A dark gray encapsulated pin icon displays an “unselected” SonicWALL GMS-managed unit or group. While a light blue encapsulated pin icon displays a “selected” SonicWALL GMS-managed unit or group.
Dashboard
The Dashboard tab is a customizable executive summary of your SonicWALL GMS deployment. The Dashboard tab provides powerful network visualization reporting, monitoring, and search filtering tools consolidated into one area of the management user interface. The Dashboard tab consists of the following components:
The Dashboard tab provides administrators with an executive summary through a Universal Dashboard geographic map. As depicted in the screenshot below, the Geographic View provides a scalable map that displays your SonicWALL GMS-managed units and SonicWALL GMS servers using graphical icons--these icons provide system state information with a mouse over. The Geographic View also provides global to regional map displays of VPN Monitor Views. The administrator can also use the search option to quickly find keywords within their SonicWALL GMS deployment. And each SonicWALL GMS administrator can create multiple-customized views of the Universal Dashboard unique to their administrator login.
The Dashboard tab also provides administrators with a centralized location to create Universal Scheduled Reports for Firewall, SRA, CDP, and Email Security reporting solutions.
Upon initial login, you see a default Dashboard tab. You are able to further customize this page by configuring and adding preferred components.
The Dashboard tab also provides administrators with a centralized location to create Universal Scheduled Reports for Firewall, SRA, CDP, and Email Security reporting solutions.
Upon initial login, you see a default Dashboard tab. You are able to further customize this page by configuring and adding preferred components.
Using the Dashboard Control Bar
The Dashboard control bar provides top-of-the page menu items for customizing the settings of this page. When the Dashboard loads after SonicWALL GMS login, the control bar is displayed and then becomes hidden until you place your mouse cursor at the top of the page as shown below. You can lock the control bar by clicking on the “pin the control bar” icon.
The Dashboard control bar provides the following components:
Using the Universal Dashboard
The Dashboard tab default view displays the “Universal Dashboard.” The Universal Dashboard provides the administrator—upon initial login with factory defaults—a geographical map displaying SonicWALL GMS deployment information.
The Geographical View displays the following SonicWALL GMS elements graphically:
Depending on the administrative access privileges that a logged in user has, the right subset of objects above will be displayed on the geographical map. For example, the “SonicWALL GMS Servers” will be available for display in the map only for the Administrators group users of LocalDomain.
This section contains the following subsections:
Using the Geographic Map View
The Dashboard geographic map provides easy-to-use viewing controls. These controls allow the administrator to use their mouse to hover over elements, configure elements using the mouse right-click menus, and to scale the map to predefined size called “fit to scale.” More information on using these viewing controls are described in the following table:
Table 2:
Zoom
Click the focus bar plus symbol (+) and minus symbol (-) focus bar to expand and contract the viewing area
Using menus and mouse gestures, zoom in and zoom out of regional areas of the Geographic map.
Fit to Scale
Fit-to-Scale button, a mouse-over message displays “Show all the objects on the Map”
The “Fit to Scale” button provides an instant-zoom panning view where the entire SonicWALL GMS deployment and managed-devices are displayed all at once on the Map.
Clear Selection
An “X” button clears your selection on the Map. This button is below the Fit-to-Scale button.
The clear selection button refreshes the Map and removes previously a selected item or set.
Pin Icon
Hover over with mouse pointer or right-click and select Details
Displays system information depending on the SonicWALL appliance selected, below is for a SonicWALL firewall:
-Name: Displays SonicWALL appliance friendly name.-Serial: Displays SonicWALL appliance serial number.-Domain: Displays SonicWALL GMS domain group.-Firmware: Displays firmware version.-Type: Displays appliance type from Firewall, SRA, CDP, ES, to network object.-Management Mode: Displays SSL management enabled or disabled.-Management IP: Displays management IP address.-LAN IP: Displays LAN IP address.-Status: Displays node status from up, down, provisioned, or unknown.
Blob or Group of Pin Icons
Hover over with mouse pointer
Displays the number of units and appliance friendly name for a specific group type.
Unknown
Click the slider to open a small window on the right side of the map.
Displays units and instances that cannot be placed on the Map because their Geo Locations are not known. You can drag and drop units from this list to the Map.
Geographic Map Viewing Controls
This section contains the following subsections:
Using the Geographic View Zoom Bar
The zoom bar for the Geographic Map allows the network administrator to scale the view to a larger holistic view of the entire world or zoom down to a smaller local region. The zoom bar is easy to use, and the page refreshes quickly. Click on the zoom bar minus (-) button to zoom out to view a full map of the world.
