Which file holds the Security information?

[Ted Giles]

Hi all.
I have installed my app on a Server and the RunEngine on 9 workstations.
The client wishes to control the Security aspects as Administrator.
Can anyone advise how they should change permissions etc?
I can only think that they will need to run the version on the Server, log in as administrator and carry out the changes.
The alternative is to creat another small ap which will allow the user to change the Security profiles locally and copy the file with the security data into the Server installation.

All comments and help would be welcome.

Ted

"There is no such thing as a Silly Question. However they are often the easiest to answer".

[aschone]

Re: Which file holds the Security information?

Security Functions
http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp..._Functions.htm

[CALocklin]

Re: Which file holds the Security information?

Can you clarify your question a bit please.

First, I assume you are talking about desktop security.

- Are you talking about A5 security as applied to user logins? A5 security as applied to encryption of data files; i.e., the master database password? Windows security?

- If you are asking about A5 security as applied to user logins, why are you worried about which file holds the information? I ask this because there are both legitimate and "illegitimate" reasons for being concerned.

All A5 info should be available and updatable (is that a word?) from any workstation. (I must admit I haven't specifically looked at updates to the user security but I'd be totally shocked if updates from workstations didn't work.)

The only reason I would be concerned about which file (it's actually 3 files - <adb_name>.al*) the security info is in, unless it has been changed in recent iterations of A5, is that those are the same files that hold the scripts and functions in the Code tab. This means that updating code at a separate development computer and sending those files to the customer will also reset their security settings to an older level unless you are careful to get their latest files first and make sure they don't change any security settings before you send an update. Worse yet, imagine what would take to update a generic application that is used by 20 different customers! In that case you need to find a different way to handle updates - and, yes, there is more than one way to do that.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't tested it but something in the back of my mind is telling me that they may have moved the security settings. The problem is that the same "something" is telling me it's now in the registry and that doesn't make any sense at all because computers on a network can't read or write to the registry on another computer.

If anyone knows for sure whether or not those security settings are still in the .al* files, please let us know. (If not, I'll eventually test it for myself but certainly not this week.)

FWIW, I haven't tested it recently because I never really used it. I wrote my own user login/security routines before Alpha had that capability. When I discovered that the A5 security settings were in the same files as the code and would cause problems distributing updates, I chose not to switch to A5's methods.

[aschone]

Re: Which file holds the Security information?

I just ran a small test on the security and file size changes.

I created a test database, exited the database and ran a DIR command on the directory.

11/10/2010  10:06 AM             4,608 Security_Test.adb
11/10/2010  10:06 AM               646 Security_Test.ALB
11/10/2010  10:06 AM               512 Security_Test.ALM
11/10/2010  10:06 AM             3,072 Security_Test.Alx

Re-opened the database, established security, closed the database and re-ran the DIR command.

11/10/2010  10:07 AM             4,608 Security_Test.adb
11/10/2010  10:07 AM               985 Security_Test.ALB
11/10/2010  10:07 AM             1,193 Security_Test.ALM
11/10/2010  10:07 AM             3,072 Security_Test.Alx

Notice the Security_test.ALB and Security_Test.ALM files both increased in size.

The only other file present in the directory was the Security_Test.MUF.

On the "Advanced Options" tab of the Database Security Settings window is a choice to "Use shared User Account File". When you select this option you have to provide the filename and path of an *.ADB file.

This is causing me to believe that the security settings are being stored in the *.ALB and *.ALM files referenced by entries in *.ADB file.

On a side note it is possible to read and write registry values of a remote machine. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314837

[CALocklin]

Re: Which file holds the Security information?

Thanks for all the info/research Al.

RE: .al* Files ...

I'm sure you're right about the specific files that hold the security being just those two. However, the .alx file is an index file so the size might not change even if something inside it did. So, you would be much better off tranferring all 3 .al* files. This is true with any data dictionary group - .al*, .dd*, .se*.

RE: shared user account file ...

That's probably what I was thinking of instead of the registry. Thanks for pointing it out. Now I'll have to try remembering it. And one of these days I'll have to find out how that works on a network. I'm wondering how/if the network optimize routine handles it.

RE: registry on remote machine ...

Thanks for this info, also. It's a good thing to know but I don't think I'll be using this as it seems a bit extreme to do this on a customer's system. I'd be afraid of the maintenance issues that would probably arise as systems get updated, replaced, etc.

[Ted Giles]

Re: Which file holds the Security information?

Well here you go!
Al and Cal, thanks for the input.

To aswer the questions.
Desktop Security requires that passwords are changed every 4 weeks. So I got some help off this forum and built a P/wd change module. Then the Administrator wanted to be able to add users and change Read/Write/Partial Read permissions.

It seems that once you have run Network Optimise, it is not possible to change permissions on the Server using the shadow even if you are an Administrator. You can change your own password, but that's about it.

The only way I could get it to work was to loginto the server in native mode and change things there. Sorry Cal, I think you will find that the only place to manage the security other than personal password requires you to log in outside of the Shadow.

Anyway, happy client, money in bank, beer lined up on the bar!

Sometimes it's just good to know that someone is there to listen.
Ted