Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 User's Guide for Web Agents

Preface

The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent software consists of J2EE (Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition) agents and web agents. This Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 User's Guide for Web Agents provides an overview of how web agents work in the Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 release. This guide focuses on the features and tasks that apply to all web agents.

Note –

This guide also provides an appendix that compares web agents and J2EE agents. See Appendix A, Comparing Web Agents and J2EE Agents in Policy Agent 3.0.

However, for information for specific web agents, such as installation information and agent-specific configuration, see the individual web agent guide for that agent.

Within the Policy Agent documentation set, each agent has its own guide. Therefore, each book specific to a web agent covers aspects that are unique to that particular web agent.

Contents of this Chapter

Who Should Use This Book

This Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 User's Guide for Web Agents is intended for use by IT professionals who manage access to their network. Administrators should understand the following technologies:

JavaServer Pages^TM (JSP) technology
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

Before You Read This Book

You should be familiar with a variety of components and concepts related to OpenSSO Enterprise server and Policy Agent software. For example, you should be familiar with the following components and concepts:

OpenSSO Enterprise technical concepts, as described in the OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Technical Overview
The deployment platform, such as the Solaris^TM, Linux, or Windows operating system
The web containers that will run OpenSSO Enterprise server and Policy Agent, such as Sun Java System Application Server, Sun Java System Web Server, BEA WebLogic, or IBM WebSphere Application Server

You should be familiar with the documentation related to OpenSSO Enterprise and Policy Agent 3.0. Sun Microsystems server documentation sets, some of which are mentioned in this preface, are available at http://docs.sun.com:

OpenSSO Enterprise Documentation Set

Policy Agent 3.0 is being introduced with OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0. The table that follows describes documents in the OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 documentation set. Access the OpenSSO Enterprise documentation collection at the following location: http://docs.sun.com/coll/1767.1.

Table P–1 OpenSSO Enterprise Documentation Set


Title	Description
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Release Notes	Describes new features, installation notes, and known issues and limitations. The Release Notes are updated periodically after the initial release to describe any new features, patches, or problems.
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Installation and Configuration Guide	Provides information about installing and configuring OpenSSO Enterprise, including OpenSSO Enterprise server, Administration Console only, client SDK, scripts and utilities, Distributed Authentication UI server, and session failover.
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Technical Overview	Provides an overview of how components work together to consolidate access control functions and to protect enterprise assets and web-based applications. It also explains basic concepts and terminology.
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Deployment Planning Guide	Provides planning and deployment solutions for OpenSSO Enterprise.
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Administration Guide	Describes how to use OpenSSO Enterprise Administration Console as well as how to manage user and service data using the command-line interface (CLI).
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Administration Reference	Provides reference information for the OpenSSO Enterprise command-line interface (CLI), configuration attributes, log files, and error codes.
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Developer’s Guide	Provides information about customizing OpenSSO Enterprise and integrating its functionality into an organization’s current technical infrastructure. It also provides details about the programmatic aspects of the product and its API.
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 C API Reference for Application and Web Policy Agent Developers	Provides summaries of data types, structures, and functions that make up the public OpenSSO Enterprise C APIs.
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Java API Reference	Provides information about the implementation of Java packages in OpenSSO Enterprise.
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Performance Tuning Guide	Provides information about how to tune OpenSSO Enterprise and its related components for optimal performance.

Policy Agent 3.0 Documentation Set

Two user guides exist in the Policy Agent 3.0 documentation set:

The guide you are reading now: Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 User's Guide for Web Agents
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 User’s Guide for J2EE Agents

The preceding documents are available in two documentation sets: the OpenSSO Enterprise documentation set and the Policy Agent 3.0 documentation set. The individual guides in the Policy Agent 3.0 documentation set are described in the following sections:

Individual Agent Guides

The individual agents in the Policy Agent 3.0 software set are available on a different schedule than OpenSSO Enterprise itself. Therefore, documentation for OpenSSO Enterprise and Policy Agent are available in separate sets, except for the two user's guides, which are available in both documentation sets.

The documentation for the individual agents is divided into two subsets: a web agent subset and a J2EE agent subset.

Each individual web agent guide provides agent-specific information about a particular web agent, such as installation and configuration information.

Each individual J2EE agent guide provides agent-specific information about a particular J2EE agent, such as installation and configuration information.

Product	Link
Sun Java System Directory Server 6.3	`http://docs.sun.com/coll/1224.4`
Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 Update 3	`http://docs.sun.com/coll/1653.3`
Sun Java System Application Server 9.1	`http://docs.sun.com/coll/1343.4`
Sun Java System Message Queue 4.1	`http://docs.sun.com/coll/1307.3`
Sun Java System Web Proxy Server 4.0.6	`http://docs.sun.com/coll/1311.6`
Sun Java System Identity Manager 7.1	`http://docs.sun.com/coll/1514.3`

Searching Sun Product Documentation

Besides searching Sun product documentation from the docs.sun.com^SM web site, you can use a search engine by typing the following syntax in the search field:

search-term site:docs.sun.com

For example, to search for “broker,” type the following:

broker site:docs.sun.com

To include other Sun web sites in your search (for example, java.sun.com, www.sun.com, and developers.sun.com), use sun.com in place of docs.sun.com in the search field.

