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Administering
Learn how to administer the product.
Administering HCL VersionVault
Learn about performing administrative tasks for an HCL VersionVault community including managing software licenses, user and group accounts, VersionVault server and client hosts, shared data, and the network that connects them.
VOB and view access control
HCL VersionVault supports a rich set of access controls on versioned objects.
Users and groups
A user's name and group memberships are the principal credentials evaluated by HCL VersionVault when access is requested.

Administering
Learn how to administer the product.
- Administering HCL VersionVault
  Learn about performing administrative tasks for an HCL VersionVault community including managing software licenses, user and group accounts, VersionVault server and client hosts, shared data, and the network that connects them.
  - HCL VersionVault network planning and administration
  - License servers and license administration
    Most HCL VersionVault applications and commands (cleartool commands, for example, or GUIs such as the VersionVault Explorer) require a license to run.
  - Reconfiguring VersionVault to use a different JRE
    When you change the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for HCL VersionVault, you must reconfigure the product to make it work with the new JRE.
  - Administering the HCL VersionVault registry
    The HCL VersionVault registry is a central repository of information about shared resources such as VOBs and views.
  - HCL VersionVault network administration in mixed environments
    An HCL VersionVault environment that includes hosts that run Windows and hosts that run the UNIX system or Linux is said to be a mixed environment.
  - Overview of security considerations
    As an administrator, you are responsible for the security of your HCL VersionVault deployment.
  - VOB and view access control
    HCL VersionVault supports a rich set of access controls on versioned objects.
    - Users and groups
      A user's name and group memberships are the principal credentials evaluated by HCL VersionVault when access is requested.
      - The primary group
        A user can be a member of one or more groups, one of which is distinguished by HCL VersionVault as the user’s primary group.
      - Privileged users and groups
        HCL VersionVault recognizes certain users and groups as privileged.
    - ACL authorization
      If access control list (ACL) authorization is enabled, the identities and protection modes for some object types are administered through policies, which define permissions for roles; and rolemaps, which map the roles to principals.
    - Non-ACL authorization
      If ACL authorization is not enabled, the identities and protection modes that are defined by the operating system are administered directly.
    - HCL VersionVault and native file-system permissions
      HCL VersionVault requires specific file-system permissions on storage directories for VOBs and dynamic views. These permissions are established when the directories are created and must not be changed.
    - Windows shares for VOB and view storage
      On Windows platforms, VOBs and views that are accessed over the network must be created in a folder that is shared. Windows share permissions control access to shared folders, and must be configured to provide adequate rights to users of VOBs and views.
    - Locks on VOB objects
      Access controls on VOB objects are intended to provide a long-lived access-control mechanism. Temporary access control is also provided through explicit locks on individual VOB objects.
  - VOB administration
    Because VOBs are the principal repository for artifacts under HCL VersionVault control, VOB administration is one of the HCL VersionVault administrator’s most important tasks.
  - VOB datatypes and administrative VOB hierarchies
    There are many types of VOB metadata. Some are unique to a particular VOB, but many must be managed consistently across a group of VOBs that store related artifacts (components of a UCM project, for example). These topics introduce VOB metadata and describe how to use administrative VOB hierarchies to simplify sharing of type objects among related VOBs.
  - Moving VOBs and relocating VOB data
    HCL VersionVault includes tools for moving data and metadata to another VOB and for moving entire VOBs to another disk or host. You may need to use these tools to reorganize VOB directories, redistribute data storage, or rebalance server loads.
  - Views and view administration
    A view provides a workspace where users access versions of file and directory elements that are under HCL VersionVault control. Views can also contain view-private file system objects (such as ordinary files and directories) that are not under HCL VersionVault control.
  - Backing up critical HCL VersionVault data
    Like all databases, VOBs, views, and the HCL VersionVault registry have special backup and restore requirements.
  - Restoring critical HCL VersionVault data
    If you have implemented a sound backup strategy for HCL VersionVault data, it should be easy to restore that data, if necessary.
  - Periodic maintenance
    Periodic attention to storage management and repository integrity is an important administrative function. These topics describe VOB and view storage management tasks, the checkvob utility, and the HCL VersionVault scheduler, which you can use to automate many periodic maintenance chores.
  - Importing data
    HCL VersionVault includes several utilities for importing data from other configuration management systems or directly from the file system itself.
  - Troubleshooting
    These topics cover a variety of procedures that administrators might need to follow to find and fix problems.
  - Improving client host performance
  - Improving VOB host performance
  - Configuring cross-platform file-system access
  - HCL VersionVault and Windows® domains
  - Configuring non-VersionVault access on Linux® or the UNIX system
    You can configure an HCL VersionVault host running Linux® or the UNIX system to support access to VOBs and dynamic views from computers that do not run HCL VersionVault.
  - Configuring HCL VersionVault for high availability
  - Estimating VOB size
    If you can estimate the number of elements, versions, and derived objects that a VOB will ultimately contain, you can compute a very rough estimate of the size of a VOB that can accommodate them. VOB storage includes a database and pools. On Windows®, the database and pools must reside on a single disk partition. On Linux® or the UNIX system, the pools can be located on a different partition or host, using symbolic links.
  - Administering the VersionVault WAN server
  - About VersionVault WAN server parallel view loading
  - Administering and using CMI task-provider integrations
    HCL VersionVault supports integrations with task providers such as HCL Compass through the Change Management Interface (CMI). The integrations require some configuration tasks, after which you can work with UCM activities or base VersionVault branches that are associated with the tasks.
- Administering platforms for HCL VersionVault
  Learn how to perform HCL VersionVault administrative tasks on supported platforms.
- Administering HCL VersionVault MultiSite
  Learn to configure and manage the HCL VersionVault MultiSite environment to support development activities at different locations.

Users and groups

A user's name and group memberships are the principal credentials evaluated by HCL VersionVault when access is requested.

The identity with which a user logs on to the operating system of an HCL VersionVault host establishes that user’s credentials. Because these credentials are evaluated whenever and wherever a user requests access to an object under HCL VersionVault control, operating system definitions for user names, group names, and each user’s group memberships must be consistent on every HCL VersionVault host. This consistency is usually achieved by means of an account database such as a Windows® domain or the Network Information System (NIS) supported on Linux and the UNIX system.

Note: In environments where users access a common set of VOBs and views from hosts running different supported operating systems, this consistency must extend to both platform types (user and group names as well as each user’s group memberships must be the same on Linux and the UNIX system as they are on Windows®). For more information, see Common user and group names.

User process credentials

When a process requests access to VOB or view data, the process’s credentials are evaluated by HCL VersionVault to determine whether the requested form of access is authorized. The following process credentials are important in making this determination:

User. The name of the user who starts the process.
Primary group. The primary group of the user who starts the process.
Supplemental group list. Other groups of which the user who starts the process is a member.

Note: When a user logs on to a Windows® host where the MVFS is installed, the user’s credentials are cached. The Credentials Manager service periodically checks the credential cache and deletes the credentials of users who have logged off since the last credentials check.

Limitations when a user belongs to more than 32 groups

If a user is a member of more than 32 groups, only the first 32 groups (in numerical order by GID on Linux and on the UNIX system, or SID on Windows®) are recognized by HCL VersionVault. If the user environment variable CLEARCASE_GROUPS exists for any user, the semicolon-separated list of group names specified in the value of this variable first are considered when determining the list of groups to which the user belongs.

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