Indeed Access Manager Server with data storage in Active Directory

Installation

1. Install the Indeed AM by running IndeedAM. Server-x64.msi installer.

2. Add HTTPS binding in Default Web Site settings of IIS Manager. 

   Indeed AM is a web application on the basis of IIS. “Require SSL” is a default installation setting, which, in turn, requires active HTTPS binding.

   If you do not plan to use HTTPS protocol, then deactivate SSL requirement in IIS settings for  easerver and in the server configuration file (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\easerver\Web.config). To do so, change the value of "requireHttps" parameter to "false".

   <appSettings> <add key="requireHttps" value="false" /> </appSettings>

   1. Run IIS Manager and expand the Sites item.
   2. Select the Default Web Site site and click Bindings item in the Actions section.
   3. Click Add:
      1. Type - https.
      2. Port - 443.
      3. Select the SSL Certificate.
   4. Save the binding.

How to use the configuration wizard to customize the settings

1. At the Before You Start step, click Next. 
2. At the Restore Settings step, click Next. 
3. Please set the following parameters, at the User Directory step: 
1. Domain name (FQDN) − specify full domain name, for example, domain.local. 
2. Service user account − specify the service user account with access rights to the user directory. 
3. Click the Edit button and add relevant user account information. LDAP path to the directory − specify the path to the user directory. 
4. Click the Select button and choose a relevant container or an entire domain.
4. At the Data Vault step, please select Active Directory as your storage vault. 
1. Domain name (FQDN) − specify full domain name, for example, domain.local. 
2. Service user account − specify a service user account with full access rights to the container that will be used as the Indeed data vault. Click the Edit button and add relevant user account information. 
3. LDAP path to the directory − specify the path to the user directory. Click the Select button and choose a relevant container or an entire domain.
5. The Encryption Key step. Please select the encryption algorithm, click Generate, and then click Next. Note. We strongly recommend that you create a back-up copy of your encryption key and keep it at a secure location.
6. At the Log Server step, please add the following information: Note. To avoid errors during connection testing, make sure you have completed full customization of your log server settings and have properly configured the database, or have a pre-installed EventLog component. If your log server is not ready, you can skip this step.
1. Log server address − URL for server connections presented in the following format: http(s)://full_dns_server_name/ls/ (for example, http://logserver.demo.local/ls/). 
2. Certificate − select a certificate to set up a two-way TLS connection. 
3. Logged fields for objects in the catalog − specify the format for logging usernames. 

4. Logged computer field − specify the format for logging the Computer field.

   DNS logging will require additional settings.

   

7. The Session Secret step. Create a secret for token signature by clicking Generate. After that, click Next.

8. The File Encryption step You have an option to encrypt configuration file settings.

   We recommend encrypting the configuration file to improve security.

9. The Confirmation step Make sure that you have added correct data and click Apply.

   We recommend making a backup copy of the configuration file. The option Save a backup copy of configuration parameters is active by default.

10. The Results step. At this step, you can check the settings and test the Indeed AM Server connection.

How to customize the system administrator settings 

1. At the System Administrator step, please select the Indeed administrator user account. This user account will be assigned primary administrator rights.

   To customize the administrator settings, you will need a pre-installed Indeed AM Windows Password since assignment of primary administrator rights to a given user requires Indeed AM server authentication.

2. At the Results step, you can view the status of the configuration file settings and the system administrator settings.

How to manually customize the system

Modifying a configuration file

1. Open the server configuration file named Web.config (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\easerver\Web.config).

2. Add a private key to sign the token of "secretKey” parameter of "logonSettings” tag. The "secretKey" parameter is used to create a user token in the "jwt” format. 

   Example

   <logonSettings secretKey="67d7e6caec61d61239dc0b05f86063ed899931b581fa1ed8140d7843b320fe02"/>

3. Define the system user directory. To do so, edit the adUserCatalogProvider tag parameters:
   1. id is the unique identifier of the directory.
   2. serverName is the name of Active Directory domain, where the said directory resides.
   3. containerPath is the path to the container in the form of Distinguished Name or the domain itself (again as DN), if the whole of the domain is used to store users.
   4. userName is the name of service account used to connect to the user directory.

