With the user registry implementation for the local operating system, the WebSphere Application Server authentication mechanism can use the user accounts database of the local operating system.
A local OS user registry is not a centralized user registry like LDAP.
When a group is created, the default value is Global and the default type is Security. With Windows NT domain registry support for Windows 2000 and 20003 domain controllers, WebSphere Application Server only supports Global groups that are the Security type. It is recommended that you use the Active Directory registry support rather than a Windows NT domain registry if you use Windows 2000 and 2003 domain controllers because the Active Directory supports all group scopes and types. The Active Directory also supports a nested group that is not support by Windows NT domain registry. The Active Directory is a centralized control registry.
WebSphere Application Server does not have to install the member of the domain because it can be installed on any machine on any platform. Note that the Windows NT domain native call returns the support group only without an error.
Do not use a Local OS user registry in a WebSphere Application Server environment, where application servers are dispersed across more than one machine because each machine has its own user registry.
Exceptions include a Windows domain registry, which is a centralized registry and Network Information Services (NIS), which is not supported by WebSphere Application Server.
As mentioned previously, the access IDs taken from the user registry are used during authorization checks. Because these IDs are typically unique identifiers, they vary from machine to machine, even if the exact users and passwords exist on each machine.
Web client certificate authentication is not currently supported when using the local operating system user registry. However, Java client certificate authentication does function with a local operating user registry. Java client certificate authentication maps the first attribute of the certificate domain name to the user ID in the user registry.
CWSCJ0337E: The mapCertificate method is not supported
The error is intended for Web client certificates; however, it also displays for Java client certificates. Ignore this error for Java client certificates.Using Windows operating system user registries
When enabling security on Windows operating systems, if the local operating system (Local OS) is selected as the user registry, consider the following points:
Required privileges
The user that is running the WebSphere Application Server process requires enough operating system privilege to call the Windows systems application programming interface (API) for authenticating and obtaining user and group information from the Windows operating system. This user logs into the machine, or if running as a service, is the Log On As user. Depending on the machine and whether the machine is a stand-alone machine or a machine that is part of a domain or is the domain controller, the access requirements vary.
The user is a domain user and not a local user, which implies that when a machine is part of a domain, only a domain user can start the server.
If the machine is a member of a domain, add domainName\userID, where the userID is the owner of process (such as WebSphere Application Server). Start WebSphere Application Server as a service with login ID domainName\userID. If WebSphere Application Server is already in service, go to the service and right-click IBM WebSphere Application Server > properties >Logon to change the logon ID and password to restart WebSphere Application Server.
Windows 2000 domain controller users: For a Windows 2000 domain controller, replace Local Security Policy with Domain Security Policy in the previous step.
Domain and local user registries
When WebSphere Application Server is started, the security run-time initialization process dynamically attempts to determine if the local machine is a member of a Windows domain. If the machine is part of a domain then by default both the local registry users or groups and the domain registry users or groups can be used for authentication and authorization purposes with the domain registry taking precedence. The list of users and groups that is presented during the security role mapping includes users and groups from both the local user registry and the domain user registry. The users and groups can be distinguished by the associated host names.
WebSphere Application Server does not support trusted domains.
If the machine is not a member of a Windows system domain, the user registry local to that machine is used.
Using both the domain user registry and the local user registry
In general, if the local and the domain registries do not contain common users or groups, it is simpler to administer and it eliminates unfavorable side effects. If possible, give users and groups access to unique security roles, including the server ID and administrative roles. In this situation, select the users and groups from either the local user registry or the domain user registry to map to the roles.
In cases where the same users or groups exist in both the local user registry and the domain user registry, it is recommended that at least the server ID and the users and groups that are mapped to the administrative roles be unique in the registries and exist only in the domain.
If a common set of users exists, set a different password to make sure that the appropriate user is authenticated.
When a machine is part of a domain, the domain user registry takes precedence over the local user registry. For example, when a user logs into the system, the domain user registry tries to authenticate the user first. If authentication fails, the local user registry is used. When a user or a group is mapped to a role, the user and group information is first obtained from the domain user registry. In case of failure, the local user registry is tried.
Authorizing with the domain user registry first can cause problems if a user exists in both the domain and local user registries with the same password. Role-based authorization can fail in this situation because the user is first authenticated within the domain user registry. This authentication produces a unique domain security ID that is used in WebSphere Application Server during the authorization check. However, the local user registry is used for role assignment. The domain security ID does not match the unique security ID that is associated with the role. To avoid this problem, map security roles to domain users instead of local users.
Using either the local or the domain user registry. If you want to access users and groups from either the local or the domain user registry, instead of both, set the com.ibm.websphere.registry.UseRegistry property. This property can be set to either localor domain. When this property is set to local(case insensitive) only the local user registry is used. When this property is set to domain, (case insensitive) only the domain user registry is used.
Set this property by clicking Custom Properties in the Security > User Registries > Local OS panel in the administrative console or by using scripts. When the property is set, the privilege requirement for the user who is running the product process does not change. For example, if this property is set to local, the user that is running the process requires the same privilege, as if the property was not set.
Using UNIX system user registries
Using Linux and Solaris system user registries
For WebSphere Application Server Local OS security user registry to work on the Linux and Solaris platforms, a shadow password file must exist. The shadow password file is named shadow and is located in the /etc directory. If the shadow password file does not exist, an error occurs after enabling global security and configuring the user registry as Local OS.
To create the shadow file, run the pwconv command (with no parameters). This command creates an /etc/shadow file from the /etc/passwd file. After creating the shadow file, you can enable local operating system security successfully.
Remote user registries
By default, the user registry is local to all of the product processes. The performance is higher because there is no need for remote calls and the user registry also increases availability. Any failing process does not effect other processes.
When using Local OS as the user registry, every product process must run with privilege access.
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example, root in UNIX and Act as part of operating system in
Windows systems.
The node and the cell processes are meant for manipulating configuration information and for hosting the user registry for all the application servers that create traffic and cause problems.
Using a node agent instead of the cell to host the remote user registry is preferable because the cell process is not designed to be highly available. Using a node to host the remote user registry indicates that only the application servers in that node are using it. Because the node agent does not contain any application code, giving it the access required privilege is not a concern.
You can set up a remote user registry by setting the WAS_UseRemoteRegistry property in the Global Security panel using the Custom Properties link at the bottom of the administrative console panel. Use either the Cell or the Node case insensitive value. If the value is Cell, the cell user registry is used by all of the product processes including the node agent and all of the application servers. If the cell process is down for any reason, restart all of the processes after the cell is restarted. If the node agent user registry is used for the remote user registry, set the WAS_UseRemoteRegistry value to node. In this case, all the application server processes use the node agent user registry. In this case, if the node agent fails and does not start automatically, you might need to restart all the application servers after the node agent is started.
Related reference
Simple WebSphere authentication mechanism
Custom user registries