Plan APPC security

Use this information to understand how Advanced Program-to-Program Communication (APPC) works and how you can set up the appropriate security for APPC on your system.

APPC allows programs on i5/OS™ to communicate with programs on other systems having compatible communications support. Display station passthrough, distributed data management, personal computers, and iSeries™ Access for Windows^® can use APPC communications.

When your system participates in a network with other systems, a new set of doors and windows to your system becomes available. As security administrator, you should be aware of the options that you can use to control the entrances to your system in an APPC environment.

Tip: Many methods for connecting PCs to your system servers depend on communications, such as APPC or TCP/IP. Be sure to consider the security issues for connecting to both other systems and to PCs. When you plan your network protection, make sure that you do not adversely affect the PCs that are attached to your system.

• Example: A basic APPC session
  In an APPC environment, when a user or application on one system requests access to another system, the two systems set up a session. To establish the session, the systems must link two matching APPC device descriptions.
• Basic elements of APPC communications
  APPC provides the ability for a user on one system to perform work on another system.
• APPC user access to the target system
  The topics that follow describe the elements that determine how an APPC user gains entrance to the target system.