In its efforts to continuously offer the best, most innovative connectivity products for NonStop, NuWave Technologies will soon be introducing a new product. The release of Lightship in the upcoming months will provide support for RESTful access to NonStop Server resources such as Pathway and standalone servers, Enscribe files, and TMF. Those using NonStop will be pleased to know that with Lightship, it will be even easier to connect to any application on any platform.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact NuWave.

www.nuwave-tech.com

mail to: info@nuwave-tech.com

NonStop Security Fundamentals Top 10 List

Because high-availability and fault-tolerant systems need strong security

Does it make sense to have high-availability and fault-tolerance without strong security?  We at XYPRO don’t think so.  We recognize that companies run their most important business applications and processes on the NonStop server platform and keeping those assets safe from data loss, tampering and inadvertent harm is mission critical. 

#10: Secure the default system access settings

To facilitate initial configuration and set-up, HP NonStop servers come with a number of default security settings. To have a well-protected NonStop system many of these default settings need to be addressed.

Protect or Delete NULL.NULL.  NonStop servers are shipped with the default userid NULL.NULL (0,0).  NULL.NULL is an out-of-the-box userid that is not password protected and gives non-privileged system access.  With unprotected NULL.NULL, there is a risk that unauthorized users will be able to gain access to the system and explore system settings, users and files and potentially discover and exploit system vulnerabilities. To protect the system, the NULL.NULL userid should be deleted or, if that’s not possible, the risk should be mitigated by renaming the 0,0 userid to something other than “NULL.NULL”, assigning a strong password, and expiring or “freezing” the 0,0 userid so that it can’t be used to logon to the system.

Remove compilers from production systems. Compilers are dangerous because code can be inserted or deleted to circumvent previously implemented controls. Additionally, language compilers might be used to develop test or hacking programs to access sensitive data. To protect applications from inadvertent or malicious changes or outages, compilers and related utilities should be removed or very tightly locked down on secure systems.

Configure Safeguard auditing in order to meet PCI requirements. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is an important industry security standard developed to protect sensitive cardholder data and a key requirement for PCI DSS compliance is to “track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data”. Within NonStop, the Safeguard utility on NonStop provides the capability to monitor and audit security-related events. While some Safeguard events are always audited, most need to be configured to enable auditing. Properly configuring Safeguard to audit all PCI DSS-related security events is an important step in setting up a new NonStop system (or in ensuring PCI compliance for an existing system).

Add and configure Safeguard security groups. There are six valid Safeguard security groups but they do not exist on the shipped system and must be added. Using these security groups, specific users can be delegated the authority to execute certain restricted Safeguard commands. Until these groups are created, the restricted commands can be executed by any SUPER group member.

Add and configure Safeguard OBJECTTYPE records. Safeguard uses OBJECTTYPEs to control who can create protection records for a particular type of object or device. Without OBJECTTYPE records, any local member of the SUPER group can add a protection record for an object or device name and thereby gain control of that object or device. To protect objects and reduce possibility of misuse, add all the necessary OBJECTTYPEs and assign these to a non-super group security administrator.

Secure sensitive objects. As shipped, there are several sensitive objects in Guardian that must be protected: TANDUMP, DIVER, USERID, and USERIDAK. Each of these objects has power capabilities within Guardian and should be secured to have SUPER only access.

More in-depth information and guidance on these security subjects are available in XYPRO’s NonStop security handbooks: HP NonStop Server Security: A Practical Handbook and Securing HP NonStop Servers in an Open Systems World: TCP/IP, OSS and SQL.

The short answer is yes.

When was the last time you went to your local library?  Did you see people working there, cataloging and shelving books?  Where there others dropping off and checking out materials?  How many items do you think your library branch carries?  10,000?  100,000?  More?  Consider the database on your NonStop server and think of how many entries are stored within.  Numbers like 100,000 rows are where much of our data starts and our customers are a lot more aggressive and much more precise than even the most critical librarian.  Your NonStop database dwarves most libraries and as such requires much more detailed attention than any library.

