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Administering
This section describes how to plan for, install, configure, operate, and manage the SafeLinx Server.
Overview
HCL SafeLinx uses standards-based protocols to enable secure access from mobile computing devices outside the firewall to business applications and data on your organization's internal network.
Key Components
Your SafeLinx deployment includes a range of components. Many components, including the access manager, SafeLinx Server, persistent data storage, and SafeLinx Administrator are common to all deployments. Other components, such as mobile access services, are used only if you support specific types of connections.
Mobile access services
Mobile access services provide SafeLinx Clients with secure, virtual private network (VPN) access from external networks so that you can make enterprise applications and data available to your mobile workforce. Mobile access services support a wide range of wireless and dial-up networks.

Administering
This section describes how to plan for, install, configure, operate, and manage the SafeLinx Server.
- Overview
  HCL SafeLinx uses standards-based protocols to enable secure access from mobile computing devices outside the firewall to business applications and data on your organization's internal network.
  - What's new in version 1.0
    Learn what's new in this version of HCL SafeLinx.
  - Key Components
    Your SafeLinx deployment includes a range of components. Many components, including the access manager, SafeLinx Server, persistent data storage, and SafeLinx Administrator are common to all deployments. Other components, such as mobile access services, are used only if you support specific types of connections.
    - Access manager
      The access manager is the server-side process that communicates with the SafeLinx Administrator administrative application to manage configuration information for the HCL SafeLinx Server.
    - SafeLinx Server
      The SafeLinx Server provides a gateway through which mobile computing devices on a range of external networks connect securely to resources on your organization's private internal network.
    - Persistent data storage
      The SafeLinx Server needs access to an ODBC-compliant relational database to store configuration information, session data, and accounting and billing information.
    - SafeLinx Administrator
      The SafeLinx Administrator is the application that you use to configure, monitor, and maintain the resources of one or more SafeLinx Servers.
    - Directory service servers
      A directory service server (DSS) is a resource that designates an external user account database, such as an LDAP server, and provides information on how to connect to it.
    - Organizational units
      Organizational units (OUs) are containers that are used to group and isolate resources and, in combination with ACLs and ACL profiles, to control administrative access to those resources.
    - Admins
      Admins are users who are authorized to use the SafeLinx Administrator to configure, define maintain, and monitor SafeLinx Server resources.
    - HTTP access services
      HTTP access services enable secure connections between a remote mobile device and HTTP services on the internal network, such as HCL Traveler and HCL Sametime. HTTP access services do not require installation of a VPN client, and are sometimes said to provide clientless access. HTTP access services are secured with Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption.
    - Mobile access services
      Mobile access services provide SafeLinx Clients with secure, virtual private network (VPN) access from external networks so that you can make enterprise applications and data available to your mobile workforce. Mobile access services support a wide range of wireless and dial-up networks.
      - Mobile network interfaces (MNIs)
        A mobile network interface (MNI) is a component that you assign to a Mobile access service to define the dedicated virtual IP subnet through which SafeLinx Clients communicate with the Connection Manager. All of the IP traffic between the SafeLinx Server and these VPN clients flows through the MNI.
      - Mobile network connections
        A mobile network connection (MNC) is the SafeLinx Server's interface to a network provider. You must add an MNC to the SafeLinx Server for each network type that it supports for mobile access services and messaging services. MNCs are not required to support HTTP access services.
      - Connection profiles
        A connection profile is a resource that you assign to a mobile network connection (MNC) to control the connection between the MNC and the SafeLinx Clients that connect to it.
      - Transport profiles
        A transport profile is a resource that defines a set of transport-layer configuration properties. These properties are settings that identify the type of network, such as the adapter name and the speed of the connection.
    - Messaging services
      Messaging services enable a web application server to send messages from a wired network to a client on a wireless network.
    - Authentication profiles
      Authentication profiles define how SafeLinx interacts with the authentication server specified in a DSS to authenticate login credentials for HTTP access services or mobile access VPN connections.
    - Certificates
      SafeLinx uses X.509 certificates to establish TLS connections between the SafeLinx Server and other devices. Certificates can also be used for client authentication.
    - Wireless password policies
      A wireless password policy defines the rules that govern users' passwords. When you create a user ID and require a password, you can specify the password policy that applies to the user.
    - Device resolver
      The device resolver works in conjunction with network access servers (NAS) to uniquely identify devices whenever they connect to the network.
    - User accounts
      SafeLinx maintains a user database that contains account information for each user. These user account records can be added to the database in one of two ways, depending on how you manage authentication.
    - Groups
      A group is a collection of resources that you designate for combined use.
    - Access control lists and ACL profiles
      An access control list (ACL) is a table of access levels for all resource types per organizational unit (OU).
    - Client roles
      The SafeLinx Server connects with clients based on which features are installed and configured.
- Security
  HCL SafeLinx includes a range of options for configuring the security of your network, applications, and data.
- Installation planning
  Before you install HCL SafeLinx, verify that you meet the hardware and software requirements, and that the network connections that you want to use are available.
- Installing and initial configuration
  Initial configuration and installation of HCL SafeLinx varies based on your operating system.
- Adding and configuring resources
  After you complete the installation and initial configuration, continue to prepare the deployment by configuring other network resources.
- Administering
  The SafeLinx Administrator administration client is the primary tool for viewing, adding, configuring, and managing HCL SafeLinx resources. Along with the SafeLinx Administrator, you can use the HCL SafeLinx Monitor to view information about packet flow through the SafeLinx Server. You can also use a set of command line tools to perform common SafeLinx Server tasks.
- Programming reference
  There are several programming considerations of which you might want to take advantage.
- Database schema information
  HCL SafeLinx uses a DB2, Oracle, or SQL database to store tables of information about current and past activity of SafeLinx Server sessions. The following tables are created and accessed by using the qualifier name wg for DB2 installations.

Mobile access services

Mobile access services provide SafeLinx Clients with secure, virtual private network (VPN) access from external networks so that you can make enterprise applications and data available to your mobile workforce. Mobile access services support a wide range of wireless and dial-up networks.

SafeLinx Server to provide the communication interface for SafeLinx Clients. Mobile access services provide an optimized and secure IP tunnel for communication between the SafeLinx Server and SafeLinx Client software on a remote device. The SafeLinx Client can use a wireless or wireline connection to the mobile access services. This connection provides SafeLinx Clients with access to the private intranet of your company or to the internet.

Existing applications that use a TCP/IP interface might use either wireless networks or wireline networks. Using TCP/IP integrates communication under a common interface layer that shields network-specific details from the user application. Mobile access services provide SafeLinx Client users with network-specific enhancements such as:

Data compression
Data encryption
Data optimization
Authentication

The following figure illustrates a basic mobile access services configuration:

Communications are sent through the network to the SafeLinx Server and servers to provide access to enterprise applications and the Internet. — Figure 1. Wireless and wireline communication

The SafeLinx Client software can connect to the SafeLinx Server from a wireless, dial-up, or LAN network. After a connection is established, the mobile access services enable the client to communicate with enterprise applications and with the Internet. In effect, the connection between the mobile access services and SafeLinx Clients is a proprietary virtual private network (VPN).

Mobile access services also support wireless applications that use non-IP packet-oriented connections.

To control how a mobile access service behaves in your environment, you might add some or all of the following other resources:

Groups, such as broadcast, filters, and packet mapping or NAT
Connection profiles
Network address translator (NAT)
Packet mappings
Filters
Routing alias
Mobile network interface (MNI)

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