Tutorial: Enable LDAP Authentication in the Broker and its Clients

Overview

This section describes how to configure LDAP authentication in the broker, so that it can authenticate incoming credentials based on user entries stored in the X.500 directory server. The tutorial concludes by showing how to program credentials in Java clients and by running an end-to-end demonstration using the consumer and producer tools.

Steps to enable LDAP authentication

Perform the following steps to enable LDAP authentication:

Create the login configuration file. Using a text editor, create the file, login.conf under the directory, $ACTIVEMQ_HOME/conf. Paste the following text into the login.conf file:

LDAPLogin {
    org.apache.activemq.jaas.LDAPLoginModule required
        debug=true
        initialContextFactory=com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory
        connectionURL="ldap://localhost:10389"
        connectionUsername="uid=admin,ou=system"
        connectionPassword=secret
        connectionProtocol=""
        authentication=simple
        userBase="ou=users,ou=system"
        userSearchMatching="(uid={0})"
        userSearchSubtree=false
        roleSearchMatching="(uid={1})"
        ;
};

Where these settings assume that the broker connects to a default instance of the Apache Directory Server running on the local host. The account with username, uid=admin,ou=system, and password, secret, is the default administration account created by the Apache server.

Add the LDAP authentication plug-in to the broker configuration. Open the broker configuration file, $ACTIVEMQ_HOME/conf/activemq.xml, with a text editor and add the jaasAuthenticationPlugin element, as follows:
```
<beans>
  <broker ...>
    ...
    <plugins>
      <jaasAuthenticationPlugin configuration="LDAPLogin" />
    </plugins>
    ...
  </broker>
</beans>
```
The value of the configuration attribute, LDAPLogin, references the login entry from the login.conf file.
Comment out the mediation router elements in the broker configuration. Open the broker configuration file and comment out the camelContext element as follows:
```
<beans>
  <broker ...>
    ...
  </broker>

  
  ...
</beans>
```
The Camel route is not used in the current tutorial. If you left it enabled, you would have to supply it with appropriate username/password credentials, because it acts as a broker client.
Add username/password credentials to the consumer tool. Edit the file, example/src/ConsumerTool.java, search for the line that creates a new ActiveMQConnectionFactory instance, and just before this line, set the credentials, user and password, as shown:
```
// Java
...
public void run() {
  ...
	  user = "jdoe";
	  password = "secret";
  ActiveMQConnectionFactory connectionFactory = new ActiveMQConnectionFactory(user, password, url);
  ...
}
```
Add username/password credentials to the producer tool. Edit the file, example/src/ProducerTool.java, search for the line that creates a new ActiveMQConnectionFactory instance, and just before this line, set the credentials, user and password, just as you did for the consumer tool.
Ensure that the X.500 directory server is running. If necessary, manually restart the X.500 directory server. If the server is not running, all broker connections will fail.
Run the broker. Open a new command prompt and start the broker by entering the following command:
```
activemq
```
Run the consumer client. Open a new command prompt, change directory to example and enter the following Ant command:
```
ant consumer -Durl=tcp://localhost:61616 -Dmax=100
```
Run the producer client. Open a new command prompt, change directory to example and enter the following Ant command:
```
ant producer -Durl=tcp://localhost:61616
```
Perform a negative test. Edit one of the client source files (for example, ConsumerTool.java) and change the credentials (username and password) to some invalid values. Now, if you re-run the client, you will get an authentication error.