What's New for Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Add Labels when Bulk Onboarding ASA Devices

You can now specify custom device labels when bulk onboarding your ASA devices. See Onboard ASAs in Bulk for more information.

Cisco IOS Device Support

Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) allows you to manage Cisco IOS devices. These are the features we support for those devices:

• Onboarding Cisco IOS devices
• View the device configuration
• Read policy and configuration changes from device
• Detect out-of-band changes
• Command line interface support
• Individual CLI commands and groups of commands can be turned into editable and reusable "macros" 
• Detect and manage SSH fingerprint changes
• View changes to IOS devices in the Change Log

Schedule Automatic Deployments

After making configuration changes for one or more devices using CDO, you can now schedule the deployment of those changes, to those devices, at a date and time that is convenient for you. For example you can schedule the deployments to occur during your maintenance window or during a time of low network traffic. 

See, Enable the Option to Schedule Automatic Deployments, and Schedule Automatic Deployments for more information.

Terminology Change: CDO "Deploys" Changes to the Devices it Manages

We updated the terminology we use to describe transferring changes you made on CDO's local copy of a device's configuration to the device itself. We previously used the word "write" to describe that transfer, now we use the word "deploy" to describe that transfer. 

As you manage and make changes to a device's configuration with CDO, CDO saves the changes you make to its own copy of the configuration file. Those changes are considered "staged" on CDO until they are "deployed" to the device. Staged configuration changes have no affect on the network traffic running through the device. Only after CDO "deploys" the changes to the device do they have an affect on the traffic running through the device. When CDO deploys changes to the device's configuration, it only overwrites those elements of the configuration that were changed. It does not overwrite the entire configuration file stored on the device. 

Auto-Accept Out-of-Band Changes

You can now make configuration changes directly on your managed devices and set Defense Orchestrator to accept them automatically when it detects them. You will not have to monitor Defense Orchestrator and accept out-of-band changes manually. See Automatically Accept Out-of-Band Changes from your Device for more information. 

System Objects Filter

The system object filter lets you see the objects in the object table that are most important to you. 

Some devices come with pre-defined objects for common services. These system objects are convenient because they are already made for you and you can use them in your rules and policies. There can be many system objects in the objects table. System objects cannot be edited or deleted. 

Show System Objects is "off" by default. To display system objects in the object table, check Show System Objects in the filter bar. To hide system objects in the object table, leave Show System Objects unchecked in the filter bar.

Read Object Filters for more information. 

Improvements to Policy Exports

When you export an ASA policy with a specified time range, the time range object name is now included in the .CSV file. This gives you a better sense of when rules in the policy are active. 

Improvements to CLI Handling

Defense Orchestrator no longer trims trailing spaces on ASA CLI commands it executes. 

Documentation Updates

ASA change log and "Diff" documentation added to give you a clear understanding of the contents of a change log entry and the "Diff" page. See before-and-after side-by-side comparisons of configuration changes. See Change Log for more information. 

Export Only The Change Log Entries You Are Interested In

Previously you could only export the entire Defense Orchestrator's change log. Now you can apply filter and search criteria to the change log and export only the entries you are interested in.

See Exporting the Change Log to a CSV File for more information.

New Super Admin Role Can Create New User Records and Change User Roles

Defense Orchestrator added support for the Super Admin role. This new role has all of the permissions of the Admin role and has additional permissions of being able to manage user records. The Defense Orchestrator support team can upgrade your existing Admin accounts to Super Admins. Having a user with a Super Admin role gives you the ability to create and manage additional user records without opening a support ticket. 

If your company integrated its SAML Identity Provider (IdP) with Defense Orchestrator, you are now be able to fully manage user access to your Defense Orchestrator account.

If you are a Managed Service Provider with multiple Defense Orchestrator accounts, you are now able to grant and revoke account access for your existing users without opening a support ticket with Defense Orchestrator.

If your company uses Defense Orchestrator's default identity provider (OneLogin), you'll continue to need to open support tickets to create new user accounts but will be able to revoke access to your Defense Orchestrator account without opening a support ticket.

See User Management for more information.

New CDO UI

We redesigned the navigation and filtering to be more intuitive and help you manage your environment more efficiently.

Schedule Device Upgrade

You can now schedule software upgrades to your devices. On the Device Upgrade page, select the Schedule Upgrade check box, and configure a later date and time. See Upgrade Devices and Services.

Bulk Update Credentials

You can now update the credentials that CDO uses to connect to your ASA on multiple ASA devices at once. On the Devices & Services page, select multiple ASA devices, and click Update Credentials. See Updating ASA Connection Credentials.

Update Device Location

You can now update the device location of an onboarded ASA by clicking the edit button next to its IP address.

