Directory Server DSML Gateway


Overview

DSML Authentication Mapping

The DSML authentication mechanism is native to HTTP/SOAP, but the gateway interacts cleanly with LDAP. Client credentials sent through either standard HTTP client authentication or SSL connections are mapped to a distinguished name (DN), and then proceed as if an LDAP client had bound with that DN. The gateway DN mapping works essentially as follows:

  1. The client’s authentication credentials are obtained from the servlet container (username/password from HTTP/SOAP or client certification DN from SSL).
  2. A mapping function is applied to yield a target DN in the host Directory Server’s directory information tree.
  3. The gateway attempts to verify the presented credentials by binding as the mapped DN against the host Directory Server.
  4. If the gateway binds successfully, the session is marked as authenticated.
  5. For authenticated sessions, LDAP proxy authorization controls are sent with every operation to the Directory Server. This ensures that operations are done in the security context of the presented credentials (as mapped).

Response times for a gateway are slightly higher compared to a native Directory Server session because each request must be forwarded through the gateway. Overall, though, implementation as a gateway, as opposed to natively within the Directory Server, offers two major benefits for how the gateway can be integrated into your broader network:

The DSML gateway is implemented as a Java application, which offers several benefits:

Using DSML Gateway with Directory Server

To use the DSML gateway application as part of the Directory Server deployment:

  1. Make sure the machine or application that uses the gateway must be SOAP compatible since the DSML gateway natively runs over HTTP/SOAP.
  2. Install Directory Server, then build and install the DSML gateway on the same machine.
  3. Directory Server has other web applications ” the Directory Server Gateway, Admin Express, Directory Express, and Org Chart” along with the DSML gateway. The DSML gateway can run simultaneously with the other web applications; however, it does not interact with them.
  4. Activate the the DSML gateway. The DSML gateway is not running by default and has to be enabled, as covered in Activating the Gateway.
  5. Modify the configuration files, if necessary.

During installation and setup, the files relevant to the DSML gateway are placed in /usr/share/dirsrv/dsmlgw. The configuration information is stored in /etc/dirsrv/dsmlgw/dsmlgw.cfg. You can modify desired settings in the file and customize the application to suit an organization. The gateway connects to the default port (389) of Directory Server. See “Editing the DSML Gateway Configuration” for detailed information on configuration parameters. The default settings (created during setup) are usually sufficient.

Building the DSML Gateway


The DSML gateway is built from source; pre-built packages are not yet available.

Build Requirements

In order to build the DSML gateway, you need the following:

Getting the Source Code

git clone git://git.fedorahosted.org/cgit/389/dsmlgw.git/

Build Properties

Some of the default values are in the build.properties file. There are also build.properties files for each of the pkg.type used by the makepkg build target.

Other build properties are specified on the ant command. For example:

ant -Dbuild.dir=*/path/to/build* -Ddist.dir=*/path/to/dist .... [targets]*

The build takes many different options depending on how you want to build and what is provided by your platform:

Option Default Description
globaldist.dir /usr/share/java Common shared jar directory - some distros put all jars in this directory
ldapdist.dir /usr/share/java Directory containing ldapjdk.jar
axisdist.dir /usr/share/java/axis Home directory for all Axis files
axis.lib.dir /usr/share/java/axis Directory containing axis.jar, saaj.jar, jaxrpc.jar
axis.jar ${axis.lib.dir}/axis.jar Explicitly specify path and filename of axis jar to use
saaj.jar ${axis.lib.dir}/saaj.jar Explicitly specify path and filename of saaj jar to use
jaxrpc.jar ${axis.lib.dir}/jaxrpc.jar Explicitly specify path and filename of jaxrpc jar to use
ldapjdk.jar ${ldapdist.dir}/ldapjdk.jar Explicitly specify path and filename of ldapjdk jar to use
activation.jar ${globaldist.dir}/activation.jar Explicitly specify path and filename of JAF jar to use
codec.jar ${globaldist.dir}/commons-codec.jar Explicitly specify path and filename of codec jar to use
mail.jar ${globaldist.dir}/mail.jar Not needed at build time, but required by Axis and DSMLGW service at runtime
build.dir built Where to write .class files and other files generated during build
dist.dir dist Where to write jar and war files and directories
pkg.dir ${dist.dir}/pkg Where to write the .tar.gz files and packaging directories
pkg.type prefix Type of package to create - prefix, fhs, or fhsopt
tomcat.home no default value The CATALINA_HOME or tomcat home directory to use at runtime - must be specified if packaging
tomcat.cmd ${tomcat.home}/bin/startup.sh Command to use at runtime to startup Tomcat - must be specified if packaging

