The User Interface has the following general layout :-

Note that the main-menu items themselves have a specific function when clicked - clicking such items displays a general page related to that item - for example, clicking on Status shows some overall status information, whereas sub-menu items under Status display specific categories of status information.

The user interface pages used to change the device configuration are referred to as the 'config pages' in this manual - these pages are accessed by clicking on the "Edit" item in the sub-menu under the "Config" main-menu item.

The structure of the config pages mirrors the object hierarchy, and therefore they are themselves naturally hierachical. Your position in the hierarchy is illustrated in the 'breadcrumbs' trail at the top of the page, for example :-

Firewall/mapping rules :: rule-set 1 of 3 (filters) :: rule 7 of 19 (ICMP)

This shows that the current page is showing a rule, which exists within a rule-set, which in turn is in the "Firewall/mapping rules" category (see below).

3.6.2.1. Configuration categories

Configuration objects are grouped into a number of categories. At the top of the config pages is a set of icons, one for each category, as shown in Figure 3.1 :-

Figure 3.1. Icons for configuration categories

Within each category, there are one or more sections delimited by horizontal lines. Each of these sections has a heading, and corresponds to a particular type of top-level object, and relates to a major part of the configuration that comes under the selected category. See Figure 3.2 for an example showing part of the "Setup" category, which includes general system settings (the system object) and control of system services (network services provided by the FB2500, such as the web-interface web server, telnet server etc., controlled by the services object).

Figure 3.2. The "Setup" category

Each section is displayed as a tabulated list showing any existing objects of the associated type. Each row of the table corresponds with one object, and a subset (typically those of most interest at a glance) of the object's attributes are shown in the columns - the column heading shows the attribute name. If no objects of that type exist, there will be a single row with an "Add" link. Where the order of the objects matter, there will be an 'Add' link against each object - clicking an 'Add' link for a particular object will insert a new object before it. To add a new object after the last existing one, click on the 'Add' link on the bottom (or only) row of the table.

Tip

If there is no 'Add' link present, then this means there can only exist a limited number of objects of that type (possibly only one), and this many already exist. The existing object(s) may have originated from the factory reset configuration.

You can 'push-down' into the hierarchy by clicking the 'Edit' link in a table row. This takes you to a page to edit that specific object. The page also shows any child objects of the object being edited, using the same horizontal-line delimited section style used in the top-level categories. You can navigate back up the hierarchy using various methods - see Section 3.6.3.

Caution

Clicking the "Add" link will create a new sub-object which will have blank/default settings. This can be useful to see what attributes an object can take, but if you do not want this blank object to be part of the configuration you later save you will need to click Erase. Simply going back "Up" or moving to another part of the config will leave this newly created empty object and that could have undesirable effects on the operation of your FireBrick if saved.

3.6.2.2. Object settings

The details of an object are displayed as a matrix of boxes (giving the appearance of a wall of bricks), one for each attribute associated with that object type. Figure 3.3 shows an example for an interface object (covered in Chapter 6) :-

Figure 3.3. Editing an "Interface" object

By default, more advanced or less frequently used attributes are hidden - if this applies to the object being edited, you will see the text shown in Figure 3.4. The hidden attributes can be displayed by clicking on the link "Show all".

Figure 3.4. Show hidden attributes

Each brick in the wall contains the following :-

• a checkbox - if the checkbox is checked, an appropriate value entry widget is displayed, otherwise, a default value is shown and applied for that setting. If the attribute is not optional then no checkbox is show.
• the attribute name - this is a compact string that exactly matches the underlying XML attribute name
• a short description of the attribute

Tip

If there is no default shown for an attribute then its value, if needed, is zero, blank, null, empty string, false (internally it is zero bits!). In some cases the presence of an attribute will have meaning even if that attribute is an empty string or zero value. In some cases the default for an attribute will not be a fixed value but will depend on other factors, e.g. it may be "auto", or "set if using xyz...". The description of the default value should make this clear. Where an optional attribute is not ticked the attribute does not appear in the XML at all.

These can be seen in Figure 3.5 :-

Figure 3.5. Attribute definitions

If the attribute value is shown in a 'strike-through' font (with a horizontal line through it mid-way vertically), this illustrates that the attribute can't be set - this will happen where the attribute value would reference an instance of particular type of object, but there are not currently any instances of objects of that type defined.

Tip

Since the attribute name is a compact, concise and un-ambiguous way of referring to an attribute, please quote attribute names when requesting technical support, and expect technical support staff to discuss your configuration primarily in terms of attribute (and object/element) names, rather than descriptive text, or physical location on your screen (both of which can vary between software releases).

You navigate around the hierarchy using one or more of the following :-

Figure 3.6. Navigation controls

Navigating away from an object using the supported navigation controls doesn't cause any modifications to that object to be lost, even if the configuration has not yet been saved back to the FB2500. All changes are initially held in-memory (in the web browser itself), and are committed back to the FireBrick only when you press the Save button.

The navigation button area, shown in Figure 3.6, also includes three other buttons :-

To back up / save or restore the configuration, start by clicking on the "Config" main-menu item. This will show a page with a form to upload a configuration file (in XML) to the FB2500 - also on the page is a link "Download/save config" that will download the current configuration in XML format.

It is also possible to set auto-backup-url to a URL (starting https://) to automatically post a copy of the config to a server of your choice shortly after any changes. There is a delay of a few minutes after the last change before posting the config. The config post also includes a header X-Signed with a digital signature of the config itself using the private key stored in the FireBrick Certificates store against the FireBrick serial number. This should be used to check for authenticity of the posted config.

It is possible to change the colour of the interface's header and footer banners from the config editor. Select the "Setup" category icon and choose to edit "General system services" and then "Web server settings". Click "Show all" at the bottom of the page, and then select "banner-background". By default, this will also change the colour of the config editor and the highlight text colour (used for hyperlinks and headings). If needed, you can also set those colours separately.

Alternatively you can edit the XML configuration file (see Section 3.7) and set the banner-background attribute for the http service.

It is also possible to configure an external CSS to use with the FireBrick web control pages, via the css-url attribute. This allows a great deal of control of the overall layout and appearance. This can be useful for dealers or IT support companies to set up FireBricks in a style and branding of their choice.