Update Credentials

You can now update the credentials that CDO uses to connect to your ASA. In the process of onboarding an ASA, you entered the username and password CDO must use to connect to the ASA. In the past, if you wanted to change those credentials or change the password, you needed to remove the ASA from CDO and onboard it again with the new credentials. Now you can change the credentials without having to re-onboard the ASA. See Updating ASA Connection Credentials.

New ASA Default Rule Behavior

When a new rule is added to an ASA network policy, it is assigned the "Permit" action by default.

Exported Device Lists Include the Tenant Name

When you export the device list of a particular tenant, the name of the tenant is now incorporated in the exported file name. See Export List of Devices and Services for more information.

Bulk Entry of Network Groups 

When creating or editing an ASA network object group, you can now add IP addresses in bulk rather than one at a time. See Create or Edit ASA Network Objects and Network Groups for more information.

Support for Time-based ASA Network Policies

Time-based ASA Network policies allow access to networks and resources based on time of day. The time of day is defined by a time range object. Time range objects have a start time and an end time and can also be defined as a recurring event. See Define a Time Range for a Policy for more information. 

New Device Details Panel Layout

We reorganized our device details panel to make device information and commonly used command buttons easier to find.

Support for ASA Global Access Policies

Now you can create a global access policy for your ASAs using CDO. A global access policy is a network policy applied to all the interfaces on an ASA. It is applied to inbound network traffic.With CDO, you can also copy a global access policy from one ASA to another to maintain consistency across devices. See Configure an ASA Global Access Policy for more information.

Network Address Translation Rule Wizard for ASA Devices

There is a new Network Address Translation (NAT) rule wizard to help you create NAT rules on your ASA devices for these use cases:

• Enable Internet Access for Internal Users
• Expose an Internal Server to the Internet

See Network Address Translation Rule Wizard, for more information. 

New troubleshooting documentation

If Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) and your ASA do not connect after an ASA reboot, it may be because the ASA has fallen back to using an OpenSSL cipher suite that is not supported by CDO's Secure Device Connector. The "ASA Fails to Reconnect to CDO After Reboot" troubleshooting topic tests for that case, provides a list of supported cipher suites, and remediation steps.

CDO Support Update for FirePOWER Services Module

Starting May 16, 2018, CDO will only support FirePOWER services version 6.2.3.x. 

The ASA FirePOWER module runs as a separate application from the ASA and supplies next-generation firewall services, including Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPS), Application Visibility and Control (AVC), URL filtering, and Advanced Malware Protection (AMP). You can use the module in single or multiple context mode, and in routed or transparent mode. CDO identifies the ASA FirePOWER module as a FirePOWER type device.

• Support from Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) and bug fixes will only be available for FirePOWER services 6.2.3, and it is highly recommended that you upgrade to this version as soon as possible.

• CDO will disallow onboarding modules running any version of FirePOWER services earlier than 6.2.3.x.

Alternatives: If upgrading to FirePOWER services 6.2.3 is not an option, we recommend that you evaluate the Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) on the ASA or the multi-device manager, Firepower Management Center (FMC), for policy management of FirePOWER services.

Note: The ASA FirePOWER module is not the same as the Firepower Threat Defense next generation firewall. CDO does not yet support the Firepower Threat Defense next generation firewall.

Access Control Entry (ACE) Limit Calculation

CDO displays the number of access control entries (ACEs) in individual rules, network policies, and the total number running on an ASA. Though there is no hard-coded limit to the number of ACEs that an ASA can process, an ASA's performance will degrade when the number of access control entries becomes too large. See Access Control Entries (ACEs) for more information.

Unsuported Device

CDO does support the ASA Service Module (ASASM) at this time.

Read-only Users

We have created a read-only user role. Read-only users can view everything in CDO but they cannot create, update, configure, or delete anything on any page. Neither can they onboard devices. 

Read-only users see a blue banner that reads, "Read Only User. You cannot make configuration pages." on every page  and they are identified by their role in the User Management table. See CDO User Roles for more information about this user role. 

Update Connection Credentials 

When you onboard a device, you specify a username and password for that device. Cisco Defense Orchestrator connects to the device using those credentials and acts as that user when sending commands to the device. If users or passwords change on the device, you can update the device credentials to reflect those changes. See Update Connection Credentials for more information.

Improved Network Policy Filtering

You can now filter network policies by hit count without first knowing which ASA the policy runs on. This allows you to find network policies with zero hit counts anywhere in your deployment. See Filtering Use Cases for more information.

Export Network Policy Rules

You can export the contents of each Access-Group or Crypto-Map to a .csv file.  This .csv displays each Access Control List (ACL) and the data that CDO has for each ACL.See Export Network Policy Rules for more information.

