Leveraging the LDAP connection in Websphere admin console

Question

In Websphere admin console, it provides the ability to use Standalone LDAP registry as a method to authenticate user to login to the admin console.

Security > Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure > Standalone LDAP registry And then enable Enable administrative security checkbox in the admin security section.

Is there a way to leverage this LDAP connection from application point of view? e.g. The J2EE application runs on top of the Websphere also uses the LDAP connection to do application user authentication. Currently the application have classes like import javax.naming.ldap.LdapContext, and create a separate LDAP connection context to authenticate the user at application level. Is it possible to use the same connection make in the admin console, or is it totally impossible?

I searched the redbook WAS8 Administration and Configuration Guide.pdf www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg247971.pdf and didn't find anything.

and also checked http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.websphere.base.doc%2Finfo%2Faes%2Fae%2Ftsec_ldap.html didn't find anthing.

I am using Websphere 8

Answer 1

You can enable the Application Security from the Console in order to use the Websphere(i.e. Java EE) security scheme.

You can do this by checking the "Enable application security" checkbox in Global Security page of WAS Console and make the appropriate changes in your app. For more look in the following Redbook for Application security.

However you should know that you might need to adapt your application to Java EE Security Standards, which might be difficult.