Alternatively, click on the zoom bar plus (+) button to zoom in to view a specific area or region of the Map. Another method to zooming into a target area of the map is by double-clicking a spot on the Map. Each double-click zooms into the map one increment closer. You can also use the scroll-button on a mouse to zoom.
Displaying All Objects on the Geographic Map
Since many SonicWALL GMS deployments contain dispersed devices in many different cities and countries around the world, you can view all the objects at once by clicking on the “Show all the objects on the Map” button. This button is located below the minus (-) button on the zoom bar.
In this example, the entire SonicWALL GMS deployment of SonicWALL GMS hosts and managed devices are located in the continental United States map. Therefore, clicking the “Show all objects on the Map” button displays all the nodes for this deployment in the continental United States map. To save this Geographic View, click on the floppy disc icon on the Dashboard control panel.
Using the Deployment View
To change the Dashboard Geographic View default view to the “Deployment View,” point your mouse cursor on the Map. Right-click the Map, and select Deployment View. The Deployment View provides the location of your SonicWALL GMS hosts with graphical color lines to each SonicWALL GMS-managed device as shown below.
The Dashboard Geographic View provides the ability to display your SonicWALL GMS deployment for an all-in-one role configuration or a distributed deployment of multiple SonicWALL GMS hosts in server, console or database role configurations. SonicWALL GMS currently provides support for only a single management host location. This single management host location allows you to view all your SonicWALL GMS-managed devices that contain a defined geographic location. SonicWALL GMS-managed devices that do not have a defined geographic location are listed on the right-margin of the Map in the a slider window: location not known.
The Deployment View connecting lines from the SonicWALL GMS host to the SonicWALL GMS-managed device are graphical color lines representing the status of the management tunnel as follows:
Using the VPN Monitor View
To change the Dashboard Geographic View default view to the “VPN Monitor View,” point your mouse cursor on the Map. Right-click the Map, and select VPN Monitor View.
The Dashboard Geographic View provides the ability to display the status of VPN service security associations (SAs) for your SonicWALL GMS-managed firewalls that contain a defined geographic location. The VPN Monitor View provides a graphical line segment between the SonicWALL GMS-managed firewall and the VPN tunnel endpoint. The VPN tunnel endpoint can be a remote site or an IPsec client computer. The VPN Monitor View displays connected and non-connected SAs.
The VPN Monitor View provides the location of your SonicWALL firewall with graphical color lines to each VPN tunnel endpoint as shown below. Navigate your mouse to the top-right corner of the VPN Monitor View to filter the VPN Tunnel view from the following:
The VPN Monitor View connecting lines from the SonicWALL GMS-managed firewall to the VPN Tunnel endpoint are graphical color lines representing the status of the VPN tunnel as follows:
For more information on configuring your SonicWALL GMS-managed firewall VPN settings, refer to the Firewall > Policies > VPN > Settings page.
Dashboard Geographical Map Icons
This section provides a description of each icon displayed on the Map. The following table provides a description reference for each unique graphical. Note when an icon pin is selected on the Map, the icon changes color to a lighter highlight from dark gray to light blue indicating the node is selected.
Table 3:
A dark gray encapsulated pin icon displays an “unselected” SonicWALL GMS-managed unit or group. While a light blue encapsulated pin icon displays a “selected” SonicWALL GMS-managed unit or group.
Displays an “up/down status” SonicWALL GMS-host deployed in the all-in-one role configuration.
Displays an “up/down status” SonicWALL GMS-host deployed in server role configuration.
Displays an “up/down status” SonicWALL GMS-host deployed in console agent role configuration.
r
Displays an “up/down status” SonicWALL GMS-host deployed in database role configuration.
Displays an “up status” for a single unit or a group of SonicWALL GMS-managed devices.
Displays a “down status” for a single unit or a group of SonicWALL GMS-managed devices.
Displays a “provisioned status” for a single unit or a group of SonicWALL GMS-managed devices.
Displays an “unknown status” for a single unit or a group of SonicWALL GMS-managed devices.
VPN Monitor View
Displays an “up status” for a single or group of VPN tunnel endpoints.
Displays a “down status” for a single or group of VPN tunnel endpoints.
Displays a “disabled status” for a single or group of VPN tunnel endpoints.
