Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center and Security Analytics and Logging (SaaS) Integration Guide

Comparison of Cisco Security Analytics and Logging Remote Event Storage Options

Similar but different options for storing event data externally to your management center:


On Premises	SaaS
You purchase, obtain the license for, and set up the storage system behind your firewall.	You purchase licenses and a data storage plan and send your data to the Cisco Security Cloud.
Supported event types: Connection Security-related connection Intrusion File and Malware LINA	Supported event types: Connection Security-related connection Intrusion File and Malware
Supports both syslog and direct integration.	Supports both syslog and direct integration. See Comparison of Methods for Sending Events to the Cloud.
View all events on the Secure Network Analytics Manager. Cross-launch from management center event viewer to view events on the Secure Network Analytics Manager. View remotely stored connection and Security-related connection events in management center	View events in CDO or Secure Network Analytics, depending on your license. Cross-launch from management center event viewer.
For more information, see links in the Data Storage chapter in the Secure Firewall Management Center Administration Guide or online help.

Comparison of Methods for Sending Events to the Cloud


Sending via Syslog	Sending Directly
Requires Secure Event Connector (SEC). Beneficial for high log emission rates from firewall devices, as each SEC can support up to 100,000 events per second. SEC can be set up for CDO or non-CDO-managed devices. Reduces the event processing strain on the firewall, thereby freeing its resources for the firewall function. Centralization is not always possible or desirable, especially for geographically distributed environments. Requires a separate installation.	Ideal for branch offices as it supports geographically distributed environments. Requires Smart Licensing. Not supported if you are using a Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem server (formerly known as Smart Software Satellite Server) or air-gapped deployment. No separate installation or service is needed. The strain on the firewall resources is relatively higher.

Requirements and Prerequisites for SAL (SaaS) Integration

The following requirements apply to both methods of sending events to SAL (SaaS).


Requirement or Prerequisite Type	Requirement
Devices and manager	Management Center managing threat defense devices To send via syslog: version 6.4 or later To send directly: version 7.0 The required version applies to the management center and all managed threat defense devices. Your system must be deployed and successfully generating events.
Regional cloud	Determine the Cisco regional cloud that you want to use for sending firewall events. You cannot merge or aggregate data in different regional clouds. To aggregate data from multiple regions, devices in all the regions must send data to the same regional cloud. Events cannot be viewed from or moved between different regional clouds. If you use a direct connection to send events to the Cisco Security Cloud for integration with Cisco XDR, you must use the same regional CDO cloud for this integration.
Data plan	Determine the amount of cloud storage that your system requires. For more information, see See Calculate Storage Requirements and Purchase a Data Plan.
Licensing	Cisco Security Analytics and Logging licenses: Any For licensing options and descriptions, see SAL (SaaS) Licenses. CDO licenses: No additional CDO licensing is required. Secure Cloud Analytics licenses: No additional licensing is required. Management Center Licenses: No additional licensing is required.
Accounts	When you purchase license for this integration, you will be provided with a CDO tenant account to support this functionality.
Supported event types	Intrusion, connection, Security-related connection, file, and malware events.
User roles	In management center: Admin Access Admin Network Admin Security Approver
Additional requirements when sending events directly	See Prerequisites for Direct Integration.
Additional prerequisites	See the Before You Begin or Prerequisites section of each procedure.

SAL (SaaS) Licenses


License	Details
Free trial	To get a 30 day free trial license, visit https://www.defenseorchestrator.com/provision.
Logging and Troubleshooting	Store events in the Cisco cloud, and view and filter stored events using the CDO web interface.
(Optional) Logging Analytics and Detection	The system can apply Secure Cloud Analytics dynamic entity modeling to your threat defense events, and use behavioral modeling analytics to generate Secure Cloud Analytics observations and alerts. You can cross-launch from CDO to a Secure Cloud Analytics portal provisioned for you, using Cisco Single Sign-On. When you purchase a license for SAL, you will be provided access to a CDO tenant for log viewing and a Secure Cloud Analytics instance for threat detections. Users of SAL do not need a separate CDO or Secure Cloud Analytics license to access these two portals for the outcomes that SAL provides.
(Optional) Total Network Analytics and Detection	The system applies dynamic entity modeling to both your threat defense events and your network traffic, and generates observations and alerts. You can cross-launch from CDO to a Secure Cloud Analytics portal provisioned for you, using Cisco Single Sign-On. When you purchase a license for SAL, you will be provided access to a CDO tenant for log viewing and a Secure Cloud Analytics instance for threat detections. Users of SAL do not need a separate CDO or Secure Cloud Analytics license to access these two portals for the outcomes that SAL provides.

