Plan security for an external secure search environment (Search Server 2008)

Applies To: Microsoft Search Server 2008

Topic Last Modified: 2009-08-04

In this article:

• Protect back-end servers

• Secure client-server communication

• Secure the Central Administration site

• Secure design checklist

• Plan security hardening for server roles

• Plan secure configurations for Search Server 2008 features

Security guidance for an external secure environment is targeted to providing access to search facilities for extranet users. This environment enables external users, such as home workers or partners, to search for content exactly as internal users do. If you set up a Search Server 2008 system for external secure access, ensure that external users also have access to the content that Search Server indexes.

There are several unique recommendations for an external secure search environment. Some of these recommendations might not be practical for all solutions. For example, Search Server 2008 Express only supports a single application server which runs the Index server and Query server roles.

Protect back-end servers

External secure search access requires Internet-facing servers. You can limit the exposure to traffic from the Internet by protecting back-end servers:

• Protecting database servers At a minimum, place a firewall between front-end Web servers and servers that host databases. Some environments dictate that database servers be hosted in an internal network instead of directly in an extranet environment.

• Protect application servers At a minimum, protect application servers by requiring Internet Protocol security (IPsec) to help secure communication between server farm computers. Additionally, you can put application servers behind the firewall used to protect database servers. Or, you can introduce an additional firewall between front-end Web servers and application servers.

• Protect the index role The index component communicates through a front-end Web server to crawl content in sites. To protect this communication channel, consider configuring a dedicated front-end Web server for use by the index server. This isolates crawling communication to a front-end Web server that is inaccessible to users. Additionally, configure Internet Information Services (IIS) to restrict SiteData.asmx (the crawler SOAP service) to let only the index server (or other crawlers) to access it. Providing a front-end Web server dedicated to content crawling also improves performance by reducing the load on the main front-end Web servers. This improves the user experience.

Secure client-server communication

Secure search access in an extranet environment relies on secure communication between client computers and the server farm environment. Where appropriate, use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to help secure communication between client computers and servers. To increase security, consider the following:

• Require certificates on client computers. SSL can be implemented without requiring client certificates. You can improve the security of external search access by requiring certificates on all client computers.

• Use IPsec. If client computers support IPsec, you can configure IPsec rules to achieve a greater level or granularity of security compared with SSL.

Secure the Central Administration site

Because external users have access to the network zone, it is important to secure the Central Administration site to block external access and secure internal access. The Central Administration site includes the Search Administration pages:

• Ensure that the Central Administration site is not hosted on a front-end Web server.

• Block external access to the Central Administration site. This can be achieved by placing a firewall between front-end Web servers and the server that hosts the Central Administration site.

• Configure the Central Administration site by using SSL. This ensures that communication from the internal network to the Central Administration site is secured.

Secure design checklist

Use this design checklist together with the checklists in Plan server farm security (Search Server 2008).

Topology

Logical architecture

Plan security hardening for server roles

The following table describes additional hardening recommendations for an external secure search access environment.

Plan secure configurations for Search Server 2008 features

The following table describes additional recommendations for securing Microsoft Search Server 2008 features. These recommendations are appropriate for an external secure search access environment.

See Also

Concepts

Plan environment-specific security (Search Server 2008)
Plan security for an internal team or department environment (Search Server 2008)
Plan security for an external anonymous access environment (Search Server 2008)