Configuring the BMC Helix SSO agent

Identifies a BMC application integrated with BMC Helix SSO. You can specify any text value or an application URL for this property. If you have BMC Helix SSO deployed in high-availability mode, you must specify the same value as agent-id on all nodes in the cluster. However, you must not use the same value for integration with other applications because the agent identifier must be unique per integration with other applications. 

Example

# agent-id=http://midtier-hostname/arsys

Disables the BMC Helix SSO agent if the parameter is set to true. In this case, requests are not processed by BMC Helix SSO.

Example

# skip-filter=false

Important: 

If RSSOAuthenticator in Mid Tier is used, perform the following steps to disable the BMC Helix SSO agent:

1. From the <MT>/WEB-INF/classes directory, open the config.properties file.
2. Set the following value for the arsystem.authenticator parameter:

arsystem.authenticator=com.remedy.arsys.session.DefaultAuthenticator

If you have BMC Helix SSO and an integrated BMC application deployed on different domains, you must configure the BMC Helix SSO agent to support this deployment use case. For more information about this use case, see Deployment scenarios.

Set the multi-domain-support property to true, and then configure the values for auth-client-id and oauth-client-secret properties. For more information about how to configure multi-domain support, see Configuring BMC Helix SSO for applications hosted on different domains.

Example

# multi-domain-support=true
# oauth-client-id=
# oauth-client-secret=

Important: This property is applicable only when multi-domain support is enabled.

If this property is set to true, the time difference between the BMC Helix SSO agent and the BMC Helix SSO server is ignored. This property, set in seconds, specifies the time offset between the BMC Helix SSO server and the BMC Helix SSO agent. For example, if the BMC Helix SSO agent receives a token from the BMC Helix SSO server, and the token issue time according to the time set on the BMC Helix SSO agent is future, the BMC Helix SSO agent accepts the token without any errors.

By default, token-timeout-synchronization is 10 seconds.

Example

# token-timeout-synchronization=10

Enables the BMC Helix SSO agent to expect JSON Web Token (JWT) in the authentication flow. Depending on how the integrated BMC application sends a JWT to BMC Helix SSO, configure the BMC Helix SSO agent to expect JWT by HTTP GET or POST method. By default, the GET method is configured.

Example

# preauth-type=get

For more information about the preauthentication authentication type, see Preauthentication.

action-path-mask

Enables end users to change their passwords by accessing the Action Request System  server from BMC Helix SSO. The following setting is enabled by default in the rsso-agent.properties configuration file:

# action-path-mask=/_rsso

For more information about how to use this option, see Configuring the BMC Helix SSO agent to enable end users to change their passwords.

msp-deployment

If this property is set to true, the realm entry page for Multi-Service Provider (MSP) deployments is displayed to end users in cases where the BMC Helix SSO server cannot identify to which realm an end user belongs. To always display the realm entry page for MSP deployments, set the msp-always-show-domain-entry-page property to true.

# msp-deployment=true
# msp-always-show-domain-entry-page=true

Defines a server user-facing (external) URL of the BMC Helix SSO server. The external URL can be the same or different from the internal URL, but both of these URLs must point to the same server where BMC Helix SSO is deployed. The external URL is the user-facing RSSO Server URL which may actually be the LB or ingress controller behind which the actual RSSO Server is deployed. This URL must be accessible by the end users

The BMC Helix SSO agent redirects the browser (user’s request) to sso-external-url after detecting one of the following events: 

• A request needs to be authenticated.
• An application logout is completed (only if the request refers to logout-urls).

To support multiple BMC Helix SSO web applications, set the value to a comma separated string: each represents an 'application FQDN' mapping, with the format of <application FQDN>:<url>.

Example

# <application FQDN>:https://<server1/rsso>,<application FQDN>:https://<server2/rsso>
sso-external-url=https://yourcompany.com/rsso

Defines a service (internal) URL of the BMC Helix SSO server. Internal service calls are server-to-server. 

The BMC Helix SSO agent uses the sso-service-url parameter to call the BMC Helix SSO web application APIs to perform the following tasks:

• Retrieve configuration details, such as cookie name, cookie domain, and realm-domain mappings.
• Check whether the token cookie from the browser (user's request) is valid
• Register the BMC Helix SSO server to track other application agents. The tracking helps the agent know the login status of other application agents prior to logging out.

