User guide

Documentation

FIPS Overview on page 9•

Deploying a Cluster in a Secure Access FIPS Environment

In addition to sharing state, user profile, user session, and monitoring state data, the

members of a Secure Access FIPS cluster also share security world data. All cluster

members share the same private key and are accessible using the same administrator

cards. Since changing a security world requires physical access to a cryptographic module,

however, Secure Access FIPS cluster members cannot share all of their data using the

standard Secure Access synchronization process. Instead, to create a Secure Access

FIPS cluster, you must:

•

Create a cluster of Secure Access FIPS machines through the admin console—As with

a standard Secure Access cluster, each cluster node in a Secure Access FIPS cluster

is initialized using system state data from the specified cluster member, overwriting

all existing data on the node machine.

•

Manually update the security world on each of the machines—After creating a cluster,

you must initialize each cluster node with the specified member’s security world using

an administrator card that is pre-initialized to the security world and the serial console.

Prior to joining a cluster, each node is in its own security world. As a consequence, after

a node joins the cluster, the administrator card from the joining node will be invalid.

Only the administrator card set from the cluster will be valid.

Similarly, if you want to modify an existing security world on a cluster, you must individually

update each cluster member’s cryptographic module using an administrator card and

the Secure Access serial console.

The basic process for creating a cluster follows these high-level steps:

1. Initialize one Secure Access from the serial console, creating administrator cards.

2. Create the cluster from this Secure Access’ admin console.

3. Add nodes to the cluster from this Secure Access’ admin console.

4. Reboot the joining node from the serial console.

5. When prompted, supply the cluster details, including the current node’s IP address,

netmask, and domain.

6. When prompted, insert an administrator card from the cluster’s set of cards. The

node’s administrator card, if any, will become invalid as the node joins the security

world of the cluster.

SA Series 4500, 6500, and FIPS Appliances