includes many useful services to prevent threats and to monitor the networks and the running daemons, whose activation and set up is explained in this section. In particular, among them, we highlight the various proxy services, such as the antivirus engine, as well as the intrusion detection system, high availability, and traffic monitoring. The available services appear as items in the sub-menu list on the left-hand side of the screen.

  • DHCP server - DHCP server for automatic IP assignment

  • Dynamic DNS - Client for dynamic DNS providers such as DynDNS (for home / small office use)

  • Time server - enable and configure the NTP time server, set the time zone, or update the time manually

  • Intrusion Prevention - configure snort, the IPS

  • High availability - configure the Endian 4i Edge Appliance in a high availability setup

  • Traffic Monitoring - monitor network traffic and flows with ntopng

  • SNMP Server - enable or disable support for the Simple Network Management Protocol

  • Quality of Service - IP traffic prioritisation.

  • Serial port - configure the serial port.

DHCP server

The DHCP server is used by the clients (workstations and servers) in the zones controlled by the Endian 4i Edge Appliance to receive an IP address (“lease”), and allows to control the IP address assigned to them in a centralised way. Two types of leases can be assigned to clients: Dynamic and fixed. The DHCP server page is divided into two or three boxes, namely DHCP, in which to configure the DHCP server, Current fixed leases, showing the fixed leases, and Current dynamic leases that shows up only if at least one client has obtained a dynamic lease. Dynamic leases are assigned on a network basis within a given range that is configured in the first box, whereas fixed leases are assigned on a per-host basis and are configured in the second box.

DHCP

When a client (be it either a host or another device such as networked printer) joins the network it will automatically get a valid IP address from a range of addresses and other settings from the DHCP service. The client must be configured to use DHCP, which is sometimes called “automatic network configuration”, and is often the default setting on most workstations. Dynamic leases are configured on a zone basis: for example, it is possible to enable them only for clients in the GREEN zone, while the other active zones receive only fixed leases.

It is however possible to let also devices in the ORANGE (DMZ) or BLUE (WLAN) zone to receive dynamic leases.

To customise the DHCP parameter for each zone, click on the small icon expand next to the Settings label. These are the available options:

Enabled

Enable the DHCP server in the zone.

Start address, End address

The range of IP addresses to be supplied to the clients. These addresses have to be within the subnet that has been assigned to the corresponding zone. If some hosts should receive a fixed lease, (see below), make sure their IP addresses are included neither in this range nor in the range of the OpenVPN address pool (see Menubar ‣ VPN ‣ OpenVPN server) to avoid conflicts.

Leaving these two fields blank will use the whole IP range of the zone for dynamic leases.

Allow only fixed leases

Tick this checkbox to use fixed leases only. No dynamic lease will be assigned.

Default lease time, Max lease time

The default and the maximum time in minutes before the assignment of each lease expires and the client requests a new lease from the DHCP server.

Domain name suffix

The default domain name suffix that is passed to the clients and that will be used for local domain searches.

Default Gateway

The default gateway that the clients in the zone will used. If left blank, the default gateway is the Endian 4i Edge Appliance itself.

Primary DNS, Secondary DNS

The DNS used by the clients. Since the Endian 4i Edge Appliance contains a caching DNS server, the default value is the firewall’s own IP address in the respective zone, though a second server or even the primary value can be changed.

Primary NTP server, Secondary NTP server

The NTP servers used by the clients, to keep the clocks synchronised.

Primary WINS server, Secondary WINS server

The WINS servers used by the clients. This option is only needed for the Microsoft Windows networks that use WINS.

Advanced users might want to add some custom configuration lines to be added to the dhcpd.conf file (e.g., custom routes to subnets) by writing them in the text area at the bottom, marked with the Custom configuration lines label.

Warning

No syntax check on these lines is carried out: the lines are appended to the configuration file. Any mistake here might inhibit the DHCP server from starting!

Current fixed leases

It is sometimes necessary or desirable for certain devices to always use the same IP address while still using DHCP, for example servers that provide services like a VoIP box, a SVN repository, a file server, or devices like printers or scanners. A fixed lease is usually referred to as Static IP Address, since a device will always receive the same IP address when requesting a lease from the DHCP server.

