VCenter Single Sign-On Permissions Assignment for Members of Multiple AD Groups

Hi all,
I ran across an interesting issue whilst assigning permissions using Active Directory groups within vCenter.
Environment
1 vCenter Appliance managing 2 Datacenters (1 Datacenter with 2 Clusters, 1 Cluster with 2 Hosts, 1 Cluster with 4 Hosts, 1 Datacenter with 1 Cluster containing 1 host.) 
vCenter has an SSO Identity Source configured using Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication).
vCenter and all hosts are domain members of child1.parent.com.au
The Active Directory Forest contains a parent domain, let's call it parent.com.au, and two child domains child1.parent.com.au and child2.parent.com.au.
Although the Identity Source was configured for my child domain, using child domain credentials it added the parent domain and subsequently both child domains. Okay, so there are trusts, I'm okay with this. The interesting issue is yet to come.
Two Active Directory Groups were added. Deployment Admins A and Deployment Admins B.
Two vCenter Roles were created with similar names. VM Deployers A and VM Deployers B
Deployment Admins A was assigned the Deployers A role to Cluster A (Cluster, VM Folders, Datastore Folders)
Deployment Admins B was assigned the Deployers B role to Cluster B (Cluster, VM Folders, Datastore Folders)
Note: No objects overlap. All hosts, vms and datastores are isolated to each cluster.
So the next step is assign an child1 AD User to the Deployment Admins A group. As expected the user using credentials child1\user can connect to vCenter via the VI Client and see all the relevant objects. Great!
So now I assign the same child1 AD user to the second AD group Deployment Admins B. Now we wait and nothing happens. The permissions don't change. The user logs out and logs back in using the same credentials and still the permissions don't change.
So I remove the user from both AD groups and get them to log out and in and sure enough they can't.
This time I assign the child1\user account the roles as set out previously. So child1\user account is assigned to both roles in place of each AD Group. The expected behaviour is observed. As I add the second permission set, the objects become visible within the VI client.
Okay so now I remove the explicitly assigned permissions and reassign via the groups and this time I ask the user to log in via the UPN ([email protected]). Whoa! It works.
So it seems that assigning permissions for the same user in multiple AD groups across multiple roles can only be achieved when the user uses a UPN login to the VI Client.
Has anybody else found this to be the case?
If so, were you able to fix it?

Hello,
I have found this to be the case and think it is more due to SSO than AD. If you look at how you login as the 'administrator' when you first configure SSO it is in effect using UPN. I would raise this as a case to VMware and make sure they are aware of the issue. There are some issues with SSO being worked each day.
Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, 2010, 2011,2012,2013,2014
Author of the books 'VMWare ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise: Planning Deployment Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2011 Pearson Education. 'VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment', Copyright 2009 Pearson Education.
Virtualization and Cloud Security Analyst: The Virtualization Practice, LLC -- vSphere Upgrade Saga -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

