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Add a Private Resource

Private resources are the applications, networks or subnets that are internal resources hosted in your data center, including resources hosted on a private cloud in your data center, that have a login page that cannot be accessed from outside the network.

Configure a private resource to specify connection information for the resource, then configure access rules to determine which users and devices can access the resource using the connection methods you have enabled.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

  • Full Admin user role. For more information, see Manage Accounts.
  • Gather IP or CIDR addresses for your private resources.
  • If you will specify resource addresses using domain names (FQDNs), you must add at least one internal DNS server that can route traffic to your resource. For more information, see Add DNS Servers.
  • For each resource, you must choose connection options. For descriptions of the options, see the topics under Manage Connections to Private Destinations.
  • If you will enable Zero Trust Access for the resource:
    • Meet the requirements in Requirements for Zero Trust Access.
    • To allow client-based Zero Trust Access and inspect traffic using the Intrusion Prevention (IPS) feature, you must provide the resource's certificate to Secure Access so that Secure Access can display it to end-user devices.
      Note: For browser-based connections, the certificate must be signed by a publicly recognized certificate authority (CA).
      If you will enable browser-based zero trust access using SSH or Remote Desktop (RDP), see Allow SSH and RDP Access to Private Resources.
  • Plan your private resource configurations to avoid configuration conflicts such as unintentional duplicate or overlapping addresses.
    For example, if a resource can be reached using multiple addresses, decide in advance whether you will create a single resource with multiple addresses or multiple resources. For more information about this particular scenario, see Private Resource Configuration Examples.

Procedure

Configure a resource controlled by your organization.

  1. Navigate to Resources > Private Resources , choose Private Resources, and then click +Add.
  1. For Private Resource Name, enter a meaningful name for the resource. For Description, we recommend that you provide information such as the purpose of the resource or the name of the resource owner.

Communication with Secure Access Cloud

Provide the network address information for communicating with the private resource.

  1. For Internally reachable address, enter an IP address, FQDN, wildcard FQDN (in the format *.example.com), protocol, and port or port ranges.
    • You do not have to provide an address that is publicly accessible from outside the network.
    • If you will allow browser-based access to this resource by users who do not have the Cisco Secure Client installed on their devices, the protocol you select must include HTTP/HTTPS.
      Use caution when adding addresses that duplicate or overlap with addresses in other configured private resources.
      If you will enable browser-based zero trust access using SSH or Remote Desktop (RDP) protocols, see Allow SSH and RDP Access to Private Resources.
    • If you will decrypt traffic to this resource:
      • In each address line, you can specify a single IP address (no address ranges) or CIDR block, or a comma-separated list of addresses or CIDR blocks, or an FQDN with or without wildcard. Add addresses and FQDNs as separate lines.
      • If the address includes a wildcard FQDN, the wildcard must be the first character in the address string (*.example.com).
      • Specify a single port or "Any" port; no comma-separated port numbers, no port ranges.
      • If you need to decrypt traffic to multiple ports for the same address, click + Network IP or FQDN and add a separate address line for each port.
      • Select a protocol that includes TCP and does not include UDP.
      • Example configurations:
Private resource configurations that support decryption
  • If you have entered a domain and Secure Access will route traffic to this resource using network tunnels:
    • Select an internal DNS server that can route traffic to the specified resource address.
    • To configure an internal DNS server, see Add DNS Servers.

Endpoint Connection Methods

Choose the connection methods to allow communications to the private resource.

Note: Branch connections are pre-selected for a private resource. For more information, see Manage Branch Connections.

You can allow any of these connection options:

  • Zero-trust connections
    • Client-based connection—For devices with the Cisco Secure Client or the Zero Trust Access mobile application installed.
    • Browser-based connection—For devices without the Cisco Secure Client or the Zero Trust Access mobile application installed, or when you only want to allow access using a browser.
  • VPN connections—For devices that allow VPN connections to the private resource.

Note: If you do not allow Zero Trust Access or VPN connections for the private resource, only branch connections are enabled on the private resource.

For more information, see Comparison of Zero Trust Access and VPN.