This box reports the list of all the fixed leases currently active in the local network, providing several information about that lease. By clicking on the Add a fixed lease link, new fixed leases can be assigned to a device and insert all the information that will be displayed in the list. The devices are identified by their MAC addresses.

Note

Assigning a fixed lease from the DHCP server is very different from setting up the IP address manually on a device. Indeed, in the latter case, the device will still contact the DHCP server to receive its address and to announce its presence on the network. When the IP address required by the device has already been assigned, however, a dynamic lease will be given to the device.

The following parameters can be set for fixed leases:

MAC address

The client’s MAC address.

IP address

The IP address that will always be assigned to the client.

Description

An optional description of the device receiving the lease.

Next address

The address of the TFTP server. This and the next two options are useful only in a few cases (see below for an example).

Filename

The boot image file name. Option needed only for thin clients or network boot.

Root path

The path of the boot image file.

Enabled

If this checkbox is not ticked, the fixed lease will be stored but not written down to the file dhcpd.conf.

The actions available for each fixed lease in the table are:

  • on off - toggle the status of the lease, enabled or disabled.

  • edit - modify the property of the lease.

  • delete - remove the lease.

A use case for a fixed lease.

A use case that shows the usefulness of a fixed lease is the case of thin clients or disk-less workstations on the network that use PXE, i.e., boot the operating system from an image supplied by a networked tftp server. If the tftp server is hosted on the same server with the DHCP, the thin client receives both the lease and the image from the same server. More often, however, the tftp server is hosted on another server on the network, hence the client must be redirected to this server by the DHCP server, an operation that can be done easily adding a fixed lease on the DHCP server for the thin client, adding a next-address and the filename of the image to boot.

Besides the information supplied during the fixed lease creation, the list allow each lease to be enabled or disabled (by ticking the checkbox), edited, or deleted, by clicking on the icons in the Actions column. Editing a lease will open the same form as the creation of a new lease, whereas deleting a lease will immediately remove it from the configuration.

Note

All leases assigned by the DHCP server are stored by default in the /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases file. Although the DHCP daemon takes care of cleaning that file, it may happen that the file stores lease that have already been expired and are quite old. This is not a problem and does not interfere with the normal DHCP server working. A typical entry in that file is:

lease 192.168.58.157 {
starts 2 2013/06/11 13:00:21;
ends 5 2013/06/14 01:00:21;
binding state active;
next binding state free;
hardware ethernet 00:14:22:b1:09:9b;
}

Current dynamic leases

When the DHCP server is active, and at least one client has received a (dynamic) IP address, a third box appears at the bottom of the page, containing the list of the currently assigned dynamic IP addresses. This list report the IP address, the MAC address, the hostname, and the expiry time of the lease associated to each client.

Dynamic DNS

A DNS server provides a service that allows to resolve the (numeric) IP address of a host, given its hostname, and vice versa, and works perfectly for hosts with fixed IP address and hostname.

DDNS providers, like DynDNS or no-IP, offer a similar service when the IP addresses is dynamic, which is normally the case when using residential ADSL connections: Any domain name can be registered and associated to a server with a dynamic IP address, which communicates any IP address change to the DDNS provider. To be compatible and to integrate with the root DNS servers, each time IP address changes, the update must then be actively propagated from the DDNS provider.

The Endian 4i Edge Appliance includes a dynamic DNS client for 14 different providers and if enabled, it will automatically connect to the dynamic DNS provider to communicate the new IP address whenever it changes.

Note

If no dynamic DNS account has been set up, detailed instruction to register a new one, detailed online helps and howtos are available on the web site of the providers.

This page displays the list of the Dynamic DNS accounts. Indeed, more than one DDNS provider can be used. For each account, the list shows information about the service used, the hostname and domain name registered, if the anonymous proxy and the wildcards are active, if it is enabled, and the possible actions:

  • on off - toggle the status of the lease, enabled or disabled.

  • edit - modify the property of the lease.

  • delete - remove the lease.

New accounts can be created by clicking on the Add a host link, providing the following parameters:

Service

The drop-down menu shows the available DDNS providers.

