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Question

How can I set up nTop Automate for a multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) platform without hardcoding my password? Using my credentials directly in the MDO project files is a security risk, is not scalable if my password changes, and fails on machines where my credentials aren’t cached. I’m looking for a secure and robust way to manage authentication for automated workflows across multiple users and machines.

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Applies to

  • nTop Automate
  • MDO Platforms (e.g., HEEDS, Isight, ModeFrontier)

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Answer

The recommended best practice is to use a dedicated, non-personal service account for nTop and store its password securely in a system environment variable. This method separates the secret (password) from the configuration (your MDO project).

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Step 1: Create a Dedicated nTop Service Account

Create a single nTop user account for running automated jobs (e.g., ntop-automation@your-org.com). You can add a new user using the Org Admin Dashboard (https://app.ntop.com/org/users).
  • Floating Licenses: The service account can check out a license from your organization’s or team’s license pool.
  • Named-User Licenses: You must assign a specific nTop Automate license to this service account.
If you have any questions, refer to the nTop Org. Admin Guide and email support@ntop.com for further assistance!

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Step 2: Configure the Execution Machine(s)

This setup must be performed on every computer running the nTop Automate jobs. A. Set the Environment Variable (One-time setup per machine) This command creates a secure, system-wide variable to store the password.
  1. Open Command Prompt as an Administrator.
  2. Run the following command, replacing the placeholder with your service account’s actual password:
setx NTOP_PASSWORD "YourServiceAccountPassword" /M
  1. Restart your Command Prompt session or log out/in for the change to take effect.
B. Create a Wrapper Script This batch script (.bat) acts as a bridge, calling nTop Automate using the securely stored password.
  1. Create a new text file and save it as run_ntop_secure.bat in a shared location.
  2. Copy the following code into the file, updating the path to ntopcl.exe and the service account email as needed. You can also create the user email as an environment variable.
@echo off
rem This script runs nTop Automate using a dedicated service account
rem and a password stored securely in an environment variable.

"C:\Program Files\nTopology\nTop\ntopcl.exe" -u "ntop-automation@your-org.com" -w %NTOP_PASSWORD% -i %1 -o %2
The %1 and %2 Your MDO tool will use placeholders to pass in the input and output file paths. These are optional, and you can set these up based on your requirements. C. Configure Your MDO Tool In your MDO analysis process, configure the execution command to call the run_ntop_secure.bat wrapper script instead of ntopcl.exe directly.