About Run As Profiles and Run As Accounts in Essentials
Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010
In Essentials 2010, Run As Profiles and Run As Accounts are used to select users with the credentials needed for running rules, tasks, and monitors.
Management pack authors create a rule, task, or monitor, and then associate it with a Run As Profile. The named Run As Profile is imported along with the management pack into Essentials 2010.
Note
Tasks, rules, and monitors consist of modules that receive credentials or secured data, such as user names and passwords. An administrator must understand the functionality of the modules and use appropriate precautions when sending such data to them.
The Essentials 2010 administrator creates a named Run As Account and specifies users and groups. The administrator then adds the Run As Account to the Run As Profile and specifies the target computers that the account should run on.
Note
The account that you select for the Run As Account must be able to log on to the local computer. Otherwise, the module will fail.
An administrator can associate multiple Run As Accounts with a Run As Profile. This functionality is useful in cases where the Run As Profile is used on different computers and each computer requires different credentials.
For example, you have user rights that enable you to run the task on the first computer that is running SQL Server. Another user has user rights that enable that user to run the task on the second computer that is running SQL Server. A separate Run As Account is created for you and the other user, and both of you are associated with the single Run As Profile. The task and the appropriate credentials are pushed to the target computer so that the task can run with either your or the other user’s credentials. Account information sent between the Essentials management server and the target computer is encrypted.
To specify an appropriate account (for example, an account with fewer user rights), you can associate the rules in an unsealed management pack with a Run As Profile by editing the properties for the rule.