NFS client communication options management

AIX® Network Installation Management (NIM) provides several options for network security and firewall enhancements.

The NIM Service Handler (NIMSH) provides you with several options for remote service authentication and limits the network socket selection of the service. NIMSH provides NIM users with a client configurable option for service authentication. Use Network File System (NFS) V4, which is part of NIM, to encrypt or secure network data on resource servers.

NFS V4 provides information-security functions:
Identification
Establishes the identity of any users, hosts, or services
Authentication
Confirms the identity of a user, host, or service
Authorization
Controls what shared information each user or entity can access

The information-security functions in the network installation environment use NIM's object-oriented description of an install model. Resource objects in the NIM database must contain additional attributes for describing the security options required when accessing NIM resources through NFS V4.