Placement of MSFC with FWSM

[secuser]

Hi,
although the cisco configuration manual was good as how the placement of the MSFC affects the funtionality of the FWSM, but i am confused and wondering if someone can help resolves this.
the 6509 has multiple vlans with multiple interface vlans. I just need to understand how the placement of the MSFC affect the routing between these vlans as inside versus outside. Also what would be the default gateway of my workstations, is it the interface vlans on the switch or the inside interface of the FWSM or the MSFC iteself, i just confused and not able to visulaize even how the path of the traffic exiting from the workstation to the target. can someone helps pleeeeeeese.

Thx,

 

[brianinms]

Is the 6k running native IOS or hybrid? Your workstations will route to their vlan interfaces.

 

[secuser]

one scenario where the 6k is native ios and another location hybrid.

 

[secuser]

but if the default gateway of the workstation is the vlan interface on the switch instead of the inside interface of the fwsm , then how will the security policies will be enforced on the vlans if forexample i want to prohibit certain traffic from one vlan to another since in this case the traffic will hit the switch router and will do the routing before hitting the fwsm , just a thought since i have limited knowledge on the fwsm, in otherwords is it suppoesd to be the fwsm inside interface as the gateway to the worksation, please could you make me clear on this....thx

 

[brianinms]

You can always use acl's or route maps to restrict traffic to the FWSM.

Here is everything you need to know about the FWSM.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/fwsm/fwsm32/configuration/guide/fwsm_cfg.html