Connection Credentials and Connectors on the Local Host

In order to access security settings and connector selection features, right-click the local host’s Hardware icon > KM Commands > This System’s Settings > Connection, Credentials and Connectors.

Hardware Sentry allows you to set or modify the SNMP community that will be used for SNMP queries.

•	Enter the custom SNMP community string in the first field or leave this field blank if you want Hardware Sentry to automatically detect the SNMP community (public).

•	Using an alternate SNMP community can be required in secured network environments where all the SNMP agents are configured in a customized community.

•	Enter the user credentials of the alternate account to execute external commands, or leave blank to consider default PATROL account.

Using an alternate account, i.e. an account different from the default PATROL account to execute external commands (OS commands and WBEM queries) is required in some secured systems where the default PATROL account does not have all the privileges required in order to perform queries on certain hardware devices.

This is also true for HP-UX systems (for physical disks) as well as IBM xSeries computers under Linux (for WBEM requests). Please refer to the platform-specific guides for specific details.

Depending on the targeted platform, Hardware Sentry may use some external system utilities to gather hardware information. Sometimes the PATROL Agent default account does not have sufficient privileges to execute these commands and it is not possible in your environment to give super-user rights to the PATROL Agent (as described above). In such case Hardware Sentry can use the "sudo" utility to execute external commands as "root". The "sudo" utility helps UNIX system administrators secure their environment by authorizing some users to execute only certain commands specified as another user account (typically root). If this applies to you, the "sudo" options feature could be a good workaround.

•	Command line to execute the sudo utility: Enter the command line, or, leave the field blank to use the default /usr/local/bin/sudo path.

Ensure that the sudo utility is installed on the system, and that the "/etc/sudoers" file is configured to allow the PATROL Agent to execute the selected commands as root.

•	Configure "sudo" to allow the PATROL Agent default account to execute the needed commands as root (modify the /etc/sudoers file). Configuring "sudo" requires root privileges.

•	Check that the PATROL Agent default account is properly authorized to execute the needed commands through the "sudo" utility.

•	Access the Hardware Sentry Security Settings panel: Hardware icon > This Systems’s Setting > Connection, Credentials and Connectors > Sudo options.

Enter the WBEM credentials or leave blank if using default PATROL account credentials and click Next. The next panel allows you to decide which mode is to be used for selecting connectors.

Connection Credentials and Connectors on Local Host — Connectors Selection Mode

•	Let Hardware Sentry detect which connectors to use: In this mode, Hardware Sentry will run tests at each discovery and select the connectors that best match the managed system.

•	Manually choose the connectors: Selecting this option lets you decide which connectors Hardware Sentry should use to monitor the system Hardware.

The first option: Let Hardware Sentry detect which connectors to use is recommended and is used by default when Hardware Sentry is loaded on a PATROL Agent.

The detection process is very efficient and accurate, and generally, does not use the computer’s resources extensively. Clicking on the Next button will bring up a panel with a message stating that Hardware Sentry needs to be reinitialized to run the detection process again.

If manual selection is chosen (essential for remote monitoring), the next panel displays a list of connectors to choose from:

Connection Credentials and Connectors on Local Host — Manual Connector Selection

It is possible to select several connectors from the list by simply clicking on them. De-selecting a connector is also performed by clicking on the item on the list..

At the end of the selection wizard, Hardware Sentry runs a full discovery. All devices and sensors are re-detected. If the connector list differs from what Hardware Sentry was using previously, new devices monitored may appear in the PATROL Console and old ones may be removed. If this is the case, pay close attention to the PATROL System Output Window for error messages. A poor selection of connectors may remove all devices and sensors and may prevent Hardware Sentry from being able to monitor the system’s hardware!

Clicking the Next button brings up a panel with a message stating that Hardware Sentry needs to delete the host instance in the PATROL Console and perform a new discovery of the host.

Connection Credentials and Connectors on Local Host — Perform a New Host Discovery