WAS v8.5 > Secure applications > Secure web applications > Web application security components and settings

Assign users and groups to roles

Before you perform this task:

• Secure the web applications and EJB applications where new roles are created and assigned to web and enterprise bean resources.

• Create all the roles in the application.

• Verify that we have properly configured the user registry containing the users to assign.

  It is preferable to have security turned on with the user registry of your choice before beginning this process.

• Make sure that if you change anything in the security configuration you save the configuration and restart the server before the changes become effective.

  For example, enable security or change the user registry.

These steps are common for both installing an application and modifying an existing application. If the application contains roles, you see the Security role to user/group mapping link during application installation and also during application management, as a link in the Additional properties section.

1. Access the dmgr console.
   http://localhost:port_number/ibm/console

2. Click...
   Applications | Application Types | WebSphere enterprise applications | application_name | Detail properties | Security role to user/group mapping

   A list of all the roles that belong to this application is displayed. If the roles already have users, or if one of the special subjects, AllAuthenticatedUsers, AllAuthenticatedInTrustedRealms, or Everyone is assigned, they display here.

3. To assign the special subjects, select either the Everyone or the All Authenticated in Application's Realm option for the appropriate roles.

4. To assign users or groups, select the role. We can select multiple roles at the same time, if the same users or groups are assigned to all the roles.

5. Click Look up users or Look up groups.

6. Get the appropriate users and groups from the user registry by completing the Limit and the Search string fields and by clicking Search.

   The Limit field limits the number of users that are obtained and displayed from the user registry. The pattern is a searchable pattern matching one or more users and groups. For example, user* lists users like user1, user2. A pattern of asterisk (*) indicates all users or groups.

   Use the limit and the search strings cautiously so as not to overwhelm the user registry. When we use large user registries such as LDAP where information on thousands of users and groups resides, a search for a large number of users or groups can make the system slow and can make it fail. When more entries exist than requests for entries, a message displays on top of the panel. We can refine your search until we have the required list.

   If the search string you are using has no matches, a NULL error message is displayed. This message is informational and does not necessarily indicate an error, as it is valid to have no entries matching your selected criteria.

7. Select the users and groups to include as members of these roles from the Available field and click >> to add them to the roles.

8. To remove existing users and groups, select them from the Selected field and click <<.

   When removing existing users and groups from roles, use caution if those same roles are used as RunAs roles.

   For example, if the user1 user is assigned to the role1 RunAs role and you try to remove the user1 user from the role1 role, the dmgr console validation does not delete the user. A user can only be part of a RunAs role if the user is already in a role either directly or indirectly through a group. In this case, the user1 user is in the role1 role. For more information on the validation checks that are performed between RunAs role mapping and user and group mapping to roles, see Assigning users to RunAs roles.

9. Click OK.

   If any validation problems exist between the role assignments and the RunAs role assignments, the changes are not committed and an error message that indicates the problem displays at the top of the panel. If a problem exists, verify the user in the RunAs role is also a member of the regular role. If the regular role contains a group containing the user in the RunAs role, verify the group is assigned to the role using the dmgr console. Follow steps 4 and 5. Avoid using any process where the complete name of the group, host name, group name, or distinguished name (DN) is not used.

Results

The user and group information is added to the binding file in the application. This information is used later for authorization purposes.

If you change your realm you must repeat this process with the new realm name.

This task is required to assign users and groups to roles, which enables the correct users and groups to access a secured application. If you are installing an application, complete your installation. After the application is installed and running we can access your resources according to the user and group mapping that you did in this task. If you manage applications and modify the users and groups to role mapping, make sure you save, stop, and restart the application so the changes become effective. Try accessing the Java EE resources in the application to verify the changes are effective.

Depending upon how your active user registry is configured, the search results of security user or group role mappings are displayed in different formats. With federated repository, LDAP, file-based and custom registries can be used. WAS can uniquely identify users from various registries by the user names listed in the table.

In a distributed environment, when we install WAS with samples, enable security using federated repositories, and start the server1 server with sample applications, the server might create exceptions. However, the server starts successfully. The deployment manager did not create user and group samples when it created the deployment manager profile. To resolve exceptions caused by the samples failing to load, create our own sample users and groups. In the dmgr console, do the following:

1. Click Users and Groups > Manage Users.

2. Create the samples user and the sampadmn group. The samples user is a member of the sampadmn group.

For more assistance, refer to the "Managing users" help topic by clicking More information about this page at the top right of the Manage Users panel.

Subtopics

• Add users and groups to roles using an assembly tool
  After creating new roles and assigning them to enterprise bean and web resources, use this task to add users and groups to roles with an assembly tool.
• Security role to user or group mapping
  Use this page to specify the users and groups that are mapped to the security roles used with the enterprise application.
• Look up users
  Use this page to select and to map users, groups and special subjects for security roles.
• Assigning users to RunAs roles
  This article explains how to assign users to the RunAs roles for the application.
• Add users and groups to roles using an assembly tool
  After creating new roles and assigning them to enterprise bean and web resources, use this task to add users and groups to roles with an assembly tool.
• Security role to user or group mapping
  Use this page to specify the users and groups that are mapped to the security roles used with the enterprise application.
• Look up users
  Use this page to select and to map users, groups and special subjects for security roles.
• Assigning users to RunAs roles
  This article explains how to assign users to the RunAs roles for the application.

Related

Secure applications during assembly and deployment
Enable security

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