Remote user access

At first glance, it is fairly obvious that the web-based user interface provided locally on the HMC is rendered by using a browser. This design point makes it technically straightforward to provide the same user interface to a remote browser through the network. However, there are security aspects to consider regarding remote access.

Accessing the web-based graphical user interface of the HMC from a remote browser requires setting the Customize Console Services task to enable remote operation. Enabling remote user access allows the HMC to accept incoming requests. The implication here is that, by default, the HMC blocks all incoming Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests at the network level. In addition, it is important to understand that enabling this feature results in the HMC's accepting only Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) based HTTP requests. More specifically, the HMC never accepts remote, nonsecure HTTP requests.

When the HMC is enabled for remote operation, specific users can then be enabled to allow remote access. The access administrator can set this ability by using the User Management task (or the User Profiles task in HMC version 2.12.1 or earlier) and setting the Allow remote access to the console check box.