Network communication within VISULOX

Overview

There are several communication paths into, within, or out of a VISULOX environment.

This article describes the communication paths within the platform.

The article is based on the standard communication parameters within VISULOX.

The VISULOX communication is dedicated to one interface.

A firewall between nodes in the cluster (VISULOX Service Nodes and VISULOX PORTAL Service Nodes) must be configured with the following setting "session time out=never".

Accessing client with VISULOX GATEWAY

VISULOX GATEWAY access, initiated from the client:

Port	Comment
https/443	User client communicates with HTTPS to the LoadBalancer or each VISULOX GATEWAY

Accessing client without VISULOX GATEWAY

Direct access, initiated from the client:

Port	Comment
https/443	Client communicates with HTTPS to each VISULOX PORTAL Service
AIP/5307	In VISULOX GATEWAY or in non firewall traversal mode, the client communicates to each VISULOX PORTAL Service

VISULOX GATEWAY to VISULOX PORTAL Service

Communication between VISULOX GATEWAY and VISULOX PORTAL Service, initiated from the VISULOX GATEWAY:

Port		Comment
https/443	TCP	HTTPS dialog
AIP/5307	TCP	AIP dialog

VISULOX PORTAL Service to VISULOX PORTAL Service

Port		Comment
PortalARRAY/5427	TCP	Communication
x11-offset/6000+	TCP	Assist, Dual Control, ttashadow

VISULOX PORTAL Service to VISULOX Service

No firewall rule needed, only loop-back communication:

Port		Comment
9001	TCP	This will be only an internal (localhost) communication on VISULOX ACCESS Nodes, where VISULOX PORTAL Service and VISULOX Service is installed

VISULOX Service on VISULOX ACCESS Node

Port		Comment
443	TCP	VISULOX reads the VISULOX PORTAL webservice via a localhost connection (only loop-back communication:)

VISULOX Service on other servers to the VISULOX PORTAL Service

Port		Comment
x11-offset/6000+	TCP	VISULOX Cockpit, Jump Shell, Command Connect, Command Guard or FT Client always use a VLX transituser. If one of these programs is used on another server, it is necessary that this server is able to communicate via X11 native (port 6000+). For example a VISULOX Archive Server will need this port open. See also: VISULOX SSH X11 Forwarding to VISULOX Application Nodes

Port

Comment

x11-offset/6000+

TCP

VISULOX Cockpit, Jump Shell, Command Connect, Command Guard or FT Client always use a VLX transituser.

If one of these programs is used on another server, it is necessary that this server is able to communicate via X11 native (port 6000+).

For example a VISULOX Archive Server will need this port open.

Connection with port 6000+	Connection with VLX x11 forwarding

VISULOX Service to VISULOX Service

Communication between any VISULOX Node (including Archive Node) in a VISULOX Cluster, initiated from a VISULOX Node:

Port		Comment
7001	TCP	Send requests to the VISULOX router
7002	TCP	Status updates from other VISULOX routers
7003	TCP	File Transfer service between nodes
7004	TCP	Reserved for future communication
7005	TCP	ETCD cluster communication
7006	TCP	ETCD client to cluster communication
7007-7010	TCP	Reserved for future communication

These ports are also checked within VISULOX Integrity-Check.

Accessing the VISULOX Transit Page

Connection from a browser running on an internal application server, initiated from the application server:

Port		Comment
https/1443	TCP	User can connect to the File Transfer Transit page. This service can be configured to be available only on a specific VISULOX Node

Depending on the environment and the specific software (e.g. nagios, yum, anti-virus updates, etc) installed on the server it may become necessary to allow further ports for communication.

This weakens the security concept and has to be done very carefully for each single server.

Example configuration for firewalld (Linux 7.x)

VISULOX PORTAL Service

Create new file: /usr/lib/firewalld/services/tta.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<service>
  <short>Portal Firewall Rules</short>
  <description>The following rules are needed for the VISULOX PORTAL Service.</description>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="80"/>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="443"/>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="5307"/>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="5427"/>
</service>

VISULOX Service

Create new file: /usr/lib/firewalld/services/vlx.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<service>
  <short>VISULOX Firewall Rules</short>
  <description>The following rules are needed for the VISULOX Service and the VISULOX Components.</description>
  <!-- Recorder Access on VISULOX PORTAL Nodes  -->
  <port protocol="tcp" port="6000-6500"/>
  <!-- VISULOX Communication -->  
  <port protocol="tcp" port="7001-7010"/>
  <!-- Webservice, FTPD and Fileexchange  -->
  <port protocol="tcp" port="21"/>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="1443"/>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="8114"/>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="8115"/>
</service>

Use the following commands to permanently enable the VISULOX firewall rules:

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=vlx
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=tta

firewall-cmd --reload
success