Displays an “unknown status” for a single or group of VPN tunnel endpoints.
Dashboard Geographic Map Icons
Using the Context-Sensitive Universal Dashboard Widgets
The Geographic View provides context-sensitive widgets. Widgets are display windows underneath the default Geographic Map. By default, widgets display a group-level data and statistics of your entire SonicWALL GMS deployment. When you view widgets for the Universal Dashboard, the data and statistics are representing group-level data and statistics.
For context-sensitive Widget data and statistics, you must select a node or group of nodes on the Geographical Map. When a node on the Geographical Map is selected, the graphical Pin Node icon changes color from black (unselected) to light blue (selected), and subsequently the widget data and statistics become context-sensitive to the selected node or group of nodes.
Selecting a group of nodes on the Geographic Map can be performed by holding the Ctrl button while clicking the nodes one at a time. Alternatively, you can select a group of nodes on the Geographic Map by holding the shift key and dragging your mouse cursor around the map region as illustrated below.
The following widgets are displayed for the Universal Dashboard:
Note: Select a node or group of nodes for context-sensitive widget data and statistics. The widgets display context-sensitive data specific to the network traffic on the selected node.
For more information, refer to Adding Widgets on the Universal Dashboard.
Filtering with the Search Using Keywords
The Search bar at the top of the Dashboard tab enables the administrator to filter the information displayed on the geographical map. Based on the search criteria, a blob can become an icon, or icon can become a blob. The administrator can use the Search bar to fine-tune the display on the geographic map the following SonicWALL GMS deployment information:
The Search bar uses both text and expression matching to allow the administrator to create filter criteria with combination strings. For text criteria, the following search operators are supported:
For expression type criteria, the following search operators are supported:
The ABC icon next to the Search bar allows you to filter by selecting from a list in the Keyword Help as shown below. The Keyword Help dialog provides a Description and Usage example for each keyword. Verify the purpose and usage of the keyword before using the selected keyword in a filter.
Select a keyword to be used for search or filter. The keywords listed on the left-hand side provide filter options for your Geographic View. You can only select one keyword at a time. After selecting a keyword, click on the Use button to add this search criteria.
Note: Not all keywords apply to all Widgets. For a few keywords there are Widgets with applicability, and there are Widgets where the keyword is not interpreted based on context.
Determining the Universal Dashboard Geographical Map Location
An administrator now has multiple ways to determine the location of an object in the geographic map. The following list is numbered chronologically show to location-configuration precedence order:
Geographic Map User Interface and Location “Unknown”
An administrator trying to determine what section of the world map to display will view the smallest geographic denomination that holds all network objects, in the order as follows:
The network objects displayed in the Geographic Map are either an individual network object or an intuitive blob that represents a collection of network objects.
The “Unknown” section of the map is a place holder for all the network address objects whose location is unspecified. Select a node in the Geographic Location Unknown list. Drag the node to a location on the map, and the following message displays, “Are you sure you to move the node?”
Click the Yes button to accept this geographic location. The geographic location for the selected node is updated with the new geographical longitude and latitude coordinates. To view or update the location, right click the selected node as seen.
Updating the Location Address and Geocode
The Geographic View allows you to update the location information for a single node or a group of nodes. There are many SonicWALL GMS deployments where a network administrator will setup and configure multiple SonicWALL devices in one location and then deploy these devices in dispersed areas around the world. This is made easy for SonicWALL GMS administrators by right clicking on the Geographic Map the group node icon, and then entering the new location information. The following page displays when you right click on a node on the Geographic Map.
The location information requires the geographical map address if available, which includes the following information:
Alternatively, the location information also requires geo location, which includes the following information:
Enter either the location address or geo location to save the location setting. You can use the Locate buttons to locate based on an Address or Geocodes, and then complete the other field based on location search results. For the best results, enter the location address for SonicWALL appliances residing in North America or Europe, and you can click the Locate Geocode button to identify the latitude and longitude coordinates. And for the best results for SonicWALL appliances residing outside of North America or Europe, enter the Geo Location for these devices. The Locate Address button does not provide the best results for devices residing outside North America and Europe since the locate address Web service does not provide detailed coverage for all areas.
You also can enter the location information for each SonicWALL device on the respective System > Info page. When the location information is updated on these pages, the Geographic Map is updated instantaneously.
Managing Page and Widgets
SonicWALL GMS provides administrators the ability to fully customize their Universal Dashboard and My Default Page by adding Widgets. To edit or add Widgets, click on the “cog wheel” icon and the Manage Page and Widgets configuration page displays as below.