Example

# sso-service-url=http://rsso-lb.yourcompany.internal/rsso

For more information about troubleshooting the internal URL, see Troubleshooting.

Important: To support multiple BMC Helix SSO web applications, set the value to a comma separated string: each represents an 'application FQDN' mapping, with the format of <application FQDN>:<url>.

Example

# <application FQDN>:https://<server1/rsso>,<application FQDN>:https://<server2/rsso>
sso-service-url=http://rsso-lb.yourcompany.internal/rsso

Identifies a BMC application URL that triggers BMC Helix SSO logout. If the logout link generated by the BMC application matches the logout-urls pattern, the BMC Helix SSO agent triggers the BMC Helix SSO logout flow when an end user initiates a logout from this application.

Example

# logout-urls=/shared/loggedout.jsp

Defines which URLs must not go through the BMC Helix SSO web agent filter.

By default, the following configuration is applied:

# excluded-url-pattern=.*\\.xml|.*\\.gif|.*\\.css|.*\\.ico|/shared/config/.*|/WSDL/.*|/shared/error.jsp

Provides a means to enable or disable the option to check the application context by the BMC Helix SSO agent filter. To include the application context in excluded-url-pattern, set the context-included flag to true. By default, the following configuration is applied:

# context-included=false

Identifies a URL to which a user must be redirected after BMC Helix SSO completes a logout flow. BMC Helix SSO redirects an end user only to the same domain as the application domain after the completion of the logout process. For example, if the application domain is bmc.com, any combination of <URL>.bmc.com is allowed.

Example

# callback-url=http://www.bmc.com

Alternatively, you can add the callback-url query parameter to logout-urls generated by the application:

http://application.bmc.com/arsys/shared/loggedout.jsp?callback-url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bmc.com

If you combine callback-url with logout-urls, the callback-url as a query parameter has higher priority than the logout-urls property specified in the rsso-agent.properties file.

If you do not specify both callback-url and After Logout URL for a realm in the BMC Helix SSO Admin Console, the BMC Helix SSO server logout page is displayed to end users.

If you specify After logout URL for a realm in the BMC Helix SSO Admin Console, end users are redirected to the specified URL page.

For more information about After logout URL, see Configuring general settings for a realm.

The BMC Helix SSO agent answers 401 Unauthorized with hidden auto-post form to the /rsso/start page instead of 302 Redirect, which breaks the compatibility with some products. Therefore, to keep 302 Redirect, the redirect-mode parameter is used.

By default, the value of this property is false and the BMC Helix SSO agent answers 401 Unauthorized. If this value is true, the BMC Helix SSO agent switches back to the old-style 302 Redirect behavior.

# redirect-mode=true

Important: If the multi-domain support is enabled, the BMC Helix SSO agent answers 302 Redirect irrespective of the redirect-mode parameter setting. For more information about how to configure multi-domain support, see Configuring BMC Helix SSO for applications hosted on different domains.

Defines the time during which the cached session token remains valid without verification by the  BMC Helix SSO server. Time is indicated in seconds.

Example

# token-status-cache-timeout=180

Enables you to choose between an HTTP session and in-memory cache to store the token data. 

Important: After you enable the in-memory cache, restart the BMC application integrated with BMC Helix SSO.

Examples

# use-in-memory-cache=false

# use-in-memory-cache=true

When constructing the URL, use the HTTP protocol instead of HTTPS: 

# rsso-service-url=http://rsso-lb.yourcompany.internal/rsso

If due to some reasons, you need to use HTTPS for  sso-service-url, follow the steps described in Disabling TLS checks between the Helix SSO agent and server.

You can insert any environment parameter for the rsso-agent.properties file by using the following format: 

${env:<VAR_NAME>}

$ export RSSO=http://localhost:port/rsso
and sso-service-url=${env:RSSO} in rsso-agent.properties gets resolved

Support of multiple BMC Helix SSO web applications

Set the value to a comma separated string, each representing an application FQDN mapping to the server URL mapping, with the <application FQDN>:<url> format.

# <application FQDN>:https://<server1/rsso>,<application FQDN>:https://<server2/rsso>
sso-service-url=http://rsso-lb.yourcompany.internal/rsso

For more details about this use case, see Connecting the same BMC Helix SSO agent to different BMC Helix SSO servers.