  1. Select Zero-trust connections to allow connections from devices with and without the Secure Client installed. You can allow either or both of these options.
    If you want devices that your organization does not manage (such as contractor, vendor, or Bring-Your-Own devices) to be able to connect to this resource, you must enable browser-based access. Browser-based (clientless) access offers fewer controls on device security than client-based access does.

a. For Client-based connection, enter the address you want users to use in order to connect to this resource.

  • For best security (to keep the internal IP address of this resource private), you should provide a domain rather than an IP address. Your internal DNS server must be able to route traffic to this address. For example, you can enter mail.example.com.
    Note: This address can be the same as the address you entered above for Secure Access to connect to the resource.

b. For Browser-based connection, enter the publicly accessible address that you will give to users in order to access this resource.

  • Specifically, you will enter a URL prefix that uniquely identifies this resource. Secure Access will join the prefix to <your organization's tenant ID>-ztna.sse.cisco.io to form the public URL address. You will give the entire URL to end users, and Secure Access will route traffic using this address to the resource.
    If you don't provide a URL prefix, Secure Access adds one for you, based on the resource name.
  • The protocol selected above for the connection to Secure Access must include HTTP/HTTPS in order to enable this option.
  • This address will be reachable from outside your network, but the actual resource address is not exposed, offering safety if this address falls into unauthorized hands.
  • You must provide this dummy address to end users.
  • The certificate that the resource presents to end-user devices must be signed by a publicly recognized certificate authority (CA.)
  • If access to the resource requires a custom host header, enter that header.
    If the Custom host header field is blank, the configured Public URL is used unless there is a value in the Server Name Indication (SNI) field, in which case the SNI value is used.
  • If this resource shares a single IP address with other resources that present different certificates, enter the Server Name Indication (SNI) address and protocol required to connect traffic to this resource.
  • If you enable decryption in the next step, the option to Validate application certificate will be disabled. This is expected.
  1. Select VPN connections to allow endpoints to communicate to this resource when connected to the network using VPN.
    Note: If you enable both Zero Trust connections and VPN connections, users will connect to the resource using zero trust.

Resource Connector Groups

  1. (Optional) For Resource Connector Groups, choose the resource connector groups that can forward traffic to this resource.
    Note: Before you can choose a Resource Connector Group, you must enable Zero Trust connections for this resource. You can also choose a connector group for this resource later, or assign resources on the Connector Group page.

Choose a group or groups that have deployed connectors, which are located in the same data center, branch office, or security zone as the resource. For more detailed guidelines, or an alternative place to associate resources with connector groups, see Assign Private Resources to a Connector Group.

Decryption

  1. For Decryption, enable Decrypt Traffic.
    • Decryption is required in order to inspect traffic for threats using the intrusion prevention (IPS) feature. For security reasons, you should enable this option. You can enable this option depending on the resource address. For details, see information about the Internally Reachable Address field on this page.
      Because traffic is routed through Secure Access, Secure Access must be able to display the resource's certificate to end-user devices. If you have already uploaded the applicable certificate, select the certificate. Otherwise, upload or paste the device's certificate (public and private keys) here. Include all intermediate certificates in the certificate chain.
    • If you enable decryption, the option to Validate application certificate for browser-based traffic will be disabled, even if you have previously enabled it. This is expected.
      Note: Only PEM encoding is supported.

What's Next

  • (Optional) If you entered a FQDN of the format *.example.com and you want to exclude subdomains from the ability to connect to this resource, add exceptions to the Traffic Steering page. See Using Wildcards to Configure Traffic Steering for Private Destinations.
    (Optional) You can exclude subdomains from this Private Resource configuration and then add one or more separate Private Resources and access rules to allow different access for those subdomains.
  • Configure requirements that you want to apply to this resource, such as endpoint requirements (using posture profiles) and intrusion prevention (IPS profiles). See Components for Private Access Rules.
  • After you have configured other requirements, add private access rules to allow users and devices to access this resource. See Manage Private Access Rules.
  • When you are ready for end-users to access the resource, if you have enabled browser-based access, give your users the dummy URL that you configured in this procedure.

Manage Private Resources < Add a Private Resource > Add a Private Resource Group

Updated 2 days ago