Chapter 3: Standalone & Identical

Home Prev	Hardware Replacement Guide for NetWall Firewalls	Next

This chapter looks at the case where a single standalone hardware unit is to be replaced with another, identical unit. In this case, there is no need to perform any reassignment of the interfaces.

	Caution: The E80B is not an identical replacement for the E80A
When replacing an older E80A unit with a newer E80B unit, the interface names are different so this should not be treated as replacement with an identical unit. Instead, this should be regarded as replacement with dissimilar hardware. Performing E80A replacement is discussed further in a Clavister Knowledge Base (KB) article which can be found at the external link: https://kb.clavister.com/324739069

Caution: The E80B is not an identical replacement for the E80A

When replacing an older E80A unit with a newer E80B unit, the interface names are different so this should not be treated as replacement with an identical unit. Instead, this should be regarded as replacement with dissimilar hardware.

Performing E80A replacement is discussed further in a Clavister Knowledge Base (KB) article which can be found at the external link: https://kb.clavister.com/324739069

	Important: Reassign a cold standby license before start up
If the replacement hardware is a Clavister Cold Standby (CSB) unit then the license reassignment must be performed by logging in to the Clavister website before powering up the CSB unit for the first time. Doing this is described further in Chapter 2, Cold Standby Service.

Important: Reassign a cold standby license before start up

If the replacement hardware is a Clavister Cold Standby (CSB) unit then the license reassignment must be performed by logging in to the Clavister website before powering up the CSB unit for the first time.

Doing this is described further in Chapter 2, Cold Standby Service.

There are two methods for replacing identical hardware:

Using InControl

For certain Clavister hardware models, the Zero Touch feature in the Clavister InControl product provides a simple way to replace hardware with an identical model. This assumes that the old hardware was already under InControl management.

The feature can automatically install the correct license, cOS Core version and old cOS Core configuration in the replacement unit. This topic is discussed further in the Zero Touch chapter of the separate InControl Administration Guide, where a list of the supported hardware models can also be found.
Manually, without InControl

This method uses the manual administration techniques common to other types of replacement. The rest of this section will describe this method in detail.

Manual Replacement Without Using InControl

With manual replacement, all that is required is to is to take the configuration backup from the old hardware and upload it to the new hardware. The full procedure is as follows:

Attach the cables to the new hardware unit in exactly the same way they were attached to the old.
Apply power to the new unit so that cOS Core starts.
The new hardware unit will have the default IP address on its default management Ethernet interface. If required, change this to the address used by the old unit. This is described in:

Appendix C, Management Interface Setup.
As described in the Getting Started Guide for the hardware model, attach an external computer to the new unit's default management Ethernet interface over a network.
Using a web browser on the external computer, log on to the new unit via the cOS Core Web Interface. The default username and password is always admin and admin.
If there is a backup of the configuration from the old hardware available, upload it by selecting the Web Interface menu option:

Maintenance > Backup

If no backup is available, skip the remaining steps.
Finally, activate and commit the configuration by selecting the Web Interface menu option:

Configuration > Save
The MAC addresses of the Ethernet interfaces on the new hardware will be different from the old unit so the cOS Core license from the old hardware will no longer be valid. A new license from the Clavister must be installed. This can be done in one of the following ways:
- Automatically through the Web Interface by going to Status > Maintenance > License.
- Automatically through the CLI with the command:
```
Device:/> license -activate -request -username=myname -password=pswd
```
- Manually by first downloading a new license from the Clavister website then uploading it either through the Web Interface or with SCP. This will require the information written on the label attached to the hardware. With some older Clavister hardware models, this is the only option.
Note that for hardware released from the 4th quarter of 2021 (for example, the 100, 500 and 6000 Series) licenses will be a subscription based Security as a Service (SECaaS) licenses. Installation of a SECaaS license requires that cOS Core is configured with both Internet access and a public DNS server.

If No Backup is Available

If no backup is available, the default cOS Core configuration must be manually configured until it matches the configuration of the old hardware unit. This must be done object by object, and rule by rule.

This is time consuming and emphasizes the importance of regular configuration backups. It is also recommended to take at least one full system backup once a Clavister NetWall Firewall becomes live. This makes it easier to restore the original cOS Core version on new hardware that may have a different default version.