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Remote Control
BigFix Remote Control application helps to communicate between different components, clients, and endpoints within BigFix environment.
Remote Control Administrators Guide
This guide is for users who want to administer Remote Control.
Set a secure environment
Set a secure environment when you are using Remote Control.
Enforcing strict HTTPS validation of certificates
You can configure Remote Control to enforce strict HTTPS validation of certificates. All HTTPS connections from the target, broker, CLI, and controller are verified and the connection fails if the certificate is not trusted.

Remote Control
BigFix Remote Control application helps to communicate between different components, clients, and endpoints within BigFix environment.
- Release notes
  A summary of changed or new features and enhancements included in BigFix Remote Control.
- Remote Control Installation Guide
  By using Remote Control you can remotely support and control thousands of PCs and servers, on an enterprise scale, from a central location or directly, in peer to peer mode.
- Remote Control Administrators Guide
  This guide is for users who want to administer Remote Control.
  - Set a secure environment
    Set a secure environment when you are using Remote Control.
    - Configure the server URL
      Configure properties to allow the target to use a secure URL to communicate with the BigFix® Remote Control Server.
    - Protocol configuration after a server upgrade
      When you upgrade by using the server installer program and select to keep existing properties, you must configure properties after installation if you change your protocol selection.
    - Signed certificate management
      By default, Remote Control creates a self-signed certificate for the website.
    - Setting password rules
      You can use properties in the trc.properties file to create a set of password rules. The rules can define the type of passwords that can be created, how the passwords must be created, and whether the passwords must be periodically changed.
    - Lock user accounts
      You can lock users accounts after a number of unsuccessful logons so that someone cannot guess a user name and password combination.
    - Automatic passphrase encryption
      For security purposes, plain text passwords that are contained in the broker, gateway, target, and CLI component configuration, are now automatically encrypted. Use the DisableAutomaticPassphraseEncryption property to determine whether the passwords are automatically encrypted or not.
    - Enforcing strict HTTPS validation of certificates
      You can configure Remote Control to enforce strict HTTPS validation of certificates. All HTTPS connections from the target, broker, CLI, and controller are verified and the connection fails if the certificate is not trusted.
  - Secure target registration
    To prevent unauthorized targets from registering with the Remote Control server, you can use tokens to authenticate the target.
  - Configure SAML 2.0 authentication on the server
    Remote Control V9.1.3 introduced support for SAML 2.0 authentication on the Remote Control server.
  - Access the server web interface
    After you install the BigFix® Remote Control Server software and the BigFix Remote Control Target software, you can log on to the server application. For more information about installing and configuring the server and target software, see the Remote Control Installation Guide
  - Using the Deployment Status Dashboard
    The Deployment Status Dashboard provides a quick view of the system and brokers health status.
  - Unattended Target Support
    The Unattended Target Support feature allows you to take remote control sessions of targets that are connected through a broker, without the need to provide a connection code. In strict remote control terminology, an unattended target is a managed target that performs Call Home through a broker.
  - Unlocking user accounts
    When a user account is locked, you can unlock the account by using the Unlock locked userid feature.
  - Manage targets and target groups
  - Manage users and user groups
  - Server session policies
  - How session policies are determined
  - Starting a managed session by using an installed controller
    When you start a managed session, you can configure the server to use an installed controller rather than using the Java™ Web Start method. This feature makes starting a session faster and it removes any warning message windows that are displayed while the session is starting.
  - Manage permission sets for temporary access to targets
  - Requests for temporary access to targets
  - Generate custom reports
  - Manage the home page for a user or group
  - Adding tables and columns to queries
  - Configuration and troubleshooting options in the Admin menu
  - Ensure targets are registered correctly
  - Record the session on the target
  - Set up for exporting recordings
  - Audit log distribution
  - Access targets on different networks
  - Editing the properties files
    You can use the properties files in Remote Control to customize your environment, configure LDAP, set debug options, and set controller and on-demand target properties. The files can be edited in the BigFix® Remote Control Server UI.
  - Reduce the volume of target connections to the server
  - Broker configuration
    When you install broker support you can use the installed trc_broker.properties file to configure your environment for using the broker function.
  - Managing brokers
    After installing broker support you can register the broker machines in the Remote Control server. When they have been registered you can view the list of brokers, edit the broker details and delete brokers that are no longer required.
  - Certificate management
    Remote Control uses certificates in the Server and in the Broker to address the authentication and verification required for ensuring secure connections between the different product components.
  - Migrating to a new certificate
    If your existing certificates are due to expire, you can create new certificates. Distribute the new certificates to the relevant endpoints so that they can continue to successfully establish remote control sessions through the broker.
  - Configuring the session connection code
    You can define the number of characters required and the timeout value, for the connection code used when starting a remote control session through a broker.
  - Target registration before a remote control session
    When you have targets that are on the internet or third-party networks and cannot register directly with the Remote Control server you can configure server properties to allow the target to register with the server. When the target registers, you can start a remote control session with the target, by using a broker.
  - Configure target properties
  - Importing data from other sources
  - Database table and column descriptions
  - Troubleshooting and Help
  - Gateway sample scenarios
  - Properties for configuring logging activity
    Use properties to determine what type of information and how much is written to the broker, gateway, and target component log files.
  - Override proxy
    The controller uses the proxy defined at system level by default. In some conditions, this may not be desirable. Creating a file named “override.proxy” in the controller install folder changes the default behavior and the system proxy is ignored
- Remote Control Console User Guide
- BigFix Remote Control Controller Users Guide
- Remote Control Target Users Guide
- Remote Control On-demand Target Guide
  Use Remote Control to start remote control sessions over the internet with targets that do not have the target software installed.
- Remote Control V10 Readme

Enforcing strict HTTPS validation of certificates

You can configure Remote Control to enforce strict HTTPS validation of certificates. All HTTPS connections from the target, broker, CLI, and controller are verified and the connection fails if the certificate is not trusted.

About this task

To enable strict validation of HTTPS certificates by the Remote Control components, the following settings must be enabled:

Controller component in managed mode

In the Remote Control server UI select Admin > Edit properties file.
Select common.properties.
Set https.strict validation to true and click Submit.
Select Admin > Reset Application.

Target or CLI

Set the HTTPSStrictValidation property to Yes in the following locations.

Windows operating system.

Edit the target registry and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\BigFix\Remote Control\Target.
Note: On a 32-bit system, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\Remote Control\Target

Linux operating system.

Edit the /etc/trc_target.properties file.
Restart the target service.

Broker component

Edit the trc_broker.properties file.
Set HTTPSStrictValidation to Yes.
Save the file and restart the broker service.

Results

After configuration, the components use the system truststore to verify HTTPS connections to the server. If the server certificate is issued by a certificate authority (CA) trusted by your operating system, the components work automatically. If the CA that is used by the server is not trusted by the operating system, it can be added by using the standard operating system certificate management methods.