Manual

5 Security
Security concerns
Users can increase security by switching from SNMP Agent-based server management to Insight
Provider-based server management. The HP Insight Management WBEM Providers for Windows®
use Windows-based authentication for local and remote access to server management data.
Implementation
The Insight Providers for Windows® are implemented as a set of WMI providers. The access control
is in the form of standard Windows® account level access restrictions.
An administrator account has sufficient rights and security group memberships to access the Insight
Providers management information for both local and remote access.
For a standard user account, there are two considerations for configuring security in order to access
WMI information from the Insight Providers:
• WMI namespace security
• Distributed COM Users group membership
A standard user account needs security configurations to remotely access the Insight Provider
management information on a remote server. For more information, see “Security requirements for
the Insight Providers” on page 11.
WMI namespace security settings govern access to WMI information. Windows user accounts can
be allowed or denied specific privileges per WMI namespace.
For more information on namespace security, see Access to WMI Namespaces (http://
msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa822575.aspx).
Only standard users who belong to the Distributed COM Users group can remotely connect to WMI
and access management information. Administrators are in this group by default. Non-administrator
users must be added to the Distributed COM Users group for remote WMI connectivity.
For more information, see Connecting to WMI on a Remote Computer (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/
en-us/library/aa389290.aspx).
Best practices
HP recommends using a low-level rights user account (non-administrator) to perform most read-only
management tasks. Use of certain Insight Provider functionality, such as rebooting the system, requires
an administrator-level account. You do not need to be an administrator of the managed system and
do not need logon rights. HP recommends that the domain administrator creates a special purpose
domain account.
HP Insight Management WBEM Providers 2.7.0.0 User Guide 19