Securing specific application servers

You can customize security to some extent at the application server level. You can disable administrative security on an application server.

You can also modify Java 2 Security and some of the other security attributes that are found on the Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure panel. This panel provides access to the cell-level security settings. You cannot configure a different authentication mechanism or user registry on an individual server basis. This feature is limited to cell-level configuration only.

By default, server security inherits all of the values that are configured for cell-level security. To override the cell-level security configuration at the server level, click Servers > Application Servers > server_name. Under Security, click Server Security and click any of the following links:

• CSIv2 inbound authentication

• CSIv2 outbound authentication

• CSIv2 inbound transport

• CSIv2 outbound transport

• SAS inbound transport

• SAS outbound transport

• Server-level security

Note: SAS is supported only between V6.0.x and previous version servers that have been federated in a V6.1 cell. After modifying the configuration in any of these panels and clicking OK or Apply, the security configuration for that panel or set of panels now overrides cell-level security. Other panels that are not overridden continue to be inherited at the cell-level. However, you can always revert back to the cell-level configuration at any time. You can revert back to the cell-level security configuration by clearing the check box next to any of the following options on the Server security panel:

• Security settings for this server override cell settings

• RMI/IIOP security for this server overrides cell settings

• SAS security for this server overrides cell settings

Procedure

1. Start the administrative console for the deployment manager. To get to the administrative console, go to http://host.domain:port_number/ibm/console. If security is disabled, you can enter any ID. If security is enabled, you must enter a valid user ID and password, which is either the administrative ID that is configured for the user registry or a user ID that is entered as an administrative user. To add a user ID as an administrative user, click System Administration > Console settings > Console users.

2. Configure cell-level security if you have not configured it previously. Go to Enabling security for detailed steps. After security is configured, configure server-level security.

3. To configure server-level security, click Servers > Application Servers > server name. Under Security, click Server security. The status of the security level that is in use for this application server is displayed.

   By default, you can see that your cell-level security configuration, Common Secure Interoperability (CSI), and SAS have not been overridden at the server level. CSI and SAS are authentication protocols for RMI/IIOP security requests. The server-level security panel lists attributes that are on the Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure panel and can be overridden at the server level. Not all of the attributes on the Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure panel can be overridden at the server level, including the user account repository.

4. To enable administrative security for this application server, go to the Server-level security panel, select the Security settings for this server override cell settings and the Enable application security options. By modifying the Server-level security panel, these settings override the settings for cell-level security.

5. Click Apply and Save.

6. To enable RMI/IIOP security for the application server, go to the Server-level security panel, select the RMI/IIOP security for this server overrides cell settings option and click Apply. If you select the RMI/IIOP security for this server overrides cell settings option, any changes that you make to the CSIv2 authentication or transport settings override the same settings on the cell level.

What to do next

After you modify the configuration for a particular application server, restart the application server for the changes to become effective. To restart the application server, go to Servers > Application servers and click the server name that you recently modified. Click Stop and then Start.

If you disabled security for the application server, you can typically test a Web address that is protected when security is enabled.

One URL that usually is installed when the DefaultApplication during installation is the snoop application. If the DefaultApplication is installed on the application server, test that security is disabled by going to the following URL: http://host.domain:9080/snoop. If security is disabled, a prompt does not display. This URL is just one method of validating the configuration. Validate that the configuration is appropriate for your applications.

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