Network Deployment (Distributed operating systems), v8.0 > Secure applications and their environment > Authenticate users > Select an authentication mechanism > Set up Kerberos as the authentication mechanism for WAS
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Create a Kerberos service principal name and keytab file
Step 1: Set up Kerberos as the authentication mechanism for WAS JAX-WSWe can create a Kerberos service principal name and keytab file using Microsoft Windows, iSeries, Linux, Solaris, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and z/OS operating systems key distribution centers (KDCs).
Kerberos prefers servers and services to have a host-based service ID. The format of this ID is <service name>/ <fully qualified hostname>. The default service name is WAS. For Kerberos authentication, the service name can be any strings that are allowed by the KDC. However, for SPNEGO web authentication, the service name must be HTTP. An example of a WebSphere Application Sever server ID is WAS/myhost.austin.ibm.com.
Each host must have a server ID unique to the hostname. All processes on the same node share the same host-based service ID.
A Kerberos administrator creates a Kerberos service principal name (SPN) for each node in the WebSphere cell. For example, for a cell with 3 nodes (such as server1.austin.ibm.com, server2.austin.ibm.com and server3.austin.ibm.com), the Kerberos administrator must create the following Kerberos service principals: WAS/server1.austin.ibm.com, WAS/server2.austin.ibm.com and WAS/server3.austin.ibm.com.
The Kerberos keytab file (krb5.keytab) contains all of the SPNs for the node and must be protected. This file can be placed in the config/cells/ <cell_name> directory
Read the Creating a Kerberos principal and keytab article for more information.
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What to do next
Create a Kerberos configuration file
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