SIM - Initial Authentication

[Christopher J Newell]

Hi All,
I've been trying to setup SIM for a few weeks, so far without much luck. Its also hit-and-miss it seems.
From our office to the managed system our clients all have firewalls. I have opened up the folllowing to the managed computer.
ICMP
TCP8,22,161,2301,2381,280,5989,50004,50000
UDP162

It idfentities the computer fine, however when set it to install teh agents etc it has

Could not access host XXX.XX.XXX.XX
Host XXX.XX.XXX.XX skipped

Which additional ports do i need to open to allow it to first connect to the machine?

please don't just lin kthe firewall pdf, i have read it. I have also read the manual.


ANOTHER QUESTION
We want to be able to manage multiple servers behind a firewall.
How is this done with SIM when it uses static port numbers for teh majority of its functionality?

[David Claypool]

I suspect that not only do your customers have firewalls but they also employ network address translation. That would mean that the only device with an actual Internet address would be the router and the systems behind it would have private (non-routable) addresses typically in the 192.168.x.x range. If that is the case, a management application like HP SIM is not going to be able to deal with it. This is not an HP SIM limitation, it's the nature of the networking protocols.

Not to mention that opening up all those ports to face the internet is bad security practice. Ideally, you would have a secure tunnel set up to give you access to your client's private network rather than punching through the firewall.

[Christopher J Newell]

ok, that answers the seond question. Thanks.

Looks like we will have to employ a VPN to do it then.

As for the first question, I have added filter and NAT translations to the managed computer.
For example, i'm able to connect to teh external IP via SSH.
I just won't connect to it originally and authenticate.

I think whichever port it uses to connect, authenticate and install the other modules isn't open. So, without any modules loaded on the maanged PC how does SIM connect originally to connect and configure. This is the stage i believe it is getting stuck.

[Christopher J Newell]

Our port forwards are only from our IPs to theirs. Unless somebody spoofs their IP to be ours then its safe.

A consistent VPN from our office to 75 clients wouldn't be approved as the maintence of the VPNs would be too much work to warrant the setup.