Secure Shell (SSH) in HP Systems Insight Manager 5.1 and 5.2

3
How this paper is organized
This paper is organized into
four broad areas:

An
Introduction
to SSH and how it works

SSH and HP
(HP SIM) which includes information about how HP SIM uses SSH

Common questions and tasks
including a
Checklist to debug SSH on Windows

Troubleshooting

Appendices including:
Appendix A: Changes in HP SIM 5.x
,
Appendix B: Tool examples
, and
Appendix C: Glossary
Those who are new to the topic of SSH should start with the
Introduction
, while SSH experts should
start at
SSH and HP SIM
. The
Troubleshooting
section is important to those who need to support
OpenSSH and HP SIM.
This paper is focused on the 5.x version of HP SIM, which has a number of changes in SSH handling
from previous versions. A separate white paper is available f
or earlier versions of HP SIM, with the
same background information in each paper.
Introduction
This is an era of the security conscious IT administrator. User names and passwords are no longer
passed in the clear over the intranet or Internet. We are pr
oviding more secure access into managed
systems so that only authorized users have access to our most sensitive information, which is on the
system itself.
Telnet was one of the methods of the past for logging into a remote system and performing commands
t
hat would add, delete, and modify files. However, Telnet is not a secure method to use and does not
protect network traffic.
There is a small, unassuming, yet robust solution, which is reasonably easy to use, inexpensive, and
available for most of today’s
operating systems. This solution is Secure Shell (SSH), which is not a
shell at all but a secure remote access protocol. The SSH protocol provides security on the network,
authentication, and data exchange with spoof protections and encryption.
HP SIM i
s a robust system management tool. Through use of the Distributed Task Facility (DTF) and
SSH, HP SIM is able to securely log into remote systems on behalf of the HP SIM user of the central
management server (CMS) and make modifications, additions, and run
commands. The HP SIM
terminology for these processes is called tasks.
This white paper provides the following:

An overview of SSH and OpenSSH, which is an implementation of SSH

Demonstrates how SSH is used in HP SIM 5.x

Discusses some of the problems tha
t can be encountered during its usage

Presents a recommended troubleshooting method when the SSH connection does not appear to be
working
Some of the programs installed into HP SIM, called plug
-
ins, also use the capabilities of SSH, and
mention is made of
plug
-
ins where appropriate.
The custom commands and some command line tools (MSA) of HP SIM might require that SSH be
installed and configured on the CMS. Other tools (SSA) require SSH on the managed system where
they are to run. Refer to
Appendix B: Tool examples
for examples of the MSA and SSA tools.