WebSphere Portal - Setting up LDAP over SSL with Novell eDirectory

You might wish to configure WAS and WebSphere Portal access to the LDAP directory over SSL to ensure the confidentiality of the data exchanged between WAS, WebSphere Portal, and the LDAP directory. For example, user passwords are sent over the network between LDAP directory and WebSphere Portal. This occurs to set the password if WebSphere Portal user management tools are used to create users and change passwords and also when WAS authenticates any user name and password pair through an LDAP BIND operation. Configuring LDAP over SSL can be important to protect sensitive data. Also, it might be desirable to ensure that user attributes that are retrieved from the directory are not viewed by someone watching packets on the network, if the attributes of a user include sensitive information or privacy is a concern.

To ensure that all this information remains private, it is necessary to configure both WAS and WebSphere Portal to use LDAP over SSL to the LDAP directory. Configuring LDAP over SSL for WAS and WebSphere Portal is a separate operation from configuring the IBM HTTP Server to accept incoming browser requests over HTTPS, or configuring HTTPS between the IBM HTTP Server and WAS in a distributed setup.

A full primer on the configuration of all the LDAP directories and WAS is beyond the scope of this Portal Server documentation. Consult the documentation for the LDAP server to configure the directory for SSL traffic. For WAS, the IBM Redbook IBM WebSphere V5.0 Security, SG24-6573-00 is available, and Appendix B contains instructions for configuring WAS for LDAP over SSL. You can also consult the WAS product documentation.

Set up LDAP over SSL

It is required that you first get LDAP (non-SSL) successfully working before setting up LDAP over SSL. This allows you to verify that the directory is responding to LDAP requests before setting it up for SSL. Use the IBM Web Administration for iSeries tool for all of the WebSphere Portal configuration tasks. The wizard will create the necessary servers (HTTP and WAS), configures the server for Portal, configures the database for Portal, and configures the Portal server for security (LDAP).

1. Install WebSphere Portal and WAS

Also refer to Install WebSphere Portal for instructions on how to install WebSphere Portal on an existing instance of WAS that has security enabled.

2. Install and setup the LDAP

It is recommended that you first get LDAP (non-SSL) successfully working before setting up LDAP over SSL. This allows you to verify that the directory is responding to LDAP requests before setting it up for SSL. Use the IBM Web Administration for iSeries tool for all of the WebSphere Portal configuration tasks. The wizard will create the necessary servers (HTTP and WAS), configures the server for Portal, configures the database for Portal, and configures the Portal server for security (LDAP).

3. Generate or import certificates as necessary and activate SSL on the directory

4. Import certificate(s) to WebSphere Portal to enable SSL connection

Importing certificates to a WAS keystore

If the application uses commercial certificate authority certificates (signer or CA certificates), you might be able to use the cacerts keystore (the default trust keystore) with the application. The integrated file system path for cacerts is /QIBM/ProdData/Java400/jdk13/lib/security/cacerts. However, in no case should you attempt to modify the original cacerts keystore. Create a private copy of the cacerts file, and then add or remove certificates to the private copy. The password for cacerts is changeit. Be sure to change the password that protects the private copy of the cacerts file. Also, note that initially, all keystores created using iKeyman contain a number of commercial CA certificates.

You can create the Java keystores in any iSeries integrated file system directory. However, it might be convenient to place them in the same directory as those that are used by the WebSphere instance. This might make it easier to include them in your backup and restore procedure. WAS provides an initial set of Java keystores that are used to secure connections between WebSphere components. These keystores are found in the etc directory of the WebSphere instance. For example, the keystores for the default instance are found in the /QIBM/UserData/WebAS5/Base/default/etc directory.

For an example of how to create a Java keystore, see Use Java keystore files in the WAS for iSeries Information Center.

Importing certificates to a WebSphere Portal keystore

You must also import the certificates to a keystore that can be used by the WebSphere Portal. In this case, WebSphere Portal has no configuration setting to point to a specifically named Java Key Store file. Instead, import the certificates into the default keystore file of the JVM, cacerts. However, in no case should you attempt to modify the cacerts keystore. Rather, create a private copy of the cacerts file, and then add or remove certificates. The configured truststore in the SSL configuration of the CSIv2 Outbound Transport must also be updated.

5. Close down the non-SSL port of the LDAP directory server (optional)

This is an optional step. Closing the non-SSL port of the directory will ensure that traffic exchanged with the directory by WAS, WebSphere Portal, or any other application, is confidential.

Next steps

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Setting up LDAP over SSL with Novell eDirectory

Overview