Firewall recommendations for protocol access

It is recommended to use certain port numbers to secure the protocol data transfer.

Recommendations for NFS access

The following table provides the list of static ports that are used for NFS data I/O.
Table 1. Recommended port numbers for NFS access
Port Number Protocol Service Name Components that are involved in communication
2049 TCP and UDP NFSV4 or NFSV3 NFS clients and IBM Spectrum Scale™ protocol node
111 TCP and UDP RPC (required only by NFSV3) NFS clients and IBM Spectrum Scale protocol node
User-defined static port TCP and UDP STATD (required only by NFSV3) NFS clients and IBM Spectrum Scale protocol node
User-defined static port TCP and UDP MNT (required only by NFSV3) NFS clients and IBM Spectrum Scale protocol node
User-defined static port TCP and UDP NLM (required only by NFSV3) NFS clients and IBM Spectrum Scale protocol node
User-defined static port TCP and UDP

RQUOTA (required by both NFSV3 and NFSV4)

 NFS clients and IBM Spectrum Scale protocol node
Note: NFSV3 uses the dynamic ports for NLM, MNT, and STATD services. When an NFSV4 server is used with the firewall, these services must be configured with static ports.
The following recommendations are applicable:
  • Review your systems/etc/services file in order to select the static ports to use for MNT, NLM, STATD, and RQUOTA services that are required by the NFSV4 server. Do not use a port that is already used by another application. Set the static ports by using the mmnfs config change command. Allow TCP and UDP port 2049 to use the protocol node IPs. For example: 
    mmnfs config change MNT_PORT=32767:NLM_PORT=32769:RQUOTA_PORT=32768:STATD_PORT=32765
  • Allow all external communications on TCP and UDP port 111 by using the protocol node IPs.
  • Allow all external communications on the TCP and UDP port that is specified with mmnfs config change for MNT and NLM ports.
  • Ensure that following steps are done after making any of these changes.
    • Restart NFS after changing these parameters by using the following commands.
      mmces service stop NFS -a
mmces service start NFS -a
    • Use rpcinfo -p to query the protocol nodes after any port changes to verify that proper ports are in use.
    • Remount any existing clients because a port change might have disrupted connections.

Recommendations for SMB access

Samba uses the following ports for the secure access.
Table 2. Recommended port numbers for SMB access
Port Number Protocol Service Name Components that are involved in communication
445 TCP Samba SMB clients and IBM Spectrum Scale protocol node
4379 TCP CTDB Inter-protocol node
The following recommendations are applicable for the SMB access:
  • Allow the access request that is coming from the data network and admin and management network on port 445 using the protocol node IPs. You can get the list of protocol node IPs by using the mmlscluster --ces command.
  • Allow connection only to the requests that are coming from the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster node IPs (internal IPs and protocol node IPs) on port 4379. Block all other external connections on this port. Use the mmlscluster command to get the list of cluster node IPs.

Port usage for BLOCK service

Table 3. Recommended port numbers for iSCSI access
Port Number Protocol Service Name Components that are involved in communication
3260 TCP BLOCK (iSCSI) IBM Spectrum Scale protocol node (when the BLOCK service is enabled) listening on this port

Object port configuration

Note: IBM Spectrum Scale is configured with the ports listed here. Changing ports requires updating configuration files, Keystone endpoint definitions, and SELinux rules. This must be done only after careful planning.
The following table lists the ports configured for object access.
Table 4. Port numbers for object access
Port Number Protocol Service Name Components that are involved in communication
8080 TCP Object Storage Proxy Object clients and IBM Spectrum Scale protocol node
6200 TCP Object Storage (local account server) Local host
6201 TCP Object Storage (local container server) Local host
6202 TCP Object Storage (local object server) Local host
6203 TCP Object Storage (object server for unified file and object access) Local host
11211 TCP and UDP Memcached (local) Local host
The following ports are configured for securing object access:
  • Allow all external communications on TCP port 8080 (Object Storage proxy).
  • Allow connection only from the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster node IPs (internal IPs and protocol node IPs) on ports 6200, 6201, 6202, 6203, and 11211. Block all other external connections on this port.

Shell access by non-root users must be restricted on IBM Spectrum Scale protocol nodes where the object services are running to prevent unauthorized access to object data.

Note: The reason for these restrictions is that because there is no authentication of requests made on ports 6200, 6201, 6202, and 6203, it is critical to ensure that these ports are protected from access by unauthorized clients.

Port usage for object authentication

You can configure either an external or internal Keystone server to manage the authentication requests. Keystone uses the following ports:
Table 5. Port numbers for object authentication
Port Number Protocol Service Name Components that are involved in communication
5000 TCP Keystone Public Authentication clients and object clients
35357 TCP Keystone Internal/Admin Authentication and object clients and Keystone administrator
These ports are applicable only if keystone is hosted internally on the IBM Spectrum Scale system. The following port usage is applicable:
  • Allow all external communication requests that are coming from the admin or management network and IBM Spectrum Scale internal IPs on port 35357.
  • Allow all external communication requests that are coming from clients to IBM Spectrum Scale for object storage on port 5000. Block all other external connections on this port.

Port usage to connect to the Postgres database for object protocol

The Postgres database server for object protocol is configured to use the following port:
Table 6. Port numbers for Postgres database for object protocol
Port Number Protocol Service Name Components that are involved in communication
5431 TCP and UDP postgresql-obj Inter-protocol nodes
It is recommended to allow connection only from Cluster node IPs (Internal IPs and Protocol node IPs) on port 5431. Block all other communication requests on this port.
Note: The Postgres instance used by the object protocol uses port 5431. This is different from the default port to avoid conflict with other Postgres instances that might be on the system including the instance for IBM Spectrum Scale GUI.

Consolidated list of recommended ports that are used for installation, internal communication, and protocol access

The following table provides a consolidated list of recommended ports and firewall rules.
Table 7. Consolidated list of recommended ports for different functions
Function Dependent network service names External ports that are used for file and object access Internal ports that are used for inter-cluster communication UDP / TCP Nodes for which the rules are applicable
Installer Chef N/A

8889 (chef)

10080 (repo)

 TCP GPFS™ server, NSD server, protocol nodes
GPFS (internal communication) GPFS N/A

1191 (GPFS)

60000-61000 for tscCmdPortRange

22 for SSH

TCP and UDP

TCP only for 22

 GPFS server, NSD server, protocol nodes
SMB

gpfs-smb.service

gpfs-ctdb.service

rpc.statd

445 4379 (CTDB) TCP Protocol nodes only
NFS

ganesha.nfsd

rpcbind

rpc.statd

2049 (NFS_PORT - required only by NFSV3)

111 (RPC - required only by NFSV3)

32765 (STATD_PORT)

32767 (MNT_PORT - required only by NFSV3)

32768 (RQUOTA_PORT - required by both NFSV3 and NFSV4)

32769 (NLM_PORT - required only by NFSV3)

Note: Make the dynamic ports static with command mmnfs config change .
 N/A TCP and UDP Protocol nodes only
Object swift-proxy-server

keystone-all

postgresql-obj

 8080 (proxy server)

35357 (keystone)

5000 (keystone public)

 5431 (Object Postgres instance)

6200-6203 (Object Storage)

11211 (Memcached)

 TCP

TCP and UDP (for 11211 only)

 Protocol nodes only