Integrating the vGW Series with VMware Using the Settings Module
This topic explains how to integrate the vGW Series with the VMware infrastructure.
The vCenter Integration settings control the interaction between the vGW Series and VMware.
Figure 84: vCenter Integration
The vCenter Integration screen allows you to configure the following parameters:
- vCenter Settings—Login information needed
for the vGW Security Design VM to communicate with the VMware Virtual
Center server (vCenter). The vGW Security Design VM uses the VMware
Virtual Infrastructure APIs to:
- Obtain VM Inventory information
- Determine resource utilization status
- Determine events affecting the VMs
The account used by the vCenter must have read-write access to the VMware Infrastructure. You can use a custom account created in VMware. Using such an account makes it easier to identify and monitor change activities. In either case, the account should have administrator privileges.
- Scope–Allows you as the administrator of the vGW
Security Design VM to specify the vCenter’s data centers to
be managed by your vGW Security Design VM. If you use the Split Center
feature, select the Selected Data centers option button. All vCenter
data centers are displayed in response. If you are not using the Split
Center feature, select the Entire vCenter option button.
- For an overview of the Split Center feature, see “Understanding the Split-Center Feature” on page 75.
- Deleted VMs—The vGW Series can show information about any virtual machines it has encountered over time even if they were deleted in VMware’s vCenter system repository. This capability keeps historic traffic records. It allows a vGW Series administrator to see all the activity occurring in VMware. The VM’s information persistency in the vGW Series interface can reveal attempts by a malicious administrator or hacker to bring up a VM, perform an unauthorized activity, and then delete the VM to hide their tracks. If, however, you do not want the deleted VMs appearing in the vGW Series interface, you can clear this menu item, and they are hidden from view. They are still available to view if you select the item again.
- vGW Series management enter Plugin—Use this button to install the vGW Series plug-in into the vCenter interface. To install the plug-in, click Register. To view and use the plug-in, in the vSphere Client interface select Home -> Solutions and Applications. To remove the GW Series Management Plug-in, click Unregister.
- Automatic Startup of the vGW Security Design VM and Firewall—Use
this setting to enable or disable the startup of vGW Series components
when an ESX system reboots. The vGW Series components are set to start
up automatically by default.
- Synchronize machine name—Changing the name of a
VM in vCenter by default causes the name of the equivalent VM object
in vGW Security Design VM to be changed to the same value. To override
this setting, clear the value for this item.
For example, security administrators might want to use this override feature if they are not using the same naming convention as the VM team. The ability to override the default behavior is also useful if security administrators have created dynamic security policies using the name of the VM, and they do not want them affected by simple name changes in the vCenter.
- Synchronize machine name—Changing the name of a
VM in vCenter by default causes the name of the equivalent VM object
in vGW Security Design VM to be changed to the same value. To override
this setting, clear the value for this item.