Centrify Productivity Tools

Centrify DirectAudit Reports for Reporting Services

Centrify DirectAudit helps you comply with regulatory requirements, perform in-depth troubleshooting, and protect against insider threats for your UNIX and Linux systems. DirectAudit's query-style interface and session-replay features enable IT auditors to search for specific commands and see exactly what changes a user made and what session output occurred. In addition to these querying and real-time monitoring features, IT auditors also need the ability to define reports — for example, a weekly report of activity across a set of computers. DirectAudit stores session data in a SQL Server database, and this open, nonproprietary format enables you to use third-party tools such as Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services to easily define reports.

Centrify provides customers with an application note that describes how to use Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services to generate several standard reports based on the session data that DirectAudit records. The Application Note is accompanied by a set of Report Definition Files that can be used to set up a set of basic reports. The DirectAudit Reports for Reporting Services package is available free of charge in the Centrify Download Center for customers and for those evaluating Centrify Solutions.

Deploying Centrify DirectControl Using Apple Remote Desktop

In organizations where the IT department must centrally manage a large number of Mac systems, Apple Remote Desktop is commonly used to install software on one or more remote Mac OS systems. Software must be correctly packaged in order to be deployed via Apple Remote Desktop. Centrify DirectControl has been packaged for easy deployment using Apple Remote Desktop. Centrify provides an application note with deployment instructions.

Network Information Service (NIS)

The Centrify DirectControl NIS Service enables UNIX admins to securely store, distribute, and deploy NIS maps through Active Directory, ensuring that all systems within a Zone share a common set of maps. The goal is to enable systems that need specific NIS functionality, such as automount map information, to continue to function but to be serviced through the centralized Active Directory system rather than a separate NIS service infrastructure. Centrify provides NIS with all editions of the Centrify Suite.

UNIX Namespace Rationalization with DirectControl's adfixid Command

The adfixid tool enables administrators to change the UNIX namespace used within the file system of a UNIX computer joined to Active Directory. This command aligns the UNIX namespace on that computer with a centrally defined and typically globally unique UNIX namespace (often referred to as a rationalized namespace) as represented by the DirectControl profile within Active Directory.

The adfixid command changes the ownership of local files and directories to match the user and group namespace defined by the DirectControl Zone that the computer has joined. This tool compares the local password database with the password entries managed within the Zone to find user accounts with conflicting UID and GID assignments. It can report on files that need to be changed, or it can update the ownership of files as required and also track the changes made to the file system. The adfixid command also provides the ability to roll back changes that it has made to the file system if required. It is included in the DirectControl system Agent installation packages, which are available to customers and those evaluating DirectControl who have a login account for the Centrify Download Center.