📄️ About Firewall Instances
Apiculus supports the delivery and management of Virtual Firewall Instances (VFI) in an as-a-service model. VFI is essentially a Linux Instance pre-loaded with a firewall software which makes it work as a a virtual appliance. The Service falls under the ‘Firewalls and Security’ paradigm and is built using our integration framework using pfSense or FortiGate VM for powering the appliance.
📄️ Creating a Virtual Firewall
Virtual Firewalls can be created from the Firewalls and Security section in the main menu and navigating to the Virtual Firewalls tab. Using the Create Virtual Firewall button, the Service can be activated in a self-explained manner.
📄️ Adding Instances to a VFI-based Network
Instances can be created and placed in the L2-LAN (called Free Networks) created by the Virtual Firewall. These Instances use special Linux OS images, which will be available as a separate OS Collection. Users can go to the usual Instance creation workflow and choose the appropriate options/controls to create an Instance in the Virtual Firewall network. The following steps need to create the Linux instance under the particular L2-LAN network.
📄️ Viewing VFI Network Details
As the VFI and the VFI-based network are created, CloudConsole users can view the enabled Virtual Firewall in the Networking > Firewalls and Security section. Clicking on this section, the following details will be shown:
📄️ Accessing the VFI Control Panel
The VFI Service on Apiculus is delivered as an integration using OS images pre-loaded with pfSense or FortiGate VM. While adding Instances to the VFI-based network is possible from the Apiculus CloudConsole UI, networking configurations need to be handled by accessing the VFI control panel UI.
📄️ Deleting a VFI Network
Subscribers can unsubscribe from the Virtual Firewall service by deleting the VFI. Before deleting a VFI, any Instance(s) added to the network need to be deleted.