Configuring OpenLDAP as a SiteMinder Policy Store

Posted by Unknown on Monday, October 24, 2011

SiteMinder supports OpenLDAP for use as a Policy Store. OpenLDAP provides a freely available, replicated directory that can be used as a redundant store for SiteMinder’s configuration information. Unfortunately, the SiteMinder documentation covering how to configure OpenLDAP is at best incomplete and at worst incorrect. This article breaks down the steps required to enable OpenLDAP to be a Policy Store and configure the Policy Server to leverage the directory. Keep in mind that SiteMinder currently only supports OpenLDAP 2.3.x. This means that only Master/Slave replication is supported. While this is sufficient to ensure the availability of the Policy Store, if the Master directory is down, no policy or key updates can be performed. This article also assumes that the Key Store is set to the default setting of using the Policy Store as the location to store key information. Switch the directory paths outlined below to use backslashes if these steps are being performed on Windows.

1. Download and Install OpenLDAP
This article does not cover the specific details on how to build and install OpenLDAP. The details for this can be found on the OpenLDAP site. A quick start guide is located there as well.

2. Download the OpenLDAP Schema Files for SiteMinder
OpenLDAP is considered a “Tier 2″ directory for SiteMinder. As such, the ability to configure the directory as a Policy Store is not automated. In order to obtain the needed schema files for the Policy Store, the “CA SiteMinder Tier 2 Directories- ESD Only” package must be downloaded. To download this file (current as of 10/12/2011):

1. Log in to the Technical Support Site
2. Click “Download Center” in the lefthand navigation
3. Type siteminder into the “Select a Product” field
4. Select the listed SiteMinder product
5. Select 12.0 in the “Select a Release” drop-down
6. Select SP3 in the “Select a Gen level” drop-down
7. Click the [GO] button
8. Scroll down to the bottom of the list of returned downloads
9. Download and unzip the “CA SiteMinder Tier 2 Directories- ESD Only” download to the Policy Server

3. Configure OpenLDAP To Support the SiteMinder Policy Store
The OpenLDAP server requires manual configuration to support its use as a SiteMinder Policy Store. The following steps are required:

3a. Copy the Policy Store schema files into the OpenLDAP schema directory
3b. Include the SiteMinder Policy Store schema files in the OpenLDAP configuration
3c. Ensure that SiteMinder can detect it is an OpenLDAP Policy Store
3d. Create the base Policy Store structure
3e. Restart OpenLDAP

Note that these instructions assume that the install location for OpenLDAP is under the /usr/local path and the default directories are used. For this example, the root of the directory is “dc=company,dc=com” for the location of the Policy Store. These steps will need to be modified if a different path or directory structure is used.

3a. Copy the Policy Store schema files into the OpenLDAP schema directory
The OpenLDAP schema needs to be extended to support the SiteMinder Policy Store objects. This is done by copying the schema files to the server and adding them into the slapd.conf configuration file. To copy the schema files:
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Courtesy:http://www.coreblox.com/blog/2011/10/configuring-openldap-as-a-siteminder-policy-store/

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