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:
Role | Description |
Monitor | An individual or group that uses the monitor
role has the least amount of privileges. A monitor can complete the following
tasks:
|
Configurator | An individual or group that uses the configurator
role has the monitor privilege plus the ability to change the WebSphere Application
Server configuration. The configurator can perform all the day-to-day configuration
tasks. For example, a configurator can complete the following tasks:
|
Operator | An individual or group that uses the operator
role has monitor privileges plus ability to change the runtime state. For
example, an operator can complete the following tasks:
|
Administrator | An individual or group that uses the administrator
role has the operator and configurator privileges plus additional privileges
that are granted solely to the administrator role. For example, an administrator
can complete the following tasks:
Note: An administrator cannot map users and groups to the administrator
roles.
|
The server ID that is specified when enabling global security is automatically mapped to the administrator role.
Users and groups can be added or removed from the administrative roles from the WebSphere Application Server administrative console at any time. The Primary administrative user name must be used to log on to the administrative console to change the administrative user and group roles. 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.
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.