Configure local operating system user registries

Use these steps to configure local operating system user registries.

For security purposes, the WebSphere Application Server provides and supports the implementation for Windows operating system registries, AIX, Solaris and multiple versions of Linux operating systems. The respective operating system application programming interface (API) are called by the product processes (servers) for authenticating a user and other security-related tasks (for example, getting user or group information). Access to these APIs are restricted to users who have special privileges. These privileges depend on the operating system and are described below.

Before configuring the Local OS user registry you need to know the user name (ID) and password to use. This user can be any valid user in the user registry. This user is referred to as either a product security server ID, a server ID, or a server user ID in the documentation. Having a server ID means that a user has special privileges when calling protected internal methods. Normally, this ID and password are used to log into the administrative console after security is turned on. You can use other users to log in if those users are part of the administrative roles. When security is enabled, this server ID and password are authenticated with the user registry during product startup. If authentication fails, the server does not come up. So it is important to choose an ID and password that do not expire or change often. If the product server user ID or password need to change in the user registry, ensure that the changes are performed when all the product servers are up and running. After the changes are completed in the user registry, use the following steps to change the ID and the password information. Save, stop, and restart all the servers so that the product can use the new ID or password. If any problem arises after starting the product because of authentication problems that cannot be fixed, disable security before the server can start up. To avoid this step, make sure that the changes are validated in the Global Security panel. After the server is up, change the ID and password information and enable security.

Consider the following issues:

• The server ID needs to be different from the Windows machine name where the product is installed. For example, if the Windows machine name is vicky and the security server ID is vickyy, the Windows system fails when getting the information (group information, for example) for user vicky.

• WebSphere Application Server dynamically determines whether the machine is a member of a Windows system domain.

• WebSphere Application Server does not support Windows trusted domains.

• If a machine is a member of a Windows domain, both the domain user registry and the local user registry of the machine participate in authentication and
  security role mapping.

• The domain user registry takes precedence over the local user registry of the machine and can have undesirable implications if users with the same password exist in both user registries.

• The user that the product processes run under requires the Administrative and Act as part of the operating system privileges to call the Windows operating system APIs that authenticate or collect user and group information. The process needs special authority, which is given by these privileges. The user in this example might not be the same as the security server ID (the requirement for which is a valid user in the registry). This user logs into the machine (if using the command line to start the product process) or the Log On User setting in the services panel if the product processes have started using the services. If the machine is also part of a domain, this user is a part of the Domain Admin group in the domain to call the operating system APIs in the domain in addition to having the Act as part of operating system privilege in the local machine.

Consider the following points:

• The user that the product processes run under requires the root privilege. This privilege is needed to call the operating system APIs to authenticate or to collect user and group information. The process needs special authority, which is given by the root privilege. This user might not be the same as the security server ID (the requirement is that it should be a valid user in the registry). This user logs into the machine and is running the product processes.

• You might need to have the password shadow file in your system.

About this task

Important: The local operating system in not a valid user account repository when you have a mixed cell environment that includes both z/OS platform and non-z/OS platform nodes.

The following steps are needed to perform this task initially when setting up
security for the first time.

Procedure

1. Click Security > Global security.

2. Under user registries, click Local OS.

3. Enter a valid user name in the Server user ID field.

4. Enter the user password in the Server user password field.

5. Optional: Select the Ignore case for authorization option to enable WebSphere Application Server to perform a case insensitive authorization check when you use the default authorization.

6. Click OK. The administrative console does not validate the user ID and password when you click OK. Validation is only done when you click OK or Apply in the Global Security panel. If you are enabling security for the first time, complete the other steps and navigate to the Global Security panel. Make sure that Local OS is selected as the active user registry. If security was already enabled and you had changed either the user or the password information in this panel, make sure to go to the Global Security panel and click OK or Apply to validate your changes. If your changes are not validated, the server might not start.

   Important: Until you authorize other users to perform administrative functions, you can only access the administrative console with the server user ID and password that you specified. For more information, see Assignin_users_to_administrator_roles.html.

Results

For any changes in this panel to be effective, you need to save, stop, and start all the product servers, including deployment managers, nodes and application servers. If the server comes up without any problems, the setup is correct.

After completed these steps, you have configured WebSphere Application Server to use the local OS user registry to identify authorized users.

What to do next

Complete any remaining steps for enabling security. For more information, see Enabling security for all application servers .

Sub-topics

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