SAL (SaaS) licenses provide the right to use a CDO tenant to view firewall logs and a Secure Cloud Analytics instance for analytics, without holding separate licenses for either of these products.

To purchase SAL (SaaS) licenses, contact your authorized Cisco sales representative, or see the ordering guide (link above) and look for PIDs starting with SAL-SUB.

Calculate Storage Requirements and Purchase a Data Plan

You need to buy a data plan that reflects the number of events the Cisco cloud receives from your threat defenses on a daily basis. This is called your "daily ingest rate."

To estimate your data storage requirements:

(Recommended) Participate in a free trial of Cisco Security Analytics and Logging (SaaS) before you buy it. See SAL (SaaS) Licenses.
Use the Logging Volume Estimator Tool at https://ngfwpe.cisco.com/ftd-logging-estimator.

Data plans are available in various daily volumes, and in various yearly terms. See the Cisco Security Analytics and Logging Ordering Guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/security-analytics-logging/guide-c07-742707.html for information about data plans.

Note

If you have a SAL (SaaS) license and data plan, then obtain a different license at a later date, that alone does not require you to obtain a different data plan. If your network traffic throughput changes and you obtain a different data plan, that alone does not require you to obtain a different SAL (SaaS) license.

How to Send Events from Management Center to SAL SaaS

To successfully deploy this integration, follow all of the steps in one of these topics:

How to Set Up Event Data Storage in SAL (SaaS) Using a Direct Connection
How to Set Up Event Data Storage in SAL (SaaS) Using Syslog

How to Set Up Event Data Storage in SAL (SaaS) Using Syslog


	Do This	More Information
Step	Review requirements and prerequisites	See Requirements and Prerequisites for SAL (SaaS) Integration.
Step	Obtain required licenses, accounts, and a data storage plan	Contact your authorized Cisco sales representative.
Step	Set up CDO access using multi-factor authentication	See instructions in the CDO online help for Signing in to CDO.
Step	Set up an on-premises Secure Device Connector (SDC) on a VMWare virtual machine	This component is required solely to enable installation of the SEC, which is the component to which your devices will send events. Use one of the following, as described in the CDO online help: (Preferred) Use the CDO-provided VM image. Create an SDC without using the CDO-provided image. Important! Don't skip the procedure prerequisites. However, ignore any information about onboarding, which does not apply to this integration.
Step	Install the Secure Event Connector (SEC) on the SDC virtual machine you just created.	This is the component to which your devices will send events. See the CDO online help for instructions to Install the Secure Event Connector. Important! Don't skip the procedure prerequisites. However, ignore any information about onboarding, which does not apply to this integration.
Step	Configure your management center to have managed devices send syslog events to the SEC.	Send Security Event Syslog Messages from Threat Defense Devices
Step	Verify that your events are being sent successfully	See View and Work with Events.
Step	(Optional) If you are sending connection events to the cloud and you don't want to store them on the management center, disable that storage on the management center.	In the management center online help, see information about connection events in the Database Event Limits topics.
Step	(Optional) Configure cross-launches from management center to CDO so you can easily pivot from events displayed in management center to related events in the cloud.	See the online help in management center.
Step	(Optional) Configure general settings in CDO	For example, you can make your data unavailable to Cisco support staff. In the CDO online help, see General Settings.
Step	(Optional) Create CDO user accounts for colleagues to view and work with your events.	In the CDO online help, see Create a New CDO User.

Overview of Sending Events to SAL (SaaS) Using Syslog


	The management center-managed devices generate events.
	The threat defense devices send supported events as syslog messages to a Secure Event Connector (SEC) installed on a virtual machine on your network.
	The SEC forwards the events to Security Services Exchange (SSE), a secure intermediary cloud service that handles cloud-to-cloud and premises-to-cloud identification, authentication, and data storage for use in Cisco cloud security products.
	The SSE forwards the events to the Cisco Security Analytics and Logging (SAL) Cloud Data Store.
	The CDO Event Viewer queries SAL Cloud Data Store for events and provides the SOC analyst with additional context.
	(Only with Analytics License) Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics (formerly SWC) receives the events from the SAL Cloud Data Store and provides the SOC analyst access to the analytics features of the product.

