IBM Remote Support Manager for Storage
Main > Manage Internal Firewall

Help for Internal Firewall and Service Access

View Help for the status information displayed at the top of each page.

Possible values for the Firewall state are:

Disabled Firewall allows unrestricted access to and from the system
Enabled: Closed Most connections are closed, only those required for receiving SNMP traps and reporting to IBM are allowed
Enabled: Open Connections required for receiving SNMP traps and reporting to IBM are allowed, plus connections to all devices that have active alerts or have been placed in Service Access mode.
The Remote Support Manager automatically configures the internal firewall to allow access to subsystems that have active alerts. If access is needed to other subsystems, you can manually enable Service Access for those subsystems. In addition, if you have configured any other SAN devices, they can also be enabled for Service Access.

General information about firewall rules and allowed connections

In order to detect events and report them to IBM the following connections are always permitted.

  • Inbound SNMP traps on port 163
  • Outbound connections Domain Name Servers (DNS) on port 53.
  • Outbound connections to the configured e-mail (SMTP) server

In addition, the following connections are allowed for management and maintenance of the RSM for Storage system.

  • Outbound connections to IBM's websites and FTP servers
  • Ping requests and responses
  • Traceroute requests and responses
  • Inbound HTTPS requests

While a subsystem has an active alert, outbound connections to that subsystem are allowed. Outbound connections are also allowed for all devices that have been placed in "Service Access" mode.

Additional Firewall Configuration

If you have a need to allow access to additional IP addresses, you can edit the rsm-firewall.conf.sample file that is located in the /etc/rsm directory. Add the IP addresses to this file as described in the sample file.

To activate the changes, rename the rsm-firewall.conf.sample file to be rsm-firewall.conf. Then stop and re-start the RSM for Storage application using the rsm-stop and rsm-start command line programs. Note: do not stop and re-start the RSM for Storage application while there are active alerts.

Remember that any addresses placed in the configuration file will be accessible to all local and remote users of the RSM for Storage system regardless of the firewall settings.


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