Behind a proxy

This option only applies to the no-ip.com provider. The checkbox must be ticked if the Endian 4i Edge Appliance is connecting to the Internet through a proxy.

Enable wildcards

Some dynamic DNS providers allow all the sub-domains of a domain point to the same IP address. This is a situation in which two hosts like www.example.myddns.org and second.example.myddns.org are both located on the same IP address. Ticking this box enables the feature, making all the possible sub-domains redirect on the same IP address. The feature must be configured also in the account on the DDNS provider server, if available.

Hostname and Domain

The hostname and domain as registered with the DDNS provider, for instance “example” and “myddns.org”

Username and Password

The credentials given from dynamic DNS provider to access the service.

behind Router (NAT)

Activate this option if the Endian 4i Edge Appliance is not directly connected to the Internet, i.e., there is another router or gateway before accessing the Internet. In this case, the service at http://checkip.dyndns.org can be used to find the IP address of the router.

Enabled

Tick this checkbox to enable the account, which is the default.

Note

It is still necessary to export a service to the RED zone to be able to use the domain name to connect to the Endian 4i Edge Appliance from the Internet using its dynamic IP address, since the dynamic DNS provider only resolves the domain name and not the associated services. Exporting a service might typically involve setting up port forwarding (see Menubar ‣ Firewall ‣ Port forwarding / NAT).

After making a change in the configuration or to immediately update the dynamic DNS for all the defined accounts, click on the Force update button. This proves useful for example when the uplink has been disconnected and the REDIP has changed: When this happens, updating all the DDNS accounts is required, otherwise the services offered via DDNS will be unreachable.

Time server

The Endian 4i Edge Appliance uses NTP to keep its system time synchronised with time servers on the Internet. The settings available are grouped into two boxes.

Use a network time server

A number of time server hosts on the Internet are preconfigured and used by the system, but custom time servers can be specified after ticking the Override default NTP servers checkbox. This might prove necessary when running a setup that does not allow the Endian 4i Edge Appliance to reach the Internet. Several time servers addresses can be supplied, one per line, in the small form that will show up.

This box also shows the current time zone setting, that can also be changed by choosing a different one from the drop-down menu. An immediate synchronisation can be done by clicking on the Synchronize now button.

Adjust manually

The second box gives the possibility to manually change the system time. While this is not recommended, this action proves useful when the system clock is way off and an immediate update of the Endian 4i Edge Appliance’s clock to the correct time is needed.

Automatic synchronisation using time servers is not done instantly, but the clock is “slow down” or “speed up” a bit to recover and align to the correct time, hence a system with a significant error in its time may require a long period to be corrected. In those cases, forcing a manual synchronisation represents a more drastic but immediate solution.

Intrusion Prevention

The Endian 4i Edge Appliance includes the well known intrusion detection (IDS) and prevention (IPS) system snort, which is directly built into iptables, to intercept and drop connections from unwanted or distrusted sources.

The page contains three tabs, Intrusion Prevention System, Rules, and Editor.

Intrusion Prevention System

If snort is not active, a grey switch swoff next to the Enable Intrusion Prevention System label appears on the page and can be clicked on to start the service. A message appears, informing that the service is being restarted and after a short interval, the box will contain some options to configure the service.

Automatically fetch SNORT Rules

Ticking this box will let the Endian 4i Edge Appliance automatically download the snort rules from the Endian Network.

Note

If the Endian 4i Edge Appliance is not registered, or its maintenance has expired, rules are not downloaded anymore. An informative message is also shown at the bottom of the page.

Choose update schedule

The frequency of download of the rules: A drop-down menu allows to choose one of the hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly options. This option appears only if the previous option has been activated.

Custom SNORT Rules

A file containing custom SNORT rules that should be uploaded. Pick one file from the file selection window that opens upon clicking the Browse button, and upload it by clicking on the Upload custom rules button.

Changed in version 2.5: snort can no longer be enabled independently in each zones, but only globally.

Rules

On the Rules tab appears the list of rule sets that are stored on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance, along with the number of rules they contain and the actions that can be done on them:

  • on off - toggle the status of the rule set, enabled or disabled.

  • passlog blocklog - The policy applied to packets, either they are allowed to pass or not.

