Tips & Info Section

Backups

Backups. Do you have one? Does it work? Automated back-ups are a great time saver, but when did you last check to make sure they really worked and could restore the system completely. Incidents happen and disasters are made. A hard drive failure is just an incident if you have a good working back-up and back-up plan. Without that backup and a plan you have the beginnings of a disaster.

Third-Party Verification

Third party verification. Sometimes called a sanity check. When you are working on a new; policy and procedure, Firewall configuration, or switch settings. Have someone familiar with what you are working on check your work. Typos and small errors can make a huge mess on a network and if you are under pressure to fix it fast it is only more difficult to find. A fresh set of eyes looking can sometimes find the issue with a glance.

Setting Date and Time

Set your date and time Network-wide. Log correlation is nearly impossible if all of your log sources have different time settings. Any issues from trouble-shooting to Intrusion forensics are further complicated without valid and constant times on all log sources.

Backup SmartCenter Configurations

Backup Smart Center (Security Management) configurations:

cd $FWDIR/bin/upgrade_tools
execute a cpstop (to stop all Check Point processes)
./upgrade_export date.mgmtbkup.tgz (ex: 20110301.mgmtbkup.tgz)
execute a cpstart
move the file date.mgmtbkup.tgz (or 20110301.mgmtbkup.tgz)

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