IDS on NT vs. application on UNIX

Dear Informixers, how do I access IDS running on NT from applications running on a UNIX machine? Excuse my ignorance, my current setup is IDS on UNIX and application on UNIX (SINIX in my case). A user on the application server who wants to access Informix needs an account on the DB server with the same name and an entry for the application server in his ".rhosts" file or, even worse, the application server must be in the "/etc/hosts.equiv" file of the DB server. Despite the well-known security hazard, it works and is rather easy to maintain, thanks to NIS. The powers that be now have decided that NT is our future and no UNIX DB server will be approved to replace our existing rather old machine. I don't like it, but will probably have to succumb to their ignorance. So how are access rights to the Informix databases handled when the server is a NT machine? Can accounts be easily syncronized between UNIX and NT? I have a faint hope that this is so difficult or complicated that a UNIX DB server might yet be approved. The application server will stay on UNIX, since the application is not available on the NT platform. Regards, Richard -- +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Richard Spitz | INTERNET: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de | | EDV-Gruppe Anaesthesie | Tel : +49-89-7095-6110 | | Klinikum Grosshadern | FAX : +49-89-7095-6420 <-- NEW!!! | | 81366 Munich, Germany | GSM : +49-172-8933578 | +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+

No problem. You would use tcp to interface with the engine, but otherwise it's pretty much the same. The hosts/services and such are located in %windir\\system32\\drivers\\etc. You're actually in luck by being in Munich. The support office there has some rather good NT engineers. Richard Spitz wrote: > Dear Informixers, > > how do I access IDS running on NT from applications running on a UNIX machine? > > Excuse my ignorance, my current setup is IDS on UNIX and application on > UNIX (SINIX in my case). A user on the application server who wants to > access Informix needs an account on the DB server with the same name and > an entry for the application server in his ".rhosts" file or, even worse, > the application server must be in the "/etc/hosts.equiv" file of the > DB server. Despite the well-known security hazard, it works and is rather > easy to maintain, thanks to NIS. > > The powers that be now have decided that NT is our future and no UNIX > DB server will be approved to replace our existing rather old machine. I > don't like it, but will probably have to succumb to their ignorance. So how > are access rights to the Informix databases handled when the server is a NT > machine? Can accounts be easily syncronized between UNIX and NT? > > I have a faint hope that this is so difficult or complicated that a UNIX DB > server might yet be approved. The application server will stay on UNIX, since > the application is not available on the NT platform. > > Regards, Richard > -- > +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ > | Dr. Richard Spitz | INTERNET: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de | > | EDV-Gruppe Anaesthesie | Tel : +49-89-7095-6110 | > | Klinikum Grosshadern | FAX : +49-89-7095-6420 <-- NEW!!! | > | 81366 Munich, Germany | GSM : +49-172-8933578 | > +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+

Madison Pruet wrote: > You would use tcp to interface with the engine, but otherwise it's > pretty much the same. The hosts/services and such are located in > %windir\\system32\\drivers\\etc. Thanks for answering, but you missed the point of my question. I do know about TCP and stuff on NT, but what's unclear to me is the way Informix on NT does user authorization for networked clients. Is there a ".rhosts" mechanism on NT, and does NT support NIS or some other mechanism to syncronize user accounts between NT and UNIX? The client applications do NOT use ODBC, they are written in 4GL and ESQL/C, and sometimes SQL scripts invoked by dbaccess or isql. > You're actually in luck by being in Munich. The support office there has > some rather good NT engineers. Too bad I don't get support from Informix directly, but from Siemens, our vendor. However, they work pretty closely with the Informix guys and have been quite helpful and knowledgeable in the past. Regards, Richard -- +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Richard Spitz | INTERNET: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de | | EDV-Gruppe Anaesthesie | Tel : +49-89-7095-6110 | | Klinikum Grosshadern | FAX : +49-89-7095-6420 <-- NEW!!! | | 81366 Munich, Germany | GSM : +49-172-8933578 | +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+

Unfortunately, it is not difficult. You just create the users on NT and it does not even check access rights by host. OOOh... Now there's a stick to beat the pointy hars with! Art S. Kagel Richard Spitz wrote: > > Dear Informixers, > > how do I access IDS running on NT from applications running on a UNIX machine? > > Excuse my ignorance, my current setup is IDS on UNIX and application on > UNIX (SINIX in my case). A user on the application server who wants to > access Informix needs an account on the DB server with the same name and > an entry for the application server in his ".rhosts" file or, even worse, > the application server must be in the "/etc/hosts.equiv" file of the > DB server. Despite the well-known security hazard, it works and is rather > easy to maintain, thanks to NIS. > > The powers that be now have decided that NT is our future and no UNIX > DB server will be approved to replace our existing rather old machine. I > don't like it, but will probably have to succumb to their ignorance. So how > are access rights to the Informix databases handled when the server is a NT > machine? Can accounts be easily syncronized between UNIX and NT? > > I have a faint hope that this is so difficult or complicated that a UNIX DB > server might yet be approved. The application server will stay on UNIX, since > the application is not available on the NT platform. > > Regards, Richard > -- > +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ > | Dr. Richard Spitz | INTERNET: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de | > | EDV-Gruppe Anaesthesie | Tel : +49-89-7095-6110 | > | Klinikum Grosshadern | FAX : +49-89-7095-6420 <-- NEW!!! | > | 81366 Munich, Germany | GSM : +49-172-8933578 | > +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+

You can put a hosts.equiv in %windir\\system32\\drivers\\etc. With NT you can use a domain server which functions like a NIS password file. Richard Spitz wrote: > Madison Pruet wrote: > > You would use tcp to interface with the engine, but otherwise it's > > pretty much the same. The hosts/services and such are located in > > %windir\\system32\\drivers\\etc. > > Thanks for answering, but you missed the point of my question. I do know > about TCP and stuff on NT, but what's unclear to me is the way Informix > on NT does user authorization for networked clients. Is there a ".rhosts" > mechanism on NT, and does NT support NIS or some other mechanism to > syncronize user accounts between NT and UNIX? > > The client applications do NOT use ODBC, they are written in 4GL and ESQL/C, > and sometimes SQL scripts invoked by dbaccess or isql. > > > You're actually in luck by being in Munich. The support office there has > > some rather good NT engineers. > > Too bad I don't get support from Informix directly, but from Siemens, our > vendor. However, they work pretty closely with the Informix guys and have > been quite helpful and knowledgeable in the past. > > Regards, Richard > -- > +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ > | Dr. Richard Spitz | INTERNET: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de | > | EDV-Gruppe Anaesthesie | Tel : +49-89-7095-6110 | > | Klinikum Grosshadern | FAX : +49-89-7095-6420 <-- NEW!!! | > | 81366 Munich, Germany | GSM : +49-172-8933578 | > +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+