I don't think it's a "zombie" device. I think it's a real one. It's just a device you may not have seen before because it's "hidden."
I'm not the foremost expert in this area, but (guessing) you're probably using the Hardware Management Appliance (HMA, a.k.a. vHMC). (Did I guess correctly?) If so then you might be seeing evidence of the fact the Support Element has an embedded smart card reader and smart card. "What? These IBM servers have embedded smart card readers and smart cards from the factory? I didn't know that!" Yes, they do. There are a whole bunch of standard but special security-related features in these machines, and this is one of them. How nice you noticed! If you'd like to learn a bit more then I suggest logging into IBM ResourceLink, digging through the Library section for your machine model to find a publication that looks useful (such as a "Service Guide" or similar), and then you should be able to find some perhaps oblique references to this particular design feature. Hint: Don't try to remove or otherwise interfere with this smart card reader or smart card. It could be important equipment. :-) — — — — — Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cybersecurity IBM zSystems/LinuxONE, Asia-Pacific [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
