Migrate custom user registries

 

Before you begin

Before you perform this task, it is assumed that you already have a custom user registry implemented and working with WebSphere Application Server V6. The custom registry interface is the UserRegistry interface.

In WebSphere Application Server v6.x, in addition to the UserRegistry interface, the custom user registry requires the Result object to handle user and group information. This file is already provided in the package and you are expected to use it for the getUsers, getGroups and the getUsersForGroup methods.

We cannot use other WAS components (for example, datasources) to initialize the custom registry because other components like the containers are initialized after security and are not available during the registry initialization. A custom registry implementation is a pure custom implementation, independent of other WAS components.

The EJB method getCallerPrincipal( ) and the servlet methods getUserPrincipal( ) and getRemoteUser( ) return the security name instead of the display name. However, if we need the display names to return, set the WAS_UseDisplayName property to true. See the getUserDisplayName method description or the Javadoc, for more information.

If the migration tool was used to migrate the WAS Version 5 configuration to WAS v6.x, be aware that this migration does not involve any changes to your existing code. Because the WebSphere Application Server V5 custom registry works in WAS v6.x without any changes to the implementation (except when using data sources) use the V5-based custom registry after the migration without modifying the code. Consider that the migration tool might not copy your implementation files from V4 to v6.x. You might have to copy them to the class path in the V6 setup (preferably to the classes subdirectoy). If you are using the WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment version, copy the files to the cell and to each of the nodes class paths.

In WAS v6.x, a case insensitive authorization can occur when using the custom registry. This authorization is in effect only on the authorization check. This function is useful in cases where your custom registry returns inconsistent (in terms of case) results for user and group unique IDs.

Note: Setting this flag does not have any effect on the user names or passwords. Only the unique IDs returned from the registry are changed to lower-case before comparing them with the information in the authorization table, which is also converted to lowercase during run time.

Before proceeding, look at the UserRegistry interface. See Developing custom user registries for a description of each of these methods in detail.

 

Overview

The following steps go through in detail all the changes required to move your WebSphere Application Server V5 custom user registry to the WAS v6.x custom user registry. The steps are very simple and involve minimal code changes. The sample implementation file is used as an example when describing some of the steps.

 

Procedure

  1. Change your implementation to UserRegistry instead of CustomRegistry. Change:

    public class FileRegistrySample implements CustomRegistry


    to

    public class FileRegistrySample implements UserRegistry

  2. Throw the java.rmi.RemoteException in the constructors public FileRegistrySample() throws java.rmi.RemoteException

  3. Change the mapCertificate method to take a certificate chain instead of a single certificate. Change

    public String mapCertificate(X509Certificate cert)

    to

    public String mapCertificate(X509Certificate[]cert)

    Having a certificate chain gives you the flexibility to act on the chain instead of one certificate. If you are only interested in the first certificate just take the first certificate in the chain before processing. In WAS V6, the mapCertificate method is called to map the user in a certificate to a valid user in the registry, when certificates are used for authentication by the Web or the Java clients (transport layer certificates, Identity Assertion certificates).

  4. Remove the getUsers() method.

  5. Change the signature of the getUsers(String) method to return a Result object and accept an additional parameter (int). Change:

    public List getUsers(String pattern)


    to

    public Result getUsers(String pattern, int limit)

    In your implementation, construct the Result object from the list of the users obtained from the registry (whose number is limited to the value of the limit parameter) and call the setHasMore() method on the Result object if the total number of users in the registry exceeds the limit value.

  6. Change the signature of the getUsersForGroup(String) method to return a Result object and accept an additional parameter (int) and throw a new exception called NotImplementedException. Change the following:

    public List getUsersForGroup(String groupName)

    throws CustomRegistryException, EntryNotFoundException {
    to

    public String mapCertificate(X509Certificate[]cert)

    public Result getUsersForGroup(String groupSecurityName, int limit)
    throws NotImplementedException,
    EntryNotFoundException,
    CustomRegistryException {

    In WebSphere Application Server V6, this method is not called directly by the WebSphere Application Server Security component. However, other components of the WebSphere Application Server like the WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation Process Choreographer use this method when staff assignments are modeled using groups. Because this already is implemented in WAS v6.x, it is recommended that you change the implementation similar to the getUsers method as explained in step 5.

  7. Remove the getUniqueUserIds(String) method.

  8. Remove the getGroups() method.

  9. Change the signature of the getGroups(String) method to return a Result object and accept an additional parameter (int). change the following:

    public List getGroups(String pattern) to

    public Result getGroups(String pattern, int limit)

    In your implementation, construct the Result object from the list of the groups obtained from the registry (whose number is limited to the value of the limit parameter) and call the setHasMore() method on the Result object if the total number of groups in the registry exceeds the limit value.

  10. Add the createCredential method. This method is not called at this time, so return as null.

    public com.ibm.websphere.security.cred.WSCredential
    createCredential(String userSecurityName)
    throws CustomRegistryException,
    NotImplementedException,
    EntryNotFoundException {
    return null;
    }

    The first and second lines of the previous code example normally appear on one line. However, it extended beyond the width of the page.

  11. To build the WAS v6.x implementation, make sure you have the sas.jar and wssec.jar in your class path.

    %install_root%\java\bin\javac -classpath %WAS_HOME%\lib\wssec.jar;
    %WAS_HOME%\lib\sas.jar FileRegistrySample.java
    Type the previous lines as one continuous line.

  12. Copy the implementation classes to the product class path. The %install_root%/lib/ext directory is the preferred location. If you are using the Network Deployment product, make sure that you copy these files to the cell and all the nodes. Without the files in each of the node class paths the nodes and the application servers in those nodes cannot start when security is on.

  13. Use the administrative console to set up the custom registry. Follow the instructions in the Configuring custom user registries article to set up the custom registry including the IgnoreCase flag. Make sure that you add the WAS_UseDisplayName properties, if required.

 

Result

Migrates to a WAS v6.x custom registry.

 

Example

This step is required to migrate a custom registry from WAS V5 to WAS v6.x.

 

What to do next

If you are enabling security, make sure you complete the remaining steps. Once completed, save the configuration and restart all the servers. Try accessing some J2EE resources to verify that the custom registry migration was successful.

 

See Also


Custom user registries

 

Related Tasks


Developing custom user registries

 

See Also


UserRegistry.java files
FileRegistrySample.java file