Plan Emergency and Troubleshooting Procedures › CA Top Secret Software Problems

CA Top Secret Software Problems

One important characteristic of CA Top Secret is that as a Security System it is by nature a critical part of your operating environment. CA Top Secret is designed to recover from virtually any system error or abend. However, loss of CA Top Secret’s files, or major operating system errors may cause system failure. Almost exclusively, errors that cause CA Top Secret unrecoverable problems are in the area of file destruction, and for this reason recovery procedures must be an integral part of your security and operating system plan.

Another important element is the fact that CA Top Secret, by its nature as a security system, makes every effort to protect itself from attack, and, if necessary, disables the operating system before allowing unauthorized security bypasses to occur.

If, for any reason, known or unknown, CA Top Secret behaves in an unexpected manner, you can be prepared to solve and circumvent system problems in an emergency situation. The following points may be useful in an emergency situation:

• CA Top Secret has secure means of bypassing selected parts, or the entire security system. Be familiar with them and test their operation occasionally.
• CA Top Secret recovers virtually all internal errors. Be sure that procedures exist for printing snap dumps taken by CA Top Secret and delivering this information to the proper systems areas in a timely fashion.
• Most problems with CA Top Secret involve security authorizations not working in the manner expected. Use CA Top Secret diagnostic tools when contacting CA Top Secret Customer Support. If the preparation for problem diagnosis is proceduralized, this results in faster, more accurate resolutions from CA when needed.
• If CA Top Secret has completely failed, a system IPL without CA Top Secret may be in order. IPL processes to accomplish this can be set up, but must only be known to a select group of trusted employees. If there is more than one CPU in your complex, this may be unnecessary if the unaffected CPU can be used to address the problem.
• Since any problem may occur off hours, contact lists and phone numbers of your security personnel must be available. All responsibilities must be clearly understood by all participants.