Dear fellows,
I currently look after a security solution for my company. I know that I
will not get many answers from the list, as security is pretty much the
secret recipie of all network operators.
However, I better try to send a post here and see what feedbacks I can get,
so let’s get started.
I run a farm of 15 servers, all running RedHat Linux 5 x64. These servers
are mainly webhosting orientated, they handle website files, database and
emails. The network is multihomed and with a capacity of 3 x 100 Mbit. We
currently don’t have any kind of security, nor a firewall appliance (yes, I
know shame on me).
At this point, I am looking at a cost-effective solution. I have checked
around for commercial solutions and have found Cisco and Juniper to be my
options.
I must admit that I am not convinced at all by these brands and would fell
pretty ashamed to have a Cisco ASA toy in my rack. As for Juniper, it seems
that the boxes are a bit overpriced for my single-featured IT department and
would kill my yearly poor budget.
I use to see some dirty forged packets hiting the servers. They never took a
server down, nor made them fill up the memory, but I consider I could see
some „dos“ or even non-bot size „ddos“ attacks. Another point is that I must
have a firewall that is transparent. Some servers requires to have public IP
(for dumb license reasons).
What would you advice? Is BSD/Linux with a multi-gig port a good option to
consider? What firewall do you advice? How do you clean ddos?
Looking forward to reading all answers.
Regards.
- Simon