Veritas NetBackup™ Appliance Security Guide
- About the NetBackup appliance Security Guide
- User authentication
- About user authentication on the NetBackup appliance
- About configuring user authentication
- About user name and password specifications
- User authorization
- Intrusion prevention and intrusion detection systems
- Log files
- Operating system security
- Data security
- Web security
- Network security
- Call Home security
- Remote Management Module (RMM) security
- STIG and FIPS conformance
- Appendix A. Security release content
About authenticating Kerberos-NIS users
The NetBackup appliance uses the built-in Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) plug-in to support the authentication of Network Information Service (NIS) users. This functionality allows users belonging to a NIS directory service to be added and authorized to log on to a NetBackup appliance. NIS is considered as another type of user directory with a schema installed on it by UNIX services.
Configuring the appliance to authenticate NIS users requires Kerberos authentication. You must have an existing Kerberos service associated with your NIS domain before you can configure the appliance to register the NIS users.
The following describes the pre-requisites and requirements for using NIS user authentication on the appliance:
Ensure that the NIS domain is available and is set up with the users and user groups that you want to register with the appliance.
The appliance does not handle ID mapping for NIS configuration. Veritas recommends that you reserve a user ID and group ID range of 1000 to 1999 for appliance users only.
Note:
As a best practice, do not use group names or user names that are already used for appliance local users or NetBackupCLI users. Additionally, do not use the appliance default names admin or maintenance for NIS users.
Ensure that the Kerberos server is available and properly configured to communicate with the NIS domain.
Due to the strict time requirements in Kerberos, always use an NTP server to synchronize time between the appliance, the NIS server, and the Kerberos server.
Before registering new NIS users and user groups on the appliance, you must configure the appliance to communicate with the NIS server and the Kerberos server. Once the configuration is complete, the appliance can access the NIS domain user information for authentication.
To configure Kerberos-NIS authentication, use one the following methods:
page from the NetBackup Appliance Web Console.
Settings > Security > Authentication > Kerberos commands from the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu.
For detailed instructions on how to configure and manage Kerberos-NIS user authentication on the appliance, refer to the NetBackup Appliance Administrator's Guide and the NetBackup Appliance Commands Reference Guide.