Network Operation Using the NFS System

Generally, ASET is used in standalone mode, even on a system that is part of a network. As system administrator for your standalone system, you are responsible for the security of your system and for running and managing ASET to protect your system.

You can also use ASET in the NFS distributed environment. As a network administrator, you are responsible for installing, running, and managing various administrative tasks for all of your clients. To facilitate ASET management across several client systems, you can make configuration changes that are applied globally to all clients, eliminating the need for you to log in to each system to repeat the process.

When deciding how to set up ASET on your networked systems, you should consider how much you want users to control security on their own systems, and how much you want to centralize responsibility for security control.

Providing a Global Configuration for Each Security Level

A case might arise where you want to set up more than one network configuration. For example, you may want to set up one configuration for clients that are designated with low security level, another configuration for those with medium level, and yet another one with high level.

If you need to create a separate ASET network configuration for each security level, you can create three ASET configurations on the server--one for each level. You would export each configuration to the clients with the appropriate security level. Some ASET components that are common to all three configurations could be shared using links.

Collecting ASET Reports

Not only can you centralize the ASET components on a server to be accessed by clients with or without superuser privilege, but you can also set up a central directory on a server to collect all reports produced by tasks running on various clients. For instructions on setting up a collection mechanism, see "How to Collect Reports on a Server".

Setting up the collection of reports on a server allows you to review reports for all clients from one location. You can use this method whether a client has superuser privilege or not. Alternatively, you can leave the reports directory on the local system when you want users to monitor their own ASET reports.