Logon Types
Sapphire Trend supports two modes of user logon, NT Authentication and Plain Text.
When NT authentication is selected, the account and domain which the user is currently logged on to will be silently passed to the Sapphire Collector for validation when a connection is established. If the combination of domain and account is known to the collector then the user will be allowed to logon.
Where Plain Text authentication is selected, the user must enter an account and password each time they establish a connection with a Collector.
Note: The account and password used in plain text mode are specific to Sapphire Trend and are independent of any Operating System account that is in use.
Tip: It is valid to operate accounts using both Logon Types within a single Sapphire Collector.
However, when used in this mode each connection will first attempt a 'silent' logon using NT authentication. If this fails then the Plain Text logon dialog will be offered. Where only Plain Text accounts have been defined, the silent logon will not be attempted.
User Roles
The User Roles facility in Sapphire Trend provides an effective way to allocate the same privileges to a group of users. Any number of User Roles can be defined. User can then be assigned to the role that best suits their needs.
Tip: When the privileges assigned to a Role are changed, each user within that Role will pick up the privileges, but only after a new logon (i.e. the old privileges are maintained until the user starts a new session).
Valid Addresses
As well as allowing access to be granted on a per user basis, Sapphire Trend allows the user to specify the network addresses upon which Sapphire Clients may be run. This 'Address' based security is implemented using fully qualified TCP/IP addresses and network masks providing an ultimately configurable security model.
Possible examples are as follows:
Allow access only from nodes with a given Subnet.
Allow access only from a specific set of nodes within a Subnet.
Explicitly block all access from a Subnet, whilst allowing all others.
Concurrent Usage limits
Tip: Sapphire Trend allows the maximum number of concurrent sessions to be limited by user account or by host node. This is a very effective tool for limiting the load that any user or node can place upon the Sapphire Collector.