oracle bi 11g - active directory authentication

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Active Directory

Authenication

Antony Heljula

November 2012

Oracle Business Intelligence 11g


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Authentication With Active Directory ............................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Set WebLogic LDAP to Sufficient ............................................................................................................... 4

1.3 Create New Identity Provider ....................................................................................................................... 6

1.4 Enable Virtualization ............................................................................................................................... 11

1.5 Tuning Active Directory for Large Organisations (Optional) ...................................................................... 13

1.6 Restart Oracle BI ......................................................................................................................................... 15


1. AUTHENTICATION WITH ACTIVE DIRECTORY

1.1 OVERVIEW

This document provides instructions for configuration Oracle BI 11g to authenticate against Active Directory.

With this configuration, the embedded Weblogic LDAP provider will still be the primary identity provider, so you dont need to migrate the BISystemUser account or any other system/admin accounts to Active Directory.

The advantage of this is that Oracle BI will still be accessible and running even if the Active Directory server becomes unavailable on the network.

Active Directory will be configured as the secondary identity provider, so all you normal end user accounts can be mastered in here. It assumes that all user groups will also be stored in Active Directory. So both authentication and authorization of the end users will be handled by Active Directory.

Towards the end there is a section which shows you how to tune the authentication/authorisation processes this is applicable for very large Active Directory tree structures.


1.2 SET WEBLOGIC LDAP TO SUFFICIENT

Log on to the WebLogic Console as the weblogic adminsitrator account:

http://[BI SERVER]:7001/console

Navigate to the following screen Security Realms > myRealm:


Click on the Providers tab and then click on the Lock and Edit button:

Click on the link for DefaultAuthenticator:

Set the Control Flag parameter to SUFFICIENT

Click the Save button


1.3 CREATE NEW IDENTITY PROVIDER

Navigate back to the Providers tab by clicking the link at the top of the page:

Click on the New button to create a new Identity Provider:

Set the following Name and Type before hitting the OK button:

Name: ADAuthenticator Type: ActiveDirectoryAuthenticator


You should see you new Identity Provider listed, click on the ADAuthenticator link to do some further configuration:

Set the Control Flag parameter to SUFFICIENT and then click the Save button

Once saved, go to the Provider Specific tab:


Set the Active Directory configuration parameters as follows: Host: [AD Server Hostname or IP address] Port: [AD port e.g. 389] Principle: [DN for OBI service account, used for connecting to AD to authenticate] e.g. CN=BIAdmin, OU=Users, DC=mycompany, DC=com Credential: [password for OBI service account] Confirm Credential: [password OBI service account] User Base DN: [DN for the location of users within AD] e.g. OU=Users, DC=mycompany, DC=com All Users Filter: (&(sAMAccountName=*)(objectclass=user)) User From Name Filter: (&(sAMAccountName=%u)(objectclass=user)) User Name Attribute: sAMAccountName Group Base DN: [DN for the location of groups within AD] OU=Groups, DC=mycompany, DC=com



Return back to the Providers tab (by clicking the link at the top) and then click the Reorder button:

Move ADAuthenticator to the second in the list:

Click on the OK button


Now click Activate Changes


1.4 ENABLE VIRTUALIZATION

NOTE: This step is required to enable the use of multiple Identity Providers and also to ensure that users will still be able to log in to OBIEE even if the WebLogic Admin Server went down

Log on to Enterprise Manager as the [BI ADMIN USER] account:

http://[BI SERVER]:7001/em

Expand WebLogic Domain, right-mouse click on bifoundation_domain and then choose the following menu option:

Security > Security Provider Configuration


In the middle of the screen, click the Configure button:

Click the Add button to add the following 3 custom properties:

user.login.attr sAMAccountName username.attr sAMAccountName virtualize true

Click the OK button at the top-right

Observe the success message to confirm the parameters have been applied:


1.5 TUNING ACTIVE DIRECTORY FOR LARGE ORGANISATIONS (OPTIONAL)

If you have a very large Active Directory tree structure, then it might cause performance issues during the login process as it takes an extended period of time for authentication and authorisation to complete.

The settings documented in this section can significantly improve performance.

In one example (where users/groups were spread over 150 sub-trees in Active Directory) these settings reduced login times from 5-6 minutes down to just a few seconds.

Log on to the WebLogic Console as the weblogic adminsitrator account:

http://[BI SERVER]:7001/console

Navigate to the following screen Security Realms > myRealm > Providers > Authentication and click on the link for your ADAuthentictor:

Click the Lock and Edit button

Go to the Provider Specific tab and change the following parameters:

Use Token Groups For Group Membership Lookup: [Enable] Cache Size: 3200



Now go to the Performance tab of your authenticator and set the parameters as follows:

Max Group Hierarchies in Cache: 1000

Group Hierarchy Cache TTL: 600

Enable SID to Group Lookup Caching: [Enable]

Max SID TO Group Lookups In Cache: 5000

Click the Save Button

Click the Activate Changes button

NOTE: You will need to restart, this will be done in the next section


1.6 RESTART ORACLE BI

The configuration is now complete, restart all Oracle BI Services:

1. Authentication With Active Directory1.1 Overview1.2 Set WebLogic LDAP to Sufficient1.3 Create New Identity Provider1.4 Enable Virtualization1.5 Tuning Active Directory for Large Organisations (Optional)1.6 Restart Oracle BI

oracle bi 11g - active directory authentication

Documents

active directory server

tuning active directory

button page

new identity provider

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primary identity provider

set weblogic ldap

secondary identity provider