Administering Facility Security › Sharing Security Files between VSE, MVS, and VM

Sharing Security Files between VSE, MVS, and VM

CA Top Secret provides the capability to share Security Files between its VSE, MVS, and VM products. This feature is optional and can be implemented at any time.

The advantages for sharing your Security File include:

• More efficient control of your security environment
• The flexibility to administer security from the MVS or VM system
• The ability to maintain one Security Record for each ACID, making it easier to gather user information
• The ability to gather information about resources that are accessible from VSE, MVS, and VM

The following requirements must be met to ensure that this feature functions successfully:

• Releases for VSE, MVS, and VM must be compatible (for example, CA Top Secret MVS 5.0 and CA Top Secret OS/390 5.1 can share Security Files with CA Top Secret VM 1.4, but cannot with the CA Top Secret VM 1.1 and earlier).
• Encryption keys provided at installation must be identical. See the Getting Started for CA Top Secret VSE, MVS, and VM for information on the encryption key.
• The SECFILE control option for CA Top Secret VM must have a data set name that matches the data set specified on the SECFILE DD statement for the CA Top Secret MVS Started Task.
• The SHRFILE control option for CA Top Secret VSE, MVS, and VM must be set to YES or SECURITY, so that the physical lock record (located in the Security and/or Audit files) is accessible to all systems sharing the Security File.

  Note: VSE, MVS, and VM share one Security File but each has a separate Parameter File which stores these control options.

• In the VM directory for the CA Top Secret Server Machine you must establish a multi-write link to the VSE or MVS volume which holds the Security File.