Password protection

VM2000 has a twofold password protection system:

• Password protection for administering a VM. This password is defined when a VM is initialized and checked during dialog access to a VM (ADMIN dialog or VC dialog).

• Password protection for access to $VMCONS. This password is defined in the parameter file of the VM2-MON subsystem and checked during connection setup to $VMCONS.

Passwords consisting only of zeros (X'00..00') are ignored; the desired password is not defined (same effect as PASSWORD=*NONE).

Password protection for access to a VM

When initializing the VM, the VM2000 administrator can use the PASSWORD operand to define a password which authorizes initiation of an administration dialog from a privileged user task or via $VMCONS (ADMIN or VC dialog) with a VM. If a password is defined, it must be specified when a dialog is initiated with /BEGIN-VM-DIALOG.

The password can be changed or deleted by the VM2000 administrator by means of /MODIFY-VM-ATTRIBUTES during VM operation. The password remains valid until the VM is terminated (/DELETE-VM) or until the end of the current session (shutdown of the monitor system). In particular, it also remains valid after an automatic restart of the monitor system or of $VMCONS or after a migration of the VM.

On SU /390, the password for administering the monitor VM can be defined via the configuration file for the monitor VM (see "Configuration via the VM2000 configuration file (SU /390)") and on SU x86 via the configuration of VM2000 in the SE manager (see "Configuration using the SE Manager (SU x86)").

/CREATE- or /MODIFY-VM-DEFINITION enables the password for a VM to be entered in the VM definition. Detailed information can be found in the section "Working with VM definitions".

Password protection for access to $VMCONS

A password can be specified in the parameter file of the VM2-MON subsystem which grants authorization for establishing a connection to $VMCONS (VMCONS-PASSWORD, see "Setting up the VM2000 monitor"). If a password has been declared, it must be given before a connection to $VMCONS can be established.

The password can be changed during operation by means of /MODIFY-VMCONS-PARAMETERS. The password remains valid until the end of the of the current session or until the command is entered again. It also remains valid after an automatic restart of $VMCONS. However, it is no longer available after an automatic restart of the monitor system. Modifications for the next session must be made via the parameter file.