Configure the Portal to Authenticate Satellites

In order to register with the LSVPN, each satellite must establish an SSL/TLS connection with the portal. After establishing the connection, the portal authenticates the satellite to ensure that is authorized to join the LSVPN. After successfully authenticating the satellite, the portal will issue a server certificate for the satellite and push the LSVPN configuration specifying the gateways to which the satellite can connect and the root CA certificate required to establish an SSL connection with the gateways.

There are two ways that the satellite can authenticate to the portal during its initial connection:

• Serial number—You can configure the portal with the serial number of the satellite firewalls that are authorized to join the LSVPN. During the initial satellite connection to the portal, the satellite presents its serial number to the portal and if the portal has the serial number in its configuration, the satellite will be successfully authenticated. You add the serial numbers of authorized satellites when you configure the portal. See Configure the Portal.
• Username and password—If you would rather provision your satellites without manually entering the serial numbers of the satellites into the portal configuration, you can instead require the satellite administrator to authenticate when establishing the initial connection to the portal. Although the portal will always look for the serial number in the initial request from the satellite, if it cannot identify the serial number, the satellite administrator must provide a username and password to authenticate to the portal. Because the portal will always fall back to this form of authentication, you must create an authentication profile in order to commit the portal configuration. This requires that you set up an authentication profile for the portal LSVPN configuration even if you plan to authenticate satellites using the serial number.

The following workflow describes how to set up the portal to authenticate satellites against an existing authentication service. GlobalProtect LSVPN supports external authentication using a local database, LDAP (including Active Directory), Kerberos, TACACS+, or RADIUS.

1. (External authentication only) Create a server profile on the portal.
   The server profile defines how the firewall connects to an external authentication service to validate the authentication credentials that the satellite administrator enters.

   If you use local authentication, skip this step and instead add a local user for the satellite administrator: see Add the user account to the local database.

   Configure a server profile for the authentication service type:

   • Add a RADIUS server profile.

   You can use RADIUS to integrate with a Multi-Factor Authentication service.

   • Add a TACACS+ server profile.
   • Add a SAML IdP server profile.
   • Add a Kerberos server profile.
   • Add an LDAP server profile. If you use LDAP to connect to Active Directory (AD), create a separate LDAP server profile for every AD domain.
2. Configure an authentication profile.
   The authentication profile defines which server profile to use to authenticate satellites.
   1. Select DeviceAuthentication Profile and click Add.
   2. Enter a Name for the profile and then select the authentication Type. If the Type is an external service, select the Server Profile you created in the previous step. If you added a local user instead, set the Type to Local Database.
   3. Click OK and Commit.