Policy Installation Process

Checkpoint Policy Installation Process

This short article describes the process of policy installation when it is initiated via SmartDashboard.

Policy installation flow:

Assuming the initiation was made by the SmartDashboard, as opposed to using command line options, such as fwm load (on Management Server) or fw fetch (on Security Gateway), the Check Point Management Interface (CPMI) policy installation command is sent to FWM process on the Management Server where the verification and compilation takes place.

1. FWM process forwards the command to CPD process for code generation and compilation.
2. CPD process invokes the Check Point Policy Transfer Agent (CPTA) command that sends the policy to all applicable Security Gateways.
3. CPD process on the Security Gateway receives the policy and verifies its integrity.
4. FWD process on the Security Gateway updates all of the user-mode processes responsible for enforcement aspects. These include VPND process for VPN issues, FWSSD processes for Security Server issues, and so on. Once complete, the CPD process then initiates the update for Check Point kernel.
5. The new policy is prepared, and the Check Point kernel halts the current traffic and starts queuing all incoming traffic.
6. The Atomic Load takes place. This process should take a fraction of a second.
   Note: During Atomic Load, SecureXL is disabled and re-enabled afterwards.
7. The traffic queue is released, and all of the packets are handled by the new security policy.