Check Point Upgrade Path Diagrams Version 5

I made some changes to reflect the corrections in the official Check Point Release Notes, as well as included a new diagram for R76/R75.40VS. The R71 options are getting pretty complicated. If you click on the images below, they will open up the .pdf for that major release. Clicking on the rectangles/boxes in the .pdf itself will take you to the particular Check Point release portal. These diagrams can dramatically speed up your research, and daily tasks by taking you directly to the information you need, without having to manually sort through Check Point’s SK results.

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Any feedback is appreciated.

AlgoSec Listed in Top 10 Hottest Products at RSA

http://www.networkworld.com/slideshow/88079/hottest-products-at-rsa-conference-2013.html#slide8

I can definitely vouch for that. Looking forward to the new 6.4 release. Make sure AlgoSec is in your shortlist if you are looking at products that identify risk, and help clean-up and organize your ever expanding firewall policies. These are the guys everyone has been chasing for the past three years.

R75.40 mds_restore script corrupted

 

 

 

I ran into an issue last week when moving an MDM/Provider-1 config to a new appliance. Apparently it is a known issue at Check Point, and there is a somewhat hidden SK article that includes a download to a new R75.40 mds_restore script. This is a pretty serious issue as you will not be able to restore a configuration in a DR scenario, and a lot of people use mds_backup and mds_restore as a part of their DR planning. I  would definitely advise getting this fix if you have an R75.40 MDS.

 

Link to SK72080

Update: Check Point Upgrade Diagrams V4…

Updated the Upgrade Diagrams on Oct 9th 2012 to reflect the following changes:

Included R75.45 and R75.40VS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R75.45 is GA

 

 

 

Apparently R75.45 was posted for GA download on Friday Oct. 5th. This is great news as it is mainly a “bugfix” release. Wish I would have known it came out on Friday, as I was installing a newer R75.40 MDS appliance that night. I will be upgrading two MDSs and two MDSLs to R75.45 as part of a project this week, and am hoping it will address some R75.40 issues I have encountered.

R75.40 Virtual Systems Download and Documents Available

Searching the Check Point Support Center on “Virtual Systems” turns up older documents and downloads. However searching on “R75.40VS” will will bring up the results for R75 Virtual Systems. Looks like sk76540 is the solution ID for the new portal where all the documentation and downloads have been posted (as of July 17th):

 

R75.40VS Portal

There is a lot of information here.

New Version of VSX Announced…

Check Point made an announcement regarding the next version of VSX this morning. Looks like VSX has been renamed to “Virtual Systems” and will support the software blade architecture. This means we will now get full functionality (hopefully) for the Check Point IPS  engine. The current release (R67) is still based on the older SmartDefense engine so this is an important update. Virtual Systems will also bring in App Control, URL Filtering, Identity Awareness, and the other blades. This is great news for enterprise environments.

$3,000 USD MSRP for three virtual firewalls seems pretty compelling. Looks like the 4800 appliance is the entry point for Virtual Systems, which is also interesting as the 4800s were just announced July 12th on the partner call. Does this mean that Virtual Systems/VSX is now being promoted for mid-sized environments?

Update: Check Point Upgrade Diagrams…

I left Check Point (after seven years) to work with another security related company and now I am back (although as a consultant). The original “Upgrade Diagrams” were published in the spring of 2011, and had over 10,000 downloads. Having spent the past year working with large enterprises in the Midwest region, I have found that there is a lot of confusion when it comes to researching and planning for upgrades.

There are some significant additions and modifications, and these diagrams should help reduce the amount of time and research required when planning an upgrade project. I have used these diagrams for guiding some of the largest companies in the world on their upgrades (so I know they work) and have decided to make them available to the general Check Point community again. If you have any questions or comments on these, please feel free to contact me.

 

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Regards,

 

Pat

R75 CCSA and CCSE Exams Available

It has been reported in a few places that the R75 CCSA and CCSE exams should be available now. I went out to Pearson VUE’s page this morning to verify, and both of the exams are currently available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is also a practice exam for the R75 CCSA available from Check Point’s site. No practice exam for the R75 CCSE as of yet.

 

 

 

 

R75.40 and GAIA are GA

If you were at CPX you saw the announcement regarding R75.40. GAIA has been in the works for over three years, and is now officially here. The following link will take you to the R75.40 portal page. Lots of new enhancements to play with (too many to list), and now that GAIA is officially out I suppose it’s time to start planning the upgrades…anyone want to go first? 32 bit or 64 bit? Lots to consider…

 

Update: I just installed the SmartConsole tools for R75.40 and they take up a whopping 663MB of space. Over half a Gig for the SmartConsole Tools? Wow.