8.7. Tutorial: Enable LDAP Authorization in the Broker

Overview

This section explains how to enable LDAP authorization in the broker, so that the broker obtains its authorization data from the directory server.

Compatibility with Apache Karaf principals

In order to avoid unnecessary duplication of user data, this LDAP authorization example reuses the user and role data already created for the Apache Karaf JAAS authentication plug-in (as described in Section 8.3, “Add User Entries to the Directory Server”). This affects the broker's LDAP authorization plug-in configuration, as follows:
  • When you create authorization entries in the LDAP server (as described in Section 8.6, “Tutorial: Add Authorization Entries”), you must specify the full DN of the roles that are being authorized. This enables you to specify roles from any location in the LDAP tree (previously, the LDAP authorization plug-in could only read roles from a fixed location under the ou=ActiveMQ,ou=system node).
  • To enable the use of full DNs when specifying roles, you must set the legacyGroupMapping property to false in the LDAP authorization plug-in (the default is true).
  • Because the Apache Karaf roles are of a different type from the roles natively supported by the LDAP authorization plug-in, you must also specify the type of the Karaf roles, by setting the groupClass property.

Enable LDAP authorization in the broker

Perform the following steps to enable LDAP authorization:
  1. Shut down the JBoss A-MQ container, if it is currently running. In the console window, enter the following command: 
    JBossA-MQ:karaf@root> shutdown -f
  2. Add the LDAP authorization plug-in to the broker configuration. Open the broker configuration file, InstallDir/etc/activemq.xml, with a text editor and add the authorizationPlugin element, as follows: 
    <beans ...>
  <broker ...>
    ...
    <plugins>
      ...
      <authorizationPlugin>
        <map>
            <cachedLDAPAuthorizationMap
                connectionURL="ldap://localhost:10389"
                connectionUsername="uid=admin,ou=system"
                connectionPassword="secret"
                queueSearchBase="ou=Queue,ou=Destination,ou=ActiveMQ,ou=system"
                topicSearchBase="ou=Topic,ou=Destination,ou=ActiveMQ,ou=system"
                tempSearchBase="ou=Temp,ou=Destination,ou=ActiveMQ,ou=system"
                refreshInterval="300000"
                legacyGroupMapping="false"
                groupClass="org.apache.karaf.jaas.boot.principal.RolePrincipal"
            />
        </map>
      </authorizationPlugin>
    </plugins>
    ...
  </broker>
</beans>
  3. Ensure that the X.500 directory server is running. If necessary, manually restart the X.500 directory server—see Section 8.2, “Set-up a Directory Server and Browser”. If the server is not running, all broker connections will fail.
  4. Restart the JBoss A-MQ container. Open a new command prompt and start the broker by entering the following command: 
    amq

Install the Apache ActiveMQ kit

For testing purposes, it is useful to install the Apache ActiveMQ example producer and consumer clients. These example clients are not provided directly in the JBoss A-MQ package. But you can obtain the sample clients by installing the Apache ActiveMQ kit, apache-activemq-5.8.0.redhat-60024-bin.zip, provided in the extras/ directory of the JBoss A-MQ installation.
Install the Apache ActiveMQ kit as follows:
  1. Find the Apache ActiveMQ kit at the following location: 
    InstallDir/extras/apache-activemq-5.8.0.redhat-60024-bin.zip
  2. Using a suitable archive utility on your platform, unzip the apache-activemq-5.8.0.redhat-60024-bin.zip file and extract it to a convenient location, ActiveMQInstallDir.

Test the new configuration

To test the new configuration, run the example consumer and producer clients as follows:
  1. Run the consumer client with the jdoe user credentials. Open a new command prompt, change directory to ActiveMQInstallDir/example, and enter the following Ant command: 
    ant consumer -Durl=tcp://localhost:61616 -Dmax=100 -Duser=jdoe -Dpassword=secret
  2. Run the producer client with the jdoe user credentials. Open a new command prompt, change directory to ActiveMQInstallDir/example, and enter the following Ant command: 
    ant producer -Durl=tcp://localhost:61616 -Dmax=100 -Duser=jdoe -Dpassword=secret
  3. Run a negative test, to demonstrate that unauthorized users are blocked from accessing the broker queues.
    Run the consumer client with the janedoe user credentials. Open a new command prompt, change directory to ActiveMQInstallDir/example, and enter the following Ant command: 
    ant consumer -Durl=tcp://localhost:61616 -Dmax=100 -Duser=janedoe -Dpassword=secret
    This time, the consumer client fails, because janedoe does not belong to the admin group.