How to Manage Ranges and Clusters

Barracuda NextGen Firewall F-Series systems are organized into a two-level hierarchy on the Barracuda NextGen Control Center. A common use would be to create ranges for regions such as North America and EMEA and then create clusters for each country in the region. Configuration and default settings shared by multiple F-Series Firewalls can be configured on the cluster or range level. To create reusable configurations for multiple firewalls, use a repository. The configuration of an individual system can then be linked or copied from a range or global repository making it easy to deploy a change to all managed systems.

In this article:

Create a Range

You must create at least one range on a Control Center.

1. Click the CONFIGURATION tab.
2. Right-click Multi-Range and select Create Range.
3. Enter a Range Number.
4. (optional) Enter a Description.
5. (optional) Enter the contact details in the Contact Info field.
6. Configure the range properties as described in the Specific Settings section.
7. Click Next.
8. Enter the owner and purchase details in the information sections.
9. Click Finish.
10. Click Activate.

Remove a Range

1. Click the CONFIGURATION tab.
2. Right-click the range you wish to remove and click Lock.
3. Right-click the range and select Remove Range.
4. Click OK to confirm the deletion.
5. Click Activate.

Create a Cluster

Unless you are using a Standard Edition Control Center, there is no limit on how many clusters you can create.

1. Click the CONFIGURATION tab.
2. Expand Multi-Range, right-click your desired range and select Create Cluster.
3. Select the software release of the Barracuda NextGen Firewall F-Series boxes that should be managed and click OK.
4. Enter a descriptive Cluster Name.

5. Enter the contact details.

6. Configure the cluster properties as described in the Specific Settings section.
7. Click Next.
8. Enter the owner and purchase details in the information sections.
9. Click Finish.
10. Click Activate.

Remove a Cluster

1. Click the CONFIGURATION tab.
2. Navigate to the cluster you wish to remove.
3. Right-click the cluster and click Lock.
4. Right-click the cluster and select Remove Cluster.
5. Click OK to confirm the deletion.
6. Click Activate.

Range and Cluster Specific Settings

Each range and cluster can override global settings by using its own configuration interface. When enabling these settings the scope is limited to the range or cluster it is set for.

Migrating the Configuration

Migration can only be performed the next major firmware version (5.0 > 5.2 > 5.4 > 6.0 > 6.1).

Migrating a Repository Linked Unit

If you are using a repository you must prepare the repository linked units before migration:

For information, see How to Prepare Repository Linked Box Configurations for Migration.

1. Click the CONFIGURATION tab.
2. Expand Multi-Range and navigate to the desired object in the Repository tree.
3. Right click the object and click Lock.
4. Right click the object and select Migrate Node.
5. Choose the version number as migration destination and click OK to confirm the migration.
6. Click Activate.

Migrate a Cluster or Range

Clusters can only be migrated to a higher firmware version. You can not downgrade a cluster configuration.

1. Click the CONFIGURATION tab.
2. Navigate to the cluster or range you wish to migrate.
3. Right-click the cluster or range and click Lock.
4. Right-click the cluster and select Migrate Cluster / Migrate Range.
5. Choose the version number as migration destination and click OK to confirm the migration.

6. Review the future configuration.
    

   The MailGW Settings and the Service Configuration nodes will be changed during this migration process. Open the nodes to look at the new configuration dialogs.

7. Click Activate .

Migrate Multiple Clusters and Ranges

1. Click the CONFIGURATION tab.
2. Right-click Multi-Range and select Migrate Clusters/Ranges from the context menu.
3. Select the nodes to be migrated while holding down the SHIFT key.
   
4. Click OK to confirm the migration.
5. Click Activate.