Configuration Options

Registry Configuration

Entries made in the Windows registry during the installation of ProtectToolkit-M are documented in Registry Configuration. These may be amended by expert users if required. Generally, the default values will not need to be changed. The exceptions are the Debug Level and User Keyset Password entries used to control error log file creation and silent user keyset login respectively. See the sections below for further information.

Error Log File Creation

The Debug Level registry key controls error log file creation. By default, the value of this key is set so that no error log file is produced. Should it be necessary to create an error log file, see debugLevel for more options.

Silent User Keyset Login

While access to the Machine and System keysets is open, access to a User keyset requires authentication.

Typically, User keyset access authentication is achieved by prompting the user for a password when access is requested. This is not convenient/permissible in all situations, so silent user keyset login is also available.

To activate silent User keyset login

Add the following value to the Windows registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Safenet/ProtectToolkit M/
UserKeysetPassword=<password>

where <password> is the clear text password for the User keyset.

Since this value is located in the Current Users registry hive (which is only accessible/visible when a user authenticates themselves to the Windows operating system) there is no security risk, even though the password is stored in the clear.

Work Load Distribution (WLD)

If required, more than one hardware security module (HSM) can be used in a Work Load Distribution (WLD) configuration.

WLD allows work to be balanced across a system by transferring units of work among HSM processing modules during execution, reducing the demand on any particular processing module. This produces an increase in the system's overall throughput of processing tasks. Using multiple HSMs in this way also provides redundancy. If an HSM goes down, the work will automatically be shared amongst the remaining operational HSMs.

For further information, including implementation and maintenance instructions, refer to Work Load Distribution.