Fine-grained administrative security in heterogeneous and single-server environments

Fine-grained administrative security can be used in heterogeneous or single-server environments with some restrictions.

Fine-grained administrative security in a heterogeneous environment

In WebSphere Application Server V6.0, heterogeneous systems are supported. Specifically, a deployment manager node can run in WebSphere Application Server V6.0, some nodes can run WebSphere Application Server V6.0, and other nodes can run WebSphere Application Server Version 5.x. In WebSphere Application Server V6.1, nodes are available for WebSphere Application Server Versions 5.x, 6.0, and V6.1.

Because all of the configurations that are done in deployment manager node are always of WebSphere Application Server V6.1 or higher, fine-grained administrative security can be enforced when configuring resources that belong to earlier releases. However, run-time code for versions lower than V6.1 cannot enforce fine-grained administrative security. Therefore, any resource instance that is not part of a WebSphere Application Server V6.1 node cannot be added to an authorization group. Fine-grained administrative security in a heterogeneous environment has the following restrictions:

• Only nodes that are running WebSphere Application Server V6.1 can be part of an administrative authorization group.

• Only servers that are running in a WebSphere Application Server V6.1 node can be part of an administrative authorization group.

• Only applications that are targeted on servers running on WebSphere Application Server V6.1 can be part of an administrative authorization group.

• If a cluster spans nodes of multiple releases, it cannot be part of an administrative authorization group.

• If a cluster spans nodes of multiple releases, none of its members can be part of an administrative authorization group.

• If an application is targeted on a cluster that spans multiple releases, that application cannot be part of an administrative authorization group.

Fine-grained administrative security in a single-server environment

You can also use fine-grained administrative security in a single-server environment. Various applications in the single server can be grouped and placed in different authorization groups. Therefore, different authorization constraints might exist for different applications.

Life cycle of fine-grained administrative resource

• The administrative resource is removed from the authorization group. In this instance, the administrative resource belongs to the cell-level authorization group.

• The administrative resource is removed from the configuration. In this instance, the administrative resource does not exist in the configuration, but still exists in the authorization group. Remove this administrative resource from the authorization group.

After the administrative resource is removed from the authorization group, the administrative authorizer runtime must be notified by using the AuthorizationManager refreshAll MBean method.

The refreshAll command must be invoked after AdminConfig.save() and sync nodes. For example: JACL:

// get AuthorizationGroup Mbean
wsadmin> set agBean [$AdminControl queryNames
Type=AuthorizationGroupManager,process=dmgr,*]

// get AuthorizationGroup Mbean
wsadmin> set agBean [$AdminControl queryNames
Type=AuthorizationGroupManager,process=dmgr,*]

Related concepts

Related Reference