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Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting helps you resolve common problems in the Forcepoint NGFW and SMC.
Troubleshooting policies
There are some common problems you might encounter when working with policies and the rules that they contain.
Troubleshoot rules
There are several possible causes and solutions for problems with rules in policies.
Policy validation for troubleshooting rules
You can automatically validate a policy and check the rules for invalid configurations, for example, if policy installation fails.

About this Help
Introduction to the Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall solution
Before setting up Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall (Forcepoint NGFW), it is useful to know what the different components do and what engine roles are available.
Deployment
Before you can set up the system and start configuring elements, you must consider how the different SMC components should be positioned and deployed.
Setting up
After deploying the SMC components, you are ready to start using the Management Client and carrying out some of the first configuration tasks.
Monitoring
You can use the SMC to monitor system components and third-party devices. You can also view and filter logs, and create Reports from them.
Controlling engines
You can command and set options for engines through the Management Client or on the engine command line. You can also stop traffic manually.
SMC configuration
Security Management Center (SMC) configuration allows you to customize how the SMC components work.
Engine element configuration
You can create and modify Firewalls, IPS engines, Layer 2 Firewalls, Master NGFW Engines and Virtual NGFW Engines. You can configure the engine properties, activate optional features, and configure advanced engine settings.
Routing
Use the Management Client to configure static or dynamic routing, and use a Multi-Link configuration to manage and distribute inbound and outbound connections.
Traffic inspection policies
Policies are key elements that contain rules for allowing or blocking network traffic and inspecting the content of traffic.
Users and authentication
User accounts are stored in internal databases or external directory servers. You can use Forcepoint NGFW in the Firewall/VPN role or external authentication servers to authenticate users.
Virtual private networks
Forcepoint NGFW supports both policy-based and route-based VPNs (virtual private networks).
Maintenance and upgrades
Maintenance includes procedures that you do not typically need to do frequently.
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting helps you resolve common problems in the Forcepoint NGFW and SMC.
- General troubleshooting tips
  General troubleshooting tips help you troubleshoot situations that are not covered by more specific troubleshooting topics.
- Troubleshooting accounts and passwords
  There are several common problems and solutions related to accounts and passwords.
- Messages for troubleshooting
  Some common alert and log messages that you might see in the Logs view are useful for troubleshooting.
- Troubleshooting engine operation
  There are several common errors and problems that are directly related to the operation of Firewalls, IPS engines, and Layer 2 Firewalls.
- Troubleshooting licenses
  Licenses are a proof of purchase used for ensuring that your organization is a legal license holder of the software.
- Troubleshooting logging
  There are some common problems you might encounter when viewing logs or performing tasks related to the log files.
- Troubleshooting the Management Client
  There are several general problems that you might encounter when using the Management Client.
- Troubleshooting NAT
  There are some common problems you might encounter with NAT.
- Troubleshooting policies
  There are some common problems you might encounter when working with policies and the rules that they contain.
  - Troubleshoot policy installation
    There are several possible causes and solutions when policy installation fails, or there is a warning message indicating problems in the policy installation window.
  - Troubleshoot rules
    There are several possible causes and solutions for problems with rules in policies.
    - Policy validation for troubleshooting rules
      You can automatically validate a policy and check the rules for invalid configurations, for example, if policy installation fails.
    - Troubleshoot traffic that is blocked even though rules allow ANY Service
      The possible causes and solutions depend on the engine role when a connection that you want to allow is stopped.
    - Troubleshoot false positives in the Inspection Policy
      There are several possible causes and solutions when the Inspection Policy produces alerts or terminates traffic that you consider to be normal.
    - Enable passthrough for PPTP traffic
      You might need to specifically allow Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) traffic if you use PPTP tunneling.
    - Troubleshoot traffic that is incorrectly stopped by the firewall
      The Firewall might incorrectly stop traffic that you want to allow. To check possible configuration errors, use log entries to locate the correct policy.
  - Troubleshooting packets incorrectly dropped by antispoofing
    You can add exceptions to antispoofing if traffic that should be allowed is incorrectly dropped as spoofed.
  - Troubleshooting unsupported definitions in IPv6 Access rules
    Using elements that do not contain an IPv6 address in the Source and Destination fields of the IPv6 Access rules causes an error message indicating the rule is invalid.
- Troubleshooting reporting
  There are some common problems that you might encounter when generating reports from raw statistical and log data stored on the Log Server.
- Troubleshooting upgrades
  There are some common problems that you might encounter when upgrading SMC components.
- Troubleshooting VPNs
  There are some common problems that you might encounter when creating and managing VPNs.
Appendices

Policy validation for troubleshooting rules

You can automatically validate a policy and check the rules for invalid configurations, for example, if policy installation fails.

Related tasks

Validate rules automatically

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