WebSphere Application Server - Express, Version 6.0.x     Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows

Administrative roles

The Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) role-based authorization concept is extended to protect the WebSphere Application Server administrative subsystem. A number of administrative roles are defined to provide degrees of authority that are needed to perform certain administrative functions from either the Web-based administrative console or the system management scripting interface. The authorization policy is only enforced when global security is enabled. The following table describes the administrative roles:

Administrative roles
Role Description
monitor Least privileged; can view the WebSphere Application Server configuration and the current state.
configurator Monitor privilege plus the ability to change the WebSphere Application Server configuration.
operator Monitor privilege plus the ability to change the run-time state, such as starting or stopping services for example.
administrator Operator and configurator privilege, plus additional privileges granted solely to the administrator role. Examples include:
  • Modifying the server user ID and password
  • Mapping users and groups to the administrator role

The server ID that is specified when enabling global security is automatically mapped to the administrator role. Users, groups, can be added or removed from the administrative roles from the WebSphere Application Server administrative console at any time. However, a server restart is required for the changes to take effect. A best practice is to map a group or groups, rather than specific users, to administrative roles because it is more flexible and easier to administer. By mapping a group to an administrative role, adding or removing users to or from the group occurs outside of WebSphere Application Server and does not require a server restart for the change to take effect.

In addition to mapping user or groups, a special-subject can also be mapped to the administrative roles. A special-subject subject is a generalization of a particular class of users. The AllAuthenticated special subject means that the access check of the administrative role ensures that the user making the request is at least authenticated. The Everyone special subject means that anyone, authenticated or not, can perform the action, as if security was not enabled.




Related tasks
Assigning users to naming roles

Reference topic    

Terms of Use | Feedback

Last updated: Jun 8, 2005 12:45:23 PM EDT
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v6r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.express.doc/info/exp/ae/rsec_adminroles.html

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2002, 2005. All Rights Reserved.
This information center is powered by Eclipse technology. (http://www.eclipse.org)