Introduction

This article explains configuration items available for Standalone Controllers and Controller instances in a JS7 - Controller Cluster.

• Controllers make use of two configuration files:
  • the general configuration file controller.conf that is available at the following locations:
    • Windows: C:\ProgramData\sos-berlin.com\js7\controller\var\config\controller.conf
    • Unix /var/sos-berlin.com/js7/controller/var/config/controller.conf
  • the security configuration from private.conf that is available at the following locations:
    • Windows: C:\ProgramData\sos-berlin.com\js7\controller\var\config\private.conf
    • Unix: /var/sos-berlin.com/js7/controller/var/config/private/private.conf
  • The configuration format makes use of Typesafe Config, see JS7 - Configuration Format
  • Controller instances have to be restarted in order to apply changes to the configuration files.
• For HTTPS configuration please refer to the JS7 - Configuration Templates article.

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• using HTTPS connections which are secured by private keys and certificates,
• using authentication between JS7 products:
  • Option 1 (recommended):
    • applying TLS mutual authentication between JOC Cockpit and Controller as well as between Controller and Agents,
    • applying TLS mutual authentication between Director Agent Controller instances and Subagents in an Agent ClusterAgents.
  • Option 2:
    • applying password authentication between JS7 products should mutual authentication not be in place.

Find examples of private.conf files for Controller configuration configuration for download:

• Standalone Controller
  • Standalone Controller: private.conf-example-standalone-controller
• Controller Cluster
  • Primary Controller instance: private.conf-example-primary-controller
  • Secondary Controller instance: private.conf-example-secondary-controller

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• History
  • Settings in this section are used for the History Service of JOC Cockpit instances that access the given Controller.
  • distinguished-names
    • Specifies the distinguished name as given with the subject of the Client Authentication Certificate for incoming HTTPS connections of JOC Cockpit instances.
    • Any number of distinguished names can be specified allowing a number of incoming HTTPS connections from different JOC Cockpit instances.
    • Except for whitespace between attributes the precise sequence and values as available from the certificate's subject has to match this property value.
    • Note that the common name (CN) element in the distinguished name has to match the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of a JOC Cockpit instance's host.

    • The following command can be used to read the distinguished name from a certificate file:

      
      

      Code Block
      title Example for OpenSSL command to read a certificate's distinguished name
      # read distinguished name from the JOC Cockpit instance's certificate file (.crt) openssl x509 -in joc-primary.crt -noout -nameopt RFC2253 -subject # output is returned with a prefix "subject= " or similar that is not part of the distinguished name # subject= DNQ=SOS CA,CN=joc-2-0-primary,OU=IT,O=SOS,L=Berlin,ST=Berlin,C=DE

  • password
    • A default password is specified with the section joc of the JS7 - Settings page of JOC Cockpit and in the private.conf file. The password is used for authentication of the History service account with the Controller, for details see next chapter about password authentication.
    • The password setting cannot be omitted, however, an empty password can be specified like this:
      • password="plain:"
    • At the same time the password setting in JOC Cockpit has to be assigned an empty value.
• JOC
  • Settings in this section are used for services running in JOC Cockpit instances that access the given Controller.
  • distinguished-names:  The same applies as for the History setting described above.
  • permissions: JOC Cockpit requires the UpdateItem permission to enable users to deploy objects such as workflows.
  • password: The same applies as for the History setting described above.

Password Authentication

Anchor
js7-auth-users-

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Agent js7-auth-users-

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Agent

Agent Connections

No settings are required when using mutual authentication with Agents.

Consider the below chapter HTTPS Keystore and Truststore Access for explanations:

• The Controller instance's keystore has to hold the Client Authentication private key and certificate.
• The Controller instance's truststore has to hold the Root CA Certificate used when signing the Agent's Server Authentication Certificate.

Password Authentication

Anchor
js7-auth-users-password-JOC js7-auth-users-password-JOC

JOC Cockpit Connections

js7 {
    auth {
        # User accounts for https connections
        users {
            # History account of JOC Cockpit (used to release events)
            History {
                # for use with password authentication (default password stored with JOC Cockpit Settings)
                password="sha512:B793649879D61613FD3F711B68F7FF3DB19F2FE2D2C136E8523ABC87612219D5AECB4A09035AD88D544E227400A0A56F02BC990CF0D4CB348F8413DE00BCBF08"
            }

            # JOC account of JOC Cockpit (requires UpdateItem permission for deployment)
            JOC {
                # for use with password authentication (default password stored with JOC Cockpit Settings)
                password="sha512:3662FD6BF84C6B8385FC15F66A137AB75C755147A81CC7AE64092BFE8A18723A7C049D459AB35C059B78FD6028BB61DCFC55801AE3894D2B52401643F17A07FE"

                permissions=[
                    UpdateItem
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

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• History
  • Settings in this section are used for the History Service of JOC Cockpit instances that access the given Controller.
• JOC
  • Settings in this section are used for services running in JOC Cockpit instances that access the given Controller.
  • permissions: JOC Cockpit requires the UpdateItem permission to enable users to deploy objects such as workflows.
• The password is used for authentication of the History and JOC service accounts with the Controller. Both accounts are typically running in the same JOC Cockpit instance. 
  
