11.1 admind

admind is a small daemon that allows simple commands to be executed on Point of Service terminals from a remote location. Using it with adminc, an administrator can perform tasks like shutdown, configuration reload, or application restart on multiple Point of Service terminals from a single location. admind is typically started by the inetd super-server, but can be run as a regular service.

IMPORTANT:admind does not provide strong authentication. Its level of security is adequate only for systems that boot from the network, thus relying on the integrity of the network infrastructure (DHCP and DNS in particular). Authentication is provided through verification of the hostname and user against a list in the configuration file.

admind writes its diagnostics to the LOG-DAEMON facility at syslog(3).

11.1.1 Command Line Options

admind has the following command syntax:

admind [-vIP] [configfile] [options]

Table 11-1 summarizes the available admind command line options.

Table 11-1 admind command line options

Option

Description

-I (uppercase i)

Does not require admind to look up identities to authenticate the calling user. This option is not recommended because it poses a security risk to your system.

-P

Does not require admind to verify the hostname. This option is not recommended because it poses a security risk to your system.

-v

Provides verbose output to syslog.

11.1.2 admind.conf

Standard configuration information for admind is located in /etc/opt/SLES/POS/admind.conf. The file format typically appears as follows:

S=hostname1
S=hostname2
U=username1
U=username1
X:0=init 0
X:6=init 6
X:r=/etc/init.d/rc/POSApplication restart
(...)

Option

Description

-S

Defines a valid server. The names of the connecting servers are compared against this list. Short names can be used and are expanded for the local domain.

-U

Defines a valid username on the connecting machine.

-X

Defines the fixed commands. Each command has a single letter or digit key (X:[0-9a-zA-Z]).

Executed commands are expected to terminate and deliver a return value. Long-running commands or commands that do not terminate must be wrapped in a script that executes the command in the background.