DataPower SSH Functionalities

1.        DataPower SSH Service

DataPower has SSH Server service, which allows to access DataPower through SSH protocol i.e. CLI mode in secure shell. Basically, this serves as communication channel towards DataPower.

Below are the configuration details

Administrative state:

• Disable
• Enable

Local Address:

Enter a host alias or the IP address that the service listens on. Host aliases can ease migration tasks among appliances.

• 0 or 0.0.0.0 indicates all configured IPv4 addresses.
• :: indicates all configured IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

Port number:

Specify the TCP port that the service monitors. The default value is 22.

• CLI Alias: port
• Range: 1-65535
• Default value: 22

Access Control List:

access control list to define IP addresses to allow or deny

Concurrent Connections:

Specify the maximum number of concurrent SSH CLI connections. Enter a value in the range 0 - 1000. The default value is 0, which means no limit.

2.        DataPower SFTP server Handler

In DataPower, an SSH’s SFTP protocol communication i.e. Secure Shell File Transfer (SFTP) can be handled through configuration of SFTP server handler. This facilitates the file transfer in secure mode from SFTP Client to DataPower (as SFTP Server). This is mainly embedded in B2B Gateways or for XML firewalls, that they can be processes by various services for further processing or transactions.

Let’s start to configure SFTP server handler.

·     In Web-Gui, in any application domain, search for SFTP Server Handler.

• Next, Fill basic properties like

1. 1. Name
   2. Administrative state
   3. Comments

• Connection properties like

1. 1. Local IP address - enter IP or HOST ALIAS
   2. Port – SFTP Server listens.

• Authentication and Authorization properties

1. 1. Access Control List
   2. Host Private Keys – controls to assign keys for Host-based Authentication
   3. Select either Public Key (Pubk) or Password based authentication for SSH User Authentication methods available to the client. Either one required, if selected both, Publick Key authentication will be preferred.
   4. AAA Policy, without AAA policy, all users are authenticated

AAA Policy Example :
User can select AAA method as “Use AAA Information file” then provide AAA policy file as below.

• File system properties

• Idle Timeout
  In the Idle timeout field, specify the duration that the SSH connection can be idle. After the specified duration elapses, the SSH server closes the connection.

• Client Apply and Save to save changes to be persisted configuration.