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Configuring the Authorization Manager

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Jan 11, 2018
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User management functionality is provided by default in all WSO2 Carbon-based products and is configured in the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/user-mgt.xml file. This documentation explains how to set up a repository for storing authorization information (role-based permissions) and how to change the relevant configurations.

According to the default configuration in WSO2 products, the Users, Roles and Permissions are stored in the same repository (i.e., the default, embedded H2 database). However, you can change this configuration in such a way that the Users and Roles are stored in one repository (User Store) and the Permissions are stored in a separate repository. A user store can be a typical RDBMS, an LDAP or an external Active Directory. See the related topics for information on how user stores are configured. 

The repository that stores Permissions should always be an RDBMS. The Authorization Manager configuration in the user-mgt.xml file (stored in the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/ directory) connects the system to this RDBMS.

Follow the instructions given below to set up and configure the Authorization Manager.

Step 1: Setting up the repository

By default, the embedded H2 database is used for storing permissions. You can change this as follows:

  1. Change the default H2 database or set up another RDBMS for storing permissions.
  2. When you set up an RDBMS for your system, it is necessary to create a corresponding datasource, which allows the system to connect to the database. 
    • If you are replacing the default H2 database with a new RDBMS, update the master-datasource.xml file (stored in the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/datasources/ directory) with the relevant information. 
    • Alternatively, create a new XML file with the datasource information of your new RDBMS and store it in the same <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/datasources/ directory.

Refer the related topics for detailed information on setting up databases and configuring datasources.

Step 2: Updating the user realm configurations 

Once you have set up a new RDBMS and configured the datasource, the user-mgt.xml file (user realm configuration) should be updated as explained below.

Setting up the database connection

Update the datasource information using the <Property> element under <Configuration>. Given below are the properties that are set by default.

Property Name

Description

Mandatory/Optional
dataSource

This is the jndi name of the datasource that is used for referring to the datasource. In the following example, the jndi name of the default datasource defined in the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/datasources/master-datasources.xml file is linked from the user-mgt.xml file.

Mandatory
isCascadeDeleteEnabled
This property is set to 'true' by default, which enables cascade delete for the UM_USER_PERMISSION and UM_ROLE_PERMISSION tables when a permission gets deleted from the UM_PERMISSION table. That is, if a record in the parent table is deleted the corresponding records in the child table will be automatically deleted.Mandatory

You can add more optional configurations using the <Property> element:

Property Name

Description

Mandatory/Optional
testOnBorrow

It is recommended to set this property to 'true' so that object connections will be validated before being borrowed from the JDBC pool. For this property to be effective, the validationQuery parameter in the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/datasources/master-datasources.xml file should be a non-string value. This setting will avoid connection failures. See the section on performance tuning of WSO2 products for more information.

Optional

Configuring the Authorization Manager

Shown below is how the Authorization Manager is enabled in the user-mgt.xml file.

<AuthorizationManager class="org.wso2.carbon.user.core.authorization.JDBCAuthorizationManager">
        <Property name="AdminRoleManagementPermissions">/permission</Property>
        <Property name="AuthorizationCacheEnabled">true</Property>
 		<Property name="GetAllRolesOfUserEnabled">false</Property>
 </AuthorizationManager>
  • The org.wso2.carbon.user.core.authorization.JDBCAuthorizationManager class enables the Authorization Manager for your product.
  • The AdminRoleManagementPermissions property sets the registry path where the authorization information (role-based permissions) are stored. Note that this links to the repository that you defined in Step 1.

  • It is recommended to enable the GetAllRolesOfUserEnabled property in the AuthorizationManager as follows:

    <Property name="GetAllRolesOfUserEnabled">true</Property>

    Although using the user store manager does not depend on this property, you must consider enabling this if there are any performance issues in your production environment. Enabling this property affects the performance when the user logs in. This depends on the users, roles and permission stats.

  • By default, the rules linked to a permission (role name, action, resource) are not case sensitive. If you want to make them case sensitive, enable the following property:

    <Property name="CaseSensitiveAuthorizationRules">true</Property>

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