As any library grows, so does the complexity of the items it stores.  If you have a collection of books at home, it is likely that you don’t really need any sort of structure to manage them.  You could put them in a box or a room and be able to find any single item with relative ease simply by searching the entire collection when you need something.  If your collection is any larger, you need a way to find anything.  Libraries do this by assigning each item a number and then organizing the material by that number.  In this way, as the collection changes size, the elements within it continue to be located in relatively the same logical location.  If the number of items increases, the library adds shelves and they insert new items between the existing ones.  When things get checked out, removed or changed, the library staff manually reorganizes the existing material on an ongoing basis.

All NonStop database data is store in structured files possibly distributed across many disks on many systems in many locations.  This allows data access to be fast and efficient.  This data is stored in tables (i.e. libraries) and organized into rows and columns (i.e. shelves) for easy access.

Now consider the manual maintenance that the library staff performs on a daily basis.  Each item coming into or being checked out of the library is a “transaction”.  An item checked out leaves a space and one checked in needs space.  The space is in constant motion and may need to grow or shrink rapidly for larger events like adding a new collection or removing all books that are over a certain age.

Continue reading at

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Frequent and smooth communication between people is vital for successful relationships, both in our personal and professional lives. To communicate in the business world, we rely not only on phone and email, but also on software applications, which must reliably communicate with each other over an enterprise network. For this network communication, many organizations employ enterprise messaging systems (EMS), which can be very complex to manage. Consequently, intelligent and efficient management of EMS can be a critical success factor for an organization.

To read the full story please go to https://www.comforte.com/Reliable_Communication_a_critical_success_factor

HP NonStop [Tandem] Security Group on LinkedIn - join the discussion.

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Third Data Corporation

888-301-2431 / sales@thirddata.com

               Third Data Corporation provides numerous products which can reside on HP Nonstop and other HP and Non-HP  hardware platforms. In addition we provide custom high performance software design and development for our clients.

FastBuild Switch – When building a switch be it ATM-POS, Wire Transfer, EFT, Medical, or any other type of data that needs to get from one place to another, you are usually faced with three choices. Take an existing package and modify your system to match it. Get the vendor to “enhance” their system to meet your needs. Write a new system from scratch. The FastBuild Switch integrates with your existing system, or if you are building from scratch gives you a great start. The switch is also built around the latest HP technology to maximize performance. It integrates several of our other products to maximize cost savings and security in a fault tolerant manner. In a cross platform environment it also runs on other non-Guardian HP supplied platforms.

SecureStore – If you are security conscience trying to become compliant (PCI, HIPAA, etc) then you know that you can not leave sensitive data readily viewable. SecureStore does three things for you. The data is encrypted so that you can become compliant. The data is compressed so that your hardware costs are reduced. As part of disaster recovery your data is sent to multiple locations so it will be available when you need it. As a bonus for those having trouble with Guardian 4K limits there is no record size. It supports Big Data with up to 18 Exabytes. It can also integrate with SQL systems (SQL MX/MP, Oracle, Postgres etc).

NxLib – NxLib provides a platform and utility libraries for developing a high performance multi-threaded applications on NonStop Guardian. The platform provides threading, queuing and network capabilities. This enables development of an application written single threaded style to perform as multi-threaded.   Extensible command processing and help are supported.  Development time can be cut to a fraction of the time it would normally take.  This results in fast  application development with consistent look and feel across multiple projects.

NxWeb – A high performance web server which provides support for NxLib applications.  It also can be used without NxLib.  It provides for secure connections, virtual domains, full http support and interfaces to pathway and IPC communications.

NxFile+ – NxFile+ provides compression and encryption to Enscribe structured files.  The files are configured through a GUI interface and the results are provided seamlessly to your applications, typically without any code changes.  In addition this provides for dynamic key changes on the fly so data stored at-rest may have its encryption keys changed as required.  Because the records can be compressed prior to encryption, it’s also possible to have records which significantly exceed the 4k record size limitations.

