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Secure file overview

The secure file defines how BMC Server Automation applications for a client installation and the RSCD agent on a server communicate with each other. In this discussion, a client application can be a Network Shell client, BMC Server Automation Application Server, or Network Shell proxy server that communicates directly with an RSCD agent or repeater.

The secure file for a client application defines parameters that BMC Server Automation applications use to communicate with the RSCD agent on a server. The secure file on the server defines parameters that the RSCD agent uses to communicate with BMC Server Automation applications on clients. The exports, users, and users.local files control user access to servers (see Exports-file-overview and Users-and-users-local-files-overview).

By default, client and server processes communicate using TCP/IP port 4750 with the server process listening on all configured NIC (Network Interface Card) addresses. The port number can be set with an entry in the Internet services databases (for example, /etc/services ).

For simpler security installations, you need only modify the secure file to establish how data is communicated between clients and servers. Stronger security requires additional modifications to a system. See Security for a full description of all the procedures needed to implement security in a BMC Server Automation system.

Always use the secadmin utility to modify the secure file. Using the secadmin utility ensures that the secure file is formatted correctly. For more information, see Using the secadmin utility.

The secure file resides in different locations in Windows and UNIX systems, as described in the following table. On Windows, you can have multiple instances of BMC Server Automation client applications, each with their own secure file. The following table shows how the location of the secure file on Windows varies between the first instance and all subsequent instances.

 

The following topics provide more information about configuring the secure file:

 

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