Running xcomd under a service account with sudo access instead of root

Products

• XCOM Data Transport
• XCOM Data Transport - Linux PC

Issue/Introduction

Can the xcomd deamon/service on Linux or UNIX systems be started under a service account that would have SUDO access instead of using root?

Environment

XCOM™ Data Transport® for UNIX/Linux PC

Resolution

XCOM is not certified or tested to run the xcomd service with non-root accounts. Since XCOM supports various ways to invoke transfers (Queue, Non-Queue, Meta, etc.,) few scenarios require us to set the correct privileges for the xcomtcp process to run within the appropriate security context. 

For example, if you schedule a transfer with QUEUE=YES to run at a later time or in a non-blocking way so that the transfer runs at its schedule and the caller doesn't need to wait for completion, then xcomd will fork the xcomtcp process and sets the security context (transfer owner) during the transfer startup. If xcomd is not running as root, such functionality will not work and transfers will start to fail.