User`s guide

ADM User’s Guide
38 VMware, Inc.
6Listener(passive)
7IPDiscovery(passive)
SSH
SecureShell(SSH)isastandardprotocolforsecureremoteaccesstoUNIX‐likeoperatingsystems.SSHservers
arebuiltintomostLinuxdistributions,MacOS‐X,SunSolaris,OpenBSD,andmostotherUNIX‐likeoperating
systems.SSHserversfromvariousvendorsarealsoavailableforWindows.
Remoteaccesstoa
hostthatrunsanSSHserverstartsbyauthenticatingtheclient’sidentity. Aftertheclient
identityisauthenticated,anencryptedcommunicationchannelopens.Theclientcanthenexaminefilesand
runcommandsontheserverhost.Theprivilegesandpermissionsoftheclientaredeterminedbytheserver
accordingtoits
identity.Forexample,iftheclientusesaguestaccountwithfewprivileges,mostofthe
informationisnotavailabletothisuser.
SSHhastwoversions.Version2isnormallyinuse,whileversion1islessrecommended.SinceSSHclientsand
serversautomaticallydetecteachother’sversionsandcoordinate
theircommunications,noactionisrequired.
Detail Discovery with SSH
ADMusesSSHtoaccesshoststhatrunSSHservers,andtoobtaininformationabouttheoperatingsystem,
hardware,andsoftwareinstalledontheserverhost.
BothSSHversions1and2aresupportedautomaticallywithnouserinteraction.Authenticationisbasedon
specifyingausernameandpasswordtouse
whenaccessingthemanagedhosts;thesearestoredbyADM
internallyinanencryptedform.
SSH Server Deployment Recommendations
Firewall Settings
SSHqueriesarenormallyperformedonTCPport22ontheserver.IfafirewallexistsbetweentheADM
applianceandthemonitorednetwork,thisportneedstobeopenforconnectionsinitiatedbytheADM
appliance.
SSH Server Settings
DiscoverywithSSHofserversrunningtheOpenSSHserver(sshd)requiresthattheʺ
Passw ordAuthenticationʺ
fieldcontainthevalue“yes”intheserversettingsfile(often,/etc/ssh/sshd_config).Insomeoperating
systems,suchasSuSE,thedefaultis“no”andneedstobechangedfortheSSHdiscoverytocomplete.
Credentials
DetaildiscoverywithSSHisbasedonaccessingthemanagedhostwithapredefineduser
nameandpassword.
Formoreinformationonnecessaryprivileges,downloadthedocumentdiscovery_coverage.xlsfrom:
http://downloads.vmware.com/ApplicationDiscoveryManager
IfADMisusedtodiscoverconfigurationofservicessuchasapplicationservers,databases,andwebservers,
thisusermightneedmorereadprivilegesiftheconfigurationfilesoftheseservicesarenotaccessibleby

ordinaryusers.
Forexample,insomesites,theOracledatabaseserverisinstalledandrunwithaspecial“oracle”user
belongingtoaspecial“oracle”group.Theconfigurationfilesfortheservermightonlybereadablebyusersin
the“oracle”group.HavingADMuseauserinthisgroup
wouldallowittoaccessthesefilesandretrieve
valuableanddetailedconfigurationinformationthatisotherwiseunavailable.
IMPORTANTItisnotrecommendedtousetheuser“root”forsecurityreasons.