Preventing an unknown (or unwanted) appliance from peering
1. Choose Optimization > Network Services: Peering Rules.
2. Click Add a New Peering Rule.
3. Select Passthrough as the rule type.
4. Specify the source and destination subnets. The source subnet is the remote location network subnet (in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/xx). The destination subnet is your local network subnet (in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/xx).
5. Click Add.
The peering rule passes through traffic from the unknown SteelHead in the remote location.
When you use this method and add a new remote location in the future, you must create a new peering rule that accepts traffic from the remote location. Place this new Accept rule before the Pass-through rule.
If you don’t know the network subnet for the remote location, there’s another option: you can create a peering rule that allows peering from your corporate network subnet and denies it otherwise. For example, create a peering rule that accepts peering from your corporate network subnet and place it as the first rule in the list.
6. Create a second peering rule to pass through all other traffic.
When the local SteelHead receives an autodiscovery probe, it checks the peering rules first (from top to bottom). If it matches the first Accept rule, the local SteelHead peers with the other SteelHead. If it doesn’t match the first Accept rule, the local SteelHead checks the next peering rule, which is the pass-through rule for all other traffic. In this case, the local SteelHead just passes through the traffic, but it doesn’t peer with the other SteelHead.
After you add the peering rule, the unknown SteelHead appears in the Current Connections report as a Connected Appliance until the connection times out. After the connection becomes inactive, it appears dimmed. To remove the unknown appliance completely, restart the optimization service.