Running Engines as Master Engines

There are some hardware requirements and configuration limitations when you use an Engine as a Master Engine.

Running the Engine as a Master Engine does not require a third-party virtualization platform. When you run Engine as a Master Engine, the Engine hardware provides the virtual environment and resources for the hosted Virtual Engine.

Note: You must always install the Engine software on a hardware device to run the Engine as a Master Engine.

You can run Master Engine on the following types of hardware platforms:

  • Purpose-built Engine appliances with 64-bit architecture
  • Third-party hardware with 64-bit architecture that meets the hardware requirements

For information about system requirements, see the Release Notes.

The following limitations apply when you use an Engine as a Master Engine:

  • Each Master Engine must run on a separate 64-bit physical device.

    When Engine is running on a virtualization platform or a cloud virtualization platform, Master Engine and Virtual Engine are not supported.

  • All Virtual Engines hosted by a Master Engine or Master Engine cluster must have the same role and the same Failure Mode (fail-open or fail-close).
  • Master Engines can allocate VLANs or interfaces to Virtual Engines. If the Failure Mode of the Virtual IPS engines or Virtual Layer 2 Firewalls is Normal (fail-close) and you want to allocate VLANs to several engines, you must use the Master Engine cluster in standby mode.