Re: Syncing iptables rules between two servers

Christopher Jastram <[email protected]> Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:25:56 -0400
Newsgroups gmane.comp.security.linux,gmane.comp.security.basics
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Lars Solberg wrote:
> Hi
>
> Is there anyone that know about how I can "sync" iptables rules on two
> different servers? The plan is to have (on one of the servers) a
> script that automaticly block ip adresses with iptables depending on
> different conditions. When that ip adress is blocked I want it to
> automaticly be blocked on another server to.
>   
Personally, I'd pursue an rsync / ssh -c solution.  Rsync a straight-up 
shell script that sets up your firewall rules, and then run it with ssh 
-c.  If you set up your public keys properly on the remote server, you 
can run the whole thing from a script with no human intervention..

I have a very similar setup, but I copy the file over manually and run it.

I have a big iptables -F at the beginning of the firewall script, which 
takes care of any deleted rules.  You may or may not want to do this 
sort of thing, depending on your setup, but it's necessary for me.  The 
firewall script runs so fast that the temporary connection loss is not a 
problem.  YMMV.

Chris