International Business Machines Corporation

Markus Rohwedder

Rainer Wolafka

Neeta Garimella

Christian Bolik

Jayashree Ramanathan

Mathias Dietz

Zhiguo Huang

An aspect includes a method for in-band management of a network attached storage environment. A client is connected via a standard network attached storage protocol to a network attached storage system using existing authorization and authentication procedures. Advanced management functions are exposed to the client via a special file system structure over the standard network attached storage protocol. The client uses existing standard network attached storage protocol functions on the special file system structure to retrieve and to invoke the advanced management functions. Result data are returned to the client using a feedback channel and the standard network attached storage protocol.

In-band management of a network attached storage environment

An identity of a user performing an operation with respect to an application is propagated, from a point at which the user authenticates, to one or more other applications in a multi-product environment. The application may be a management console associated with an information cluster. In an embodiment, an administrator logs on to a management console (using an identity) and invokes a management operation. The management console then performs a programmatic remote access login (e.g., using SSH/RXA) to one or more nodes using a system account, invokes an application, and passes in the identity. As the application performs one or more management operations, audit events are logged, and these events each contain the identity that has been passed in by the management console during the SSH/RXA login. The technique thus provides a method for identity-based auditing in an environment having a plurality of applications, where each application typically has a respective authentication process or mechanism and distinct identity registries.

Identity based auditing in a multi-product environment

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Dexheim, Germany

Markus Rohwedder