  • edit - modify the property of the rule set.

  • delete - remove the rule set.

Note

When editing a ruleset in the Rules tab, the Editor page (see below) will open with that ruleset already selected.

All the actions, except for editing, can be carried out on more than one rulesets at once, by selecting them (tick the checkbox on the left of their filename) and pressing one of the button underneath the list.

By default, the policy for all the rulesets is set to alert. This behaviour can be changed by clicking on the alert icon to toggle the policy into block and the icon into a red shield. After clicking on the Apply button, that ruleset will not cause alerts anymore, but all the traffic that matches its rules will be blocked.

A ruleset can be deleted by clicking on the trash can icon, while a click on the pencil icon redirects to the Editor page in which to edit each rule independently.

Editor

At the top of the Editor page are shown the rulesets that can be edited. To chose more than one ruleset at once, hold the CTRL key and click on the rulesets.

After selecting and clicking on the Edit button, the list of the rules included in the selected ruleset(s) is shown. The list can be narrowed down by entering some terms in the text box next to the Search label. Like in the Rules page, the policy of every entry can be changed.

Warning

Turning on the IPS only implies that snort is running, but it does not yet filter the traffic. For snort to filter packets, the Allow with IPS Filter policy must be selected for the rules defined in the various Firewall configuration pages.

See also

The Firewall Menu

Menubar ‣ Firewall

A visual, step-by-step tutorial to set up IPS.

High availability

New in version 3.0: STP protocol support

The Endian 4i Edge Appliance can be run in an HA mode, that can easily be setup using at least two Endian 4i Edge Appliances, one of which assumes the role of the active (i.e., master) firewall, while the remaining are standby (i.e., slave) firewalls.

If the master firewall fails, an election among the slaves takes place and one of them will become the new master, providing for transparent failover. If there is only one slave, though, it will immediately take over the master’s duties and allows a seamless failover transition to the secondary Endian 4i Edge Appliance in the event of a hardware failure on the primary appliance. This provides unparalleled hardware availability and redundancy for critical network operations and security.

In order to start up the HA service, at least one master and one slave Endian 4i Edge Appliances must be configured according to the following guidelines.

Note

The high availability module requires at least two completely identical Endian 4i Edge Appliances.

An important point to focus on when deploying high availability is that a duplication method for each and every connection to the Endian appliance must be provided. Every connection of the primary unit (e.g., WAN, LAN, etc.) must be replicated across the standby unit(s) to ensure that complete replication capabilities exist.

In this scenario, each network on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance (WAN, LAN, etc.) is connected to an external managed switch which has a unique VLAN assigned to each network. This deployment option consumes the least amount of network ports and provides for enhanced extensibility. Another option is to replace a single managed (VLAN capable) switch with smaller, separate switches for each network (WAN, LAN, etc.). This setup however may not be cost-effective and could be less reliable since the failure of any switch could break failover partially or completely.

In this page, there is only one box, which initially contains only one option:

Enable High Availability

Enable HA on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance, by default it is disabled.

Warning

HA does currently not support the automatic synchronisation of the hotspot’s database

After enabled, a second drop-down menu appears, High Availability side, that allows to configure the Endian 4i Edge Appliance as master or slave. Depending on this choice, different configuration options are available. Configuring a slave unit, however, requires that a Master unit have already been set up.

For the master side, the following options are available:

Management network

The special subnet to which all Endian 4i Edge Appliance that are part of a same HA setup must be connected and defaults to 192.168.177.0/24. Unless this subnet is already used for other purposes, there is no need to change it.

Master IP Address

The first IP address of the management network. It is automatically set to 1 on the network chosen, and defaults to 192.168.177.1.

Notification: recipient email address, Notification: sender email address, Notification: email subject, Notification: SMTP server to be used

These options can be filled in to be notified by e-mail when a failover event occurs. They are configured the same way as they were configured for other event notifications in Menubar ‣ System ‣ Event notification: A custom sender, recipient, and subject of the email and the SMTP smarthost used to send the email.

Enable STP

Choose from the drop-down menu whether to enable or not the spanning tree protocol, STP. This option and the next one are important when the Endian 4i Edge Appliance is in gateway mode.

