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ConSol CM LDAP Authentication

Introduction to ConSol CM LDAP Authentication

ConSol CM offers LDAP authentication for the Web Client as a standard feature, i.e., instead of managing the passwords for the ConSol CM engineers in the ConSol CM database, they can be retrieved from an LDAP server (like e.g., a Microsoft Active Directory server).

When engineers want to log in to the ConSol CM Web Client, they enter their user name and password and press Enter. Behind the scenes, the ConSol CM server sends a request with the engineer's user name and password and asks the LDAP server whether those credentials are correct.

If the credentials are correct, the approval is sent back to the ConSol CM server and the engineer is logged into the Web Client.

Please keep in mind that the LDAP connection is only used to authenticate the user (confirm the identity). The authorization (i.e., the assignment of access permissions in the system) is done via the engineer and role administration in the Admin Tool. For every user who should work with the system as an engineer, an engineer account has to be created in the engineer administration!

Please see also the following picture for an explanation of the CM authentication process using LDAP.

Figure 405: ConSol CM - LDAP authentication process

Configuring the System to Enable LDAP Authentication

There are two ways you can enable the ConSol CM system to use LDAP authentication:

1. Select LDAP authentication during system set-up and enter the requested parameters (system properties) after the set-up.
2. Set up the system with the regular authentication mechanism and switch to LDAP later on, i.e., enter all required system properties later on.

Configuring the System During Initial Set-Up

During system set-up you can select LDAP as the authentication mode. This will set the system property cmas-core-security, authentication.method (see below) to LDAP. No further parameters are entered. You have to set the LDAP parameters manually. Please see the next section for an explanation.

Figure 406: ConSol CM system set-up - Authentication mode LDAP

Switching the Authentication Mode to LDAP in a Running System

Figure 407: ConSol CM Admin Tool - System properties for LDAP authentication

Required values for LDAP authentication (they are set via system properties, please see System Properties for an explanation):

• authentication.method
  LDAP
• ldap.authentication
  simple
• ldap.basedn
  The DN (distinguished name) of the LDAP (sub-)tree where the required attributes are located.
• ldap.initialcontextfactory
  The Java class name for the initial context factory of the LDAP implementation when using LDAP authentication. Should usually be com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory.
• ldap.password
  Password for connecting to the LDAP server to look up users. Only needed if look-up cannot be done anonymously.

• ldap.userdn
  LDAP user for connecting to the LDAP server to look up users. Only needed if look-up cannot be done anonymously.

  A server user name/password pair might be required to access the LDAP server. If you are not sure, you might want to use an LDAP browser to confirm.

• ldap.providerurl
  The complete URL for the LDAP server:

  ldap://<HOSTNAME>:<LDAP PORT>

• ldap.searchattr
  Search attribute for looking up the LDAP entry connected to the CM login, i.e., the attribute which is used as user name for the authentication.

Managing Engineer Accounts for LDAP Authentication

Use the Engineer Administration in the Admin Tool to configure the engineer accounts.

When LDAP is used as authentication method, it is not possible to set the ConSol CM password within the engineer administration. The pop-up window for engineer management provides the following fields which are relevant for LDAP authentication. Please refer to section Engineer Administration for details concerning the other (non LDAP-related) data fields.

Figure 408: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Engineer administration

• Login
  If no LDAP ID has been provided, this is used as the user name during the LDAP authentication process which is looked up in the LDAP directory in the ldap.searchattr node.
• LDAP ID
  If you would like to employ special user names in ConSol CM which are not identical to the values used in the LDAP directory, fill in this field. During the LDAP authentication process, this LDAP ID is used as the user name which gets looked up in the LDAP directory in the ldap.searchattr node.

Using LDAPS (LDAP over SSL)

Introduction

Per default, when an LDAP client accesses an LDAP server, the information is transferred in clear text. In case you want the user name and password to be transferred to the LDAP server in encrypted form, you have to set up the LDAP authentication using LDAPS.

Preparations

You have to configure the CM server machine (Java) in a way that can use certificates. One way to do this for a Linux environment is described in the following section.

1. Retrieve the certificate:
   openssl s_client -connect dc2.mydomain.com:ldaps
2. The answer will contain a section which starts with "---BEGIN CERTIFICATE " and ends with "END CERTIFICATE ---".
   Copy this section to a file, e.g., /tmp/certificate2_dc2_mydomain_com.txt
3. Import the certificate to the truststore of your machine, e.g., /home/mydirectory/mytruststore
   $JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -import -alias <arbitrary> -trustcacerts -keystore /home/mydirectory/mytruststore -file/tmp/certificate2_dc2_mydomain_com.txt
   You have to enter (set) a password.
4. Enter the truststore in the ConSol CM config file in JAVA_OPTS:
   -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/home/mydirectory/mytruststore -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=<see above>

LDAPS Configuration in the ConSol CM Admin Tool (System Properties)

Configure the ConSol CM server as shown in the following example:

• cmas-core-security;ldap.authentication = simple
• cmas-core-security;ldap.basedn;OU=myOU,DC=myDC
• cmas-core-security;ldap.initialcontextfactory = com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory
• cmas-core-security;ldap.password = myLDAPpw
• cmas-core-security;ldap.searchattr = sAMAccountName
• cmas-core-security;ldap.userdn = myLDAP_UserDN

Depending on the LDAP server configuration, use one of the following values for the server URL:

• Standard LDAPs port
  cmas-core-security;ldap.providerurl = ldaps://dc2.mydomain.com:636
• LDAPs port Global Catalogue
  cmas-core-security;ldap.providerurl = ldaps://dc2.mydomain.com:3269