Connectors can be deployed in two ways:
Local connectors are deployed to a Cymmetri instance. This is the usual way how connectors are used. The connector is executed inside a Cymmetri instance, has the same lifecycle (start/stop), etc. Cymmetri can detect local connectors automatically and overall the connector management is easier.
Remote connectors are executed in a different process or on a different node than Cymmetri instance. Remote connectors are deployed to a connector server. There may be need to use a remote connector e.g. to access a file on a remote system (e.g. in case of CSV connector) or because of platform incompatibilities (e.g. .NET connectors)
Connector is not developed as local or remote. The placement of the connector is a deployment-time decision. There is just one connector package that can be deployed locally or remotely.
A connector server is required when a connector bundle is not directly executed within your application. By using one or more connector servers, the connector architecture thus permits your application to communicate with externally deployed bundles.
Connector servers are available for both Java and .NET.
A Java connector server is useful when you do not wish to execute a Java connector bundle in the same VM as your application. It may be beneficial to run a Java connector on a different host for performance improvements if the bundle works faster when deployed on the same host as the native managed resource. Additionally, one may wish to use a Java connector server under a Java remote connector server in order to eliminate the possibility of an application VM crash due to a fault in a JNI-based connector.
The use of .NET connector server is especially useful when an application is written in Java, but a connector bundle is written using C#. Since a Java application (e.g. J2EE application) cannot load C# classes, it is necessary to instead deploy the C# bundles under a .NET connector server. The Java application can communicate with the C# connector server over the network, and the C# connector server serves as a proxy to provide to any authenticated application access to the C# bundles deployed within the C# connector server.
Minimum Requirements:
Java 1.6 or later for 1.4.X.Y / Java 1.8 for 1.5.X.Y
Refer to your Java connectors to determine if there are any additional requirements
Unzip it in a directory of your choice (e.g. /usr/jconnserv) on the host where you wish to run the Java connector server
From the directory created above, run the Java connector server with no arguments to see the list of command-line options:
Linux / MacOS: ./bin/ConnectorServer.sh
Windows: \bin\ConnectorServer.bat
You should see the following output:
Run the connector server with the -setKey option as described above to set your desired key into your properties file
For all other properties (e.g. port), edit the conf/connectorserver.properties manually. The available properties are described in the connectorserver.properties file.
Run the server by launching with the -run option:
Linux / MacOS: ./bin/ConnectorServer.sh -run -properties conf/connectorserver.properties
Windows: \bin\ConnectorServer.bat -run conf\connectorserver.properties
To deploy a Java connector:
Copy the Java connector bundle jar file into the bundles directory in your Java connector server directory
If necessary, add to the classpath any 3rd party jars required by any Java connector
Restart the Java connector server
The following steps are necessary to successfully communicate with a connector server using SSL:
Deploy an SSL certificate to the connector server's system.
Configure your connector server to provide SSL sockets.
Configure your application to communicate with the communicate with the connector server via SSL.
Refer to your application manual for specific notes on how to configure connections to connector servers. You will need to indicate to your application that an SSL connection is required when establishing a connection for each SSL-enabled connector server.
Additionally, if any of the SSL certificates used by your connector servers is issued by a non-standard certificate authority, your application must be configured to respect the additional authorities. Refer to your application manual for notes regarding certificate authorities.
Java applications may solve the non-standard certificate authority issue by expecting that the following Java system properties are passed when launching the application:
javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword
For example, -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=changeit
javax.net.ssl.trustStore
For example, -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/usr/myApp_cacerts
Or, instead, the non-standard certificate authorities may be imported to the standard ${JAVA_HOME}/lib/security/cacerts.
Minimum Requirements:
Windows Server 2003 or 2008
.NET Framework 3.5 or higher
Refer to your .NET connector to determine if there are any additional requirements
Execute ServiceInstall.msi. Just follow the wizard. It will walk you through the whole process step by step. Upon completion, the Connector Server will be installed as a windows service.
Start the Microsoft Services Console. Check to see if the Connector Server is currently running. If so, stop it. From a command prompt, set the key for the connector Server. This is done by changing to the directory where the connector server was installed (by default: \Program Files\Identity Connectors\Connector Server) and executing the following command:
where <newkey> is the value for the new key. This key is required by any client that connects to this Connector Server.
Look through the configuration file and inspect all settings. The most common things to change would be the port, trace, and ssl settings.
The port, address, and SSL settings are in the tag called AppSettings, and look like this:
The port can be set by changing the value of connectorserver.port. The listening socket can be bound to a particular address, or can be left as 0.0.0.0. To setup to use SSL, you must set the value of connectorserver.usessl to true, and then set the value ofconnectorserver.certifacatestorename to your the certificate store name.
You will need to record for use later the following information regarding your connector server installation:
Host name or IP address
Connector server port
Connector server key
Whether SSL is enabled
Trace settings are in the configuration file. The settings look like this:
The Connector Server uses the the standard .NET trace mechanism. For more information about the tracing options, see Microsoft's .NET documentation for System.Diagnostics.
The default settings are a good starting point, but for less tracing, you can change the EventTypeFilter's initializeData to "Warning" or "Error". For very verbose logging you can set the value to "Verbose" or "All". The amount of logging performed has a direct effect on the performance of the Connector Servers, so be careful of the setting.
Any configuration changes will require the connector server to be stopped and restarted.
The best way to run the Connector Server is as a Windows service. When installing, the Connector Server is installed as a Windows service. This should be fine for most installations.
If for some reason, this is not adequate, the connector server may be installed or uninstalled as a Windows service by using the /install or /uninstall arguments on the command line. To run the Connector Server interactively, issue the command:
To install new connectors, change to the directory where the Connector Server was installed, and unzip the zip file containing the connector there. Restart the Connector Server.
To install additional Connector Servers on the same machine, download the Connector Server zip file from the downloads section. Create a directory to install to, and unzip the file there. Edit the configuration file as described above ensuring that you have a unique port. You may also want to make sure that the trace file is different as well. You can then run the additional Connector Server interactively or as a service.