SonicWall X-Series Solution Overview

SonicWall X-Series Solution Overview

 What is the SonicWall X-Series Solution?

Customers often needs to manage critical network elements such as firewall, switch individually. The SonicWall X-Series Solution allows unified management of both the firewall and the switch using the firewall UI and GMS. For example the maximum number of interfaces available on the SonicWall TZ-Series models range from 5 (TZ300) to 10 (TZ600). In certain customer deployments, the number of ports required might easily exceed the maximum number of interfaces available on the SonicWall TZ-Series firewalls. With SonicWall X-Series Solution, ports on the X-Series Switch can be viewed as “extended” interfaces of the firewall thereby increasing the number of interfaces available for use.

What features are provided by the SonicWall X-Series Solution?

• Provisioning of X-Series Switch as “Extended Switch”
• PortShield Functionality
• Configuration of Extended Switch Interface Settings
• Manageability of basic Extended Switch Global Parameters
• Manageability of Extended Switch using GMS
• HA with PortShield functionality
• Diagnostics Support for Extended Switch

Provisioning of X-Series Switches as “Extended Switch”

Up to two X-Series switches can be provision on SonicWall firewall as “Extended Switch”

Parameters needed to provision a  X-Series switch are:

• ID
• Switch Model
• IP Address
• Username
• Password
• Switch Management (port #)
• Firewall Uplink (port #)
• Switch Uplink (port #)
• STP mode (optional)
• STP State (optional)
• POE Alert Usage Threshold (optional)
• POE Traps (optional)
• POE Power Limit Mode (optional)

PortShield Functionality

After a  X-Series switch is provisioned, the extended switch ports can be associated to a PortShield

Configuration and Management of "Extended Switch" Interface Settings

• Port Enable/Disable - (Ports on the extended switch can be enabled/disabled from the firewall UI/GMS. By default all ports on the extended switch are enabled)
• PortShield Interface - (Ports on the extended switch can be Portshielded to firewall ports)
• Link Speed - (Speed/Duplex mode for ports on the extended switch can be set to: Auto Neg/1000 Mbps FD/100 Mbps FD/100 Mbps HD/10 Mbps HD. By default the link speed for all ports on the extended switch is to "Auto Neg")
• STP State - (STP can be enabled/disabled on a per port basis. By default STP is enabled for all ports on the extended switch)
• PoE Admin Status - (PoE can be enabled/disabled for a given port. By default PoE is enabled on all ports on the extended switch)
• PoE Power Priority Level - (Port priority can be configured to low/high/critical based on which power will be available to the PoE ports when the power supply is approaching the max usage limit. By default, power priority level is set to low for all ports on the extended switch)
• PoE Power Limit - (Power limit can be configured from 0-30 (W) on ports supporting POE+ and from 0-15 (W) on ports supporting POE)

Manageability of Extended Switch using GMS

SonicWall X-Series Solution allows manageability of extended switch using GMS. GMS will support all configuration operations such as provisioning of an extended switch, configuration of extended switch interface settings and manageability of extended switch global parameters.

HA with PortShield functionality

SonicWall X-Series Solution allows manageability of extended switch on SonicWall in HA. With the SonicWall X-Series Solution, ports on the X-Series Switch can be viewed as “extended” interfaces of the firewall. The X-Series Switch interfaces can be PortShield to SonicWall providing extra interfaces resources for use.

NOTE: For SonicWall in HA mode, only ports from an external switch can join a PortShield Group, ports on the SonicWall cannot join a PortShield Group.

Support for Extended Switch diagnostic features:

• Retrieving Statistics of Extended Switch Ports
• Upgrade of firmware image, boot image on the Extended Switch
• Reload of the Extended Switch