SonicOS 7 System

Technical Documentation > SonicOS 7 System > Overview > About SonicOS

About SonicOS

SonicOS refers to the web management interface used for configuring, managing, and monitoring the features, policies, security services, connected devices, and threats to your environment. SonicOS runs on top of SonicCore, SonicWall's secure underlying operating system. SonicOS management interface facilitates the following:

  • Setting up and configuring your firewall
  • Configuring external devices like access points or switches
  • Configuring networks and external system options that connect to your firewall
  • Defining objects and policies for protection
  • Monitoring the health and status of the firewall, network, users, and connections
  • Monitoring traffic, users, and threats
  • Investigating events

SonicWall offers two different modes of operation in SonicOS; the modes differ mainly in the areas of policy and object configuration. Policy Mode provides a unified policy configuration work flow. It combines Layer 3 to Layer 7 policy enforcement for security policies and optimizes the work flow for other policy types. This unified policy work flow gathers many security settings into one place, which were previously configured on different pages of the management interface. The Classic Mode is more consistent with earlier releases; you need to develop individual policies and actions for specific security services. The Classic Mode has a redesigned interface. The following table identifies which modes can be used on the different SonicOS firewalls:

Firewall Type Classic Mode Policy Mode Comments
TZ Series yes no
NSa Series yes no

+
NSsp 10700, NSsp 11700, NSsp 13700 yes

no
NSsp 15700 no yes
NSv Series yes yes Set the operation mode when your first set up the NSv firewall. You can switch between modes, but some configuration information from extra interfaces is removed.

In addition to the management interface, SonicOS also has a full-featured API and a CLI to manage the firewalls. For more information, refer to:

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  • SonicOS Command Line Interface Reference Guide

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