Novell SUPPORT ADVISOR, User Manual

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22 Novell Support Advisor user Guide
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3.3.1 SUDO User Authentication
Sudo access (as opposed to root) may be required by your system administrator to run Novell
Support Advisor against remote servers. Novell Support Advisor runs various support configuration
processes that require root-level access. Utilizing sudo users allows Linux system administrators to
monitor what each sudo user is running on the server via configured log file outputs.
Use the following instructions to create and/or edit the sudo user file as recommended by Novell:
Š
Edit sudoers file using command: visudo -f sudoers
Š
Remove the following two lines from the original sudoers file, that is the section starting with
"# in the default (unconfigured) configuration...":
Š Defaults targetpw # ask for the password of the target user i.e. root
Š
ALL ALL =( ALL ) ALL # WARNING! Only use this together with 'Defaults targetpw'!
Š In the "# User privilege specification" section, add your user's privileges after those of root by
specifying for your user NOPASSWD: ALL. This allows for one login prompt, and not
multiple password prompts for the various commands Novell Support Advisor runs. For
example, if your user name is jdoe you might add:
jdoe ALL =( ALL ) NOPASSWD: ALL
NOTE: If Novell Support Advisor fails at completing all of its needed tasks, you may want to
consider changing the default timeout for the sudo user (which forces a currently unhandled
password prompt). The timeout is typically set at 5 minutes by default. However, it is not
typical for Novell Support Advisor to connect for this length of time to any server.
3.3.2 SSH Key Authentication
Linux: Communication to Linux servers occurs over SSH (default port 22)
NOTE: This default port number can be manually modified to accommodate non-standard ports
configured for these services
Use the following instructions to connect to a server using SSH certificate keys:
Š
On the target server, as a privileged user, run the following command: ssh-keygen –t rsa
Š
Add the newly created public key to the 'authorized_keys' file below the .ssh directory. You can
do this by typing a command similar to the following: cat /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> /root/.ssh/
authorized_keys
Š
Copy the private key (id_rsa) to the machine that will be running the Novell Support Advisor
Client
Select the ‘Use SSH Key’ option at the bottom of the dialog window. Browse and select the ‘id_rsa’
file. If you chose to use a passphrase during the creation of the key, you can specify this in the
passphrase field. Then select ‘login’ to gain access to the system.
3.3.3 SUSE Linux Servers:
Information gathering from SUSE Linux servers leverages SupportUtils.