Portal administration tools

Overview

Administer and configure portal resources using:

• Administration portlets
• XML configuration interface
• Scripting Interface
• ReleaseBuilder

Several administration tools are available for limited purposes. For example, SLCheckerTool, for deleting orphaned data.

Security considerations

A master administrator can delegate administration and configuration work to subadministrators. For example, the master administrator can delegate the responsibility and rights for different administrative tasks to different departments in the same business. These can be departments for developing, deploying, and operating software solutions that are based on WebSphere Portal.

The delegation model is implemented by portal access control, which guards the execution of administrative tasks that manipulate portal resources. Users can only perform a task if they have the access permissions required for that task. Access permissions are implemented as user rights on actions related to portal resources, not on the resources themselves.

Administration portlets overview

Portal administrators use the administration portlets to...

• Perform administrative tasks and actions on portal resources:
  • Configure individual portal resources
  • Configure individual portal resources, together with dependent resources. For example, pages and derived pages.

• Give other users, for example subadministrators, access rights on selected portal resources, delegating administrative tasks as required.

• Deploy custom developed artifacts, such as portlets, themes, or skins.

You cannot use the administration portlets to perform scripted or automated administration or configuration tasks.

XML Configuration Interface (xmlaccess.sh)

The XML Configuration Interface provides a batch processing interface for portal configuration updates, allowing you to export an entire portal configuration or parts of a configuration, for example specific pages, to an XML file. You can then re-create the exported configuration from such a file on another portal.

The xmlaccess.sh command line tool connects via HTTP, so you can use it remotely.

You can use xmlaccess.sh to process portal resources, but not portal actions or tasks.

You can use xmlaccess.sh to process the configuration of portal resources that already exist, for example pages. In this context xmlaccess.sh processes derived resources, but it does not automatically create them.

xmlaccess.sh does not reflect the access control authorization model with delegated administration. You only need the access permission to use xmlaccess.sh. An administrator who works with xmlaccess.sh does not need access permission for the portal resources processed by the XML request. (The reason for this is that access control gives users access permissions on actions and not on resources.)

You can use xmlaccess.sh to...

• Export, import, and update complete or partial portal installations:
  • Transfer or migration between machines
  • Backup of the portal configuration
  • Overview of the portal configuration.
  • Clone a portal using the object ID generation mode of xmlaccess.sh.

• Copy parts of a configuration, such as specific pages, from one portal to another.

• Transfer portal configurations from one installation to another by exporting and importing the portal configuration. For example, try out a new portal configuration on a test portal for evaluation, and then transfer it to a production portal in a separate step using the portal configuration interface.

• Create a portal configuration file by XML export. You do this by an XML export.

• Install additional resources on a portal.

• Perform recurring administration tasks in an automated and reproducible manner.

• Perform these administrative tasks remotely, that is from another server through an HTTP connection.

A user who uses xmlaccess.sh to perform administrative tasks only needs the access right on the virtual resource XML_ACCESS. The user does not need access rights on the portal resources that are updated by xmlaccess.sh.

Use of xmlaccess.sh for the following tasks is limited:

• Delegating administrative tasks, that is having other administrative users with specific access permissions perform these tasks.
• Limiting administrative tasks to a particular user or to particular portal resources.

xmlaccess.sh is also used for release staging, that is for staging a portal from development through test to production.

Overview of the Portal Scripting Interface

The Portal Scripting Interface is a command line tool.

The Portal Scripting Interface behaves just like the portal administration portlets. It provides delegated administration in the same manner as the portal administration portlets and access control. To work with Portal Scripting Interface, a user needs access permission on the WebSphere Portal and on the portal resources that the user administers.

It allows implicit derivation during administrative work. This means that when you modify a portal resource, the Portal Scripting Interface creates the derivations of that resource in the same process, depending on access rights.

You can use the Portal Scripting Interface to:

• Make fine tuned changes to a portal configuration.

• Transfer configuration updates in a safe and controlled manner, without disturbing the production portal:
  1. On a development system, a team develops configuration updates for the portal, and the script for performing these updates.
  2. After the script has been completed, a test team tests both the script and the new configuration.
  3. After the script and the new configuration have been tested and approved, they can be applied to the production portal.
  4. An operator team processes the scripts that update the production portal.

The Portal Scripting Interface has the following advantages:

• Security: The user IDs and access roles of the involved teams provide separation between the responsibilities for the subtasks:

  • The development and test team do not have access rights on the production portal.

  • The operator who executes the script needs to have access rights on the resources that are created and updated by the script. Therefore, if you limit the access rights for that user as required, the script cannot affect other resources unintentionally.

• Safety and availability of the production portal:

  • The scripts can be tested and verified before being put into production.

  • Once the scripts are tested and verified, they perform the update in a reliable way. Human errors that might happen when working with the administration portlets are not possible.

  • The production portal does not even require an Administration page for performing the update.

  • The update can be performed over night without disturbing production.

Use of the Portal Scripting Interface is limited in the following way:

• The Portal Scripting Interface offers only a subset of the functionality of the portal administration portlets. For details refer to the Portal Scripting Interface command reference.
  • Portal administration portlets
  • xmlaccess.sh
  • Portal Scripting Interface

Parent

Administering
ReleaseBuilder
Command reference for Portal Scripting Interface

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