– All urls that hit OpenIG, containing a string ‘openam’ getting redirected to OpenAM URL
– All urls that hit OpenIG, that does not contain the string ‘openam’ getting redirected to:
OpenAM for Authentication if there is no valid User session and then on to OpenIDM UI
2. OpenIDM UI if there is a valid User sessionOpenIDM UI
We know of it as a job usually done by the OpenAM Web/J2EE Policy Agent to enforce a Policy Decision sent by the Access Management Solution. To help you recollect, this is how it works:
– An End User tries to access a resource (say, a URL)
– The Web/J2EE Policy Agent deployed in the Container, intercepts the requests and redirects the request to Access Management Solution
– The Access Management Solution, first Authenticates the User, does a redirection to the the Resource (URL), where Agent would again receive it
– The Agent would now ask the Access Management Solution whether the Authenticated User has access to the Protected Resource (Authorization)
– Based on the policies defined in the Access Management Solution for the Protected Resource, it constructs a Decision and sends it back to the Agent
– Whatever the decision Agent receives from the Access Management (whether to ALLOW or DENY access to the Protected Resource), the Agent Enforces it!
The story in the video below is a bit different. In fact, the protagonist is different. The honours of Enforcing a Policy Decision sent by OpenAM is on ForgeRock OpenIG 4. As for the flow, it by and large remains what is mentioned above, just that the OpenIG uses its Route Configuration file to decide whether it should redirect the Client requests to OpenAM (should the SSO Cookie is absent in the request), ask OpenAM for Policy Decisions on Protected URLs by Authenticated Users and finally to enforce a Decision that is sent by OpenAM (whether to ALLOW or DENY access to Protected URLs).
Very roughly, here’s an illustration of the flow:
To see it in action, watch the screen-cast below. Enjoy!
To know how ForgeRock OpenIG 4 is configured to fetch User Credentials from a Database for User Authentication (a process transparent to the User), the following Video log might help. I had posted a similar video on this space earlier, but that then the User Credentials were fetched from a Flat File (CSV). The flow isn’t quite different from that, just that a Filter used by ForgeRock OpenIG in this case is different and that we should configure the OpenIG to connect to the DB.
In the video, we’ll:
– Install the H2 Database. Create ‘Users’ table and load User data in it
– Configure OpenIG (deployed in Jetty) to connect to the Database
– Prepare OpenIG Route Configuration file to fetch User Credentials (based on a Email address) and post the data to HTTP Server, who responds with the User profile page
For those whose right side of the brain is more prominent, here’s the visual representation of what is mentioned above:
For those who don’t want to think too much looking at the illustration below, but would like to sit back, relax and enjoy watching a show, here’s the video. Enjoy!
If we’ve just moved ahead of ‘Getting Started with OpenIG 4‘, the following screen-cast might of some interest. In fact, this is a remake of a video that’s posted here, which was based on now older version of ForgeRock OpenIG.
So what’s in the video here? We’ve a CSV file with some User details. A user tries to access a URI, which hits OpenIG, who by using some Route Configuration files, looks up User Credentials from the CSV file and posts it to the HTTP Server, to get a User Profile Page (Post Authentication Landing Page) in return. So the Client, without having to go through the inconvenience of supplying his/her User Credentials, gets the Post Authentication Landing Page from the HTTP Server. See, if my attempt to capture the flow below makes sense.
If that didn’t make your life easy, hopefully the demonstration in the video will. Enjoy!
If you haven’t gotten started with the newer version of ForgeRock OpenIG, the following Video might be of some help. I’ve done this before, but using now an older version of the Product. So if you are familiar with that, then this gives you an assurance that everything continues to work as before, and that there is more to it (that’s a story for another day though). So if you haven’t gotten your hands dirty with ForgeRock’s Identity Gateway solution, I invite you to have a look at it, and everything that you may need to get started with it, you will find it in the video below.
Very quickly, let me tell what’s done in the Screen-cast:
– Install Jetty
– Deploy ForgeRock OpenIG in Jetty
– Install Minimal HTTP Server
– Configure ForgeRock OpenIG to post user Credentials to the HTTP Server to return a User Profile Page (so the authentication process is transparent to the user.
Please note that the practice of hard-coding the User Credential is something that you’ll probably never see in a real world scenario, but of course the intent here is only to get a rough idea of what the OpenIG can do. The illustration below might give you a decent idea on the flow:
The video, I’m confident, will make it more clear.Enjoy!