Note

Most features in the CDO portal are not applicable to this integration. For example, CDO does not manage your devices, so your devices are not onboarded to CDO.

Send Security Event Syslog Messages from Threat Defense Devices

This procedure documents the best practice configuration for sending syslog messages for security events (connection, Security-related connection, intrusion, file, and malware events) from threat defense devices managed by management center.

Note

Many threat defense syslog settings are not applicable to security events. Configure only the options described in this procedure.

Before you begin

In management center, configure policies to generate security events and verify that the events you expect to see appear in the applicable tables under the Analysis menu.
Gather the syslog server IP address, port, and protocol (UDP or TCP):

Sign in to CDO. Then, from the user menu at the top right side of the CDO browser window, select Secure Connectors. Click Secure Event Connector and you will see the required information at the right side.
Ensure that your devices can reach the syslog server(s).
See additional information in the "Connection Logging" chapter in the Management Center online help.

Procedure

Step 1	Sign in to your management center web interface.
Step 2	Configure syslog settings for your threat defense device: Click Devices > Platform Settings. Edit the platform settings policy associated with your threat defense device. In the left navigation pane, click Syslog. Click Syslog Servers and click Add to enter server, protocol, interface, and related information. Use the IP address, port, and protocol that you gathered from CDO above. EMBLEM format and secure syslog are not supported for this integration. If you have questions about options on this page, see the "Configure a Syslog Server" topic in the management center online help. Click Syslog Settings and configure the following settings: Enable Timestamp on Syslog Messages Timestamp Format Enable Syslog Device ID Click Logging Setup. Make sure Send syslogs in EMBLEM format is NOT selected. Save your settings.
Step 3	Configure general logging settings for the access control policy (including file and malware logging): Click Policies > Access Control. Edit the applicable access control policy. Click Logging. Select FTD 6.3 and later: Use the syslog settings configured in the FTD Platform Settings policy deployed on the device. (Optional) Select a Syslog Severity. If you will send file and malware events, select Send Syslog messages for File and Malware events. Click Save.
Step 4	Enable logging for Security-related connection events for the access control policy: In the same access control policy, click the Security Intelligence tab. In each of the following locations, click Logging () and enable beginning and end of connections and Syslog Server: Beside DNS Policy. In the Block List box, for Networks and for URLs. Click Save.
Step 5	Enable syslog logging for each rule in the access control policy: In the same access control policy, click the Rules tab. Click a rule to edit. Click the Logging tab in the rule. Enable both beginning and end of connections. If you will log file events, select Log Files. Enable Syslog Server. Verify that the rule is "Using default syslog configuration in Access Control Logging." Do NOT configure overrides. Click Add. Repeat for each rule in the policy.
Step 6	If you will send intrusion events: Navigate to the intrusion policy associated with your access control policy. In your intrusion policy, click Advanced Settings > Syslog Alerting > Enabled. Verify that the policy is using the default settings configured for access control logging. Click Back. Click Policy Information in the left navigation pane. Click Commit Changes.

What to do next

If you are done making changes, deploy your changes to managed devices.

How to Set Up Event Data Storage in SAL (SaaS) Using a Direct Connection

This section describes how to set up event data storage in SAL (SaaS) using a direct connection.

How Does It Work

The following diagram shows how the direct integration works.


	The management center-managed devices generate events.
	The threat defense devices send supported events to Security Services Exchange (SSE), a secure intermediary cloud service that handles cloud-to-cloud and premises-to-cloud identification, authentication, and data storage for use in Cisco cloud security products.
	The SSE forwards the events to the Cisco Security Analytics and Logging (SAL) Cloud Data Store.
	The CDO Event Viewer queries SAL Cloud Data Store for events and provides the SOC analyst with additional context.
	(Only with Analytics License) Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics (formerly SWC) receives the events from the SAL Cloud Data Store and provides the SOC analyst access to the analytics features of the product.