This section contains the following subsections:
Adding Widgets on the Universal Dashboard
This section provides information on how to use the Manage Page and Widgets configuration page for the Universal Dashboard. To add a new Widget, select from the pull-down menu the following choices:
Note: No Widget containing the same content can be added more than once in the Universal Dashboard or My Default Page.
Up to a maximum of 25 Widgets can be added to the Universal Dashboard or the My Default Page.
Adding a New Dashboard Page
The Universal Dashboard page provides context-sensitive Widgets based on your node selection in the Geographic Map. And the My Default Page provides customizable Widgets that are not context-sensitive to the Geographic Map—since the Geographic Map Widget is not available on the My Default Page or a New Dashboard Page. New Dashboard pages are convenient for network administrators to create customizable Dashboard Widgets for SonicWALL GMS users belonging to a particular SonicWALL GMS domain group. This allows for different Dashboard pages for each user.
To add a new Dashboard page, launch the Manage Page and Widgets configuration page. And click the plus (+) icon in the top-right corner. The following window displays.
Enter a new name for your new Dashboard page. Most commonly, network administrators create new Dashboard pages for managed-security providers servicing customers around the world. You can also create Dashboard pages for your company’s different departments in Engineering and IT Operations for customized Dashboard views.
Managing Your Widgets
Each Widget contains control options at the top panel, which include the following options:
Widgets can be resized by holding the bottom corners to the desired window size.
Widgets can also be re-ordered by drag and drop selection. Selecting a Widget and dragging it over another Widget will change the the top panel to a darker color—this represents a Widget that is overlapping another Widget and the following message displays.
The drop position of the Widget allows you to re-order the position of your widget before the selected widget. For example in this case, The Scheduled Tasks Widget is placed in the drop position before the Applications Widget. The Dashboard page refreshes and now the widgets are reorder as follows:
You can also re-order the position of Widgets by using the Manage Page and Widgets configuration page. In the Manage Page and Widgets configuration page, drag the Widget you want to re-order to your preferred drop location. The two Widgets will swap locations.
Using the Universal Scheduled Reports Application
Scheduled Reporting has been an essential reporting component since the initial release of the SonicWALL GMS product. It provides management interfaces to let the user setup schedules and configure reports to be exported in a periodic fashion and in various report formats. A typical scheduled report configuration is broken down by functionality (Firewall, SRA, CDP, ES, and Monitor) and by nodes (Group and Unit). Users need to navigate to separate tabs to configure scheduled reports for different nodes. The Universal Scheduled Reporting application streamlines the configuration processes to unify and enhance the existing functionality to the system-wide usage patterns. This allows the user to collect report data from multiple appliances and create a single global report.
To configure the Universal Scheduled Reports application, refer to the following sections:
Using the Manage Templates Component
Manage Templates are used to create a template that makes up the list of reports at group level or unit level. The list of available reports for each of the product types (Firewall, SRA, CDP, and ES) are abstract, so all the available reports in system are presented here. The report list contains the appliance firmware and shows all the available reports in SonicWALL GMS for the appliance. This decision on which report is applicable to a particular firmware version (for example, Application Intelligence is for SonicOS 5.8 and above) is made at run time when the scheduled report engine is ready to create the report. The schedule report creation and the template usage is detailed in this section.
Adding a Template
Preform the following steps to add a template using the Template Manager:
The Edit Template window displays
The configured template is now populated in the Template Manager list.
Editing an Existing Template
This section details the configuration procedures for editing an existing template. The Universal Scheduled Report > Template Manager allows you to filter the template list by Name, Level, Owner, and Last Update. Follow the steps below to use the search option to find and edit an existing template.
Searching for an Existing Template
A pull-down appears under the search text field
The Template Manager window displays the latest search results. Notice the template list now only shows report templates for level: units.
Note: To clear your search results and return the reports template list back to default, click the Clear button.
Editing an Existing Template
Now that you found an existing template using the search filter, it is time to use the edit option.
Warning: Editing an existing template also changes the associated scheduled reports (if applicable).
The Edit Template window displays
The configured template is now populated in the Template Manager list.
Deleting a Template
The Template Manager offers three different ways to delete a template: deleting a single template, deleting multiple templates, or deleting all templates. Use the “Searching for an Existing Template” section to search for templates to delete. Preform the following steps to delete a Universal Scheduled Report Template(s):
Warning: Deleting a template(s) creates a cascading task to remove it from the Scheduled Reports that are using this template.
