iXp: Simplified Security and Management Solution
Overview
Application security is crucial to Sarbanes-Oxley
compliance. Any system that stores or manages financial
data and processing is required to be compliant with the
SOX guidelines. In addition, certain reporting needs have
to be met. Lastly, vulnerabilities have to be detected and
fixed before they can be exploited.
From AutoSys, companies manage critical processes that
cover various business areas. These business areas are
exposed to danger if security, reporting, and auditing for
the AutoSys environment is not enforced.
iXp is a 3-tiered Java-based application that offers a
complete security, management, reporting, and auditing
solution for web-based and command-line access to
AutoSys. By providing a comprehensive security and
auditing model, you can enforce the required access
control and reporting policies for the entire AutoSys
environment.
Key Features
Client Interfaces
Web-based GUI: The iXp GUI client can be launched
from a web-browser. It enables users to monitor, update,
control, forecast, simulate, report on, and print AutoSys job
streams across multiple instances. The iXp GUI provides a
variety of graphical views, including Job Flow, Gantt, Tree,
and Console views. Since the GUI is web-based, no
software installation is required.
Thin Client CLI: iXp also provides command line utilities
that provide the capability to view, report, control, create,
update, delete AutoSys jobs and global variables. The
commands can be executed from any client system and do
not require a local AutoSys software installation. The CLI is
counterpart to standard AutoSys commands for the same
function (e.g. autorep, sendevent, jil). The commands
support the same input and output format as their AutoSys
counterparts.
The web-based iXp GUI enables users to view the real-time information for AutoSys
job streams in a variety of graphical views.
Customized View creation: Users and administrators
can create unlimited numbers of views that show different
job streams based on Job attributes. You can specify
multiple values for each attribute, including wildcards, to
create views specific to your business areas.
User Authentication
Single Sign-On (SSO): Each user has to be
successfully authenticated before they can use the GUI or
CLI clients. iXp supports Active Directory / NT Domain,
and OS-based SSO authentication. The iXp Administrators
can provide a granular list of valid Domains. Users that are
not logged on to those domains will be unable to launch
the GUI or the CLI.
Host and IP Address Validation: Administrators can
specify a wild-carded list or range of IP Addresses and
host names. Users that have successfully authenticated to
valid Domains will be denied access to the iXp GUI or CLI
if the client machine does not match the list of IP
User Authorizations
AutoSys Job Privileges: Users have to be assigned
authorization policies in order for them to access iXp. iXp
supports Job Read, Job Control, Job Insert, Job Update,
Owner List and Job Override privileges. For each privilege,
Administrators can assign authorized list of jobs (and
owner names for Owner List) to each user. These lists are
based on multiple values, including wildcards, for different
job attributes. Values can be provided for job attributes
such as name, machine, owner etc. Each user can be
authorized with multiple lists for each privilege.
AutoSys Alarm Privileges: Administrators can also
assign authorizations to enable users to Acknowledge, or
Close AutoSys Alarms. Same lists as those used for Job
Privileges can be used.
The iXp Authorization model is common to both the GUI
and CLI. Users issuing events from the GUI or using the
sendevent command will pass through the same security
model.
Other Features
Forecasting and Simulation: iXp provides a real-time
forecasting engine that enables users to view upcoming
job runs. Users can also run a forecast for any day in the
future. The forecast can be run from the GUI or the CLI,
and the output of the forecast can be viewed in the GUI or
saved as a HTML, CSV, or text file. Users can simulate
“what-if” scenarios by providing runtime, status, and
sendevent values.
Historical Reporting: Users can create customized
report definitions and generate HTML, CSV, text reports
against historical AutoSys job runs data from the GUI or
the CLI. Users can also view graphs and generate reports
about AutoSys Performance, including per minute Total
Latency, Events Processed, Job Starts and Ends.
