Central Management Server

CMS is only available as a virtual machine. Details about the supported platforms is listed in Supported Platforms for CMS with Global HA.

CMS can manage up to 100 appliances (physical and virtual appliances), but before an appliance can be managed it must be registered with CMS. CMS registration is secured with encryption using a one time password. Its purpose is to bootstrap TLS communication by exchanging public keys. Following registration all CMS/appliance communication is secured with TLS.

The CMS communicates with each managed appliance to receive:

• Data on the Control channel for configuring, licensing, maintaining appliances.
• Periodic health and status information from managed appliances.

CMS periodically communicates with MySonicWall for license validation. This ensures correct system wide timing and use of licenses.

CMS also requires access to the following two online services:

	SonicWall Licensing Server	SonicWall Geo Server
FQDN	software.sonicwall.com	geows.global.sonicwall.com
Ports	443	443

CMS must be able to communicate with each appliance on port 443 of one of the following IP addresses: the internal IP address, external IP address, or Pool IP address.

Do not use more than one CMS for a single managed appliance.