2.3 Security and Privacy

2.3.1 Security Best Practices

As a security best practice, you should apply patches that address security vulnerabilities to your PlateSpin Server host and PlateSpin Migrate Client host, as you would for other Windows servers in your enterprise.

Micro Focus is aware of the side-channel analysis vulnerabilities described in CVEs 2017-5715, 2017-5753 and 2017-5754, known as Meltdown and Spectre. The current recommended actions have been applied on the PlateSpin Server images in the cloud.

We strongly recommend that you apply security updates that address such threats as recommended by Microsoft for the Windows  operating system for the PlateSpin hosts. Consult the vendor documentation for information. See Protect Your Windows Devices Against Spectre and Meltdown on the Microsoft Support website.

2.3.2 PlateSpin Migrate and Anti-Virus Applications

A PlateSpin Migrate server stores log files and database files in the PlateSpin Migration installation folder. While migration jobs are running, the PlateSpin Migrate server will update these files frequently. Anti-virus applications either block these updates or interrupt them, which impacts the PlateSpin Migrate server performance. Anti-virus applications should either not be installed on the PlateSpin Migrate server, or the PlateSpin Migrate installation folder must be added to the anti-virus application exclusion list.

2.3.3 Configuring Source Workloads to Connect Using TLS 1.2

PlateSpin Migrate server supports connections using Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2 protocol, according to the protocols enabled on its host operating system. PlateSpin Migrate server uses TLS 1.2 protocol by default for connections with source workloads if TLS 1.2 is enabled on the underlying OS and Microsoft .NET Framework on both the Migrate server host and the source workload. Migrate does not have a setting that forces clients to use TLS 1.2 to connect.

NOTE:Older Windows operating systems, such as Windows Server 2003 and 2008, do not support TLS 1.2. You must enable TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 protocols in the Windows Registry settings on the Migrate server host to migrate these source workloads. See Configuring TLS Protocols for Migrate Hosts in the PlateSpin Migrate 12.3 Installation and Upgrade Guide.

To connect a source workload to the Migrate server using TLS 1.2:

  • Source workloads: Both the Windows operating system and Microsoft .NET Framework version must support TLS 1.2 or must be updated to support TLS 1.2, and the TLS 1.2 protocol must be enabled in the Windows Registry settings.

    For Windows operating systems that do not support TLS 1.2 by default:

    1. A Microsoft update for .NET Framework might be required on the source workload in order to add support for TLS System Default Version settings. A reboot is required.

    2. Use Microsoft Windows Registry settings to force .NET Framework to choose TLS 1.2 when the workload connects with Migrate server.

    For information and configuration instructions, see Support for TLS 1.2 in Transport Layer Security (TLS) Best Practices with the .NET Framework in Microsoft Documentation.

  • Migrate server: The Windows Registry settings for the TLS 1.2 protocol must be enabled on the Migrate server host. See Configuring TLS Protocols for Migrate Hosts in the PlateSpin Migrate 12.3 Installation and Upgrade Guide.

2.3.4 Security of Workload Data in Transmission

To make the transfer of your workload data more secure, you can configure your migration jobs to encrypt the data in transit to the target. When encryption is enabled, over-the-network data transfer from the source to the target is encrypted by using 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).For information about how to enable encryption during data transfer for a migration job, see Section 28.12, Encrypt Data Transfer.

You can configure your PlateSpin Server to use a data encryption algorithm that is compliant with FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards, Publication 140-2). If compliance with FIPS is required, it must be set up on your system prior to the PlateSpin Server installation. See Enabling Support for FIPS-Compliant Data Encryption Algorithms (Optional) in your Installation Guide.

If FIPS is enabled in a source workload, ensure that the EnforceFIPSCompliance parameter is enabled on the PlateSpin Migrate server before you discover the source workload. See Section 5.3, Enforcing FIPS Compliance for FIPS-Enabled Source Workloads.

2.3.5 Security of Client-Server Communications

Data transmission between the PlateSpin Server and the PlateSpin Migrate Client can be configured to use either HTTP (default) or HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol). To secure data transmission between the client and the server, enable SSL on your PlateSpin Server host and use HTTPS when specifying the server URL. See Connecting to a PlateSpin Migrate Server.

2.3.6 Security of Credentials

Credentials that you use to access sources and targets in workload migration jobs are:

  • Cached, encrypted, and securely stored by the PlateSpin Migrate Client, by using operating system APIs.

  • Stored in the PlateSpin Migrate database and are therefore covered by the same security safeguards that you have in place for PlateSpin Server hosts.

  • Included within diagnostics, which are accessible to accredited users. You should ensure workload migration projects are handled by authorized staff.

2.3.7 User Authorization and Authentication

PlateSpin Migrate provides a role-based user authorization and authentication mechanism. See Section 4.1, Configuring User Authorization and Authentication.

NOTE:If you have installed a PlateSpin Migrate server localized for one language and a PlateSpin Migrate Client localized for a different language, do not use authorization credentials that include any language-specific characters. Using such characters in the login credentials causes miscommunication between the client and the server: the credentials are rejected as invalid.