Accessing Partitions from ActivID KMS/CMS

Depending upon how the HSM was configured using the Thales / Thales TCT tools, the HSM may expose one or more partitions to ActivID KMS and ActivID CMS.

ActivID KMS forces the operator to select the partition to use during an ActivID KMS session when there is more than one partition available. If there is only a single partition, that partition is automatically selected. Each partition is identified by a slot ID number as well as a token name (partition name). To identity a partition, ActivID KMS displays both the slot ID and token name for each partition.

Important: The slot ID cannot be used as the unique identifier for an HSM that manages several tokens (partitions) because the HSM re-orders the slot ID depending on the availability of partitions.

To choose the correct partition, configure an ActivID CMS file, which includes either the recorder slot ID or token name (partition name). For example, for ActivID CMS for Windows, perform the following steps:

  1. Locate the cmsslot.ini file on the ActivID CMS distribution.

  2. In the <CMS_distribution>\HSM folder:

    • Copy the cmsslot.ini file to the Windows folder of your ActivID CMS server.

    • In the cmsslot.ini file specify either a TokenName or a SlotID (if the cmsslot.ini file is not found, ActivID CMS chooses to connect to the slot that has the fewer number of sessions).

      Note: If High Availability has been configured, the cmsslot.ini file must contain a reference to either a physical partition or to a virtual partition.

  3. Locate the %PROGRAMDATA%\HID Global\Credential Management System\Local Files\pkcs11.cfg file and add the following line:

    Copy 
    slot=xxxxxx

    4. where xxxxx is the SlotID.