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    •          •     If the logon name already exists, right-click the logon name, and then click Properties.
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         8.     Select the Server Administrators check box.
         9.     Click OK.
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    •     Rights that this user or members of this group have are automatically contained in the single sign-on administrator account.
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    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
         2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for server_name page, in the Server Settings section, click Manage server settings.
         3.     On the Manage Server Settings for Single Sign-On page, in the Single Sign-On Settings section, in the Account name box, type the name of the single sign-on administrator account that you determined in step 1, “Set Up Single Sign-On Accounts.” The format of the account is DOMAIN\group_name or DOMAIN\user_name.
         4.     In the Enterprise Application Definition Settings section, in the Account name box, type the name of the enterprise application manager account that you determined in step 1, “Set Up Single Sign-On Accounts.” The format of the account is DOMAIN\group_name or DOMAIN\user_name.
         5.     In the Database Settings section, do the following:
    6.          1.     In the Server name box, type the name of the database server on which you want to store the settings and account information for single sign-on.
    2.          2.     In the Database name box, type the name of the single sign-on database.
    If the database does not exist, it is created.
         6.     In the Time Out Settings section, do the following:
    7.          1.     In the Ticket time out (in minutes) box, type the number of minutes to wait before allowing a ticket, or access token, to time out.
    2.          2.     In the Delete audit log records older than (in days) box, type the number of days to hold records in the audit log before deleting.
         7.     Click OK.
         8.     If a message box appears stating that you have reconfigured single sign-on, click OK.
       The audit log is overwritten after the number of days you specify. Because the log contains a record of any illicit operations or logon attempts, it is recommended that you maintain backup copies of the logs. The logs reside in the single sign-on database in the SSO_Audit table. This table is automatically backed up when you back up the database.
    Step 4: Create an Application Definition
    To create an application definition, you need to be logged on as a member of single sign-on administrator account or as an enterprise application definition manager account. To create an application definition, do the following:
         1.     On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
         2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for server_name page, in the Enterprise Application Definition Settings section, click Manage settings for enterprise application definitions.
         3.     On the Manage Enterprise Application Definitions page, click New Item.
         4.     On the Create Enterprise Application Definition page, in the Application and Contact Information section, do the following:
    5.          1.     In the Display name box, type a display name for this application definition.
    When administrator changes the settings for the application definition at a later stage, the application definition is listed using its display name.
    The display name is what the user sees on the logon form when entering credentials on the first access.
       If you enter a long name with no spaces in it for the display name, the entire name might not be displayed.
    2.          2.     In the Application name box, type an application name for the application definition. The application name is used by developers.
       If you enter a long name with no spaces in it for the application definition name, the entire name might not be displayed.
    3.          3.     In the Contact e-mail address box, type an e-mail address for users to contact for this application.
         5.     In the Account Type section, do one of the following:
    6.          •     If you want all users to log on by using a single account, select Group.
    Users do not need to enter any credentials with this option.
    7.          •     If you want users to log on by using their own account information, select Individual.
    Each user will have to provide credentials when accessing the Web Part for the first time.
       If you specify a group account as the account type, so that all users log on by using a single account, ensure that you have the appropriate number of client licenses for the application that you are accessing.
         6.     In the Logon Account Information section, select one or more fields to map to the required logon information in the necessary order for this enterprise application. The number and the order of the fields are defined by the enterprise application logon requirements. For each field, do the following:
    7.          1.     Type a display name for each field as a reminder of the required information. For an individual user application definition, the display name is what the users see on the logon form when entering their credentials for the enterprise application. For a group application definition, the display name of the field is what the administrator sees when entering the mapped group account credentials for the enterprise application.
    2.          2.     If the field contains sensitive information, such as a password, click Yes for Mask so that the information is not displayed within this field when it is being filled in or viewed.
    For example, for access to Oracle, you might enter the following:
    Field 1 = Oracle user name
    Field 2 = Oracle user password (select Yes for the Mask option)
    Field 3 = Oracle database name
    If you need to access the SAP application, for SAP credentials you might enter the following:
    Field 1 = SAP user name
    Field 2 = SAP password (select Yes for the Mask option)
    Field 3 = SAP system number
    Field 4 = SAP client number
    Field 5 = language
         7.     Click OK.
    Step 5: Provide Account Information for an Application Definition
    After you have created the application definition, for group application definition you have to specify the logon account credentials. For individual application definitions, you can specify credentials for the users or, alternatively, the users may enter their credentials in the logon form on the first access.
    To specify the logon account information for the application definition, do the following:
         1.     On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
         2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for server_name page, in the Enterprise Application Definition Settings section, click Manage account information for enterprise application definitions.
         3.     On the Manage Account Information for an Enterprise Application Definition page, in the Account Information section, do the following:
    4.          1.     In the Enterprise Application Definition list, select the name of the application definition. If you created the application definition to use an individual account, the User account name box is displayed on the page. If you created the application definition to use a group account, the Group account name box is displayed.
    2.          2.     In the User account name or Group account name box, type the account name that will be mapped to the application credentials.
    3.          3.     Click OK.
         4.     On the Provide application_definition_display_name Account Information page, in the Logon Information section, enter the credentials to be used for the logon to the enterprise application. The number, the order and the names of the fields displayed follow configuration in the Logon Account Information section of the application definition.
    Step 6: Enable the Single Sign-On Service on the Front-End Web Servers
    After you have configured the single sign-on settings on the job server, you need to enable the single sign-on service of the front-end Web servers. To enable the single sign-on service on each front-end Web server, follow the instructions given earlier in step 2, “Enable the Single Sign-On Service on the Job Server.”
    Managing Single Sign-On
    After you have configured the single sign-on for the first time, you are likely to need to perform administration tasks at a later stage, including the following:
    •     Creating and deleting the application definitions
    •     Managing account credentials mapped within the application definitions
    •     Regenerating, backing up, and restoring the encryption key
    •     Enabling auditing of the encryption key
    •     Disabling the SSOSrv service
    In this section, we will discuss the single sign-on administration tasks. If you need to change your single sign-on configuration, make sure you consider the following:
    •     The single sign-on configuration and encryption key management tasks cannot be done remotely. To configure single sign-on or manage the encryption key, go to the computer running as the job server and specify the settings locally.
    •     If you change the job server to another server, you must reconfigure single sign-on. After changing the job server, you must delete the entire registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ssosrv\Config on the old job server.
    •     If you reconfigure single sign-on and you want to change the account that you specified for managing the single sign-on service (the single sign-on administrator account), the user who reconfigures the single sign-on and the single sign-on service account must be a member of both the current single sign-on administrator account that manages the service and the new account that you want to specify.
    Editing an Application Definition
    You can edit the display name, the e-mail contact, and the logon fields for an enterprise application definition. You cannot edit the application definition name or change the account type.
    To edit an application definition, do the following:
         1.     On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Configure the Single Sign-on component and manage enterprise application definitions for portals.
    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
         2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for server_name page, in the Application Settings section, click Manage settings for enterprise application definitions.
         3.     On the Manage Enterprise Application Definitions page, rest the pointer on the display name for the application definition, and then click the arrow that appears.
         4.     On the menu that appears, click Edit.
         5.     On the Edit Enterprise Application Definition page, in the Application and Contact Information section, you can edit the display name and the e-mail contact.
         6.     In the Display Name box, type a display name for this application definition. The display name is what the user sees.
         7.     In the E-mail Contact box, type an e-mail address for users to contact for this application.
         8.     In the Account Information section, select one or more fields to map to the required logon information for this application definition.
         9.     Type a display name for each field as a reminder of the required information. The display names for the fields will appear on the logon page for the application.
         10.     To ensure that sensitive information, such as a password, is not displayed when viewing account information, click Yes for Mask?
         11.     Click OK.
    Deleting an Application Definition
    When you delete an application definition, it is removed from the single sign-on database. In addition, all credentials associated with the application definition are removed. To delete an application definition, do the following:
         1.     On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Configure the Single Sign-on component and manage enterprise application definitions for portals.
    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
    2.          2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for server_name page, in the Application Settings section, click Manage settings for enterprise application definitions.
    3.          3.     On the Manage Enterprise Application Definitions page, rest the pointer on the display name for the application definition, and then click the arrow that appears.
    4.          4.     On the menu that appears, click Delete.
    5.          5.     On the confirmation message box, click OK.
    Managing Account Information for an Application Definition
    You can update or delete individual account information for a single application definition, or you can remove an account from all application definitions.
    For group application definitions, you can update the account information, but you cannot remove the Windows account from a group application definition because there is a one-to-one correspondence between a group application definition and the account. If necessary, you can delete the group application definition.
    To manage account information for an application definition, do the following:
         1.     On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
         2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for server_name page, in the Enterprise Application Definition Settings section, click Manage account information for enterprise application definitions.
         3.     On the Manage Account Information for an Enterprise Application Definition page, in the Account Information section, do the following:
    4.          1.     In the Enterprise Application Definition list, select the name of the application definition.
    2.          2.     If you created the application definition to use an individual account, the User account name box appears. If you created the application definition to use a group account, the Group account name box appears. In the User account name or Group account name box, type the account name to modify.
