Information
The following details provide an overview of the network ports that are utilized during operation of an Active Navigation installation. If you are closely managing the network configuration of your servers you should refer to these notes to determine specific requirements for the ports that should be enabled.
User access to the Active Navigation web interface
For access to the Discovery Center web interface the default port is 805 but this can be configured to an alternative value at installation time. The chosen port must be enabled for incoming requests in order for users to be able to access the Active Navigation user interface.
Accessing content to be analyzed
The core analysis function of the Active Navigation Discovery Center requires that the content to be processed can be accessed from the application server hosting the Active Navigation software. The precise port access requirements depend on the type of repository to be analyzed and the protocols in use.
Normally there are no special steps required, however in more secure environments with restrictive firewall configurations you may need to perform additional configuration to ensure the correct operation of the product.
If you are operating in a tightly controlled environment and encounter issues with content access for skim, analysis or action processing then you should review these notes and if requesting support specify clearly the findings regarding port accessibility.
Analyzing file share content
The precise range of ports required to support access to file share content can vary according to the precise protocols in use in a given customer environment. This may depend on the operating systems in use, or the use of systems that "simulate" traditional file shares using protocols such as WebDAV.
For traditional file share access, the basic requirements are encapsulated in standard Windows firewall rules as outlined in the table below. Because the Active Navigation processes are making connections to remote servers then ports must be made available to outgoing connections from the Active Navigation processes.
| Port | Description | Window Firewall Rule |
| 137 UDP | NetBIOS Name Service | File and Printer Sharing (NB-Name-Out) |
| 138 UDP | NetBIOS Datagram Service | File and Printer Sharing (NB-Datagram-Out) |
| 139 TCP | NetBIOS Session Service | File and Printer Sharing (NB-Session-Out) |
| 445 TCP | SMB File Sharing | File and Printer Sharing (SMB-Out) |
In modern implementations of the SMB protocol, it is possible for file sharing operations to be carried out entirely via the TCP port 445, but NetBIOS (ports 137-139) is used as a fallback option.
For most reliable operation of the Active Navigation skim and analysis processes we recommend these ports are configured for outgoing traffic. The Windows firewall provides a range of mechanisms to constrain permitted connections by network type or to specific servers so that only very specific interactions are permitted.
If planning to operate without the use of NetBIOS ports, or if you wish to utilize advanced firewall rule options, then you should specifically validate that the target file shares can successfully be accessed from the Active Navigation application server once your configuration has been completed.
TCP and UDP port 2049 is the default port to access NFS file shares.
Analyzing SharePoint content
For access to SharePoint content the skim and analysis processes will use use web services and the port number will depend on the SharePoint site configuration. For instance the default port number for http URLs will be 80 and for https URLs it will be 443 but in each case non standard port numbers may be used.
Name resolution
For access to remote servers, the system will normally need to make requests to a DNS server to determine the IP address. DNS requests will require use of port 53.
System internal communications
The majority of system operations within the Active Navigation application depend on the use of SQL components:SQL Server and SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). The default TCP port for access to SQL Server is 1433 and the default TCP port for SSAS is 2383
If using named instances for SQL Server then ports 1434 (SQL Browser Service) and 2382 (SSAS) are used to identify the correct port to use for an instance. If restricting port access then you should avoid use of dynamic ports for named instances and select static ports that can be configured for access.
The same port determination applies to both the primary SQL database and the Management Reporting database.
All of these values may differ dependent on the configuration of the SQL Server installation.
Applies to
Active Navigation Discovery Center 4.x