Working in an offline environment

If you are using the Clearswift Secure Email Gateway in an offline environment, you should keep the following points in mind:

License validation

To validate your license in an offline environment please contact Clearswift support. You will need your hardware system serial number which you can find in "View validation request data" under View License".

Upgrading your Clearswift Secure Email Gateway

To upgrade your Clearswift Secure Email Gateway in an offline environment, you must use the latest ISO image available from Clearswift.

NTLM-authenticating proxies

If you are using a Microsoft ISA proxy, or any other NTLM-authenticating proxy, leave your system configured for offline upgrades. Red Hat does not support NTLM-authenticating proxies. For further information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/53900

Connectivity issues

It is strongly recommended that you use the Connectivity Test option on a regular basis to check for connectivity issues which can impact performance. See Running Connectivity Tests for more information.

Sophos Live Protection

If you are installing or upgrading to Clearswift Email Gateway 5.1.0 in an offline environment, you should contact Clearswift technical support for advice on installing Live Protection.

Switching off essential services at the command line

If you run the Clearswift Secure Email Gateway in a closed environment, Clearswift recommends that you disable the Mailshell (spam) LiveFeed. To disable this:

Assume root-role at the command-line.
Edit the file /var/cs-gateway/mailshell/spamcatcher.conf to include the following properties:
- livefeed=""
- enable_dkim=no
- enable_spf=no

After a software installation

The software installation process will not automatically disable any of your pre-existing repository configurations. From the command line you will be able to install additional third-party software in the normal way. This includes additional RedHat software.

From version 5.0 onwards, you will only be able to apply Clearswift-provided upgrades using the Software Updates tab in Red Hat Cockpit. This ensures that only trusted Clearswift repositories are used during the upgrade process and will explicitly block any unintended updates from third-party repositories during the process.