         4.     In the Enterprise Application Definition section, you can perform one of the three operations: update the account information for the application corresponding to this application definition, delete the stored credentials for this account for this application, and delete the stored credentials for this account from all application definitions.
       For individual application definitions, all three options are available. For group application definitions only the update option is available; both delete options are grayed out.
    To update the account information for this application, do the following:
         1.     Click Update account information.
         2.     Click OK.
         3.     On the Provide application_definition_display_name Account Information page, in the Logon Information section, enter the credentials to be used for the logon to the enterprise application. The number, the order, and the names of the fields displayed follow configuration in the Logon Account Information section of the application definition.
         4.     Click OK.
    To delete the stored credentials for this user account from this application definition, do the following:
    5.          1.     Click Delete stored credentials for this account from this enterprise application definition.
    2.          2.     Click OK.
    3.          3.     To delete the user credentials, click OK on the confirmation message box.
    To remove this user account credentials from all application definitions, do the following:
    4.          1.     Click Delete stored credentials for this account from all enterprise application definitions.
    2.          2.     Click OK.
    3.          3.     To delete the user credentials from all application definitions, click OK on the confirmation message box.
    Creating the Encryption Key
    The encryption key is used as part of the encryption process for credentials used with single sign-on. The key helps to decrypt encrypted credentials stored in the single sign-on database. The first time you configure single sign-on and enterprise application definitions on the Manage Server Settings for Single Sign-On page, the encryption key is created automatically. You can regenerate the key if the previous credentials are compromised or if you have a policy to change the key after a certain number of days.
    When you create an encryption key, you can choose to re-encrypt the existing credentials with the new key. When you re-encrypt the SSOSrv service credential store, events are logged in the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 application event log. Once re-encryption is initiated, you can monitor the application event log to verify that the credential store has been re-encrypted. Event ID 1032 is recorded in the application event log when re-encryption is started. Event ID 1033 is recorded in the application event log when re-encryption has ended. If there are any failures during re-encryption, an event is recorded in the log.
    If the job server is restarted or SSOSrv is stopped on the job server during the re-encryption process, you should look in the event log for errors. If the event log reports an error, you must restart the re-encryption process from the Manage Encryption Key page.
       If the re-encryption process is preempted in any way, it will have to be re-run. If the re-encryption process is preempted, it reverts back to its original state
    The re-encryption process is a long-running operation. It is recommended that you change or restore the encryption key during non-peak periods.
    During the re-encryption process, Write operations such as updating credentials and changing application definitions are not allowed. Read operations such as retrieving credentials continue to work as normal.
       To re-encrypt the existing credentials, the single sign-on service account must be a member of the Server Administrators server role on the SQL Server instance where the single sign-on database is located. For other requirements for single sign-on service account, refer to the section “Single Sign-On Service Account” earlier in this chapter.
    You cannot create the encryption key remotely. To re-generate the encryption key, go to the computer running as the job server, log on as the single sign-on administrator account, and do the following:
         1.     On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
         2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for server_name page, in the Server Settings section, click Manage encryption key.
         3.     On the Manage Encryption Key page, in the Encryption Key Creation section, click Create Encryption Key.
         4.     On the Create Encryption Key page, to re-encrypt the credentials for the single sign-on database, select the Re-encrypt all credentials by using the new encryption key check box, and then click OK.
       If you do not re-encrypt the existing credentials with the new encryption key, users must retype their credentials for individual application definitions, and administrators for group application definitions must retype group credentials.
    Backing Up the Encryption Key
    After creating the encryption key, you should back it up. You must back up the key to a 3.5-inch floppy disk. You should lock up the backup disk for the encryption key in a safe place.
       Because the encryption key is the key that decrypts the encrypted credentials stored in the single sign-on database, the backup copy of the key should not be stored with the backup copy of the database. If a user obtains a copy of both the database and the key, the credentials stored in the database could be compromised.
    You cannot back up the encryption key remotely. To back up the encryption key, go to the computer running as the job server, log on as the single sign-on administrator account, and do the following:
         1.     On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
         2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for server_name page, in the Server Settings section, click Manage encryption key.
         3.     Insert a 3.5-inch disk into a disk drive on the computer running as the job server.
         4.     On the Manage Encryption Key page, in the Encryption Key Backup section, in the Drive list, click the letter of the disk drive, and then click Back Up to back up the encryption key.
         5.     In the completion message box that appears, click OK.
         6.     Remove the 3.5-inch disk from the disk drive.
    Restoring the Encryption Key
    You cannot restore the encryption key remotely. To restore the encryption key, go to the computer running as the job server, log on as the single sign-on administrator account, and do the following:
         1.     On the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for Server server_name page, in the Component Configuration section, click Manage settings for single sign-on.
    Alternatively, click Start, point to All Programs, point to SharePoint Portal Server, and then click SharePoint Portal Server Single Sign-On Administration.
         2.     On the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for Server server_name page, in the Server Settings section, click Manage encryption key.
