Connection Manager Data Flow

This figure shows a simple Connection Manager data flow.

Here is a brief explanation of how Connection Manager works.

Installation Steps

  1. When CMS is started, it attempts to make a connection to each CMA. If the connection cannot be established, CMS waits 30 seconds and tries again. It continues retrying the connection until the connection is successfully established.
  2. At some point, CMA is started and listens for incoming CMS connections. CMA listens for TCP connections on two ports:
    • 48000 – Control Connection from CMS
    • 48001 – Data Connections from CMS

Steps to Create a Connection

  1. When Internet Server needs to establish a TCP connection, it first needs to determine if the connection should be routed through Connection Manager. IS reviews its configuration to find a match on an IP Address or IP Address subnet. Assuming that the connection needs to be made through Connection Manager, IS requests a TCP connection with the CMA. It then sends a SOCKS packet to CMA indicating the destination connectivity info (IP Address and Port).
  2. CMA reads the IS data packet and sends the request to the CMS over the Control Connection.
  3. CMS reads the data from the Control Connection and establishes a connection with the Destination Server.
  4. CMS then establishes a TCP connection with the CMA data port. CMA ties this connection together with the Connection request from IS.
  5. CMA accepts the connection from CMS and IS data begins to flow over this connection.


This figure shows a two-tier DMZ architecture. The Internet Server is executing in DMZ1, while the CMA is executing in DMZ2. It also shows the high availability capability of Connection Manager. Internet Server can connect to multiple CMA instances and CMA can accept requests from multiple CMS instances. IS connects to the first CMA instance that is available. CMA requests a connection on the first active connection to a CMS instance. In a two tier DMZ architecture, Internet Server in DMZ1 must be able to initiate a TCP connection to the CMA in DMZ 2.