Device Import fails with PAM-CMN-0653: Invalid task name specified error - PAM

Products

• CA Privileged Access Manager (PAM)
• CA Privileged Access Manager - Server Control (PAMSC)
• CA Privileged Identity Management Endpoint (PIM)
• CA Threat Analytics for PAM

Issue/Introduction

The Import/Export feature on the Devices > Manage Devices page is used to import new Linux and Windows devices into PAM. The .csv import file contains the correct list of columns, but trying to import the devices results in error message "PAM-CMN-0653: Invalid task name specified: ." and the two devices are not imported.

Environment

CA Privileged Access Manager (PAM) Device Management.

Cause

The access methods were entered incorrectly in the import CSV file. For the Linux device the "Access Methods" column only contained string "SSH", and only "RDP" for the Windows device.

Resolution

An access method in a device definition has four settings: Name, Custom Name, Port and a possible (X11) property for SSH. The following are valid entries for the Access Methods column in the import file:

"name=SSH custom_name= port=22 property=x11forwarding"   (SSH with X11 forwarding checked)
"name=SSH custom_name= port=22 property="                         (SSH w/o X11 forwarding)
"name=RDP custom_name= port=3389 property="                     (RDP)

You will find entries like these if you export existing devices to a CSV file.

Additional Information

Note that the list of columns may change from PAM release to PAM release. It is prudent to manually configure a sample device in the PAM release you are working on, export it, and then use this export file as a starting point for importing new devices.