Network design, architecture, thinking, working. Tech.
This post looks at design models for handling the allocation of resources within the Cisco ACE and FWSM modules. In may be relevant to other virtualisation system where allocation of virtual resources needs a strategy.
The Cisco Firewall Service Modules (FWSM) has a design limitation based on its ability to discriminate packet forwarding between multiple contexts. It also applies to ASA/PIX software. Lets review this in detail and learn the evil consequences.
In modern Enterprise networks, you typically have many clusters of firewalls protecting assets in your network. Since we use two or more layers of firewalls, we can put our DMZ for intermediate security zones in different places in our network. Lets gather together the different options and consider the merits or not, and sometimes how they ‘self-build’.
