How to code the associationkey attribute

The associationKey attribute specifies one of the following options for the association:

No security
DES-based security
Application-program-to-application-program security
No association

The value can be a hexadecimal representation of the actual DES encryption key. Hexadecimal representation is used to avoid problems between systems using EBCDIC and systems using ASCII for character representations.

Unless the key is one of the three special character values described in the following list, the key must be 16 hexadecimal digits long. This is essentially the same as having a 16-character key consisting of digits 0-9 and letters A-F. Either uppercase or lowercase letters can be used, though VTAM® translates and processes letters in uppercase.

The four associationKey values specify how access is to be controlled. To indicate that:

All instances of CMIP services have access to CMIP Services on this host, specify:
```
associationKey '*'
```
CMIP services controls access to itself by using DES encryption, specify the value of the hexadecimal key used for DES encryption:
```
associationKey 'a0b1c2d3e4f50011'
```
CMIP applications programs (both manager and agent application programs) control access to themselves, rather than CMIP services controlling access to the application programs, specify:
```
associationKey '.'
```
Note: The VTAM topology agent and the NetView® program do not implement application-program-to-application-program security.
No associations are allowed, specify:
```
associationKey '-'
```