| 15.1 |  | PIX Security Appliance Management Tools |
| 15.1.1 |  | Overview of PIX Security Appliance management tool options |

| One of the primary purposes of the security wheel, introduced in Module 1, is to illustrate that the process of providing comprehensive network security is interactive and iterative. It is not enough to simply have devices and policies in place. It is just as important that an administrator constantly monitors, test and improve network security in order to defend against continually evolving security threats.

Unfortunately, as a network grows, so does the task of administering it properly. This includes managing network security policies and devices. The CLI can be used for this purpose. However this method is not the best solution in medium and large networks. Management tools have been developed which allow administrators to manage network security and network security devices more efficiently and effectively . It is very important to understand the command line configurations before using automated management tools. This helps an administrator ensure proper configuration as well as troubleshoot security devices.