Will deactivating the serial port & floppy disk, and an already deployed ova file, have adverse impact on the virtual appliance, like SG-VA?

Products

• SG-VA
• CAS-VA
• Management Center - VA

Issue/Introduction

An internal audit found the following ova-file-related settings which need to be disabled/inactivated:

- Serial Port1 - Use physical serial port

- Floppy Disk 1 - Disconnected

 

Questions:

- Is deactivating these parameters adversely impactful to the virtual appliance (e.g., SG-VA, CAS-VA, MC-VA)?

- Does the deactivation of these original ova-file settings affect the support for the related VMs?

Resolution

The serial port is required for both the initial setup/config, and the management/troubleshooting, of the virtual appliance (for any of the supported products, including SG-VA, CAS-VA, MC-VA, etc., and shouldn't be disabled/deactivated. See the Tech. Doc. with the URL below, for reference.

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/web-and-network-security/edge-swg/7-3/deploy-edge-swg-va/Gen2_Overview/Gen2-configure-the-swg-va/Gen2-complete-initial-configuration.html

It's also important to note that the serial port can be secured. For the details, please refer to the Tech. Article with the URL below.

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/170636/secure-the-serial-port-for-a-running-pro.html

Note: Floppy Disk isn't required for either the deployment or management of the SG-VA, hence, could be disabled/disconnected with no operational of performance impact on/to the SG-VA.

Now, concerning the query about deactivating the ova for an already deployed SG-VA, please refer to the below.

Deactivating the OVA files in VMware should not directly impact an already running SGOS (Symantec Gateway Security) instance that was deployed from the OVA file.

The OVA (Open Virtualization Appliance) file is essentially a template for deploying virtual machines (VMs) in VMware environments. Once a VM is deployed from an OVA file, it operates independently of the OVA file itself.

Deactivating the OVA file essentially just removes it from the list of available templates for future deployments. It doesn't affect existing VMs that were created from that template. Therefore, your already running SGOS instance should continue to operate normally even if the OVA file used for its deployment is deactivated.

However, it's worth noting that if you were to make changes to the OVA file (such as removing components or configurations that are necessary for the SGOS instance to function properly) and then re-deploy it, that could potentially impact new deployments or re-deployments of SGOS instances. But simply deactivating the OVA file should not have any direct impact on existing SGOS instances.