Security Guide - Use Server Side Permission Restrictions (Recommended Security Settings)

Use Server Side Permission Restrictions

You use the Permission Restrictions section of the Server Configuration Tool as a means of restricting access to the system on a per server basis. You can then restrict access to other features and/or database items on a per User Group, or individual User, basis, if required.

You use the Permission Restrictions settings to deny certain permissions at one of four different levels:

Server Denied Permissions—To deny access to features from every ViewX or Virtual ViewX client that is connected to the server. The settings also apply to other types of client that are connected to the server, such as OPC or ODBC clients, or the Automation Interface.
ViewX User Denied Permissions—To deny access to features from every ViewX client that is connected to the server.
WebX/Operator ViewX User Denied Permissions—To deny access to features from:
- Original WebX clients that are connected to the server
- Virtual ViewX (the newer web server hosted using IIS), if the IIS server connects to this Geo SCADA Expert server to access the Geo SCADA Expert database.
Standard Pick Menu Denied Permissions—To deny access to specific options on the standard context-sensitive pick action menus that are available on ViewX and Virtual ViewX clients that are connected to the server. (The pick action menus are also referred to as 'Object menus'.)

By restricting access to permissions on a server-wide basis in this way, you can make your system more secure by limiting which features are available to clients that connect to Geo SCADA Expert via specific server(s).

You may decide that you want your users to be able to issue a control when they log on via ViewX or Virtual ViewX, but not when they log on via Original WebX. To enforce this, you would clear the Control check box in the ViewX User Denied Permissions settings and select the Control check box in the WebX/Operator ViewX User Denied Permissions settings.

To use the server side permission restrictions effectively, you need to consider the working procedures of your operators, engineers and administrators. Taking into account their expected duties, you can restrict their access so that when they log on they can only access the features they need.

By default on new installations, four permissions are restricted via the Server Denied Permissions section of the tool (Unacknowledge Alarms, Assign Alarm Responsibility, Off/On Scan, and Cancel Request). Depending on the role of the installed server, these and other restrictions may, or may not, be appropriate. We recommend that you assess which permission restrictions are appropriate for each server, based on its role in your system and the system's operational requirements, and then configure the required restrictions accordingly. For example, it is likely that you may want to remove the 'Cancel Request' restriction from those servers that might go Main, but leave it in place for Permanent Standby servers.

Remember that the settings that you apply using the Server Configuration Tool only apply to the server on which you have configured those settings. On a multi-server system, you also need to apply similar settings to the other servers on the system (taking into account the different roles of those servers, and your system's operational requirements).

You can configure Permanent Standby servers to inherit their Permission Restrictions from the Permanent Standby Permission Restrictions settings that are configured on the Main server (see Permanent Standby Permission Restrictions Tab). In such cases, Geo SCADA Expert ignores the settings that exist in the Permission Restrictions section of the Server Configuration Tool on those Permanent Standby servers.

For more information on configuring the server side permission restrictions, see Define whether any Permissions are Restricted. For information about the permissions themselves, see Permissions for Database Items.

Further Information

Organize your Users and User Groups.

Allocating Permissions to a User Group or User Account.