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Setting up Built-In Authentication

The built-in authentication is automatically activated on all new installations of EventSentry, and the ability to toggle the built-in authentication is available from the Web Reports by navigating to the Account Manager found under the Options drop down.

Configuring Initial Setup

Once the built-in authentication is enabled the next step is to setup the Administrator account. Please note that SMTP information is required to use the built-in authentication, as a result this information will be requested if SMTP information is not detect in the available profile.

Manually Enabling Authentication

Another way to edit the WebReportsUsers.xml file is with a text editor. This file is located in the installation directory of EventSentry, C:\Program Files\EventSentry by default. To enable or disable the built-in authentication, set the AUTHENTICATION value to either 0 (disabled) or 1 (enabled):

<AUTHENTICATION>1</AUTHENTICATION>

Enabling Anonymous Access

Once you have enabled authentication you should ensure that the built-in anonymous user account from IIS (IUSR_....) has access to the web reports. Protecting the web reports through NTFS permissions is now longer necessary, since the web reports utilize their own authentication.

The file permissions are automatically adjusted for new EventSentry installations, but will have to be set manually if you have already setup the web reports with an earlier version of EventSentry and are now enabling the built-in authentication. To set the file permissions accordingly, run the enable_anonymous_access_iis5_iis6.cmd or enable_anonymous_access_iis7.cmd (depending on the OS you are using). Both of these files are located in the IIS sub directory of the EventSentry installation.

If you do not give the anonymous user account permissions, then you will have to authenticate twice in order to get access to the web reports: First through the web server (file permissions), and then through the web reports.

Administrator Account

Once you access the web reports for the first time, you will be asked to set the password of the built-in Administrator account, as well as setup an email server and email address. These will be used when you create new user accounts (which receive a welcome email) and when users forget and subsequently reset their passwords. After the initial password has been set, you are automatically logged into the web reports as the Administrator.