         3.     Insert a 3.5-inch disk into a disk drive on the computer running as the job server.
         4.     On the Manage Encryption Key page, in the Encryption Key Restore section, in the Drive list, click the letter of the disk drive, and then click Restore to restore the encryption key.
         5.     Click OK.
    When the restore completes, the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for Server server_name page appears.
         6.     Remove the 3.5-inch disk from the disk drive.
       Restoring the encryption key and re-encrypting the single sign-on credentials store with the restored key is a long-running process. It is recommended that you restore the encryption key during non-peak periods.
    Enabling Auditing for the Encryption Key
    You should enable auditing for the encryption key. Then, if the key is read or written to, there will be an audit trail in the security log in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Event Viewer.
    To enable auditing for the encryption key, you need to modify the registry using regedit and then enable auditing using Group Policy Object Editor.
    To modify the registry, do the following:
    1.     On the taskbar, click Start, and then click Run.
    2.     Type regedit and then click OK.
    3.     In Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ssosrv\Config.
    4.     Right-click Config, and then click Permissions.
    5.     In the Permissions for Config dialog box, click Advanced.
    6.     In the Advanced Security Settings for Config dialog box, click the Auditing tab, and then click Add.
    7.     In the Select User, Computer, or Group dialog box, in the Enter the object name to select box, type everyone.
    8.     Click OK.
    9.     In the Auditing Entry for Config dialog box, in the Failed column, select the Full Control check box, and then click OK.
    10.     Click OK, and then click OK again to close all dialog boxes.
    11.     Close Registry Editor.
    To enable auditing, do the following:
         1.     On the taskbar, click Start, and then click Run.
         2.     Type mmc and then click OK.
         3.     In the console, on the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.
         4.     In the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box, on the Standalone tab, click Add.
         5.     In the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, in the Available Standalone Snap-ins list, click Group Policy Object Editor, and then click Add.
         6.     In the Select Group Policy Object dialog box, ensure that Local Computer appears in the Group Policy Object box, and then click Finish.
         7.     In the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, click Close.
         8.     In the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box, click OK.
         9.     Expand the following nodes:
    •     Local Computer Policy
    •     Computer Configuration
    •     Windows Settings
    •     Security Settings
    •     Local Policies
    •     Audit Policy
         10.     In the details pane, double-click Audit object access.
         11.     In the Audit object access Properties dialog box, select the Failure check box, and then click OK.
    You can verify that auditing is working by doing the following:
    12.          1.     Log off.
    2.          2.     Log on as a user who should not have access to the registry key.
    3.          3.     Try to read the registry key.
    4.          4.     Look in the security log in Windows Server 2003 Event Viewer for audit entries.
    Disabling the Single Sign-On Service
    To disable the single sign-on service on the server farm, you must disable it on each front-end Web server, on the job server, and on any server running the single sign-on service.
    If you want to delete all credentials associated with application definitions, you must delete each enterprise application definition.
    To disable the single sign-on service, do the following on each front-end Web server, job server, and any server running the single sign-on service:
         1.     On the taskbar, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
         2.     On the Services management console, double-click Microsoft Single Sign-on Service.
         3.     On the General tab, in the Startup type list, click Manual.
         4.     In the Service status section, click Stop.
         5.     Click OK.
    Creating a Web Part That Uses Single Sign-On
    After you have configured the single sign-on and created the application definitions, you need to develop a Web Part that implements the single sign-on functionality and retrieves information from the corresponding back-end application programmatically.
    SharePoint Portal Server 2003 provides a programming interface for developers to use and extend the single sign-on feature. There are two namespaces provided solely for interaction with the single sign-on functionality, as well as one class in a more generic Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal namespace, as follows:
         •     The Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignOn namespace contains core classes that allow you to work with account credentials and application definitions in the single sign-on credentials store. These core classes and their functionality are listed in Table 26-1. The required assembly is Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignon, located in Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignon.dll.
         •     The Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignOn.Security namespace contains two classes that control the ability to access Single Sign-On resources programmatically from the code. These two classes and their functionality are listed in Table 26-2. The required assembly is Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignOn.Security, located in Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignOn.Security.dll.
         •     The SingleSignonLocator class in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal namespace allows you to locate a URL for the logon form for the SSOSrv service. It has the GetCredentialEntryUrl(strAppName, [port]) method that returns the URL for the logon form for a given application definition. The method takes two parameters: strAppName, which is a name of an application that is configured in the corresponding application definition, and the optional port number for SSL. If you do not specify the port number, and SSL is not enabled on the server, the port number will default to port 80 (that is, the port value will be omitted from the URL). If the second parameter is absent and SSL is enabled on the server, the port number is assumed to be the standard SSL port 443. However, if you require the URL returned to be formatted for SSL on a particular port, you need to specify it. For example, you would pass the specified port when the system cannot detect which SSL port to use, such as when multiple SSL port mappings exist. The required assembly for this class is Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, located in Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.dll.
    Table 26-1. Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignOn Namespace Core Classes
    Class     Description
    Application     Exposes functionality to add, get, and delete enterprise application definitions
    Credentials     Exposes functionality to manage user and group credentials and access tokens
    SSOReturnCodes     Contains all the return codes for SSOSrv service that the SingleSignonException class will throw
    SingleSignonException     Instantiates an exception from the SSOSrv ser vice with a specific error code
    Table 26-2. Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignOn Security Namespace Classes
    Class     Description
    SingleSignOnPermission      Allows security actions for SingleSignOnPer mission to be applied to code using declarative security.
    SingleSignOnPermissionAt tribute     Represents a custom permission that controls the ability to access Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies resources to manage user and group credentials and access tokens.
    For example, let’s look into a code in the Web Part that retrieves the account credentials for a back-end enterprise application from the single sign-on credentials database. The corresponding application definition is configured to use individual accounts. The code checks whether a requesting user’s credentials have already been stored in the single sign-on credential database. If not, the user is redirected to the Single Sign-On logon form to enter the required credentials for accessing the back-end application.
    The code should implement the following sequence:
         1.     Call the GetCredentials method of the Credentials class. Specify the application name for which the credentials need to be retrieved from the single sign-on database.
         2.     If the SSOSrv service cannot find credentials for the user for the enterprise application specified, the GetCredentials method throws a SingleSignonException. If the LastErrorCode property of the SingleSignonException is SSO_E_CREDS_NOT_FOUND, call the GetCredentialEntryUrl(String) method—or the GetCredentialEntryUrl(String, Int) method—of the SingleSignonLocator class to build the URL to the single sign-on logon form.
         3.     After the URL for the logon form has been retrieved, redirect the browser to this URL. The logon form is created by the SSOSrv service. It prompts the user to enter credentials for the enterprise application in a number of fields. The order, the number and the display names for these fields are configured within the application definition under Logon Account Information. For example, if the enterprise application uses user name and password for authentication, two fields will be present in the logon form. For SAP, you may need five fields. After the SSOSrv service saves the credentials, the form redirects control back to the original Web Part.
    The code in your Web Part will be similar to the following example that shows how to redirect the user to the logon form to save credentials for an enterprise application called SampleApp:
    protected override void RenderWebPart(HtmlTextWriter writer) //RenderWebPart
      string[] rgGetCredentialData = null;
      try
      //Try to get the credentials for this application.
      //Before running this code, make sure that an individual
      //application definition for application called "SampleApp"
      //has been added.
        Credentials.GetCredentials(1,"SampleAPP", ref rgGetCredentialData);
      catch (SingleSignonException ssoe)
      //This exception will be thrown if this user does not have
      //credentials for the "SampleApp" application.
        if(SSOReturnCodes.SSO_E_CREDS_NOT_FOUND == ssoe.LastErrorCode)
          //Send the user to the single sign-on logon form. 
          //The logon form will:
          //- Prompt the user for credentials for this application
          //- Save credentials for this user for this application
          //- Then redirect the user back to this Web Part
            string strSSOLogonFormUrl = SingleSignonLocator.GetCredentialEntryUrl
              ("MyIndividualApplicationID");
            writer.Write("<a href=" + strSSOLogonFormUrl +">Click here to save your
             credentials for the Enterprise Application.</a>");
            writer.WriteLine();
    After the user credentials for the enterprise application have been stored in the single sign-on database, the custom code in the Web Part should retrieve the credentials using GetCredentials method, then submit them to the enterprise application in a manner that is relevant to this application, then retrieve the necessary data from this application, and then finally render the data in the Web Part. Referring back to Figure 26-1 that shows eight steps described in the section “How Single Sign-On Works,” the preceding code corresponds to steps 1 through 5. In addition to this code, you have to implement steps 6 through 8.
    Your code for interacting with the enterprise application such as submitting credentials and retrieving information will be different depending on the type of application you are accessing. You need to consider that in an enterprise environment, where a user interacts with many systems and applications, it is likely that the environment does not maintain the user context through multiple processes, products, and computers. This user context is crucial to provide single sign-on capabilities because it is necessary to verify who initiated the original request. To overcome this problem, SharePoint Portal Server provides ability to use a Single Sign-On (SSO) ticket (not a Kerberos ticket). An SSO ticket is an encrypted access token that can be used to get the credentials that correspond to the user who made the original request. Also, in the enterprise environment you might consider using Microsoft BizTalk Server as a transformation engine for the authentication requests, as well as requests for data, between your Web Part and a format that is understood by the enterprise application.
    An example of such enterprise application integration (EAI) infrastructure is shown in Figure 26-2. In this scenario, a Web Part gets the information from a line of business (LOB) back-end application using BizTalk Server 2004. The LOB application requires authentication. In this example, we will assume that the enterprise application definition for the LOB application has already been created, and the user credentials have been stored in the SSO database.
    The authentication process shown in Figure 26-2 consists of several steps, as follows:
         1.     The Web Part calls Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignon.Credentials.ReserveCredentialTicket() with the user. This method reserves a credential ticket for the user and then returns an encrypted access token (SSO ticket) to the calling Web Part.
         2.     The Web Part passes the SSO ticket to the BizTalk Server 2004 native SOAP adapter by calling a Web service that runs on BizTalk Server. The SSO ticket is passed within the header of the SOAP request. When the SOAP adapter receives a request containing an SSO ticket, the ticket is stored as the SSO Ticket property in the conte

  • Single Sign-on with Multiple Servlets and JSPs

    I am in the midst of attempting to logically tie together a number of our
              web applications under a single sign-on "umbrella". What we want is the
              following: for any n applications a user may have access rights for up to n
              of them. Once signed in, she has rights to visit any app to which she has
              permissions as long as her session is valid. Unfortunately, I'm having
              trouble seeing how to make this work given the documentation that I have.
              I've read thru the newsgroup in search of a solution, but I haven't seen
              anything geared toward this specific approach.
              Currently, each "application" (servlet) has a list of valid users via ACLs
              (we've implemented a RealmExtender, so we're not going via props file
              entries), and we let the browser pop-up window enforce the sign-on. This
              has worked exactly as we wish (single sign-on, etc.), for testing, but we'd
              really rather have our own form-based sign-on for production.
              To that end, we've done the following:
              1) implemented a JSP form-based sign-on (basically ripped off from the
              example provided by BEA), which does a "ServletAuthentication.weak()" check
              to confirm identity.
              2) placed the following code (essentially) within the service() method of
              our servlet superclass, which I thought would force another check. My
              intention is to disallow the user from "jumping into" an app thru a
              shortcut, and thereby bypassing security.
              HttpSession session = request.getSession(true);
              if (session.isNew()) {
              response.sendRedirect(welcomeURL);
              However, we can't get the form-based approach to mimic the functionality of
              the default browser pop-up: the sign-in doesn't seem to "follow" the user
              the way it did with the pop-up. Instead, when I come in thru our login
              page, the browser pop-up is still appearing when I click the link for an
              app for which to which I have permissions.
              Is the default browser pop-up doing something different that I should know
              about? Seems like this should be simple to do, but it's surprisingly subtle
              (or maybe I'm just clueless).
              TIA
              

    Well, if you want to hear my personal opinion:
    better stick to the cookie specification (http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html) and accept the constraint that cookies will only be send to domains that tail-match the domain-constraint specified in the set-cookie http response.
    Although this specification is not an official internet standard most browsers are implementing the cookie mechanism according to this specification.
    Unfortenately there's no option to specify that a cookie should be send to a list of servers and/or sub-domains.
    However one physical server can have multiple (FQDN) hostnames. So if you intend to send the cookie to a group of servers the best approach is to create a new (DNS) (sub-)domain exclusively for those servers.
    Theoretically (and also practically) it is possible to set cookies for multiple domains (by using a webservice that will set cookies on request of a caller). But that approach is dangerous:
    (1) not the server but the http client is defining the content of the cookie (= part of the http server response)
    (2) (unintended) many servers can obtain the cookie which will be send to all servers that reside in all (tail-matching sub-)domains; although most likely only one or two servers of each domain are intended recipients
    Regards, Wolfgang

  • Single sign-on using Kerberos and Ldap

    I am currently setting up single sign-on using Kerberos for authentication and Ldap for authorization and information store.
    The setup includes several Solaris 8 & 9 workstations, a couple of SGI's, as well as a M$ terminal server farm, several WinXP desktops and their associated Active Directory.
    I am required to authenticate etc against the AD. (which has M$ SFU3.5 installed)
    I have the Kerberos authentication and part of the Ldap service working via pam & nss.
    ie. I can logon to the solaris worksatations using the AD username and password, mount the home directory from a M$ NFS server.
    BUT...
    id gives:- userID, groupID (primary group only)
    groups :- primary group only. (no secondary groups are listed)
    Question: what additional configuration information do I need in the pam, nss &/or ldap config files, so that I can list the secondary groups.
    Thanks in advance for any help.

    After evaluating (giving up on, and finally throwing out) the Sun Directory server it looks like we are going to endup with a similar solution..
    Sadly enough, the MS AD seems much more stable and easier to handle than Suns DS, kerberos and associated services.
    Anyway, currently we are evaluating a product called vintela ( www.vintela.com ), and it seems very promising; its easy, robust, stable and does what we require it to do, as well as more :) It comes with an additional nss module called 'vas', so you easily can retrieve data like hosts/groups from your AD.
    //M.

  • Single Sign-on problem

    single sign-on is enabled for my developer account.
    the following HttpWebRequest...
    https://{server}/Services/Integration?command=ssoitsurl&ssoid={sso_token}"
    ... throws the following exception everytime:
    The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error.
    and the following HttpWebRequest...
    https://{server}/Services/Integration?command=ssologin&odSsoToken={token}
    ... throws the same exception almost everytime.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    user1141276, typically, before you can use SSO Token, you need to call Customer Care to have your company authentication type changed to the appropriate type based on the token requirements (i.e. validation only, or validation with option to create session id).

  • Exchange Server Deployment Assistant - Single Sign On Question

    I'm running through the Exchange Server Deployment Assistant to help with a Hybrid deployment and for
    right now, I don't want to be bothered with SSO. In the Assistant, when I answer
    No to the Do you want all users to use their on-premises credentials when they log on to their Exchange Online mailbox? question when I get to the
    Before You Begin section it always shows my answer to that question as being
    Yes.
    Any ideas? Can I simply ignore the sections that relate to AD FS as I work through the steps?
    Thanks!