Deleting a Single Template
Deleting Multiple Templates
Deleting all Templates
Adding a Scheduled Report Component
Using Universal Scheduled Reports gives you the ability to schedule reporting for multiple appliances at once, combined into a single report. The Scheduled Reporting is a wizard based tool that guides you through the steps for creating a scheduled report by manually selecting reports from the report listing or picking a template created in the “Using the Manage Templates Component” section, selecting a theme (cover logos, font colors, title, sub title), reporting properties (out put format, language), scheduling a type (weekly, monthly), and choosing a destination (up to 5 email addresses can be added for a single report). This section contains the following subsections:
Searching for a Group or Device
The Search option allows you to filter the Group/Device list by manually entering a device in the search text field and selecting it from the search pull-down list. You can further filter the Group/Device list by clicking the View pull-down and selecting a view type. The following example guides you through the Device List search process, detailing the versatility of the Universal Scheduled Reports > Configuration Manager search options.
Example
In this example we are using the Configuration Manager search options to find a SonicWALL TZ 210 wireless-N device in the Device List.
The Device List now displays all the appliance models.
A list of devices for that appliance model displays.
Note: Notice that the search history bar populates each time you filter the list. You can use this to navigate back to previous search results.
You can also click the Search text-box (if you know the exact name of the device), then manually enter the device name or select the device from the pull-down list.
Creating a Universal Scheduled Report
The Universal Scheduled Reports > Configuration Manager allows you to create a single report for multiple appliance models/devices at a group and unit level. The following example guides you through the report configuration process, including: Selecting Reports, General Information, and Theme Information, detailing the versatility of Universal Scheduled Reporting.
In this example we are using the Configuration Manager to schedule a single report for a Firewall appliance model (group level) and SRA devices (unit level).
Selecting Reports
The Reports tab displays in the Reports List.
Note: When you select reports in the Reports and Policies tabs, they populate in the list of Selected Reports located on the right side of the Configuration Manager page. The Selected Reports panel allows you to organize the list by dragging and dropping reports/devices, collapse the reports lists for each device (clicking the arrow next to the device name), and add a note to a report/device.
The reports for the Firewall model group are now selected, next is choosing reports for the SRA device.
The SRA models display in the Device List.
The Device List displays all the SRA 2000 devices.
The Reports window displays in the Reports List.
Note: The SRA only offers a Reports tab (no Policies tab).
General Information
The General Information page displays.
Note: The settings entered in the Task Info, Format/Settings, and Email/Archive Info sections, populate in the Configurations panel located on the right side of the General Information page.
The Email configuration options display.
The E-Mail Destination populates in the list.
Note: Multiple destinations can be sent in a single E-mail.
Theme Information
The Theme Information page displays. If XML is selected from the General Information page, the Theme Information page is not displayed.
Note: The settings entered in the Cover Page and Report Page panels automatically update in the image located on the right side of the Theme Information page. To preview the cover / report pages, select the Cover Page or Report Page tab.
Note: When the Universal Scheduled Report PDF is exported, a table of contents is created. This allows you to quickly browse through your scheduled reports.
The report is now scheduled and can be found in the Universal Scheduled Report > Manage Scheduled Reports page.
Managing the Scheduled Reports Component
Managing Scheduled Reports is used to manage the scheduled report task inventory by resending, Emailing / archiving now, editing, and deleting scheduled reports.
Resending a Scheduled Report
Preform the following steps to resend a scheduled report.
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The Select Data Range pop-up window displays.
The Info pop-up window displays, confirming the schedule resend is complete.
Emailing / Archiving Now
Preform the following steps to Email / Archive a Universal Scheduled Report before its scheduled sending date.
The Info pop-up window displays, confirming the immediate processing of Email / Archive.
Your Scheduled report is now Emailed and Archived.
Editing a Scheduled Report
Preform the following steps to edit an existing scheduled report.
Disabling a Scheduled Report
Perform the following steps to disable a scheduled report.
The Universal Scheduled Reports - Configuration Manager window displays.
The General Information Page displays.
Note: To enable the scheduled report, repeat steps 1-3, then click the No checkbox.
Deleting a Scheduled Report
Preform the following steps to delete an existing Universal Scheduled Report.
The selected reports are now deleted.
Note: You can also use the icon to delete a specific Scheduled Report.