Using the Appliance Management Console (v1)

Introduction

The Appliance Management Console is installed on your network appliance. To access this console, you will need to log into your appliance remotely via SSH or locally, using a mouse and keyboard to the appliance. You must use the appliance’s login credentials to login to the Appliance Management Console.

The Appliance Management Console is used for the following purposes:

Configuring the appliance’s static IP address.
Removing an appliance’s static IP address.
Checking the appliance’s connectivity status.
Checking the status of the network traffic being forwarded to the appliance.
Viewing system logs for diagnosing issues.
Changing the appliance’s password.
Toggling the appliance's comms to pass through the relay tunnel console functionality.
Reboot the appliance.

Logging into an Appliance Remotely (SSH)

You can access your appliance using SSH using an application such as PuTTY or WinSCP.

Using the local IP of your appliance and establishing the SSH connection using port 22, login using the following user credentials, but replace <local_ip_address> with the actual IP address of your appliance.

appliance-config@<local_ip_address>

See "Logging into your Physical Appliance" for more on logging into the appliance.

Using the Management Console across different appliances

The console will behave differently depending on the appliance you are using. Business (B1-1000) and Enterprise (E1-1000) appliances have green and red management ports, which are used for the following:

The green port is reserved as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) interface.
The red port is reserved for static addressing.

Oskar appliances only have a green management port, which is reserved as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) interface.

This console can configure a new static IP address for the red port (Business and Enterprise) or the green port (Oskar). When set, the assigned static IP will take precedence and connect to the Field Effect VPN under the following scenarios:

A DHCP lease was not provided when deploying the appliance.
The green port’s addressing information cannot route to the Field Effect VPN.
A static IP was previously set by Field Effect.
The red port’s addressing information cannot route to the Field Effect VPN.

Launching the Console

Begin by plugging a monitor and keyboard into the appliance and logging in using the appliance credentials. The main menu will open on your screen.

1 - Configuring a Static IP Address

Begin by selecting Option 1 from the main menu. You’ll be taken to the appliance’s System IP Information page, which shows the currently active DNS servers, as well as addressing information for the appliance’s input and output interfaces.

Since different appliances have different network ports, the page details will vary depending on the appliance you’re logged into.

When logging into a Business or Enterprise 1 (E1) appliance, you will see the following:

When logging into an Oskar appliance, you’ll see the following:

Interfaces that haven’t been configured will be shown as “UNASSIGNED”. For Business and Enterprise appliances, you will be prompted to configure the “red:1” interface. For Oskar appliances, you will be prompted to configure the “green:3” interface.

To begin the configuration process, enter a valid IP address into the input box and press OK. (The example below shows the appliance interface for Business/Enterprise appliances).

You will then be prompted to set the valid subnet mask for “red:1.” Enter your subnet mask and click OK.

You will then be prompted to set the new gateway IP address for the “red:1” interface. Enter the IP address and click OK.

You will then be prompted to set the new DNS servers for the “red:1” interface. Enter the DNS IP addresses and click OK.

You will then be asked if you want to apply the changes and reboot the system. Click Yes to proceed or No to return to the main menu and discard your changes.

At this point, the appliance will reboot. After the boot process is complete, the new addressing information will be applied.

2 - Removing Static IP Configurations

To begin, launch the console (outlined above) and select Option 2 on the main menu. You will be taken to a screen warning you that you are about to remove all addressing configurations for the client configurable interface (“red:1” for B/E and “green:3” for Oskar appliances). Note that it is only possible to clear configurations on the specified interfaces.

Click Yes to proceed or No to return to the main menu. After clicking Yes, the appliance will reboot. After the boot process is complete, the configuration on the specified interfaces will be removed.

3 - Checking the Appliance’s Connectivity Status

To begin, launch the console (outlined above) and select Option 3 on the main menu. You will be taken to the connectivity page. The example below shows an appliance with no connectivity issues.

The example below shows an appliance experiencing connectivity issues.

4 – Checking Network Traffic Status

To begin, launch the console (outlined above) and select Option 4 on the main menu. You will be taken to a screen asking if you want to check the status of network traffic currently being sent to the appliance.

When selecting 'Yes,' the tool will take a packet capture from every listening source of every appliance in your environment. It will then attempt to determine if the appliance(s) is seeing the appropriate traffic. This can take some time depending on the number of listening sources the appliances have, and how many of those sources are active.

The determining criterion for appropriate traffic is based on whether the appliance is seeing internal hosts reaching out to public IP space or not, and how many internal hosts we're detecting. This tool will alert the client when:

It cannot detect private IP space two-way communicating with public IP space.
Most of the traffic is public IP space two-way communicating with public IP space (most likely due to the client sending us traffic external to their gateway, which we do not need).
It detects traffic from 5 or less internal hosts (very low traffic levels, or a misconfiguration).

Here are a few examples of network traffic statuses:

5 - Viewing System Logs

To begin, launch the console (outlined above) and select Option 5 on the main menu. You’ll be taken to a page showing you the current active DNS servers and addressing information for all interfaces on the appliance. If any interface is currently not configured, it will show as “UNASSIGNED”.

There are three viewing options for system logs Choose the view that suits your needs and press Enter.

You will then be taken to the logs page using your selected view. From here you can view the system logs and use the arrow keys to scroll the page.

6 - Changing the Appliance’s Password

To begin, launch the console (outlined above) and select Option 6 on the main menu. You will be taken to the change password page. Once you are sure that you want to change the password, provide the new password in the text field and press Enter (or click OK).

You will be asked to re-type the new password. Provide the new password in the text field and press Enter (or click OK).

You will be taken to the confirmation page that confirms the password has been changed. You’ll then be taken back to the main menu.

7 - Toggling the Appliance's Relay Tunnel

If the appliance is unable to effectively communicate with your relay, this feature exists for troubleshooting purposes, and should only be used with Field Effect's recommendation. Disabling this tunnel without notifying Field Effect will most likely result in an interruption of service.

To begin, launch the console (outlined above) and select Option 7 on the main menu. You will be taken to the Toggle Release Tunnel page. The current statuses will be visible, and selecting Yes will disable the tunnel.

To re-enable the tunnel after disabling it, navigate back to this page, and the option to enable the relay tunnel will be available.

8 – Reboot the Appliance

You can reboot your appliance from the management console, if required. This is particularly useful if you're off site, or a partner that manages several deployments across various locations.

To begin, select option 8 from the main menu and press Enter. You will be asked to confirm that you would like to reboot the appliance. Select Yes and press Enter to reboot the appliance.