Cisco Firepower Management Center Virtual Install – How to Tutorial

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In this Tutorial will be deployed Cisco FMC – Firepower Management Center Virtual Appliance in Testlab, running on VMware ESXi host. These steps could also be used for production environment install.

 

Prerequisites:

  • VMware ESXi host
  • Cisco FMC – Firepower Management Center image

Network Diagram:

Steps:

1. Download the Firepower Management Center Virtual

2. Create VMware Virtual Machine

3. Complete the FMC setup using the CLI

1. Download the Firepower Management Center Virtual

 

Download the Firepower Management Center Virtual image for VMware ESXi from Cisco.com, and save it to your local computer:

https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286259687/type/286271056/release/7.0.1

 

Note:

A Cisco.com login and Cisco service contract are required.

2. Create VMware Virtual Machine

 
The Firepower Management Center Virtual License is a platform license, rather than a feature license. The version of virtual license you purchase determines the number of devices you can manage via the Firepower Management Center. For example, you can purchase licenses that enable you to manage two devices, 10 devices, 25 devices, or 300 devices.
 
 
Minimal Hardware Requirements for FMCv Virtual Appliance:
CPU Cores: 4
Memory: 28 GB RAM
Storage: 250 GB
 
Testlab configuration (Default FMCv configuration):
CPU Cores: 4
Memory: 32 GB RAM
Storage: 250 GB
 
 
For the Testlab purposes will be used the FMCv Default configuration. This configuration is not necessary to prepare in advance for the VM, because we will be deploying this virtual machine from ovf file which includes deployment template.

2.1 In VMware ESXi Web interface select “Create/Register VM”.

2.2 Select “Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file”. Select Next.

2.3 Enter name for the FMC Appliance “Cisco-fmc1”, Select or drag and drop the vmdk file and ESXi .ovf file. Select Next.

 

Note:

If you are deploying in vCenter use VI .ovf file.

2.4 Choose your Datastore. Select Next.

2.5 Configure your Network interface mappings 

 

“Management” – function Management (“lab_mgmt1” VMware network)

 

more about Deployment options in Cisco Documentation

Deploy the Firepower Management Center Virtual to a vSphere ESXi Host

 

Disk Provisioning: Thin

more about VMware ESXi disk provisioning

 

Select Next.

2.6 Review your configuration before finishing the wizard. Select Finish.

3. Complete the FMC setup using CLI

3.1 Open the VMware console and log in with default credentials: admin/Admin123, press Enter to display EULA. press Enter to accept EULA.

3.2 Enter new admin password.

3.3 Configure network

 

Enter a hostname or fully qualified domain name for this system: fmc1

Configure IPv4 via DHCP or manually: manual

Enter IPv4 address for the management interface: 172.21.1.40

Enter IPv4 netmask for the management interface: 255.255.255.0

Enter the IPv4 default gateway for the management interface: 172.21.1.1

Enter a comma-separated list of DNS servers or ‘none’: 172.21.1.1, 8.8.8.8

Enter a comma-separated list of NTP servers or: press Enter

 

Are these settings correct? (y/n) y

3.4 Initial configuration successfully performed.

4. Basic Firepower Management Center configuration

4.1 Log in to FMC with your account.

4.2 Select Overview – Dashboard (or create your own Dashboard – Create Dashboard)

At this point we have functional Cisco FMC – Firepower Management Center. We can continue with FTD – Firepower Threat Defense Installation and afterwards registering FTD into FMC.

 

How to install Cisco FTD – Firepower Threat Defense:

Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Virtual Install

 

FMC Configuration Guide:

Cisco Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide