CiscoWorks Management Center for PIX Firewalls (PIX MC)

PIX MC v1.1 for Windows 2000 is a web-based interface with the look-and-feel of the PIX Device Manager (PDM), but it offers centralized management scalability for up to 1,000 PIX firewalls and Firewall Services Modules (FWSM) on Catalyst 6500 switches.

The PIX MC provides the entire Cisco SAFE security strategy and supports centralized management of PIX firewall features such as access rules, NAT, intrusion detection, and EZ-VPN on PIX units. With PIX MC, it is possible to configure new PIX Firewalls or import the configurations from existing firewalls. Once developed, PIX MC can deploy these configurations to the appropriate network devices. At the same time PIX MC provides workflow enhancements for monitoring and controlling changes made to the network, showing any configuration and status changes. The PIX MC can even roll back a device to the previously deployed configuration for those times when things go wrong.

The PIX MC supports centralized management of virtually any PIX firewall security network, including remote access, DMZ, SOHO, voice networks, storage networks, wireless networks, Internet security, and management security provider scenarios. The latest release supports the following PIX Firewall 6.2 features. Later releases of PIX MC will support all of the remaining features in Cisco PIX Firewall Version 6.2.

LAN-based failover
DHCP options 66 and 150
Additional fixup command support
Turbo ACL
PPPoE
Auto-update capability for firewall device configuration files and software images

System Requirements

As with other CiscoWorks implementations, PIX MC uses a centralized management station (server) that contains the PIX MC software and associated databases. The application and features can then be accessed from Web browsers on Windows workstations. This section will look at both of the following system requirements.

Server Requirements
Client Requirements

Server Requirements

The minimum hardware requirements to run PIX MC server on Windows 2000 systems are as follows.

Intel-based computer with 1GHz or faster Pentium processor
10 Mbps or faster NIC (obviously faster is better)
Color monitor with video card capable of 256 colors or more
CD-ROM drive
1 GB RAM minimum
9 GB minimum available disk drive space
NTFS file system recommended
2 GB virtual memory

The minimum software requirements to run PIX MC server on Windows 2000 systems are as follows.

ODBC Driver Manager 3.510 or later
Either Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server with service pack 2 or 3

Client Requirements

The minimum requirements to access all server-based product features from a client workstation are as follows.

Intel-based computer with 300MHz or faster Pentium processor running one of the following versions of Windows.
Windows 98
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 2000 Server or Professional (Service pack 2)
256 MB RAM minimum
400 MB virtual memory disk drive space
Internet Explorer 6.0 or 5.5 (service pack 2) with Java Virtual Machine 5.0.3182 or later