STP Bridge Priority

The priority of the bridge. It must be 1 on the master side.

A second box will appear after HA has been activated, with the list of the slaves with their IP address, a link to access their management GUI, and the possibility to delete a slave.

The HA management network.

The Endian 4i Edge Appliance uses a special network to connect the master to slave unit(s): 192.168.177.0/24. If this network has already been used in other zones, none of the already defined network(s) is deleted nor any change should be made to them. Indeed, in such a case, simply assign to the HA management network a different range of IP addresses, like, e.g., 172.19.253.0/24 or 10.123.234.0/28. It is important to note that the only requirement of the management network is that it must be large enough to accommodate the master and all the slaves, so if there are only a master and a slave devices, even a network as small as 192.168.177.0/29 should suffice. The management network will be created as an interface on the GREEN network, and it will show up us such on the device or when viewing the network status.

Warning

Make sure that the management network can be reached from the current LAN setup, or it will not be possible to login to the master unit!

After the master unit has been configured, the second Endian 4i Edge Appliance, that is going to be the slave, can be set up. The same procedure shall be followed for every additional slave to configure.

Warning

It is strongly suggested to make a backup of the slave unit before configuring it and saving it on a safe place, since it may become useful to restore a slave unit after it is removed from its role.

For the slave side the following are the available options.

Master IP address

The IP address of the master unit, which defaults to 192.168.177.1/24 if the management network had not be changed. This value must match the one that appears as value of the Master IP Address option on the master unit.

Master root password

The password of the console root user (not the graphic administration interface!) on the master.

These data will be used by the slave to retrieve from the master all the information needed and to keep the synchronisation.

Enable STP

Choose from the drop-down menu whether to enable or not the spanning tree protocol, STP. On the slave side, this option must have the same value as in the master side.

STP Bridge Priority

The priority of the bridge. On the slave side, it must be a digit or number higher than the one on the master side.

Upon saving the setup, the connection to the device will be temporarily lost, since the management network is created and then the two devices (the master and the currently defined slave) begin to synchronise.

After the synchronisation process is complete, the slave itself cannot be reached anymore via its old IP address (be it its factory default or its previous GREENIP address), since it has gone in standby mode and is connected to the master only through the management network. Any change made on the primary unit (the activation of a service, the change of one setting, the deletion of a VPN user, and so on) will automatically be synced to the slave unit(s) with the exception of updates, upgrades, or device backups (these have to be performed manually on the slave unit).

Moreover, the slave Endian unit will automatically appear on the master’s list of slaves and switch to an informational-only web interface that can be accessed from the master, by following the Go to Management GUI link next to each of the entries of the list of slaves.

The RED MAC Address

During the HA failover, the RED interface MAC address is not replicated onto the slave unit. This can represent a problem if the ISP requires to use the Sticky IP setup. In this situation, the IP address assigned from the ISP is determined from the MAC address of the client’s network interface, similarly to a fixed IP asssigned from a DHCP server to a client. it may not be possible to reconnect with the slave unit. To avoid this situation, it is necessary to utilise the spoofed MAC address feature on the RED interface in order for HA to work properly. This will ensure that when the HA is activated the MAC address will carry over to the standby unit and will not require manual intervention. This can be achieved on the slave, before activating it, by ticking the option Use custom MAC address under Menubar ‣ Network ‣ Interfaces ‣ Edit main uplink ‣ Advanced settings and specifying the MAC address of the RED interface on the Master. Alternatively, the MAC address can be entered in the step 4 of the network installation wizard, writing the master’s MAC address in the Spoof MAC address with option.

See also

A step by step guide to configure HA on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance.

Traffic Monitoring

Changed in version 3.0: ntop has been replaced by its more powerful successor, ntop-ng, with its GUI integrated in the Endian 4i Edge Appliance’s one.

Traffic monitoring is done by ntopng and can be enabled or disabled by clicking on the main switch on this page. Once traffic monitoring is enabled a link to its new administration interface appears in the lower section of the page. There, the traffic can be visualised and analysed by host, protocol, local network interface and many other types of information: All these operations can be carried out directly from the Traffic Monitoring module in The Logs and Reports Menu.

