Scenario: Creating a single signon test environment

 

In this scenario, you want to configure network authentication service and EIM to create a basic single signon test environment. Use this scenario to gain a basic understanding of what configuring a single signon environment involves on a small scale before implementing single signon across an entire enterprise.

 

Situation

You, John Day, are a network administrator for a large wholesale company. Currently you spend much of your time troubleshooting password and user identity problems, such as forgotten passwords. Your network is comprised of several System i™ models and a Windows® 2000 server, where your users are registered in Microsoft® Windows Active Directory. Based on your research, you know that Microsoft Active Directory uses the Kerberos protocol to authenticate Windows users. You also know that the System i platform provides a single signon solution based on an implementation of Kerberos authentication, called network authentication service, in conjunction with EIM.

You are excited about the benefits of using single signon. However, you want to thoroughly understand single signon configuration and usage before you begin using it across your entire enterprise. Consequently, you decide to configure a test environment first.

After considering the various groups in your company, you decide to create the test environment for the Order Receiving department. The employees in the Order Receiving department use multiple applications on one System i model to handle incoming customer orders. Consequently, the Order Receiving department provides an excellent opportunity for you to create a single signon test environment that you can use to better understand how single signon works and how to plan a single signon implementation across your enterprise.

 

Scenario advantages

As the network administrator at MyCo, Inc., you want to create a small single signon environment for testing that includes a small number of users and a single System i model. You want to perform thorough testing to ensure that user identities are correctly mapped within your test environment. Based on this configuration, you eventually want to expand the test environment to include the other systems and users in your enterprise.

The objectives of this scenario are as follows:

 

Details

The following figure illustrates the network environment for this scenario.

The figure illustrates the following points relevant to this scenario.

EIM domain data defined for the enterprise

Windows 2000 server

System A

Client PC used for single signon administration

 

Prerequisites and assumptions

Successful implementation of this scenario requires that the following assumptions and prerequisites are met:

  1. All system requirements, including software and operating system installation, have been verified.

    To verify that the licensed programs have been installed, complete the following:

    1. In iSeries Navigator, expand your system > Configuration and Service > Software > Installed Products.

    2. Ensure that all the necessary licensed programs are installed.

  2. All necessary hardware planning and setup is complete.

  3. TCP/IP and basic system security are configured and tested on each system.

  4. The directory server and EIM should not be previously configured on System A.

    Instructions in this scenario are based on the assumption that the directory server has not been previously configured on System A. However, if you already configured the directory server, you can still use these instructions with only slight differences. These differences are noted in the appropriate places within the configuration steps.

  5. A single DNS server is used for host name resolution for the network. Host tables are not used for host name resolution.

    The use of host tables with Kerberos authentication may result in name resolution errors or other problems..

 

Configuration steps

You need to thoroughly understand the concepts related to single signon which include network authentication service and Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) concepts, before you implement this scenario. If you are ready to continue with this scenario complete the following steps:

 

Parent topic:

Single signon scenarios