0 Security settings

This section discusses how various settings related to security affect performance. Refer to IBM WebSphere V5.0 Security, SG24-6573 for more information about WebSphere security.

 

Disabling security

Security is a global setting. When security is enabled, performance can be decreased between 10-20%. Therefore, disable security when not needed.

In the Administrative Console, select Security -> Global Security. The Enabled and Enforce Java 2 Security check boxes control global security settings. By default, security is not enabled.

 

Fine-tune the security cache timeout for the environment

If WAS security is enabled, the security cache timeout can influence performance. The timeout parameter specifies how often to refresh the security-related caches.

Security information pertaining to beans, permissions, and credentials is cached. When the cache timeout expires, all cached information becomes invalid. Subsequent requests for the information result in a database lookup. Sometimes, acquiring the information requires invoking a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)-bind or native authentication. Both invocations are relatively costly operations for performance.

Determine the best trade-off for the application by looking at usage patterns and security needs for the site.

Use the Administrative Console to change this value. To do so, select Security -> Global Security. Enter an appropriate value in seconds in the Cache Timeout field. The default is 600 seconds.

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IBM is a trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.