In BIG-IQ Network Security, a firewall context is a BIG-IP network object to which a firewall policy can be attached. In BIG-IQ Network Security, these network objects are called Global (global), Route Domain (rd), Virtual Server (vip), Self IP (sip), or Management (mgmt).

Firewall contexts provide policy-based access control to and from address and port pairs, inside and outside the network. Using a combination of contexts, a firewall can apply rules in a number of different ways, including at a global level, per virtual server, per route domain, and even for the management port or a self IP address.

Firewall properties include the firewall name, an (optional) description), its partition, its type, and its parent device on the partition in which it resides. Note that an administrative partition is a part of the BIG-IP configuration that is accessible only to a particular group of administrators. The default partition for all BIG-IP configurations, /Common, is accessible to all administrators. A sufficiently-privileged administrator can make additional partitions. Each partition corresponds to a folder (with the same name) to hold its configuration objects.

From the Enforced tab, you can view and configure policies or rules/rule lists whose actions (accept, accept decisively, drop, reject) are in force. You are restricted to a single, enforced policy on any specific firewall. If you have an enforced policy on a firewall, you cannot also have inline rules and rule lists on that same firewall.

You can edit inline rules from the Enforced tab. You can edit all other firewall shared objects only from within the object's panel. For example, you can edit rule lists, including the reordering of rules inside rule lists, only from the Rule Lists panel.

A firewall context is the category of object to which a rule applies. In this case, category refers to Global, Route Domain, Virtual Server, Self IP, or Management. Rules can be viewed and reorganized separately within each context.

It is possible to have multiple layers of firewalls on a single BIG-IP device. These layers constitute the firewall hierarchy. Within the firewall hierarchy, rules progress from Global, to Route Domain, and then to either Virtual Server or Self IP.

If a packet matches a firewall rule within a given context, that action is applied to the packet, and the packet then moves to the next context for further processing. If the packet is accepted, it travels on to the next context. If the packet is accepted decisively, it goes directly to its destination. If the packet is dropped or rejected, all processing stops for that packet; it travels no further.

On each firewall, you can have rules, rule lists, or policies that are enforced or staged. Rules, rule lists, or policies are processed in order within their context and within the context hierarchy.

Rules for the Management interface are processed separately and not as part of the context hierarchy.

In BIG-IQ Network Security, you can add the following firewall policy types:

Enforced

An enforced firewall policy modifies network traffic based on a set of firewall rules.

Staged

A staged firewall policy allows you to evaluate the effect a policy has on traffic without actually modifying the traffic based on the firewall rules.

You can assign to a firewall either an enforced firewall policy or a set of explicitly-defined rules and rule lists. The firewall cannot have both in force at the same time. However, you can configure simultaneously on the same firewall both staged firewall policies and enforced inline rules and rule lists.

1. Log in to BIG-IQ Network Security.
2. Click Policy Editor.
3. Click Contexts to expand the contents.
4. Click the context you want to edit. The contents appear in the editing pane.
5. In the editing pane, click Enforced.
6. On the Enforced screen, click Edit to establish a lock. If necessary, review Locking configuration objects for editing.
7. Add a firewall policy by dragging and dropping a policy from Policies, or click Add Policy, select a policy from among those listed in the popup, and then click Add. If the firewall has inline rules already configured, you are notified that adding a policy will result in the removal of all existing rules and rule lists.
8. ClickCreate Rule to open a rule template in the Enforced Firewall Rules table where you can add a rule by editing the fields in the template. Before attempting to add an inline rule on any firewall context except the management IP context, be sure inline rules are supported on the version running on your BIG-IP device. You can also add rules by right-clicking in the last rule in the table and selecting Add rule before or Add rule after. If you right-click after the bottom row in the Rules table, you can select the option Add rule. You can then reorder rules by dragging and dropping them until they are in the correct order for execution. You can also reorder rules by right-clicking in the row and selecting among the ordering options.
9. Add a rule list by clicking Add Rule List.
10. In the popup screen that opens, select the name of the rule list that you want to add and then click Add.
11. Click Save to save changes. To clear a lock without saving changes, click the Unlock link.
12. When finished, click Save and Close to save your edits, clear the lock, and exit.

1. Log in to BIG-IQ Network Security.
2. Click Policy Editor.
3. Click Contexts to expand the contents.
4. Click the context you want to edit. The contents appear in the editing pane.
5. In the editing pane, click Staged.
6. On the Staged screen, click Edit to establish a lock. If necessary, review Locking configuration objects for editing.
7. Add a policy by dragging and dropping a policy from Policies, or click the Add Policy link, select a policy from among those listed in the popup screen, and then click Add.
8. Click Save to save changes. To clear a lock without saving changes, click the Unlock link.
9. When finished, click Save and Close to save your edits, clear the lock, and exit.