Accessing Sun Resources Online

For product downloads, professional services, patches and support, and additional developer information, go to the following:

Download Center: http://wwws.sun.com/software/download
Sun Enterprise Services, Solaris Patches, and Support: http://sunsolve.sun.com/
Developer Information: http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/index.html

Contacting Sun Technical Support

If you have technical questions about this product that are not answered in the product documentation, go to:

http://www.sun.com/service/contacting

Related Third-Party Web Site References

Sun is not responsible for the availability of third-party web sites mentioned in this document. Sun does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, or other materials that are available on or through such sites or resources. Sun will not be responsible or liable for any actual or alleged damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods, or services that are available on or through such sites or resources.

Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions that are used in this book.

Table P–3 Typographic Conventions


Typeface	Meaning	Example
`AaBbCc123`	The names of commands, files, and directories, and onscreen computer output	Edit your `.login` file. Use `ls -a` to list all files. `machine_name% you have mail.`
`AaBbCc123`	What you type, contrasted with onscreen computer output	`machine_name%` `su` `Password:`
`aabbcc123`	Placeholder: replace with a real name or value	The command to remove a file is `rm` `filename`.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new terms, and terms to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in the User's Guide. A cache is a copy that is stored locally. Do not save the file. Note: Some emphasized items appear bold online.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default UNIX® system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P–4 Shell Prompts


Shell	Prompt
C shell	`machine_name%`
C shell for superuser	`machine_name#`
Bourne shell and Korn shell	`$`
Bourne shell and Korn shell for superuser	`#`

Default Path and Directory Names

Policy Agent Software: Path and Directory Names

The Policy Agent software documentation uses the terms listed in the table that follows to represent default path and directory names.

Table P–5 Default Paths and Directory Names for Policy Agent Software

Term

Description

Agent-HomeDirectory

This place holder represents the directory you choose in which to unpack the Policy Agent binaries.

PolicyAgent-base

This place holder represents the directory that holds all the agent-specific information. The path for this directory includes information that helps specify that particular agent. Therefore, the path information varies for each agent. While the following web agent directory is agent specific, it merely serves as an example:

Agent-HomeDirectory/web_agents/sjsws_agent

If you are configuring an agent other than the one shown in the preceding example, PolicyAgent-base will represent a different path, but the general structure of the path will be the same.

AgentInstance-Dir

This place holder represents the directory that holds all the information that is specific to an agent installation. Therefore, the PolicyAgent-base directory holds all the information related to a specific agent. However, if you install that same agent more than once in the same location, each installation has information specific to that installation. That specific information is held in the AgentInstance-Dir directory. For example:

PolicyAgent-base/AgentInstance-Dir

where AgentInstance-Dir refers to an agent instance directory, which is usually similar to the following: Agent_001.

OpenSSO Enterprise Server: Path and Directory Names

The OpenSSO Enterprise server documentation uses the terms listed in the table that follows to represent default path and directory names.

Table P–6 Default Paths and Directory Names for OpenSSO Enterprise Server


Term	Description
`zip-root`	Represents the directory where the `opensso.zip` file is unzipped.
`OpenSSO-Deploy-base`	Represents the deployment directory where the web container deploys the `opensso.war` file. This value varies depending on the web container. To determine the value of `OpenSSO-Deploy-base`, view the file name in the `.openssocfg` directory, which resides in the home directory of the user who deployed the `opensso.war` file. For example, consider this scenario with Application Server 9.1 as the web container: Application Server 9.1 is installed in the default directory: `/opt/SUNWappserver`. The `opensso.war` file is deployed by super user (`root`) on Application Server 9.1. The `.openssocfg` directory is in the `root` home directory (`/`), and the file name in `.openssocfg` is: `AMConfig_opt_SUNWappserver_domains_domain1_applications_j2ee-modules_opensso_` Then, the value for `OpenSSO-Deploy-base` is: `/opt/SUNWappserver/domains/domain1/applications/j2ee-modules/opensso`
`ConfigurationDirectory`	Represents the name of the configuration directory specified during the initial configuration of OpenSSO Enterprise server instance using the Configurator. The default is `opensso` in the home directory of the user running the Configurator. Thus, if the Configurator is run by `root`, `ConfigurationDirectory` is `/opensso`.

Sun Welcomes Your Comments

Sun is interested in improving its documentation and welcomes your comments and suggestions.

To share your comments, go to http://docs.sun.com and click Send comments. In the online form, provide the document title and part number. The part number is a seven-digit or nine-digit number that can be found on the title page of the guide or at the top of the document.

For example, the title of this guide is the Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 User's Guide for Web Agents, and the part number is 820-5816.