The course is intended to be delivered in a classroom setting and consists of presentations and practical lab exercises to reinforce the taught content. Copies of the supporting documents for the course will be provided to each trainee.

Due to the nature of delivery, and the varying experiences of the trainees, open discussion is encouraged during the training.

The course is expected to take 3 days (24 hours) to complete, of which approximately 8 hours will be spent on the practical exercises.

On completion of this course, trainees will be able to:

• Deploy Sophos Firewall in complex network environments
• Explain how Sophos Firewall processes traffic and use this information to inform the configuration
• Configure advanced networking and protection features
• Protect web applications using the web server protection
• Size hardware, virtual and software Sophos Firewalls for a given set of requirements

This course provides an in-depth study of Sophos Firewall, designed for experienced technical professionals who will be planning, installing, configuring and supporting deployments in production environments.

Prior to taking this training, you should:

Have completed and passed the Sophos Firewall Certified Engineer course and any subsequent delta modules up to version 18.5

We recommend students have the following knowledge and experience:

• Experience with Windows networking and the ability to troubleshoot issues
• A good understanding of IT security
• Experience configuring network security devices
• Experience configuring and administering Linux/UNIX systems

If you are uncertain whether you meet the necessary prerequisites to take this course, please email us at globaltraining@sophos.com and we will be happy to help.

Module 1: Deployment (70 mins)

• Recall important information from the Engineer course
• Describe the deployment modes supported by the Sophos Firewall
• Understand a range of scenarios where each deployment mode would commonly be used
• Use built-in tools to troubleshoot issues
• Labs (5 mins) 
• Register for a Sophos Central evaluation

Module 2: Base Firewall (120 mins)

• Explain how the Sophos firewall can be accessed
• Understand the types of interfaces that can be created
• Understand the benefits of Fast Path technology
• Configure routing per firewall rule
• Understand best practice for ordering firewall rules
• Explain what Local NAT policy is and known how to configure it
• Labs (120 mins)
• Activate the Sophos Firewalls
• Post-installation configuration
• Bridge interfaces
• Create a NAT rule to load-balance access to servers
• Create a local NAT policy
• Configure routing using multiple WAN links
• Configure policy-based routing for an MPLS Scenario
• Install Sophos Central

Module 3: Network Protection (45 mins)

• Explain what IPS is and how traffic can be offloaded to FastPath
• Demonstrate how to optimize workload by configuring IPS policies
• Examine advanced Intrusion Prevention and optimize policies
• Configure advanced DoS Protection rules
• Demonstrate how the strict policy can be used to protect networks
• Labs (15 mins)
• Create advanced DoS Rules

Module 4: Synchronized Security (45 mins)

• Explain how Security Heartbeat works
• Configure Synchronized Security
• Deploy Synchronized Security in discover and inline modes
• Understand the advantages and disadvantages of deploying Synchronized Security in different scenarios
• Labs (40 mins)
• Configure source-based Security Heartbeat firewall rules
• Destination-based Security Heartbeat
• Missing Security Heartbeat
• Lateral Movement Protection

Module 5: Web Server Protection (60 mins)

• Explain how Web Server Protection works
• Describe the protection features
• Configure protection policies for a web application
• Configure web server authentication
• Publish a web service using the Web Application Firewall
• Use the preconfigured templates to configure Web Server Protection for common purposes
• Configure SlowHTTP protection
• Labs (90 mins)
• Web Application Firewall
• Load balancing with Web Server Protection
• Web Server Authentication and path-specific routing

Module 6: Site-to-Site Connections (90 mins)

• Configure and deploy site-to-site VPNs in a wide range of environments
• Implement IPsec NATing and failover
• Check and modify route precedence
• Create RED tunnels between Sophos Firewalls
• Understand when to use RED
• Labs (90 mins)
• Create an IPsec site-to-site VPN
• Configure VPN network NATing
• Configure VPN failover
• Enable RED on the Sophos Firewall
• Create a RED tunnel between two Sophos Firewalls
• Configure routing for the RED tunnel
• Configure route-based VPN

Module 7: Authentication (40 mins)

• Demonstrate how to configure and use RADIUS accounting
• Deploy STAS in large and complex environments
• Configure SATC and STAS together
• Configure Secure LDAP and identify the different secure connections available
• Labs (30 mins)
• Configure an Active Directory authentication server
• Configure single sign-on using STAS
• Authenticate users over a Site-to-Site VPN

Module 8: Web Protection (50 mins)

• Choose the most appropriate type for web protection in different deployment scenarios
• Enable web filtering using the DPI engine or legacy web proxy
• Configure TLS inspection using the DPI engine or legacy web proxy
• Labs (25 mins)
• Install the SSL CA certificate
• Configure TLS inspection rules
• Create a custom web policy for users

Module 9: Wireless (45 mins)

• Explain how Sophos Access Points are deployed and identify some common issues that may be encountered
• Configure RADIUS authentication
• Configure a mesh network

Module 10: Remote Access (20 mins)

• Configure Sophos Connect and manage the configuration using Sophos Connect Admin
• Configure an IPsec remote access VPN
• Configure an L2TP remote access VPN for mobile devices
• Labs (30 mins)
• Sophos Connect

Module 11: High Availability (60 mins)

• Explain what HA is and how it operates
• Demonstrate how to configure HA and explain the difference between quick and manual configuration
• List the prerequisites for high availability
• Perform troubleshooting steps and check the logs to ensure that HA is set up correctly
• Explain the packet flow in high availability
• Demonstrate how to disable HA
• Labs (20 mins)
• Create an Active-Passive cluster
• Disable High Availability

Module 12: Public Cloud (45 mins)

• Explain how Sophos Firewall fits into public cloud security architect
• Deploy a Sophos Firewall on Azure and AWS
• Configure Sophos Firewall for hybrid deployments
• Deploy a high availability pair of Sophos Firewalls on Azure and AWS
• Labs (45 mins)
• Put a service in debug mode to gather logs
• Retrieving log files
• Troubleshoot an issue from an imported configuration file
• Deploy a Sophos Firewall on Azure (Simulation)
• Deploy a Sophos Firewall on AWS (Simulation)

To become a Sophos Certified Architect, trainees must take and pass an online assessment. The assessment tests their knowledge of both the presented and practical content. The pass mark for the assessment is 80% and is limited to 3 attempts.

If you require any further information on this course, please contact us at educationteam.ecs.uk@arrow.com