Firepower and ASA different GUI questions

[robbo79871]

Hi, would anyone be able to clue me in on the different Firepower and ASA GUI's that you use to control both devices, i've been told multiple different things regarding them. Without having jumped on them yet but having the design and config for the Firepower devices down now i'm not quite sure what GUI actually corresponds to what platform. For example, the guy in this really great tutorial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y2Zw2wh62k

....seems to be using one GUI to control the Firepower and ASA together but then i've come across other scenarios where someone uses the FMC to control the Firepower and ASDM to control the ASA.

So which one is it? With the ASA and Firepower wrapped into one box with one management interface is the device only controlled by the one GUI and what about boxes that have the 2 management interfaces for the different platforms? Are they controlled separately using ASDM for the ASA and FMC for the Firepower?

One more thing, which GUI would you use to control say...the interfaces, ASDM or FMC? Would you still create the security groups on FMC and do it that way or manage them on ASDM or is it both? Haha

Thanks again for the help

[Marvin Rhoads]

The YouTube video shows management of an FTD device. That's different than an ASA with Firepower service module.

In both cases you have the option of remote management. For FTD and ASA with Firepower service module both the remote management would be via a Firepower Management Center (FMC) server.

Local management would be either Firepower Device Manager (FDM) for FTD or ASDM for ASA with Firepower service module. In both cases, local management lacks features available on FMC. The features lacking with local management include configuration of certain advanced features, advanced reports, historical logs etc.

[robbo79871]

So just so i have this now which one below is it?
1. ASA+FTD....managed via FMC for FTD module and ASDM for ASA module
2. ASA+FTD....managed via FMC ONLY?
What are you talking about when you mention local management to and how is that different from managing remotely via FMC?

Thanks again

[Marvin Rhoads]

FTD (Firepower Threat Defense) is a unified image that runs on either ASA hardware or Firepower appliances (or as a VM). There is no "FTD module".

An ASA can have a Firepower service module. (Unless it's an ASA image on a Firepower 2100/4100/9300 series appliance.)

When you manage a Firepower module or FTD device you either do it with a separate server (FMC) or not.

If you don't use a separate server then that's referred to as local management. For an ASA with Firepower service module, local management is done using ASDM (Adaptive Security Device Manager). For an FTD device it's done with FDM (Firepower Device Manager).