5 — Operating the NetCrusader/Web Security Adapter

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This chapter describes operations tasks for NetCrusader/Web. It contains the following sections:

5.1 Using the NetCrusader Commander Management Tool
5.2 Preventive Maintenance for NetCrusader/Web
5.3 Backing Up the ACL Database
5.4 Disabling the Security Adapter

5.1 Using the NetCrusader Commander Management Tool

The majority of the operation tasks associated with NetCrusader/Web are related to administration.

NetCrusader Commander is the primary administrative tool for Entegrity NetCrusader products. Commander provides a graphical user interface for managing NetCrusader users and groups and access control permissions on web objects. For instructions on using Commander to create and manage users, groups, and ACLs, see the Commander online help.

5.1.1 Microsoft Management Console Overview

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) for Windows NT provides the underlying foundation upon which NetCrusader Commander is built. The MMC's modular architecture supports an extensible, common console framework that allows snap-ins to be installed for the management of various products. NetCrusader Commander is an MMC snap-in.

5.1.2 Multiple Web Sites on a Single Machine

On Windows NT, Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0 allows you to create, manage, and operate multiple web sites on a single machine with multiple IP addresses. The NetCrusader/Web Security Adapter supports access control fully integrated with this feature.

NetCrusader Commander lists virtual web sites according to the IP address and ports with which they are associated.

In the following example, there are three network interface cards (NICs): 192.27.32.1, 192.54.5.2, and 192.60.1.1.The first entry is the port for IIS administration. The subsequent entries are for the other NICs. If the name of the host is alpha.widget.com, these names are listed under netcacl-alpha.widget.com.

IIS_192.27.32.1_9052
IIS_192.27.32.1_80_192.27.32.1_443
IIS_192.27.32.1_81_192.27.32.1_444
IIS_192.54.5.2_80_192.54.5.2_443
IIS_192.60.1.1_80_192.60.1.1_443

The entries are in the following format:

IIS_<IP_address>_<nonsecure_port>_<IP_address>_<secure_port>

For example, the second line refers to a virtual web site associated with port 80 (non-secure) and port 443 (secure) on IP address 192.27.32.1.

5.2 Preventive Maintenance for NetCrusader/Web

Once properly installed and configured, the Security Adapter is largely self-regulating and should require little day-to-day management.

To help ensure that things continue to run smoothly, web server managers should periodically examine the contents of the Security Adapter log file. Depending on what you selected on the Logging screen during configuration, the log file is either the Windows NT event log or wcsecad.log (located, by default in the \webcc\log directory of your install drive) to look for errors (E) or warnings (W). Log files can become quite large. Delete them periodically.

5.3 Backing Up the ACL Database

Each NetCrusader/Web server component that evaluates ACLs stores its ACLs in database files on the web server system, located in <installation_directory>/netc_authz/<server_name>.

We recommend that you periodically back up your ACL databases by copying everything in the netc_authz directory to a safe location. In the unlikely event that you must reconfigure your security infrastructure, you will also need to recreate your ACL databases.

5.4 Disabling the Security Adapter

You can disable the Security Adapter software from one or more web servers or completely uninstall the software from the system.

This section gives the procedures for disabling the software. For information on uninstalling the software, see Chapter 6.

To disable the Security Adapter for a web server:

1. Start the Security Adapter configuration wizard.

2. Select the server for which you want to disable the Security Adapter and then click Next. The Authentication screen appears.

3. Uncheck the box next to Enable the Security Adapter.

4. Click Next.

5. Click Finish. The Security Adapter configuration wizard closes.

6. Restart the web server for the change to take effect.

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