Managing Windows proxies
Depending on the management task, you manage Windows proxies by the following ways:
- Using the Windows proxy manager
- Using the Windows proxy management page
Managing proxies using the Windows proxy manager
The Windows proxy manager is a simple tool which enables you to install and manage proxies on the Windows host on which the manager is installed. You can perform the following tasks from the Windows proxy manager:
- Install a new proxy service
- Register a proxy with an appliance
- Edit the port that the proxy uses and the user account that the proxy runs as
- Uninstall a proxy service
- Start a selected proxy
- Stop a selected proxy
- Restart a selected proxy
The Windows proxy manager is installed when you install a proxy. For more information, see Windows proxy manager.
Managing Windows proxies from the appliance UI
The BMC Atrium Discovery UI enables you to manage the Windows proxies in the following ways:
- Add Windows proxies to the pools
- View Windows proxies
- Edit Windows proxies
- Test Windows proxies
You can manage Windows discovery using the Windows proxy management page. This page displays the list of the available proxy pools and the corresponding proxies in each pool.
To navigate to the Windows proxy management page:
- From the secondary navigation bar on the Discovery tab, click Credentials.
- Click Windows Proxies.
The Device Credentials page for Windows proxies (Windows proxy management page) is displayed.
Adding Windows proxies
Adding Windows proxies to the appliance enables the appliance to use them for discovering Windows devices.
The appliance and the Windows proxies communicate with each other using TLS. For more information, see Secure deployment.
After installing the Windows proxies on the appliance using the Windows proxy manager and adding the Windows proxy pools, you must add the proxies to the pools. Unless firewalls or security policies prevent it, the easiest way to register a proxy is from the Windows proxy manager.
To add a Windows proxy to a Windows proxy pool with the appliance UI, perform the following steps:
- On the Windows proxy management page, click the Actions list for the corresponding Windows proxy pool.
- Select Add Windows Proxy.
Each proxy pool contains proxies based on:- Type of proxies: A proxy pool must contain either Credential proxies or Active Directory proxies. A proxy pool cannot contain proxies of both types.
- Version of proxies: A proxy pool must contain either version 9.0 and later proxies, or proxies of earlier versions. A proxy pool must not contain proxies of both version 9.0 ad later, and proxies of earlier versions.
Based on the proxy version and version of the Operating System (OS) the proxy runs on, the proxy capability is one of the following:- Fully IPv6 capable: Can scan IPv6 addresses and retrieve IPv6 data. Where BMC Atrium Discovery version 9.0 or later proxies are running on Windows 2008 or later.
- Cannot scan IPv6 addresses: Can retrieve IPv6 data but the Windows version does not support scanning IPv6 addresses. Where BMC Atrium Discovery version 9.0 or later proxies are running on versions of Windows older than Windows 2008.
- Not IPv6 capable: Cannot scan IPv6 addresses and cannot retrieve IPv6 data. BMC Atrium Discovery proxies from versions older than 9.0.
Enter the following information about the new Windows proxy:
Field Name
Details
Proxy Pool
Select the Windows proxy pool from the list.
Proxy Name
Enter the name that the Windows proxy will be referred to in the user interface. This name must be unique. The system validates this name to be unique.
Proxy Address
The address of the Windows proxy. This can be specified as one of the following:
• Hostname or FQDN
• IPv4 or IPv6 addressPort
The port on which to communicate with the Windows proxy.
• For AD Windows proxy, the default port number is 4321.
• For credential Windows proxy, the default port number is 4323.CA Certificate
The contents of the certificate that was generated automatically by the Windows Proxy Manager. Leave this unset to cause the appliance to automatically retrieve the certificate.
Enabled
To enable the Windows proxy, select the check box.
When you install a Windows proxy from the Windows proxy manager, the Proxy Address, Port and Certificate fields are pre-populated and Enabled is selected by default.
- Click Apply.
The Windows proxy is added to the proxy pool.
Viewing Windows proxies
The Windows proxy management page displays the list of the available proxy pools and the corresponding proxies in each pool.
Each proxy pool displays the Windows proxies in rows. For discovery tasks, the Windows proxy pool checks for a Windows proxy. If a proxy has not previously been used to discover the endpoint, then for each proxy pool (matching the domain) in the order that the pools appear, a proxy is selected and discovery attempts to contact it:
- if successful then that proxy is used.
- if unsuccessful due to a timeout, then other proxies in the pool are tried.
- if unsuccessful due to an error, then no more proxies in the pool are tried and the remaining pools are tried in the order in which they appear.
The Windows proxies are shown in color-coded boxes where each color represents the level of login success achieved:
- Green: 100% success rate.
- Yellow: Partial success.
- Blue: The credential has never been used. Credential proxies always appear blue. To check their success rate, see the credential list.
