Enable security

By enabling security, you protect your server from unauthorized users and are then able to provide application isolation and requirements for authenticating application users.

It is helpful to understand security from an infrastructure perspective so that you know the advantages of different authentication mechanisms, user registries, authentication protocols, and so on. Picking the right security components to meet your needs is a part of configuring security. The following sections help you make these decisions. Read the following article before continuing with the security configuration:

• Security

After you understand the security components, you can proceed to configure security in WebSphere Application Server.

Note: For WebSphere Application Server V6.1, administrative security is enabled by default whenever a new profile is created, either during the initial install when you create a new profile or during post-install when you use the profile creation tooling. You can decide not to enable administrative security during profile creation time by instead enabling security post-profile creation using the administrative console.

Procedure

1. Start the WebSphere Application Server administrative console.

   Start the deployment manager and, in your browser, type in the address of your WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment server. By default, the console is located at http://your_host.your_domain:9060/ibm/console.

   If security is currently disabled, you are prompted for a user ID. Log in with any user ID. However, if security is currently enabled, you are prompted for both a user ID and a password. Log in with a predefined administrative user ID and password.

2. Click Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure. Use the Security Configuration Wizard available in version 6.1 to configure security, or do it manually. The configuration order is not important. For more information on manual configuration, see Authenticating users.

3. Configure the user account repository. For more information, see Selecting a registry or repository. On the Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure panel, you can configure user account repositories such as federated repositories, local operating system, standalone Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) registry, and standalone custom registry.

   Note: You can choose to specify either a server ID and password for interoperability or enable a WebSphere Application Server 6.1 installation to automatically generate an internal server ID. For more information about automatically generating server IDs, see Local operating system settings.

   One of the details common to all user registries or repositories is the Primary administrative user name. This ID is a member of the chosen repository, but also has special privileges in WebSphere Application Server. The privileges for this ID and the privileges that are associated with the administrative role ID are the same. The Primary administrative user name can access all of the protected administrative methods.

   In standalone LDAP registries, verify that the Primary administrative user name is a member of the repository and not just the LDAP administrative role ID. The entry must be searchable.

   The Primary administrative user name does not run WebSphere Application Server processes. Rather, the process ID runs the WebSphere Application Server processes.

   In the default configuration, WebSphere Application Server processes run under the QEJBSVR system-provided user profile.

4. Select the Set as current option after you configure the user account repository. When you click Apply and the Enable administrative security option is set, a verification occurs to see if an administrative user ID has been configured and is present in the active user registry. The administrative user ID can be specified at the active user registry panel or from the console users link. If you do not configure an administrative ID for the active user registry, the validation fails.

   Note: When you switch user registries, the admin-authz.xml file should be cleared of existing administrative ids and application names. Exceptions will occur in the logs for ids that exist in the admin-authz.xml file but do not exist in the current user registry.

5. Configure the authentication mechanism.

   Configure Lightweight Third-Party Authentication (LTPA), which is the default authentication mechanism, on the Authentication mechanisms and expiration panel. LTPA credentials can be forwarded to other machines. For security reasons, credential expire; however, you can configure the expiration dates on the console. LTPA credentials enable browsers to visit different product servers, which means you do not have to authenticate multiple times. For more information, see Configuring the Lightweight Third Party Authentication mechanism

   If you want single sign-on (SSO) support, which provides the ability for browsers to visit different product servers without having to authenticate multiple times, see Implementing single sign-on to minimize Web user authentications. For form-based login, configure SSO when using LTPA.

6. Optional: Import and export the LTPA keys for cross-cell single Sign-on (SSO) between cells. For more information, see the following articles:

   • Exporting Lightweight Third Party Authentication keys.

   • Importing Lightweight Third Party Authentication keys

7. Configure the authentication protocol for special security requirements from Java clients, if needed. You can configure Common Secure Interoperability V2 (CSIv2) through links on the Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure panel. The Security Authentication Service (SAS) protocol is provided for backwards compatibility with previous product releases, but is deprecated. Links to the SAS protocol panels display on the Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure panel if your environment contains servers that use previous versions of WebSphere Application Server and support the SAS protocol. For details on configuring CSIv2 or SAS, see the article, Configuring Common Secure Interoperability V2 (CSIV2) and Security Authentication Service (SAS).

   SAS is supported only between V6.0.x and previous version servers that have been federated in a V6.1 cell.

