Panorama Plugin for Cisco TrustSec
Discover how the Panorama plugin for Cisco TrustSec enables effective network endpoint
monitoring and security integration
The Panorama plugin for Cisco TrustSec enables you to
create security policy for your TrustSec environment using dynamic
or static address groups. The plugin monitors for changes in TrustSec
security groups and registers that information with Panorama and
forwards IP information to the firewall, so Panorama can apply the
correct policy to corresponding endpoints. The Panorama plugin for
Cisco TrustSec supports up to 16 pxGrid (Cisco ISE) servers.
The Panorama plugin processes the endpoint information and converts
it to a set of tags that you can use as match criteria for placing
IP addresses in dynamic address groups. Panorama creates a tag for
each security group tag (SGT) on your pxGrid servers. The tags are constructed
in the following format:
cts.svr_<pxgrid-server-name>.sgt_<SGT-name>
To retrieve endpoint IP-address-to-tag mapping information, you
must configure a Monitoring Definition for each pxGrid server in
your environment. The pxGrid server configuration specifies the
username and password and is referenced by the monitoring definition
that allows Panorama to connect to the pxGrid. Additionally, you
can configure the plugin to verify the pxGrid server identity with
a certificate profile on Panorama. It also specifies the device
groups and corresponding notify groups containing the firewalls
to which Panorama pushes the tags. After you configure the Monitoring
Definition and the plugin retrieves the tags, you can create dynamic
address groups and add the tags as match criteria.
The Panorama Plugin for Cisco TrustSec version 1.0.2 and later
supports Bulk Sync and PubSub monitoring modes. The plugin selects
a mode based on the Panorama version—Bulk Sync mode if the Panorama
version is earlier than 10.0.0, and PubSub mode on Panorama 10.0.0
and later. The user interface displays the configuration options
for the default monitoring mode.
Bulk Sync
Bulk Sync mode uses two intervals to retrieve information
from your pxGrid servers—the monitoring interval and full-sync interval.
This mode is the default when the Panorama Plugin for Cisco TrustSec
version 1.0.2 or later is installed on a Panorama version earlier
than 10.0.0. Panorama versions earlier than 10.0.0 support IP-tab
updates to configd every 10 seconds.
Monitoring interval—The monitoring interval is
the amount of time that the plugin waits before querying for changes.
If no changes have occurred, the monitoring interval resets. If
there are changes, the plugin processes the changes before resetting
the monitoring interval. The default monitoring interval is 60 seconds.
You can set the monitoring interval from 10 seconds to one day (86,400 seconds).
The
minimum monitoring interval is 30 seconds when the Panorama plugin
for Cisco TrustSec 1.0.0 is installed.
Full-sync interval—The full-sync interval is the amount
of time that the plugin waits before updating the dynamic objects
from all pxGrid servers regardless of any changes occurred. This
ensures that the plugin is synchronized with the pxGrid server even
if a change event is missed by the monitoring interval. You can
set the full-sync interval from 600 seconds (10 minutes) to 86,400
seconds (one day). You must configure the full-sync interval from
the Panorama CLI.
If the monitoring interval is greater than the full-sync
interval, the full-sync interval is ignored and a full synchronization
is performed at every monitoring interval.
PubSub
PubSub mode monitors notifications directly from the
Cisco ISE server (the subscription daemon), parses for IP tags,
and sends relevant information to the tag processing daemon (tag-proc).
PubSub is the default mode when the Panorama Plugin for Cisco TrustSec
version 1.0.2 or later is installed on Panorama version 10.0.0 or
later. Panorama versions 10.0.0 or later support IP-tab updates
to configd every 100 milliseconds.
Push interval—The push interval is the amount
of time between pushes. If the previous push takes too much time,
the next push is triggered as soon as it finishes. The minimum push
interval is 100 milliseconds (0 seconds) and the maximum is 60 seconds.
The default push interval is 0 seconds.
Enable Full Sync—Enable this option to trigger a complete
update. If you enable full sync, you can set the full-sync interval.
Default is no.
Full-sync interval—The full-sync interval is the amount
of time that the plugin waits before updating the dynamic objects
from all pxGrid servers regardless of any changes occurred. The
default full-sync interval is 10 minutes. You can set the full-sync
interval from 600 seconds (10 minutes) to 86,400 seconds (one day).
You must configure the full-sync interval from the Panorama CLI.
Reconnection interval—The initial reconnection interval
is 1 second, and it is doubled if the previous reconnection failed.
The maximum reconnection interval is 64 sec. There is no limit to
the number of reconnection attempts.
Differences
between dynamic and static addresses
You use the Panorama plugin for Cisco TrustSec to create
security policy using dynamic or static address groups. The mapping
received from the Cisco ISE Server is converted before being processed
by the Panorama plugin framework. This conversion, representing
a custom tag, is based on the pxGrid server name and the SGT received:
cts.svr_<server-name>.sgt_<SGT-name>
SGT names are represented in a Cisco ISE Server in three different
formats:
String—For example, BYOD.
Decimal number—For example, 15.
Hexadecimal number—For example, 000F.
The format of the SGT name depends on the type of SGT:
