Enable SSL to LDAP / MS AD : Portal will not start

Question

Hi all ,
We have successfully enabled portal User Authentication to MS AD/LDAP over port 389 in a EP6 SP2 portal . Portal use                                       
Now we wish to switch to LDAP over SSL .We did the following for a Ad with SSL enabled on port 636 :
1) Import the AD server cert into the keystore using Visual admin tool
2) Log into portal as adminstrator > Go to UM Administration          
3) Change DataSource to AD , Flat heirarchy                           
4) Enter hostname of AD server , user . password , paths etc.., Enable SSL    
5) Save config and restart portal     
Now the Portal will not start and we get the following error messages in the 
console_logs...any ideas ???                            
Loading services:                                                       
  Loading service: com.sap.portal.license.runtime license                
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.sap.security.core.util.imp.UMTrace.debug(UMTrace.java:      
739)                                                                               
at com.sap.security.core.util.imp.UMTrace.debug(UMTrace.java:      
840)                                                                               
at com.sap.security.core.util.imp.UMTrace.fatalT(UMTrace.java:     
586)                                                                               
at com.sap.security.core.persistence.datasource.imp.               
LDAPConnectionManage                                                       
r.initConnectionPools(LDAPConnectionManager.java:556)                      
        at com.sap.security.core.persistence.datasource.imp.               
LDAPConnectionManage                                                       
r.initialize(LDAPConnectionManager.java:77)

Answer 1

Here's another option that might work for you:
Check out this note: 789590.  From reading between the lines it looks like you can change your um config without the portal being up by creating a file called 'sapum.properties.upgrade'.  That note talks about modifying some logging parameters but you should be able to substitute the um parameters to change your config back to using just the portal database.
Here's what sap explained about the process:
"you can update single um.properties by defining a file called sapum.properties.upgrade and storing it in the
directory \ume\. During the next startup, these properties are uploaded and update the older values from the UME properties stored in the PCD.
Values that are not listed in the .upgrade file are not touched. The upload is done before the service is starting, so that the updated values are taken as start parameters. Again in note 789590, you can find an example for an upgrade file (in this case for updating the information on the logging settings)."
Once you get the portal up and running, when you try to change the UM config, make sure you click on the 'Test Connection' button after you've saved the new ldap settings to make sure that everything is ok.  The ldap server might be accessable but you might have a problem with the user, password, group or user path.  Also if you're using SSL then make sure the 'Use SSL for Ldap access' is checked.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
Robin.