NxSSL – NxSSL is an SSL proxy which may be used to provide SSL encryption and authentication services to TCP/IP connections.  It provides full support for certificates and multiple encryption standards.  It has been carefully tuned to provide the highest performance available for any NonStop SSL connection.

NxUndelete – Files accidentally deleted can be a real problem.  Even when a backup is available, it is frequently a significant effort to retrieve it from a backup tape.  NxUndelete implements a recycle bin function on the the HP NonStop system.  Files deleted may be easily recovered using its GUI interface.

For the last several years BlackWood Systems has been visiting customer sites for the purpose of viewing MOMI in real-world situations.  In exchange for this substantive glimpse, we provide an Education Day and strengthen relationships in our MOMI family.  There’s no substitute for face-to-face interaction in the art of software on a global stage. We NonStop Users have known this for many years!  It is why ITUG was formed, and many people can point to the benefit of RUGs and ITUG conferences that contributed to career advancements and corporate increase. Interactive education is best!

As we prepare for San Jose this November, I’m reminded of the kinship developed between NonStop Users all over the world.  At last year’s TBC, I sat with Ann-Marie in the Pre-Conference class.  When a man announced ‘I am Jesse!’ there was joy in the greeting.  We spent time with friends Paul, Shawn, Bill, Vikas, Alan and Tom (and his lovely wife!)  In the world of NonStop, we all speak the same language.  We share suggestions, feedback, accomplishments and expectations.  We actually see and know those HP technologists in NED who affect our own NonStop situations.  Personal interaction is best!

I look forward to meeting old friends and greeting new ones this November.  I hope you have an opportunity to join us at NonStop Advanced TBC to benefit from, and carry on the tradition established from ITUG over 30 years ago.  BlackWood Systems programmers will be onsite to demonstrate the newest features of MOMI – the Operations Utility and System Performance Monitor that is widely recognized as the superior real-time tool for monitoring, troubleshooting and diagnosing System operations.

MOMI - When Your System Demands Quick Attention...®

Kathy Wood

kwood@blackwood-systems.com

www.momi.com

It’s Time for More “Never Agains” from the Availability Digest    

Recent issues of the Availability Digest have highlighted some notable system failures and cyber attacks.  To name a few - The stock market crashed when a phony Associated Press tweet claimed that the U.S. president had been wounded in an attack.  Two Middle Eastern banks were robbed of USD $45 million by hackers who compromised the banks’ gift cards.  Spamhaus, a firm that blacklists spam sites, was taken down for days by a massive DDoS attack launched in retribution by one of the blacklisted sites.  These and other incidents included in “More Never Agains IX” emphasize the need for thorough, well-documented, and well-practiced business continuity plans. Our “Never Again” articles are always a popular read; but lurking behind the stories about the misfortunes of others should be the fear that unless your company has covered all its bases, it may wind up as a feature story in some upcoming “Never Again.”

Also in the July Digest:

HP Clarifies the Future of OpenVMS – Despite previous concerns within the HP community that HP’s robust OpenVMS operating system may be headed for extinction, HP recently released an OpenVMS roadmap that indicates that OpenVMS support will continue for years to come.  Since the late 1970s, OpenVMS clusters and active/active NonStop systems have been the gold standard for applications requiring continuous availability.

Redundant Load Balancing for High Availability – LoadBalancer.org offers load balancers that are configured in active/passive pairs with instant failover so that customer-facing services are not interrupted should the active load balancer fail. Learn more about the company in this issue’s Product Review.  

The Availability Digest offers one-day and multi-day seminars on High Availability: Concepts and Practices. Seminars are given both onsite and online and are tailored to an organization’s specific needs.  We also offer technical and marketing writing services as well as consulting services for achieving high availability.