- Red: 0% success rate.
For each Windows proxy, the following fields are displayed:
Field Name |
Details |
---|---|
Name |
The name of the Windows proxy and the IP address and port. A link is also provided showing the last successful use of the credential. This links to the proxy management screen. |
Status |
Displays the status of a proxy in the pool as follows: |
Version |
The version and release of the Windows proxy. |
Notes |
The state of the proxy based on the proxy version, OS version on which the proxy runs, and IPv6 capability. The state is displayed as one of the following: |
Usage |
A summary of the success rate when the Windows proxy has been used, information on failures, and links to DiscoveryAccesses, credential lists and other useful diagnostic pages. |
Actions |
A list with the following options: |
Testing connectivity
To test the connectivity between a Windows proxy and a supplied IP address:
- On the Windows proxy management page, select Actions > Test for the Windows proxy.
- Enter the IP address to use for the test and click Test.
The credential tests page is displayed with the test in progress. For more information about the credential tests page, see Testing credentials.
Editing and managing Windows proxies
You can edit and manage the Windows proxies from the Manage Windows proxy page. On the Windows proxy management page, perform one of the following actions:
- Click on the Windows proxy name that you want to edit and manage, or
- Click on the Actions list of the corresponding Windows proxy and select Manage.
The Manage Windows proxy page for the corresponding Windows proxy is displayed. The top section of the Manage Windows proxy page (following the bread crumb navigation trail and preceding the General Details section) displays the following information:
- Type: The Windows proxy type (for example, Active Directory)
- Version: The version number of the Windows proxy
The version is displayed on a colored banner. The color of the banner indicates whether a proxy is active or not (for example, a Green banner indicates that the proxy is active). For more information about configuring the colored banner, see Configuring the banner color.
The proxy management page contains the following sections which enable you to view the details of and manage the Windows proxy:
- General Details
- Proxy Settings
- Proxy Information
- Proxy Configuration
General Details
This section list the details used to create the Windows proxy. You can manage the following details about the Windows proxy:
Field Name |
Details |
---|---|
Proxy Pool |
The Windows proxy pool for the Windows proxy. |
Proxy Address |
The Windows proxy IP address. |
Port |
The port number associated with the Windows proxy. |
Enabled |
Displays whether the Windows proxy is enabled or not. |
Apply General Details |
If you have modified any of the general details and want to apply those, click Apply General Details. |
Reset General Details |
If you want to reset the current general details, click Reset General Details. |
Proxy Settings
You can manage the following settings of the Windows proxy:
Field Name |
Details |
---|---|
Log Level |
You can change the log level of the Windows proxy at runtime here in the same way as you can for the service log levels from the main Logging page in BMC Atrium Discovery. For more details, see Changing Log Levels at Runtime. |
Recording Mode |
(8.3 and later proxies only) Displays the recording mode of the Windows proxy. The recording mode can be one of the following: |
Discovery Methods |
(8.3 and later proxies only) Select the discovery methods and their timeouts for the Windows proxy. The available methods are: If you disable RemQuery, some discovery information not available, including network connection details and the contents of files. |
Overload Notification |
If you select this option, Windows proxy informs the main Discovery service when it is overloaded (that is, the Windows proxy has a large number of requests in progress). In such a situation, Discovery, if possible, will try another Windows proxy from the same Windows proxy pool. However, if you do not select this option, Discovery will wait for all the requests in progress to complete, which can take a long time if the Windows proxy is overloaded. |
Log Directory Disk Usage |
Displays the disk usage of the log directory. |
Record Directory Disk Usage |
Displays the disk usage of the record directory. |
Purge |
Enables you to automatically purge stored data for a specific time period for log files and record data. |
Apply Proxy Settings |
If you have modified any of the proxy settings details and want to apply those, click Apply Proxy Settings. |
Reset Proxy Settings |
If you want to reset the current proxy setting details, click Reset Proxy Settings. |
Proxy Information
The following information about the proxy is displayed:
Field Name |
Details |
---|---|
Operating System |
The name and version of the Windows Operating System. |
Processor(s) |
Displays the number of processors and processor type. |
Memory |
Displays the memory of the appliance and the percentage of memory used. |
Disk Free |
The available disk space in MB. |
Notes |
Based on the proxy version, OS version on which the proxy runs, and IPv6 capability, one of the following is displayed: |
IPv6 functionality is not enabled until proxies of versions earlier than 9.0 are upgraded to 9.0 or later, or are removed.
Proxy Configuration
You can view, download, and apply the Windows proxy configuration data from this section.
Field Name |
Details |
---|---|
Retrieve Current Configuration |
• If you want to view the current Windows proxy configuration in XML format, click View winproxy.conf. |
Apply New Configuration |
If you want to apply a new Windows proxy configuration file, perform the following: |
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