Build Targets

These are the targets you can provide to ant, depending on the desired build type:

DSML Gateway Tools

The DSML gateway is controlled through a single command-line utility, /usr/sbin/setup-ds-dsmlgw. The setup-ds-dsmlgw tool has one option, listed in “Table: Gateway Command-Line Options,”.

Option Description
-r Optional. Rewrites the configuration. By default, setup-ds-dsmlgw will not overwrite any existing config.

Scripts

These scripts are provided with the full package distribution (i.e. not jar or war only):

Editing the DSML Gateway Configuration


The gateway is configured by running setup-ds-dsmlgw. The configuration settings are stored in a Java properties text file, /etc/dirsrv/dsmlgw/dsmlgw.cfg. “Table: Configuration Parameters” lists the DSML gateway configuration file parameters.

Parameter Description Default Setting
ServerHost Host name for its peer Directory Server. localhost
ServerPort Port number for its peer Directory Server. 389
BindDN Bind DN. anonymous
BindPW Bind password. (empty)
MinimumConnectionPool Minimum connections the DSML gateway will make to the Directory Server for operations. 3
MaximumConnectionPool Maximum connections the DSML gateway will make to the Directory Server for operations. 15
MinimumLoginPool Minimum connections the DSML gateway will make to the Directory Server for user authentication. 1
MaximumLoginPool Maximum connections the DSML gateway will make to the Directory Server for user authentication. 2
UseAuth true|false expression. If the expression is true, it requires the user to authenticate in order to bind; if it is false, it accepts the user ID and password offered. false

Changing the Host

  1. Open the dsmlgw.cfg file in the /etc/dirsrv/dsmlgw directory.
  2. Edit the value of the ServerHost attribute to reflect the server you wish to use. For example: ServerHost=ldap.example.com
  3. Restart the gateway /usr/sbin/restart-ds-dsmlgw

Changing the Bind DN and Password

The default setting allows read-only access since the default bind DN is anonymous. Changing the bind DN to a DN that has read-write permissions will allow read-write access for the directory.

If the UseAuth attribute value is set to true, the gateway requires standard HTTP headers, consisting of the user’s full distinguished name and password. Any operations done over the gateway will be done with proxy authorization and will require a distinguished name with proxy rights. For more about proxy authorization, see the Directory Server Administrator’s Guide.

  1. Open the dsmlgw.cfg file in the /etc/dirsrv/dsmlgw directory.
  2. Edit the value of the BindDN attribute to reflect the user for whom you are allowing access. For example: BindDN=uid=fred,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
  3. Edit the value of the BindPW attribute; for anonymous access, this parameter is usually blank. The new password must be the same as the password for authentication to the directory to keep access controls functioning. For example: BindPW=password
  4. Restart the gateway /usr/sbin/restart-ds-dsmlgw

Example Configuration

The following is an example gateway configuration for example.com Corporation. Parameters not listed in the file are set to the default value.

# DSMLGW configuration for example.com Corporation
ServerHost=ldap.example.com
ServerPort=389
BindDN=uid=fred,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
BindPW=password
UseAuth=false`

DSML Samples

Sample DSML data files are provided with the full package distribution in the share/dirsrv/dsmlgw/data directory.

Debugging

In the full package distribution, the log files are written to the directory share/dirsrv/dsmlgw/webapps/logs which will be symlinked to your “real” log file directory.

For Axis debugging, edit the file share/dirsrv/dsmlgw/webapps/axis/WEB-INF/log4j.properties. This uses standard Log4j properties. The file axis.log (in the log directory above) will contain Axis specific log messages.

For DSMLGW debugging, edit the file share/dirsrv/dsmlgw/webapps/axis/WEB-INF/logging.properties. The log file name is dsmlgw.<date>.log (in the log directory above).

See Also

Last modified on 2 April 2024