   5. password is the password of the service account for the user directory in AD.

      Example

      <adUserCatalogProviders> 
      	<adUserCatalogProvider id="UserId" serverName="indeed.local" containerPath="DC=,DC=local" userName="IndeedCatalogUser" 		password="Q1q2E3e4"/> 
      </adUserCatalogProviders>

4. Specify the root identifier of the provider to work with the directory. To do so, edit the rootUserCatalogProviderId attribute of userCatalogProviderSettings tag.
   

   1. rootUserCatalogProviderId - set it to the value of Id attribute of  adUserCatalogProvider tag.

      Example

      <userCatalogProviderSettings rootUserCatalogProviderId="UserId">

5. Define the system data storage. If Active Directory is used as data storage, edit the rootDbContextId parameter of dbContextSettings tag and adDbContext tag parameters.
   1. rootDbContextId is the unique value of storage identifier.
   2. id - set it to the value of rootDbContextId tag.
   3. path is LDAP path to the data container in Active Directory. It is recommended to specify it in the "serverless binding” format.
   4. userName is the name of service account used to connect to the storage.

   5. password is the password of the service account for the user directory in AD.

      Example

      <dbContextSettings rootDbContextId="mssql"> 
      	<mssqlDbContexts> 
      		<mssqlDbContext id="mssql" connectionString="Data Source=EASERVER\EASERVER;Initial Catalog=AM_Server_7;User Id=Admin-		DB;Password=Q1q2E3e4;"/> 
      	</mssqlDbContexts> 
      </dbContextSettings>

6. Define the encryption key for the system data. To do so, edit the encryptionSettings tag parameters.
   1. cryptoAlgName specifies the encryption algorithm used.
   2. cryptoKey contains key values generated by the utility.

   3. certificateThumbprint - Thumbprint of the certificate used to encrypt the key (delete the attribute, if it is not to be used). 

      Exemple

      <encryptionSettings cryptoAlgName="Aes" cryptoKey="90ce7dbc3ff94a7867abc6672c23cce2c3717d38af42f04293130cb68a34ecc2"/>

7. Define the system administrator. To do so, edit the userId parameter of accessControlAdminSettings tag. 

   The user in question has to be within the user directory.

   1. UserId is the user identifier in the following format: “Directory identifier (rootUserCatalogProviderId); underscore; GUID of system administrator”. 

      GUID can be found with PowerShell command. For this, Remote Server Administration Tools component has to be installed.

      Example

      Get-ADUser YouUserName -Properties * | Select ObjectGUID

8. Specify the url to connect to log server. To do so, edit the logServer tag.

   1. URL is url to connect to log server in the following format http(s)://full_dns_name_of_server/ils/api. 

      If several servers are used, then you have to specify the load balancer address.

   2. CertificateThumbprint - this is to be defined if the private key is stored in the registry, and the certificate is in the PC storage.
   3. CertificateFilePath - this is to be defined, if the key pair is stored in pfx.
   4. CertificateFilePassword is the password for pfx.

Initial configuration setup

1. Open the EA.Server.AccessControlInitialConfig.exe.config file for editing.

2. Edit the key attribute - value parameter is to be set to true, if Windows Token is planned to be used for authentication.  If the server is within the domain, you can use one of the following providers: windows password, emailOTP, smsOTP. To do so, value is to be set to false.

   Example

   <appSettings>
   	<add key="eaServerUrl" value="http://192.168.1.2/easerver/"/> 
   	<add key="isWindowsAuth" value="true"/> 
   </appSettings>

3. Run the EA.Server.AccessControlInitialConfig.exe utility at the domain machine under the user account, which is to become system administrator and which defined as administrator in the accessControlAdminSettings tag.