New CDO Portal

We redesigned the portal to quickly communicate what you need to know, what you need to do, and where you go to do it.

Custom URL Upgrade

You can now upgrade your ASA device with ASA software and ASDM images you maintain in your own image repository. If your ASA does not have outbound access to the internet or you want an image that is not yet in CDO's image repository, this is the best way to upgrade your ASA. You can retrieve the images from your repository using any of these protocols: FTP, TFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SCP, and SMB.

See Custom URL Upgrade for an explanation of this new feature.

Device Notes

Now you can save notes about a specific ASA in a single, plain-text, file without leaving CDO. See Device Notes for more information. 

See All the Accounts Associated with your Tenant

You will now be able to see all the users associated with your tenant on the User Management screen. This includes any Cisco support engineer temporarily associated with your account to resolve a support ticket.

To view the users associated with your tenant:

1. From the user menu, select Settings.

2. Click User Management.

Manage Cisco Access to Your Tenant

Cisco support will associate its users with your tenant to resolve support tickets or proactively fix issues that affect more than one customer. However, if you prefer, you can prevent Cisco support from accessing your account by changing your account settings. See General Settings for more information.  

Manage ASAs Using CLI Macros

CDO provides a list of complete CLI-based commands and command templates that are ready for you to customize and run on your ASAs. These CLI macros can be run on a single ASA or ASAs in bulk. Do you have a regular monitoring or maintenance task you perform? You can create and store your own CLI-based commands on CDO and reuse them when you need them. 

Here's an example of using a CLI macro to configure a DNS server on your ASAs:

1. Select the devices you need to configure.
2. Select the Configure DNS macro.

3. Fill in the parameter fields with your information:

4. Send it to all of your ASAs.

Compare ASA Configurations

You can now easily compare two ASA configurations. Select two ASAs in the Devices & Services page and click the compare button. CDO provides a side-by-side comparison of the devices' configurations. See Compare ASA Configurations for more information.

Use CDO to Mitigate the Risks of Recent Cisco ASA Security Advisory

On January 29, 2018, the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) published the security advisory cisco-sa-20180129-asa1 describing an ASA and Firepower security vulnerability. Read our article, Using CDO to Respond to Cisco ASA Advisory cisco-sa-20180129-asa1 to learn how to find the ASAs in your enterprise that are affected by the advisory and upgrade them to a patched version of ASA.

CDO Allows Long CLI Sequences

If you enter a long list of commands in the command box of the CLI, CDO attempts to break up your command into multiple commands so that they can be run against the ASA API at once. If CDO is unable to determine a proper separation in your command, it will prompt you for a hint. For example:

Error: CDO attempted to execute a portion of this command with a length that exceeded 600 characters. You can give a hint to CDO at where a proper command separation point is by breaking up your list of commands with an additional empty line between them.

See for ASA Command Line Interface for more information.

Enhancements to Help You Manage Shadow Rule Issues

• The ASA network policy issues filter indicate if there are any shadowed rules in a policy.

• A new badge  next to a rule in an ASA network policy indicates that it is shadowing another rule in the policy.
• For a shadowed rule, the network policy details pane identifies which rule in the policy is shadowing it. 

• New documentation on Resolving Shadow Rule Issues.

CDO Calculates Access Control Entries in your ASA Network Policies

Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) calculates the number of access control entries (ACEs) derived from all the rules in an ASA network policy and displays that total at the top of the network policy details pane. If any of the rules in the network policy are shadowed, it lists that number as well.

CDO also displays the number of ACEs derived from a single rule in a network policy and displays that information in the network policy details pane. Here is an example of that listing:

ASAs have recommended limits on the number of ACEs created on a device. (See Access Control on the Adaptive Security Appliance, FAQ for more information.) Following those recommendations allows the ASA to process network traffic at an optimal speed. Deleting unused rules or shadowed rules helps keep your ACE count down.

Numbered Lines in Network Policies

CDO numbers rules in network policies for easy reading. Lines are renumbered as you add and delete rules or reorder them in a policy.

Enhanced ASA Network Policy Management

You can now perform these tasks with your ASA network policies!

• Copy and paste policies between ASA devices. Copy a policy from one ASA to another and assign it to a specific interface. 
• Cut and paste rules within policies. Change the prioritization of rules within a policy by cutting and pasting them in the rule table.
• Copy and paste rules between policies. Promote policy consistency by copying a rule from one policy to another. These policies can be on the same device or on different devices.   

These enhancements compliment existing functions like creating ASA network policies, activating or deactivating rules in a policy, and logging activity generated by rules in a policy.

See Edit an ASA Network Policy for more information and navigate through the ASA network policy documentation using the topic arrows at the bottom of a page: