SMC installation options

You can install SMC server components on your own hardware or use an all-in-one SMC Appliance.

CAUTION:

Make sure that the operating system version you plan to install on is supported. The supported operating systems for running the SMC are listed in the Security Management Center Release Notes.

There are several ways to install the SMC server components:

(Recommended) You can install the SMC server components using the Installation Wizard.
Tip: To evaluate the Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall system in a simulated network environment, you can install the SMC in demo mode.
In Linux, you can install the SMC server components from the command line.
Note: You need a graphical environment to use the Management Client. Only the SMC server components can run in a command line-only environment.
The Management Server and a default Log Server are pre-installed on the SMC Appliance. When you start the appliance, the installation wizard includes the configuration of these components.

During the installation, certificates can be generated for the SMC server components. The certificates are needed for authentication in establishing the secure encrypted communication channel between system components.

You can optionally install the SMC with external certificate management if you want to use certificates issued by an external CA instead of certificates generated by the internal CA on the Management Server for internal TLS communication between system components. For more information, see Installing the SMC with external certificate management .

After the installation, you can install the Management Client on other computers. You can also run the Management Client in a web browser.