Interoperating with previous product versions

 

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IBM WAS inter-operates with the previous product versions.

WAS v6.1 distinguishes the identities of the user who acts as an administrator, managing the Application Server environment, from the identity of the user that is used for authenticating between servers. In prior releases, the end user had to specify a server user ID and password as the user identity for authenticating between servers. In WAS v6.1, the server user ID is generated automatically and internally.

The end user can specify that the server user ID and password not be automatically generated. This option is especially important in the case of a mixed-release cell, where the server user ID and password are specified in a down-level version of the Application Server. In such a scenario, the end user should opt out of automatically generating the server user ID and instead use the server user ID and password that is specified in the down-level version of the Application Server, in order to ensure backwards compatibility.

Interoperability is achieved only when the LTPA authentication mechanism and a distributed user registry is used such as LDAP or a distributed Custom user registry.

LocalOS on most platforms is not considered a distributed user registry, except on z/OS within the z/OS environment.

SWAM cannot be used for interoperability as it does not contain credentials that can be forwarded outside of the existing process. SWAM is deprecated in WAS V6.1 and will be removed in a future release.

z/SAS is supported only between V6.0.x and previous version servers federated in a V6.1 cell.

 

Procedure

1. Configure WAS v 6.1 with the same distributed user registry (LDAP or Custom) that is configured with the previous version. Verify the same LDAP user registry is shared by all of the product versions.

   1. In the console, select...

      Security | Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure

   2. Choose an available Realm definition and click Configure.

   3. Enter a primary administrative user name.

      This is the identity of the user with administrative privileges that is defined in your local operating system. The user name is used to log on to the console when administrative security is enabled. WAS V6.1 requires an administrative user that is distinct from the server user identity so that administrative actions can be audited.

      In WAS V5.x and 6.0.x, a single user identity is required for both administrative access and internal process communication. When migrating to V6.1, this identity is used as the server user identity. We need to specify another user for the administrative user identity.

   4. Click either...

      Automatically generated server identity

      ...or...

      Server identity that is stored in the user repository

   5. If you select...

      Server identity that is stored in the user repository

      ...enter the Server user id and the associated Password.

   6. Fill out the rest of the user registry settings and then click OK.

2. Configure the LTPA authentication mechanism.

   Automatic generation of the LTPA keys should be disabled. If not, keys used by a previous release are lost. Export the current LTPA keys from WAS V6.1 and import them into the previous release.

   This step and it's sub-steps should only be performed in multiple cell environments where an existing cell is present for the previous appserver version.

   1. In the console select...

      Security | Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure | Authentication mechanisms and expiration | Key set groups | key_set_group

   2. Clear the Automatically generate keys check box.

   3. Click OK, then click Authentication mechanisms and expiration in the path at the top of the Key set groups panel.

   4. Scroll down to the Cross-cell single sign-on section, and enter a password to use for encrypting the LTPA keys when adding them to the file.

   5. Enter the password again to confirm the password.

   6. Enter the Fully qualified key file name that contains the exported keys.

   7. Click Export keys.

   8. Follow the instructions provided in the previous release to import the exported LTPA keys into that configuration.

3. If you are using the default SSL configuration, extract all of the signer certificates from the WAS V6.1 common trust store. Otherwise, extract signers where necessary to import them into the previous release.

   1. In the console, click...

      Security | SSL certificate and key management | Key stores and certificates | CellDefaultTrustStore | Signer certificates

   2. Select one signer and click Extract.

   3. Enter a unique path and filename for the signer (for example, c:\temp\signer1.arm).

   4. Click OK. Repeat for all of the signers in the trust store.

   5. Check other trust stores for other signers that might need to be shared with the other server. Repeat steps e through h to extract the other signers.

4. Add the exported signers to..

   /etc/DummyServerTrustFile.jks
   /etc/DummyClientTrustFile.jks

   ...of the back-level product version. If the previous release is not using the dummy certificate, the signer certificate(s) from the previous release must be extracted and added into the WAS V6.1 release to enable SSL connectivity in both directions.

   1. Open the key management utility, iKeyman, for that product version.

   2. Start ikeyman.bat or ikeyman.sh from the ${USER_INSTALL_ROOT}/bin directory.

   3. Select Key Database File > Open.

   4. Open...

      ${USER_INSTALL_ROOT}/etc/DummyServerTrustFile.jks

   5. Enter WebAS for the password.

   6. Select Add and enter one of the files extracted in step 3. Continue until you have added all of the signers.

   7. Repeat steps c through f for the DummyClientTrustFile.jks file.

5. Verify that the application uses the correct JNDI name and naming bootstrap port for performing a naming lookup.

6. Stop and restart all of the servers.