How to configure settings for multiple user directories

1. Add new strings to enable container connection in the adUserCatalogProviders tag. 

   <userCatalogProviderSettings rootUserCatalogProviderId="user">
       <userCatalogProviders>
         <sqlUserCatalogProviders></sqlUserCatalogProviders>
         <adUserCatalogProviders>
           <adUserCatalogProvider id="Ad1" serverName="demo.local" containerPath="OU=Indeed_Users,DC=demo,DC=local" userName="demo\ind-user" password="Q1q2E3e4" />
           <adUserCatalogProvider id="Ad2" serverName="demo.local" containerPath="OU=inDomainUsers,DC=demo,DC=local" userName="demo\ind-user" password="Q1q2E3e4" />
           <adUserCatalogProvider id="Ad3" serverName="inforest.demo.local" containerPath="OU=UsersInForest,DC=inforest,DC=demo,DC=local" userName="inforest\cataloguser1" password="Q1q2E3e4" />
           <adUserCatalogProvider id="Ad4" serverName="newforest.local" containerPath="OU=Usersoutforest,DC=newforest,DC=local" userName="newforest\cataloguser2" password="Q1q2E3e4" />
         </adUserCatalogProviders>
       </userCatalogProviders>

2. Insert orUserCatalogProviders tag with the id parameter inside the orUserCatalogProvider tag.

   The id parameter should match the value of the rootUserCatalogProviderId parameter.

3. Insert userCatalogProviders tag inside the orUserCatalogProvider tag. Inside the userCatalogProviders tag, insert userCatalogProvider tags with id parameter indicating the user container ID and ignoreExceptions parameter set to true. This way the system will ignore connection errors when you try to connect to a directory if this directory is unavailable.

   These tags may be missing in the configuration file if relevant parameters have not been specified during the previous encryption. If the tags are missing, please add them manually. The complete file structure is presented below.

   <orUserCatalogProviders>
       <orUserCatalogProvider id="user">
          <userCatalogProviders>
             <userCatalogProvider id="Ad1" ignoreExceptions="true" />
             <userCatalogProvider id="Ad2" ignoreExceptions="true" />
             <userCatalogProvider id="Ad3" ignoreExceptions="true" />
             <userCatalogProvider id="Ad4" ignoreExceptions="true" />
          </userCatalogProviders>
       </orUserCatalogProvider>
   </orUserCatalogProviders>

   Example file structure

   <accessControlAdminSettings userId="UserId_891f2b6c-9a55-4e1a-b69b-b4d6418f4c4c"/>
     <logonSettings secretKey="*****"/>
     <userCatalogProviderSettings rootUserCatalogProviderId="user">
       <userCatalogProviders>
           <sqlUserCatalogProviders>
           </sqlUserCatalogProviders>
           <adUserCatalogProviders>
               <adUserCatalogProvider id="UserId" serverName="new.loc" containerPath="DC=new,DC=loc"
                   userName="indeed-users" password="Q1q2E3e4" />
               <adUserCatalogProvider id="UserId1" serverName="test.new.loc" containerPath="DC=test,DC=loc"
                   userName="indeed-users" password="Q1q2E3e4" />
           </adUserCatalogProviders>
       </userCatalogProviders>
       <combineRules>
           <orUserCatalogProviders>
               <orUserCatalogProvider id="user">
                  <userCatalogProviders>
                     <userCatalogProvider id="UserId" ignoreExceptions="true" />
                     <userCatalogProvider id="UserId1" ignoreExceptions="true" />
                  </userCatalogProviders>
               </orUserCatalogProvider>
           </orUserCatalogProviders>
           <andUserCatalogProviders>
           </andUserCatalogProviders>
       </combineRules>
     </userCatalogProviderSettings>

Encryption / decryption of configuration file.

1. Run command line as Administrator.

2. In command line, switch to encryption utility folder. 

   The utility encrypts the following sections: logServer, logonSettings, userCatalogProviderSettings, encryptionSettings, dbContextSettings. It is recommended to encrypt all the sections.

   Encryption / decryption of separate sections.

3. To encrypt a separate section, you have to execute the following command: EA. Config.Encryptor /encrypt "Path to server configuration file" "Section name”

   Example

   EA.Config.Encryptor /encrypt "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\easerver\Web.config" "logServer"

4. To decrypt a separate section, you have to execute the following command: EA. Config.Encryptor /decrypt "Path to server configuration file" "Section name” 

   Example

   EA.Config.Encryptor /decrypt "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\easerver\Web.config" "logServer"

   Encryption/decryption of all sections.

1. To encrypt all sections, run  encryptConfigs.bat.
2. To decrypt all sections, run  decryptConfigs.bat.