    Hi Adare,
    I have tested on Exchange Server Deployment Assistant with "Hybrid"->"Exchange 2010 based hybrid", and get the same result as yours.
    Information on "Do you want all users to use their on-premises credentials when they log on to their Exchange Online mailbox?" as below:
    Single sign-on allows users in both the on-premises organization and the Exchange Online organization to access resources and features across the two organizations without being prompted for additional user credentials. Single sign-on is configured for
    a hybrid deployment using identity federation and Active Directory synchronization. If you're planning to have on-premises users access Exchange Online accounts using the Outlook mail client or planning to implement Exchange Online Archiving,
    we strongly recommend selecting Yes for this question and deploying single sign-on in your on-premises organization.
    It seems that this is the reason why Yes has been selected.
    Thanks 
    Mavis Huang
    TechNet Community Support

  • Mail, Exchange, Acitve Directory and Single-Sign On Issues

    I have a brand new MacBook Air with Mavericks. 10.9.3.
    We are using a single sign on account setup for our machines. I enter my exchange log in details to access my account on my computer. It's labeled as a managed mobile account. When I open Mail, it takes forever to connect with the exchange server and download and sync new email. The activity monitor shows it constantly running. I send an email and it takes minutes until it actually sends. When I try to shut down mail I usually have to force quit it to close the app because it's doing some kind of syncing with the server.
    I have all the same settings on a Mac Mini running 10.9.3 except I'm using a local user/admin sign-on. No issue there. So I think it's something with the single sign on on my Air. Any help would be appreciated!

    Try a restart.
    Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.
    Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
    Isolating an issue by using another user account
    If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account.  Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
    Safe Mode
    Safe Mode - About
    General information.
    Isolating issues in Mac OS X
    Step by Step to Fix Your Mac
    You also have 90 day telephone support from Apple Support.
    Apple Support Contact
    Apple Support contact - Telephone

  • Oracle BIEE Single Sign-On

    Can single sign-on be use for Oracle BIEE and another portal application? What is needed to configure the two application? Does Oracle BIEE 10.1.3.2 come with OAS?

    SSO integration is covered in the OBIEE deployment guide. It currently supports two kings of SSO environments:
    1. Oracle SSO (OSSO)
    2. Anything else
    The second option must be able to call the remote user interface but I have not implemented this so can not comment further.
    OSSO refers to use of Oracle Infrastructure with OID and the implementation is quite simple but only follow the chapter on integrating to OSSO and not Oracle Application Server. This is some this else entirely.

  • Setting up a single sign on demo

    Dear all,
    I am working on a demo that has the purpose to create a WEBI report in BO which holds both data coming from SAP and data coming from a random database (through a Universe of course). The end user should be able to run the report by entering his or her credentials only once.
    I've finally managed to load the data coming from a SQL Windows 2008 server in my WEBI report. I am using a connection through ODBC drivers. Both the client (me) and the server which holds the database are in the same domain and have an ODBC datasource set under Administrative Tools in the control panel. The thing is, I can only load this data in my WEBI report when I'm using the WEBI rich client. We also have a BO portal running on a server inside our organisation. When I try to create a report there using the same universe, I get the following error:
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    I suppose some extra steps are necessary on the server which is running the BO portal, but I don't know which ones?
    My universe and its connection have been configured with the BO Credentials authentication mode (using LDAP).
    Thanks in advance,
    Niels

    Dear Niels,
    Please, look for a solution in the http://scn.sap.com/community/businessobjects-web-intelligence/content. If you don't find a solution for your problem, post a message to request for support from experts in the SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Community.
    This SAP NetWeaver Single Sign-On community is for questions and discussions of the SAP NetWeaver Single Sign-On product.
    Best Regards,
    Donka Dimitrova

  • Oblix Netpoint, Oracle9iAS ,PlumTree -- Third party Single Sign-on

    We are using Oracle Database 8.1.7 (HP UX 11.0) and
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    Company wide proposal is to use OBLIX Netpoint product as single sign-on server and plumtree as the portal.
    Please answer the following questions.
    1. How to use Oblix product as single sign-on server with Oracle9iAS.
    2.We are not supposed to use Oracle Portal, this case how can I use PLUMTREE PORTAL,
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    Thanks

    As for integrating Oblix with Oracle Login Server (which is part of Oracle Portal), you should be able to use the 3rd party API described at http://technet.oracle.com/docs/products/ias/doc_library/1022doc_otn/portals.102/index.htm
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