Configure Private Access with on-premises applications and a Linux virtual machine

In this topic, you will learn how to configure the Portnox™ Private Access service to allow your remote users to access your private web applications hosted on-premises, by using a Docker container in an on-premises virtual machine with Linux.

In this scenario:

  • You want your remote users to be able to access private web applications that you host on-premises.

  • You need to host a Portnox Docker container in the on-premises local network to be able to access these web applications. You want to use a Linux-based virtual machine to run Docker and host the container.

We assume that you have already set up the virtual machine on your chosen platform with Linux installed. We also assume that this virtual machine is running in the same local network as the application. We will provide examples for Ubuntu and Red Hat, which you can easily adapt for other Linux distributions.

Set up the Private Access gateway in Portnox Cloud

In this section, you will set up a Private Access gateway in Portnox Cloud, install Docker on your virtual machine, and run the Portnox Private Access Docker container.

  1. On your Linux-based virtual machine, install Docker using your distribution’s package management framework.

    Ubuntu:

    $sudo apt-get install docker.io -y

    RedHat:

    $sudo yum install -y yum-utils
$sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/docker-ce.repo
$sudo yum install docker-ce
$sudo systemctl start docker
  2. In the top menu of Portnox Cloud, select the Private Access option. Then, on the Private Access screen, click on the + Create button and select the Create gateway option.

  3. In the Gateway details step, enter a name for this gateway in the Gateway Name field, and in the Gateway Region field, select either US Node or EU Node. Then, click on the Create and view details button.

  4. In the Provision container step, click on the Copy command link under the displayed Docker command to copy the command to the clipboard.

  5. Paste the copied command in your virtual machine’s terminal window to run the Docker container.

Set up the Private Access application in Portnox Cloud

In this section, you will set up a Private Access application in Portnox Cloud and configure it to access your private web application hosted in the same local network as the Docker container.

  1. In the top menu of Portnox Cloud, select the Private Access option. Then, on the Private Access screen, click on the + Create button and select the Create application option.

  2. On the Application details screen, enter a name for the application in the Application Name field, and in the Gateway field, select the gateway that you have just created.
    Note: The Application Name must be a valid subdomain name, because the URL will be constructed using this name. You should only use lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens.

    Result: If you want to use the Portnox URL, you can copy the URL for your application by clicking on the  ⧉  icon.

  3. Optional: If you want to use a URL in your own domain for the application:
    1. Activate the Use a custom URL linked to an SSL certificate checkbox.

    2. In the Upload SSL certificate section, click on the Select file button, and upload the certificate and private key for the custom URL (in the PKCS #12 format). Then, enter the password for the private key in the Certificate password field, and click on the Apply certificate button.

      Note: You must buy the specific subdomain certificate from the relevant certificate authority, or you can use a wildcard certificate for all your subdomains.
    3. Verify the details displayed for the certificate.

    4. If you are using a certificate with multiple domains/subdomains or a wildcard certificate, in the Domain field, select the relevant domain for your application’s URL, and in the Suffix field (if active – only for wildcard certificates), enter the subdomain.

      In this example, your application’s URL will be: privateapp.vorlon.com.

    1. In your DNS server, add a canonical name record for your application’s URL.

      For example, in the BIND server, enter the following record:

      privateapp.vorlon.com. IN CNAME privateapp.us.portnox.com.
  4. In the IP, port and protocol section, enter the details of the hosted web application in the IP Address, Port, and Protocol fields.

  5. Optional: In the Policy assignments section, change the setting to Application-based and then select an access control policy and a risk assessment policy if you want to control access to this application without using groups.
  6. Click on the Save button to save your configuration.

Result: Your users can now access your private web application by typing the URL in their browser, as long as they are enrolled with AgentP. AgentP will validate their certificate and provide access based on Portnox Cloud access and risk assessment policies.