Cisco IPS Device Manager (IDM)

Cisco Intrusion Prevention System Device Manager (IDM) is another powerful IPS management tool embedded in the Cisco IPS Sensor software.

Cisco IDM is a web-based, Java Web Start application that allows configuring, managing, and monitoring of a standalone Cisco IPS network appliance sensor.

Cisco IDM provides support for integrated IPS features offered by the Cisco IPS sensor appliances.

Cisco IDM—How It Works

Similar to all other management tools discussed earlier, Cisco IDM is also a web-based configuration tool used primarily to manage the Cisco IPS Sensor.

The Cisco IDM has an integrated web server built in to the sensor software, preloaded on the sensor software. Each standalone Cisco IPS appliance has its own dedicated web server that provides access to the Cisco IDM application on the sensor.

To protect the communication between the client and the sensor, the web server uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the traffic to and from the sensor to prevent unauthorized viewing of sensitive management traffic. By default, the web server is configured to use TLS/SSL encryption. This setting can be changed, though, and the default TLS/SSL port number can also be changed.

Cisco IDM can be launched by using any user desktop PC with supported web browsers. However, the sensor needs to be initialized with basic parameters before anyone is able to browse to it using Cisco IDM. The basic IP address, mask, and gateway needs to be configured using the CLI. Alternatively, a built-in wizard configuration setup command is also available to complete the basic initialization process.

Users can use launch Cisco IDM from a supported Internet browser by using the IPS sensor IP address as follows:

https://sensor_ip_address

There are three basic built-in user roles supported to perform IPS sensor management:

• Administrator

• Operator

• Viewer

When the Cisco IDM application is launched, it provides a basic system overview and IPS health statistics.

The Cisco IDM home page provides a high-level view of the state of the sensor and provides comprehensive system information, such as

• Device information

• Cisco IPS Software version and the IDM version

• Information on whether bypass mode is enabled or disabled

• Missed packets percentage

• The number of sensing interfaces

• Displays of the CPU and memory usage of the sensor

• Interface status (management and sensing interfaces)

• Alert summary showing all event alarms from Informational, Low, Medium, and High alerts.

• Displays of a graphical view of the number of alerts at each severity level

• Other monitoring options and configuration submenus

Cisco IDM—System Requirements

Table 24-13 lists the system requirements needed to launch the Cisco IDM application.

Table 24-13. Cisco IDM—System Requirements

Operating System	Requirements
Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4) Windows XP (English or Japanese version)	Internet Explorer 6.0 with Java Plug-in 1.4.2 or 1.5 or Firefox 1.5 with Java Plug-In 1.4.2 or 1.5 Pentium IV or AMD Athlon or equivalent running at 450 Mhz or higher 512 MB minimum 1024 x 768 resolution and 256 colors (minimum)
Sun SPARC Solaris	Sun Solaris 2.8 or 2.9 Firefox 1.5 with Java Plug-in 1.4.2 or 1.5 512 MB minimum 1024 x 768 resolution and 256 colors (minimum)
Linux	Red Hat Linux 9.0 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS, Version 3 running GNOME or KDE Firefox 1.5 with Java Plug-in 1.4.2 or 1.5 256 MB minimum, 512 MB or more strongly recommended 1024 x 768 resolution and 256 colors (minimum)
The information in Table 24-13 is taken from "Installing and Using Cisco Intrusion Prevention System Device Manager 6.0—Getting Started" at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps4077/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a0080618948.html. Other web browsers may also work with Cisco IDM, but Cisco supports and recommends only the browsers listed and system parameters mentioned in Table 24-13.

For more details on installing and using the Cisco IDM tool, refer to the following Cisco documentation:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps4077/products_configuration_guide_book09186a00807a8a2a.html