Key Components of This Integration


Component	Description
Threat Defense	A next generation firewall with capabilities such as protection from malware and application-layer attacks, integrated intrusion prevention, and cloud-delivered threat intelligence.
Management Center	An administrative nerve center for select Cisco security products running on multiple platforms. It provides unified management of threat defense software for port and protocol control, application control, IPS, URL filtering, and malware protection functions.
Security Services Exchange	A secure intermediary cloud service that handles cloud-to-cloud and premises-to-cloud identification, authentication, and data storage for use in Cisco cloud security products.
CDO	A cloud-based multidevice manager you can use to manage security policy changes across various security products. This platform enables the efficient management of policies in branch offices and other highly distributed environments to achieve a consistent security implementation. In direct integration, both the management center and its managed devices get onboarded to the CDO tenant. This integration connects the management center to a suite of Cisco cloud services. When the management center is onboarded to CDO, you can view its managed devices, view managing network objects, and cross-launch to management center UI to manage associated devices and objects.
Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics (formerly Secure Network Analytics Cloud)	A cloud platform that applies dynamic entity modeling to threat defense events, generating detections based on this information. This provides a deeper analysis of telemetry gathered from your network, allowing you to identify trends and examine anomalous behavior in your network traffic.

Prerequisites for Direct Integration


Prerequisite Type	Requirement
General requirements for sending events to SAL (SaaS)	In addition to the requirements in this table, you must satisfy the items in Requirements and Prerequisites for SAL (SaaS) Integration and subtopics.
Licensing	Register your management center with the Cisco Smart Software Manager. In the management center web interface, click System () > Smart Licenses, and verify that: The Usage Authorization status is Authorized. The Product Registration status is Registered. Keep in mind that: This integration is not supported under a evaluation license. Your environment cannot be using a Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem server (formerly known as Smart Software Satellite Server) or be deployed in an air-gapped environment.
Account	You must have administrator privileges for the Cisco Smart Account from which your products are licensed. To determine your Smart Account user role: Go to https://software.cisco.com. Click Manage Smart Account. Select a Smart Account in the top-right area (above the Help link) of the page. Click the Users tab. Search for your User ID. Your management center account must have one of the following user roles: Admin Access Admin Network Admin Security Approver To determine your user role, click System () > Users in the management center web interface. Your CDO account must have one of the following user roles: Admin Super Admin
Connectivity	The management center and managed devices must be able to connect outbound on port 443 to the Cisco cloud at the following addresses: North America cloud: api-sse.cisco.com mx.sse.itd.cisco.com eventing-ingest.sse.itd.cisco.com defenseorchestrator.com edge.us.cdo.cisco.com EU cloud: api.eu.sse.itd.cisco.com mx.eu.sse.itd.cisco.com eventing-ingest.eu.sse.itd.cisco.com defenseorchestrator.eu edge.eu.cdo.cisco.com Asia (APJC) cloud: api.apj.sse.itd.cisco.com mx.apj.sse.itd.cisco.com eventing-ingest.apj.sse.itd.cisco.com apj.cdo.cisco.com edge.apj.cdo.cisco.com Australia api.aus.sse.itd.cisco.com mx.aus.sse.itd.cisco.com eventing-ingest.aus.sse.itd.cisco.com aus.cdo.cisco.com India api.in.sse.itd.cisco.com mx*.in.sse.itd.cisco.com eventing-ingest.in.sse.itd.cisco.com in.cdo.cisco.com

Set Up Event Data Storage in SAL (SaaS) Using a Direct Connection

Perform the following tasks to set up event data storage in SAL (SaaS) using a direct integration.


		Workspace
	Management Center	Configure the Management Center (version 7.1 and earlier) to Send Events to Security Services Exchange. Configure the Management Center (version 7.2 and later) to Send Events to Security Services Exchange.
	Security Services Exchange	Launch Security Services Exchange
	Security Services Exchange	Link Smart or Virtual Accounts on Security Services Exchange
	Security Services Exchange	Link CDO Accounts on Security Services Exchange
	Security Services Exchange	Configure Cloud Services on Security Services Exchange
	CDO	View and Work with Events
	CDO	View and Work with Events in Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics: Cross-launch into Secure Cloud Analytics
	Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics	View and Work with Events in Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics

Configure the Management Center (version 7.1 and earlier) to Send Events to Security Services Exchange

If your management center version is 7.1 or earlier (except version 7.0.2 to 7.0.X), follow this procedure to configure your management center to have the managed threat defense devices send events directly to SSE. If your management center version is 7.0.2 to 7.0.X, follow the steps in Configure the Management Center (version 7.2 and later) to Send Events to Security Services Exchange.