Users Guide

266 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
53-1002920-02
Management interface security
8
Table 53 has a matrix of merging fabrics with tolerant and absent policies.
Management interface security
You can secure an Ethernet management interface between two Brocade switches or Backbones
by implementing IPsec and IKE policies to create a tunnel that protects traffic flows. While the
tunnel must have a Brocade switch or Backbone at each end, there may be routers, gateways, and
firewalls in between the two ends.
ATTENTION
Enabling secure IPsec tunnels does not provide IPsec protection for traffic flows on the external
management interfaces of intelligent blades in a chassis, nor does it support protection of traffic
flows on FCIP interfaces.
Internet Protocol security (IPsec) is a framework of open standards that ensures private and secure
communications over Internet Protocol (IP) networks through the use of cryptographic security
services. The goal of IPsec is to provide the following capabilities:
• Authentication — Ensures that the sending and receiving end-users and devices are known and
trusted by one another.
• Data Integrity — Confirms that the data received was in fact the data transmitted.
• Data Confidentiality — Protects the user data being transmitted, such as utilizing encryption to
avoid sending data in clear text.
• Replay Protection — Prevents replay attack in which an attacker resends previously-intercepted
packets in an effort to fraudulently authenticate or otherwise masquerade as a valid user.
TABLE 52 Examples of strict fabric merges
Fabric-wide consistency policy setting Expected behavior
Fabric A Fabric B
Strict/Tolerant SCC:S;DCC:S SCC;DCC:S Ports connecting switches are disabled.
SCC;DCC:S SCC:S;DCC
SCC:S;DCC SCC:S
Strict/Absent SCC:S;DCC:S
SCC:S
DCC:S
Strict/Strict SCC:S DCC:S
TABLE 53 Fabric merges with tolerant and absent combinations
Fabric-wide consistency policy setting Expected behavior
Fabric A Fabric B
Tolerant/Absent SCC;DCC Error message logged.
Run fddCfg --fabwideset “policy_ID” from any
switch with the desired configuration to fix the
conflict. The secPolicyActivate command is blocked
until conflict is resolved.
DCC
SCC;DCC SCC
DCC SCC