Junos Enterprise Routing, 2nd Edition

Junos Software and Security

Prior to Release 8.5, Juniper had two means to support security features: the Netscreen devices and Junos service sets. Starting with Release 8.5, Junos engineers integrated these two feature sets into the Juniper routers, creating Junos software with enhanced services. For a number of releases, two versions of Junos were supported, with or without enhanced services. Starting with Release 9.4, the two operating systems became one Junos. Although the security features and flow-based processing can be turned off, for the J-series and the SRX series of devices the software architecture is based upon a session flow handling of packets.

This is not a security-focused book, and therefore, comprehensive coverage of security and security features is not possible. This chapter covers those features that are commonly found in an enterprise. A complete treatment of security features and services can be found in Junos Security, by Rob Cameron et al. (O’Reilly).

Do I Need a Router or a Security Device?

In the past, users were expected to make some tough decisions when building out a new or existing network. Specifically, they often had to choose a device based on what was more important: world-class routing or world-class services. When both were equally important, a two-box, best-of-breed solution was often proposed. In this model, you had services/security devices that were deployed with a router infrastructure. In a divide-and-conquer model such as this, each device ...