WAS v8.5 > Reference > Troubleshooting tips

Security authorization provider troubleshooting tips

This article describes the issues you might encounter using a Java Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC) authorization provider. Tivoli Access Manager is bundled with WebSphere Application Server as an authorization provider. However, you also can plug in our own authorization provider.


Tivoli Access Manager as a Java Authorization Contract for Containers authorization provider

IBM recommends using the HPEL log and trace infrastructure. With HPEL, one views logs using the LogViewer command-line tool in PROFILE/bin.

You might encounter the following issues when using Tivoli Access Manager as a JACC authorization provider:


External providers for Java Authorization Contract for Containers authorization provider

You might encounter the following issues when we use an external provider for JACC authorization:


The configuration of JACC might fail

If we have problems configuring JACC, check the following items:


The server might fail to start after configuring JACC

If the server does not start after JACC is configured, check the following items:


The application might not deploy properly

When you click Save, the policy and role information is propagated to the Tivoli Access Manager policy. This process might take some time to finish. If the save fails, you must uninstall the application and then reinstall it.

To access an application after it is installed, you must wait 30 seconds, by default, to start the application after you save.


The startServer command might fail

The startServer command might fail after you configure Tivoli Access Manager or a clean uninstall did not take place after unconfiguring JACC.

If the cleanup for JACC unconfiguration or start server fails after JACC is configured, take the following actions:


"HPDIA0202w: An unknown user name was presented to Access Manager"

You might encounter the following error message if you try to use an existing user in a Local Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) user registry with Tivoli Access Manager: 

AWXJR0008E   Failed to create a PDPrincipal for principal mgr1.: 
AWXJR0007E   A Tivoli Access Manager exception was caught. Details are:
"HPDIA0202W  An unknown user name was presented to Access Manager."
This problem might be caused by the host name exceeding predefined limits with Tivoli Access Manager when it is configured against MS Active Directory. In WAS, the maximum length of the host name can not exceed 46 characters.

Check the host name is not fully qualified. Configure the machine so the host name does not include the host domain.

To correct this error...

  1. On the command line, type the following information to get a Tivoli Access Manager command prompt:

      pdadmin -a administrator_name -p administrator_password
    The pdadmin administrator_name prompt is displayed. For example:

      pdadmin -a administrator1 -p passw0rd
  2. At the pdadmin command prompt, import the user from the LDAP user registry to Tivoli Access Manager by typing the following information:

      user import user_name cn=user_name,o=organization_name,c=country
    For example:

      user import jstar cn=jstar,o=ibm,c=us

After importing the user to Tivoli Access Manager, use the user modify command to set the user account to valid. The following syntax shows how to use this command:

For example:

For information on how to import a group from LDAP to Tivoli Access Manager, see the Tivoli Access Manager documentation.


"HPDAC0778E: The specified user's account is set to invalid"

You might encounter the following error message after you import a user to Tivoli Access Manager and restart the client: 

AWXJR0008E    Failed to create a PDPrincipal for principal mgr1.: 
AWXJR0007E    A Tivoli Access Manager exception was caught. 
Details are: "HPDAC0778E   The specified user's account is set to invalid."

To correct this error, use the user modify command to set the user account to valid. The following syntax shows how to use this command:

For example:


"HPDJA0506E: Invalid argument: Null or zero-length user name field for the ACL entry"

You might encounter an error similar to the following message when we propagate the security policy information from the application to the provider using the wsadmin propagatePolicyToJACCProvider command: 

AWXJR0035E   An error occurred while  attempting to add member, 
                cn=agent3,o=ibm,c=us, to role AgentRole
HPDJA0506E   Invalid argument: Null or zero-length user name field for 
                the ACL entry

To correct this error, create or import the user, that is mapped to the security role to the Tivoli Access Manager. For more information on propagating the security policy information, see the documentation for the authorization provider.


WASX7017E: Exception received while running file "InsuranceServicesSingle.jacl"

After the JACC provider and Tivoli Access Manager are enabled, when attempting to install the application, which is configured with security roles using wsadmin, the following error might occur: 

WASX7017E: Exception received while running file "InsuranceServicesSingle.jacl"; 
exception information: com.ibm.ws.scripting.ScriptingException: WASX7111E: 
Cannot find a match for supplied option: 
"[RuleManager, , , cn=mgr3,o=ibm,c=us|cn=agent3,o=ibm,c=us, cn=ManagerGro
up,o=ibm,c=us|cn=AgentGroup,o=ibm,c=us]" for task "MapRolesToUsers"

The $AdminApp MapRolesToUsers task option is no longer valid when Tivoli Access Manager is used as the authorization server. To correct the error, change MapRolesToUsers to TAMMapRolesToUsers.


Access denied exceptions accessing applications when using JACC

In the case of Tivoli Access Manager, you might see the following error message. 

AWXJR0044E: The access decision for Permission, {0}, was denied because either the 
PolicyConfiguration or RoleConfiguration objects did not get created successfully at 
application installation time. RoleConfiguration exists = {false}, PolicyConfiguration 
exists = {"false"}.

If the access denied exceptions are not expected for the application, check the SystemOut.log files to see if the security policy information was correctly propagated to the provider.

If the security policy information for the application is successfully propagated to the provider, the audit statements with the message key SECJ0415I appear. However, if there was a problem propagating the security policy information to the provider (for example: network problems, JACC provider is not available), the SystemOut.log files contain the error message with the message keys SECJ0396E (during install) or SECJ0398E (during modification). The installation of the application is not stopped due to a failure to propagate the security policy to the JACC provider. Also, in the case of failure, no exception or error messages appear during the save operation. When the problem causing this failure is fixed, run the propagatePolicyToJaccProvider tool to propagate the security policy information to the provider without reinstalling the application.


Related concepts:

Authorization providers
Tivoli Access Manager integration as the JACC provider
JACC providers
JACC support in WAS


Related


Troubleshooting security configurations
Enable an external JACC provider
Authorizing access to Java EE resources using Tivoli Access Manager
Propagating security policy of installed applications to a JACC provider using wsadmin.sh


Reference:

Interfaces that support JACC


Related information:

IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business information center


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