Cisco Systems CL-28826-01 Add/Edit Bridge Group Dialog Box

45-41

User Guide for Cisco Security Manager 4.4

OL-28826-01

Chapter45 Managing Firewall Devices

Configuring Firewall Device Interfaces

Add/Edit Bridge Group Dialog Box

A transparent firewall connects the same network on its inside and outside interfaces, and supports only

the two interfaces per context. However, you can increase the number of interfaces available to a context

through use of bridge groups. You can configure up to eight bridge groups; on an FWSM each group can

contain two interfaces; on an ASA each group can contain four interfaces.

Each bridge group connects to a separate network. Bridge group traffic is isolated from other bridge

groups; traffic is not routed to another bridge group within the security appliance—traffic must exit the

security appliance to be routed by an external router back to another bridge group in the security

appliance.

You might want to use more than one bridge group if you do not want the overhead of security contexts,

or want to maximize your use of security contexts. Although the bridging functions are separate for each

bridge group, many other functions are shared between all bridge groups. For example, all bridge groups

share a syslog server or AAA server configuration. For complete security policy separation, use security

contexts with one bridge group in each context.

For FWSM 3.1+ and ASA 8.4.1+ devices in transparent mode, the Interfaces page displays two tabbed

panels: Interfaces and Bridge Groups. The following information applies to the Bridge Groups panel and

the Add/Edit Bridge Group dialog box; refer to Add/Edit Interface Dialog Box (PIX 7.0+/ASA/FWSM),

page 45-19 for information about the Interfaces panel.

Navigation Path

You can access the Add/Edit Bridge Group dialog box from the Bridge Groups panel of the Interfaces

page.