SNMP Server

The SNMP is used to monitor network-attached devices, and can be used e.g., to control the status of the internal infrastructure.

To enable the SNMP Server is sufficient to click on the grey switch next to the Enable SNMP server label: Once done so, a few options will appear in the Settings box.

Community String

A key that is needed to read the data with an SNMP client.

Location

An identification string that can be set to anything, but it is suggested that it describe the location of the Endian 4i Edge Appliance.

Override global notification email address

The SNMP Server requires to configure an e-mail address as the system contact, and the global e-mail address provided during the installation procedure is used by default. Nonetheless, to use a custom e-mail address, tick the checkbox and supply it into the System contact email address field that will activate right below.

Quality of Service

The purpose of the QoS module is to prioritise the IP traffic that is flowing through the Endian 4i Edge Appliance depending on the service. In other words, the QoS is a convenient way to reserve a given amount of the available bandwidth (both incoming and outgoing) for a given service. Applications that typically need to be prioritised over bulk traffic are interactive services such as SSH or VoIP.

The QoS configuration options are arranged into three tabs: Devices, Classes, and Rules.

Changed in version 3.0: Removed IPsec devices. Due to the upgrade of the strongswan software employed on Endian 4i Edge Appliance, it is not possible to define QoS rules involving IPsec.

Warning

When migrating appliance from the 2.5.X to the 3.0 version, existent rules involving IPsec users will be deleted. In order to recreate those rules, it is mandatory that those rules be recreated after migration. See the Rules section below for directions.

Devices

The Device tab is also the starting page for the QoS and is initially empty. Once populated, a table showing a list of all the Quality of Service devices appears and for each device, some parameters and the available actions are displayed.

New QoS devices can be added by clicking on the Add Quality of Service Device link above the list and by configuring a few options.

Target Device

The network interface that will be used by this device. Choices are among the existent network interfaces, the zones enabled on the system, the uplinks, and the OpenVPN tunnels if defined, and can be selected from a drop-down menu.

Downstream Bandwidth (kbit/s)

The downstream speed of the interface.

Upstream Bandwidth (kbit/s)

The upstream speed of the interface.

Enabled

Enable the QoS (default) or not.

The actions available on the devices are:

  • on off - enable or disable the device.

  • edit - modify the properties of the device.

  • delete - remove the device.

When editing a device, the same form opens as when adding a new device, in which to modify the current device’s parameters.

For every device added, four items will appear under the Classes tab: Three for high, medium, and low priority, respectively, and one for bulk traffic (see below).

Classes

This tab shows a list of all Quality of Service classes that have been created, if any. For each entry, several data are shown. New items can be added by clicking on the Add Quality of Service Class link above the list of classes. The parameters to configure are the same shown in the list:

Name

The name of the Quality of Service class.

QOS Device

The drop down menu allows to choose the Quality of Service device for which the class was created.

Hint

At least one QoS device must have been created before defining a QoS class.

Reserved

The amount of bandwidth that has been reserved for this class from the device’s overall available bandwidth, either in percentage or in kilobit per second.

Limit

The maximum amount of bandwidth this class may use, either in percentage or in kilobit per second.

Priority

The priority of the class, from 0 (low) to 10 (high), selected from a dropdown menu

Note

The sum of reserved percentages can not be greater than 100 per device. Moreover, the reserved bandwidth can not be higher than the limit bandwidth.

The actions available are:

  • edit - modify the properties of the device.

  • up down - move the class in the list.

  • delete - remove the device.

Classes can be moved up or down the list: Items closer to the top of the list are the first to be processed when the bandwidth does not suffice for all the traffic and the Endian 4i Edge Appliance needs to choose which traffic should be prioritised.

Rules

The third tab displays a list of the already defined Quality of Service Rules and allows to specify which type of traffic should belong to each of the classes. To add a new Quality of Service rule click on the Add Quality of Service Rule link. In the form that will open, which is very similar to the one used to define firewall rules, several values should be configured. Many drop-down menus are employed here to ease the choices and guide through the configuration.

Note

To define rules that resemble those involving IPsec users in the 2.5.X version, it is necessary to specify the following two configuration options:

  • Source: The zone to which the IPsec user was bridged.

