Understanding IPsec

What IPsec is

IPsec is a security protocol that protects data being transmitted between filers and clients from unauthorized disclosure.

IPsec enables authentication and encryption of data in transition between a filer and its CIFS client running Windows 2000 or higher. Using IPsec, you can add policies on the filer that

Configure encryption and authentication algorithms between the filer and client. Policies can be configured from the filer to the client and from the client to the filer over a range of IP addresses and ports.
Negotiate a security association (SA) between the two end-stations that is used for secure data exchanges between the filer and the client.

IPsec in a cluster configuration

The IPsec protocol, by its nature, does not work well in a failover environment, that is, when one filer in a cluster configuration must takeover the other filer. Reduce the security association lifetime to a minimum value to optimize IPsec operation in a cluster configuration. This minimizes the time clients use to destroy their security associations and negotiate new ones with the filer that took over.

Note
You set the security association lifetime value on clients.