  • If HTTP connections are used then the password is the only means for authentication.
  • The password is specified with the section joc of the JS7 - Settings page of JOC Cockpit and in the private.conf file.
    • User Input to the Settings page of JOC Cockpit can look like this:
      
      
      
      Input to the GUI simply accepts the password and does not require to use the prefixes sha512: or plain:.
    • In the private.conf file a hashed value or a plain text value can be specified like this:
      • password="sha512:B793649879D6..."
      • password="plain:JS7-History"
  • If the password is modified in the private.conf file then it also has to be modified in the JOC Cockpit settings too in order to make passwords match.
  • The password setting cannot be omitted, however, an empty password can be specified, for example with mutual authentication HTTPS connections, like this:
    • password="plain:"
  • From the private.conf file that ships by default the plain text value and the hashed values are:
    • History: 
      • Plain Text: JS7-History
      • Hash: sha512:B793649879D61613FD3F711B68F7FF3DB19F2FE2D2C136E8523ABC87612219D5AECB4A09035AD88D544E227400A0A56F02BC990CF0D4CB348F8413DE00BCBF08
    • JOC:
      • Plain Text: JS7-JOCHash: sha512:3662FD6BF84C6B8385FC15F66A137AB75C755147A81CC7AE64092BFE8A18723A7C049D459AB35C059B78FD6028BB61DCFC55801AE3894D2B52401643F17A07FE
      • Hash: sha512:3662FD6BF84C6B8385FC15F66A137AB75C755147A81CC7AE64092BFE8A18723A7C049D459AB35C059B78FD6028BB61DCFC55801AE3894D2B52401643F17A07FE
  • There are a number of ways to create sha512 hash values from passwords.
    • One possible solution includes using:
    • echo -n "JS7-JOC" | openssl dgst -sha512

Anchor
js7-auth-users-password-Agent js7-auth-users-password-Agent

Agent Connections

js7 {
    auth {
        # Controller ID for connections by primary/secondary Controller instance
        agents {
            agent-001="plain:secret-agent-001"
            agent-002="plain:secret-agent-002"
            agent-003="plain:secret-agent-003"
        }
    }
}

Explanation:

• The Agent ID for each Agent is specified from the examples agent-001, agent-002 etc. An Agent is assigned a unique Agent ID during initial operation with JOC Cockpit. The Agent ID cannot be changed unless an Agent's journal is dropped.
• A plain text password is specified that is preceded with plain:. Passwords should be quoted.

Controller Cluster Configuration

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Explanation:

• Note that the Controller element element name is an example that has to be replaced by the Controller ID which is specified with the identical values during installation of both the Controller instances in a cluster.
• The distinguished-names setting indicates the subject of the pairing Controller's Client Authentication certificate. The certificate and subject authenticate the pairing Controller without use of passwords.
  • Note that the private.conf file of a Primary Controller instance holds the distinguished name of the Secondary Controller instances' certificate and vice versa. 
  • Except for whitespace between attributes the precise sequence and values as available from the certificate's subject have to match this property value.
  • Note that the common name (CN) element in the distinguished name has to match the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of a Controller instance's host.

  • The following command can be used to read the distinguished name from a certificate file:
    
    

    Code Block
    title Example for OpenSSL command to read a certificate's distinguished name
    # read distinguished name from the pairing Controller instance's certificate file (.crt) openssl x509 -in controller-secondary.crt -noout -nameopt RFC2253 -subject # output is returned with a prefix "subject= " or similar that is not part of the distinguished name # subject= DNQ=SOS CA,CN=controller-2-0-secondary,OU=IT,O=SOS,L=Berlin,ST=Berlin,C=DE

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js7 {
    auth {
        # User accounts for https connections
        users {
            # Controller ID for connections by primary/secondary Controller instance
            Controller {
                password = "plain:secret"
            }
        }
   }
    }
}

Explanation:

 }
}

Explanation:

• Note that the Controller element name is an example that has to be replaced by the Controller ID which is specified with identical values during installation of both Controller instances in a cluster.
• If the password is modified in the private.conf file of a Primary Controller instance then it also has to be modified for the Secondary Controller instance to make passwords match.
• A plain-text password has to be specified that is preceded with plain:: Passwords should be quotedThis setting applies to the use of a Controller Cluster.

JOC Cockpit Connections

The configuration is the same as for a Standalone Controller, see JOC Cockpit Connections.

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