Friday, January 8, 2010

TAM ESSO v8.1 - Are you ready for WebSphere?

Installing a standalone TAM ESSO IMS Server took about 2 hours to install including the database. That was version 8.0. IBM released version 8.1 this past December and I spent this week going through the upgrade process to see what will be in store for folks who want to jump right into the new stuff. It didn't take the whole week to do this upgrade, however I had to take it slow so that I could capture documentation for future reference.

The big news is that TAM ESSO v8.1 requires IBM WebSphere Application Server. When I first saw this I thought "ugggh". But the reality is that you had to know this was coming and it makes sense to run IBM's single sign on solution on their own application server.

This changes a lot though. First off, deployments will take a little longer. The fact is, even with the wizard installation tools, WAS is still a big pile of software to install. You also need IBM HTTP Server. Both need to be patched once you install them and you can't even patch the software until you download the patch installer first (IBM UpdateInstaller). But Windows shops should be used to that anyhow as you need install Microsoft's update software in order to get Windows updates.

First, is the upgrade worth it? Of course. If you want the best support for your software keep on the latest and greatest. Everyone has heard the same thing on a typical tech support phone call where the support guy asks,"What version of software are you running?" and you say, "1.2". No doubt the support guy will suggest you try the latest version. Sometimes it really comes down to which version has the fewest warts? Because you know that the latest version of software will have something wrong with it, but you hope the latest has fewer warts than the older version and lets face it, which version is getting the most attention?

The new version of TAM ESSO does not look any different than the prior release as far as the end user is concerned. But when you think about it, if TAM ESSO is doing it's job, the user does not even know it is there. All the user knows is that they login to Windows, launch their applications and they are magically signed in. Not much to see there. But, for the implementer or tech support team there is plenty to be happy about in the new release.

1.) IBM has opened up the doors to more 2 factor devices. Generic smart card support – this will leverage 3rd party products for smart card life cycle management and leverage windows smart card authentication for certificate authentication. Also Serial ID Service Provider Interface (SPI) has been introduced to allow any vendor with a serial ID device to integrate with TAM ESSO. BIO-Key support has been added which will also widen the choices of 2-factor devices supported.

2.) Wider platform coverage. Windows 7 is coming and shops already starting to buy machines with Windows 7 want to be sure AccessAgent will work. While IBM does not list Windows 7 specifically in the compatibility list, Kiosk support has been added for Vista and 64-bit Windows is supported for AccessAgent although there may be some issues with certain 3rd party strong authentication devices. Word on the street is that Windows 7 will show up on the list when it is Microsoft certified.

3.) New features in AccessStudio should make profiling a little easier. The undo button is a nice option we take for granted in Word documents. I like it in AccessStudio very much. Another really nice feature that was added is the ability to take an existing trigger and convert it to a different type. To me that's a welcome new enhancement. The ability to save your profile as an image was there in version 8.0.1, but it's listed as a new feature for 8.1. I like it nonetheless so thanks IBM. Enhanced logging messages are also a big help. Any time they make improvements to this area, I'll welcome it.

4.) Firefox finally! I knew a lot of people that were really turned off by the lack of support for Firefox. At first I was a little the same way, but I got used to using both IE and Firefox anyhow for reasons that have nothing to do with SSO. I look forward to working with Firefox in profiling.

Well, I'm off to another SSO project. Stay tuned for more on this later.

15 comments:

LifeRocks said...

Hi Charls..

I was just wondering whether IBM has also released adapter to integrate ESSO with TIM 5.1, which supports IMS 8.1.

From the link http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=644&tcss=Newsletter&uid=swg21396546 I see that part number CZ9GUML (release notes) supports only 8.0.1 version of IMS Server.

Would be helpful if you can help you blog readers with this information.

Thanks,

Unknown said...

I just talked to support and they say the TIM 5.1 adapter does support TAM E-SSO 8.1 as well as 8.0.1 now.

LifeRocks said...

Hi Jeff,

IBM claims that there is an adapter available with version 5.1.5, exclusively for TIM 5.1 and TAMESSO 8.1.

But there is no sign of binaries being published for download.

Thanks,

Mansu Shrestha said...

Hi Charles,
I was also wondering whether you were able to cluster IMS Server Version 8.1? I did try and it failed on me. IBM asked me to wait for Fix pack 1 release which is scheduled at the end of this month.

Thanks
-- m. shrestha

LifeRocks said...

Hi Mansu..

IBM has given some documentation on high availability. Looks simple. It should work. By the way, what kind of clustering you are doing? For load balancing? or High Availability?

Thanks,

Charles Ahart said...

I've done some WAS clustering for ITIM before, but have not yet tried it for TAM ESSO v8.1. I wonder why IBM wants you to wait for Fixpack 1. Incidentally I have spoken to at least one company who wants to continue to do Windows clustering with the new version of TAM ESSO. That will either be interesting or it will be a dancing bear.

LifeRocks said...

Charls,

Even I think, WAS clustering should work for TAM ESSO 8.1. And we can use OS clustering to load balance the requests for HTTP Server. DB2 can be put into SAN or can be configured with HADR. IBM has also documented the part of DB2 log shipping details for HADR.

TAM ESSO clustering should not be a hard thing.

Thanks,

Mansu Shrestha said...

Thank you all for your feedback!

I am also familliar with WAS clustering and did try to install IMS server 8.1 on Cluster (horizontal) as any other enterprise Apps. Installation went fine and IMS apps started on both node without any error but when tried to access IMS apps (admin and ims) on the browser, I got tons of exception on SystemOut and the page can't be displayed error on the browser.

I spoke to IBM support on the issue and basically they informed me that I have to wait till fixpack 1 to make the cluster to work.

So I thought about writing to you guys and check whether you ran into same issue.

For DB2, planning to use HADR.

Thanks again!
-- M. Shrestha

Anonymous said...

Is there support for Firefox 3.6?

Vijayabaskar said...

Hi All,

I have insalled everything( WAS,DB2,HTTP Server and IMS Server 8.1) in single window 2003 server. but TAM ESSO is not showing in program list( Start-> All Programs-> ?)and also i didnt get encentuate folder in my program files.

I deployed TAM ESSO in websphere applicaiton server but it is not running on its URL( http://localhost:8080/ims).

AccessAgent supports only windows operating system i read it in system requirement pdf. but my client asked me to create user crenditials for mainfram and linux operating system users. is it possible to create accessprofile for the other applicaiton and operating system.


If possible send me some installation steps documents

So please help me to solve and run the application successfully.

I am warmly waiting for yours help,.

thanks
vijay

Jatyn said...

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the informative blog. I am new to TAMESSO-AccessStudio and was wondering what is the best way to debug my access-profile.

I tried to add "Run VBScript of JScript" action to one of my triggers andd just put a simple script "WScript.Echo("triggered!")
", to really check if trigger is getting executed or not. Somehow that didnt work.

Please let me know if you have any better ideas, esp to check "step-by-step" or rather "state-by-state" flow in an access-profile.

Thanks!

Unknown said...

Hi Charls,

I am new to TAM ESSO. My requirement to is to provide desktop SSO to Portal application. I need to integrate TAM ESSO and TAM e-business. Is it possible to achieve?

Thanks,

sree said...

Does TAM ESSO 8.2 supports the firefox..

Anonymous said...
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