  • Destination Network/IP: the remote subnet behind the IPsec user.

Source

Choose from the drop-down menu the traffic source, either a Zone or interface, a network, an IP or MAC address. Depending on this choice, different values can be specified: A zone or interface from the available ones from those that will be displayed, or one or more IP addresses, networks, or MAC addresses.

Destination Device/Traffic Class

Choose the destination device or traffic class from the drop-down menu.

Destination Network/IP

Write in the text area the target network or IP addresses, which shall be reachable from the device or traffic class chosen in the previous option.

Service/Port, Protocol

These two drop-down menus are used to define the service, protocol, and destination port for the rule (when choosing one of TCP, UDP, or TCP + UDP protocols). Some predefined combinations Service/Protocol/Port exists, like HTTP/TCP/80, <ALL>/TCP+UDP/0:65535, or <ANY>, which is a shortcut for all services, protocols, and ports. Finally, in the Destination port, one or more custom port number can be supplied (this proves useful when some service does not run on a standard port).

TOS/DSCP

The type of TOS or DSCP value to match.

Match Traffic

Choosing TOS or DSCP class in the previous drop-down menu allows to choose a suitable value for the traffic to match from another drop-down menu.

DSCP Value

This filed appears only when DSCP value is chosen in the TOS/DSCP type above. It allows to enter a custom value for DSCP, that will be used to fire the rule when matched.

Enabled

Tick the checkbox to enable the rule.

Comment

A comment to identify the rule.

Note

If there is more than one service in a Quality of Service class, then all these services together will share the reserved bandwidth.

The actions available on the rules are:

  • on off - enable or disable the rule.

  • edit - modify the properties of the rule.

  • delete - remove the rule.

Serial Port

New in version 3.0-2014-July.

The Serial Port Setup page allows to configure the Endian 4i Edge Appliance’s serial port as either serial console or serial server in three different operational modalities: Server, client, or console. The page is composed of two tabs, Port configuration and Serial server, while at the bottom of the page appears the list of all available serial ports, on which it is possible to carry out two actions:

  • on off - enable or disable a serial port

  • edit - modify the properties of the serial port.

Port Configuration

In this tab it is possible to configure the available serial ports on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance, by clicking on the corresponding edit icon. The available options are:

Remark

A comment about the serial port’s configuration.

Enabled

Tick the checkbox to enable the serial port.

Enable console

By ticking the checkbox, it will be possible to connect to the Endian 4i Edge Appliance via the serial console.

Hint

The Serial Server tab allows no configuration if this option is enabled.

Serial Port standard

Choose the type of the serial port from the drop-down menu. Available options are: RS-232, RS-485, and RS-422.

Baudrate

The speed in baud of the serial port. Available values can be selected from the drop-down menu.

Hint

Modern appliances use a speed of 115,200 baud.

Parity

Choose the parity of the communication from the drop-down menu among the available values: None, Even, and Odd.

Data bits

Select the data bits from the drop-down menu. Available values are 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Stop bits

The stop bits value, either 1 or 2, chosen from the drop-down menu.

When the standard used is rs232, an additional option can be configured in the Advanced settings panel.

Flow control

Choose the type of control to be applied to the traffic flow. Possible values are none, ctsrts, and xonxoff.

Serial Server

This tab carries only an empty table if in the Port Configuration tab the serial console has been enabled and does not allow any configuration. The table shows the configuration -initially displaying only the name of the serial port- of the serial server. In order to configure the serial server in one of the available modalities, click on the edit icon.

Enabled

Tick the checkbox to enable the serial port.

Remark

A comment about the configuration.

Operation mode

Choose from the drop-down menu one of the available operation modes: Raw Client and Raw Server.

Server IP

This option only appears when Raw Client is selected. Supply one IP address to which to forward the traffic when connecting to the serial port.

Server Port

This option only appears when Raw Client is selected. Supply one port to which the traffic through the serial port will be directed.

TCP Port

This option only appears when Raw Server is selected. Provide a TCP port that will allow serial connection.

On the Advanced settings panel, one more option is available:

Enable debug mode

By ticking this checkbox more information about connections through serial console will be logged: This proves useful for e.g., troubleshooting.