What is WS-Security (Web Services)? (15 of 285 technotes for 2015)

What is WS Security?

WS-Security addresses how to maintain a secure context over a multi-point message path.

• Secure services beyond SSL over HTTP (HTTPS) (see http://bit.ly/1afA8Kg for more info)
• SOAP header extensions for end-to-end SOAP messaging security 
• Uses
• XML Signature & Encryption - ways to encrypt and sign contents of XML message
• XML Cannonicalization - making XML ready for signing and encrypting
• WS-Security gives a framework to embed the above mentioned technologies into SOAP message - using a transport neutral fashion.

What is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)? (14 of 285 technotes for 2015)

• SSL is a security protocol for the transport layer.
• A protocol is  guideline to define how an algorithm should be written.
• SSL encrypts the messages between the web server and the browser.

What is nonrepudiation? (120/285 technotes for 2015)

In general, nonrepudiation is the ability to ensure that - a party to a contract or a communication cannot deny the authenticity of their signature on a document or the sending of a message that they originated.

What is nonrepudiation? - Definition from WhatIs.com

Secure Web Services (13 of 285 technotes for 2015)

Why Web Service security is so important nowadays

1. Interaction between communicating partners increasing from Intranet to Internet
2. Communicating partners are more likely to interact with each other without need for establishing business or human relationship first.
3. Program to program communication increases.
4. Large number of interactions.

Most common way of Interaction - SSL (Secure Socket Layer) used with HTTP i.e. HTTPS.

Tumblr is not what you think

I was wondering why tumblr search is so bad and primitive. May be this is a correct answer to that

• A large percentage of Tumblr users actually don’t WANT an audience. They do not want to be found, except by a few close friends who they explicitly share one of their tumblogs with. Therefore Tumblr’s notoriously weak search functionality is A-OK with most of its user base.
  
• Tumblr is actually Facebook 2.0! As Facebook has become a real-life social network infested with parents, co-workers, ex-friends, and people you barely know, Tumblr has become the place where young people express themselves and their ACTUAL INTERESTS with their ACTUAL FRIENDS. 

Tumblr is not what you think

How to modify Messaging Engine Policy in Websphere? (12 of 285 technotes for 2015)

Messaging Engine Policy Assistance

To use this feature you:

1. Select Service Integration -> Buses in the Admin Console navigation
2. Click the link of the bus which you want to configure a messaging engine policy for.
3. Click on Bus Members in the properties for the bus (This is where it is a little counterintuitive)
4. Click on the link for one of the bus members (This page shows the policy assistance is disabled but you have to go down a level to enable it)
5. Check the box next to the messaging engine for the bus member and click the Enable policy assistance button.
6. Run through the wizard to configure the policy.

Reference: http://ibm.co/1HSeppn

How to change the Default Core Group policy of a Cell in Websphere? (11 or 285 technotes for 2015)

Goto System Administration –> Cell –> Local Topology –> DefaultCoreGroups –> Policy

What are the different deployment topologies in IBM Websphere (10 of 285 technotes for 2015)

IBM Websphere comes with wizards for different topologies.

Different Topologies

Bronze - Single Cluster Topology

• The bronze topology is suitable for a solution that comprises only synchronous web services and synchronous SCA invocations, preferably with short-running flows only.
  
• Java Message Service (JMS), and MQ messaging bindings do not support multiple messaging engines in the same cluster
  

Silver - Remote Messaging

• The silver topology is suitable for a solution that uses long-running processes, but doesn’t need CEI, message sequencing, asynchronous deferred response, JMS or MQ bindings, or message sequencing mechanisms. 
  

Gold - Remote Messaging & Support

• The golden topology is suited for all the remaining cases, in which asynchronous processing plays a significant role in the solution 
  

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References - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/1008_metzger/1008_metzger.html

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSQH9M_7.0.0/com.ibm.websphere.wesb.doc/doc/cpln_top_types.html?lang=no

Schema Names of SIB Tables created by Websphere Service Integratoin Bus(9 of 285 technotes for 2015)

The tables created within the CMNDB by the Service Integration Bus Messaging Engines are mentioned below. Whenever there is some issue in the SIB not able to start the Messaging Engine, it is safe to delete all the files that belong to the schema’s below. Generally we do “like ‘CMNS%” and “like ‘CMNC%’” and delete all the tables.

Messaging Engine - has failed to gain an initial lock on the data store (8 of 285 technotes for 2015)

Messaging Engine - is attempting to obtain an exclusive lock on the data store.
Messaging Engine - has failed to gain an initial lock on the data store.

Root Cause - 

An unclean shutdown could left lock owner information down to the database level. so when you bring up the server, it trying to get the same lock, but in the sibowner table, you already had one entry which tell the websphere process server, the lock already have an owner.

Action

Please delete all the tables with schema name like “CMN%” i.e.