   Attention: IBM no longer ships or supports the Secure Authentication Service (SAS) IIOP security protocol. It is recommended that you use the Common Secure Interoperability version 2 (CSIv2) protocol. Modify or a create a default Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) configuration. This action protects the integrity of the messages sent across the Internet. The product provides a single location where you can specify SSL configurations that the various WebSphere Application Server features that use SSL can utilize, including the LDAP registry, Web container and the authentication protocol (CSIv2 and SAS). For more information, see Creating a Secure Sockets Layer configuration. After you modify a configuration or create a new configuration, specify it on the SSL configurations panel. To get to the SSL configurations panel, complete the following steps:

   1. Click Security > SSL certificate and key management.

   2. Under Configuration settings, click Manage endpoint security configurations > configuration_name.

   3. Under Related items, click SSL configurations.

   You can either edit the DefaultSSLConfig file or create a new SSL configuration with a new alias name. If you create a new alias name for your new keystore and truststore files, change every location that references the DefaultSSLConfig SSL configuration alias. The following list specifies the locations of where the SSL configuration repertoire aliases are used in the WebSphere Application Server configuration. For any transports that use the new network input/output channel chains, including HTTP and Java Message Service (JMS), you can modify the SSL configuration repertoire aliases in the following locations for each server:

   • Click Server > Application server > server_name. Under Communications, click Ports. Locate a transport chain where SSL is enabled and click View associated transports. Click transport_channel_name. Under Transport Channels, click SSL Inbound Channel (SSL_2).

   • Click System administration > Deployment manager. Under Additional properties, click Ports. Locate a transport chain where SSL is enabled and click View associated transports. Click transport_channel_name. Under Transport Channels, click SSL Inbound Channel (SSL_2).

   • Click System administration > Node agents > node_agent _name. Under Additional properties, click Ports. Locate a transport chain where SSL is enabled and click View associated transports. Click transport_channel_name. Under Transport Channels, click SSL Inbound Channel (SSL_2).

   For the Object Request Broker (ORB) SSL transports, you can modify the SSL configuration repertoire aliases in the following locations. These configurations are for the server-level for WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Application Server Express and the cell level for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment.

   • Click Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure. Under RMI/IIOP security, click CSIv2 inbound transport.

   • Click Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure. Under RMI/IIOP security, click CSIv2 outbound transport.

   • Click Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure. Under RMI/IIOP security, click SAS inbound transport

   • Click Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure. Under RMI/IIOP security, click SAS outbound transport

   For the ORB SSL transports on the server level for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, you can modify the SSL configuration repertoire aliases in the following locations:

   • Click Servers > Application servers > server_name. Under Security, click Server security > CSIv2 inbound transport.

   • Click Servers > Application servers > server_name. Under Security, click Server security > CSIv2 outbound transport.

   • Click Servers > Application servers > server_name. Under Security, click Server security > SAS inbound transport.

   • Click Servers > Application servers > server_name. Under Security, click Server security > SAS outbound transport.

   For the SOAP JMX administrative transports, you can modify the SSL configurations repertoire aliases by clicking Servers > Application servers > server_name. Under Server infrastructure, click Administration > Administration services. Under Additional properties, click JMX connectors > SOAPConnector. Under Additional properties, click Custom properties. If you want to point the sslConfig property to a new alias, click New and type sslConfig in the name field, and its value in the Value field. For additional SOAP JMX administrative transports for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, you can modify the SSL configuration repertoire aliases in the following locations:

   • Click System administration > Deployment manager. Under Additional properties, click Administration services. Under Additional properties, click JMX connectors > SOAPConnector. Under Additional properties, click Custom properties. If you want to point the sslConfig property to a new alias, click sslConfig and select an alias in the Value field.

   • Click System administration > Node agents > node_agent_name. Under Additional properties, Administration services. Under Additional properties, click JMX connectors > SOAPConnector. Under Additional properties, click Custom properties. If you want to point the sslConfig property to a new alias, click New and type sslConfig in the name field, and its value in the Value field.

   For the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) SSL transport, you can modify the SSL configuration repertoire aliases by clicking Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure. Under User account repository, click the Available realm definitions drop-down list, and select Standalone LDAP registry.

8. Click Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure to configure the rest of the security settings and enable security. For information about these settings, see Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure settings.

   For additional information, see Server and administrative security.

9. Validate the completed security configuration by clicking OK or Apply. If problems occur, they display at the top of the console page in red type.

10. If there are no validation problems, click Save to save the settings to a file that the server uses when it restarts. Saving writes the settings to the configuration repository.

    If you do not click Apply or OK in the Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure panel before you click Save, your changes are not written to the repository. The server must be restarted for any changes to take effect when you start the administrative console.

    The save action enables the deployment manager to use the changed settings after WebSphere Application Server is restarted. For more information, see Enabling security for the realm. A Deployment manager configuration differs from a stand-alone base application server. The configuration is stored temporarily in the deployment manager until it is synchronized with all of the node agents.

    Also, verify that all of the node agents are up and running in the domain. Stop all application servers during this process. If any of the node agents are down, run a manual file synchronization utility from the node agent machine to synchronize the security configuration from the deployment manager. Otherwise, the malfunctioning node agent does not communicate with the deployment manager after security is enabled on the deployment manager.

11. Start the WebSphere Application Server administrative console.

    Start the deployment manager and, in your browser, type in the address of your WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment server. By default, the console is located at http://your_host.your_domain:9060/ibm/console.

    If security is currently disabled, log in with any user ID. If security is currently enabled, log in with a predefined administrative ID and password. This ID is typically the server user ID that is specified when you configured the user registry.

Related concepts

Related tasks

Related Reference