Authentication Requirements for URLs Access

Authentication requirements for URL access to various NNMi features are the same as for signing into the NNMi console. Each user must have a preconfigured user name, password, and default NNMi User GroupNNMi User Groups are those User Groups provided by NNMi. Users cannot access the NNMi console until their User Account is mapped to at least one of the following NNMi User Groups: NNMi Administrators, NNMi Level 2 Operators, NNMi Level 1 Operators (with more limited access privileges than Level 2 Operators), and NNMi Guest Users mapping. For more information, see:

• Choose a Mode for NNMi Access
• User Groups Provided in NNMi
• Configuring Sign-In to the NNMi Console

To bypass the NNMi sign-in page, do one of the following:

• Configure your network environment with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) user authentication.

  Note If your network environment uses X.509 Certificates such as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) user authentication, URL authentication requires a certificate (the same as accessing the main NNMi console). See , “Configuring NNMi to Support Public Key Infrastructure User Authentication” chapter in the Network Node Manager i Software Deployment Reference for more information, which is available at: https://softwaresupport.softwaregrp.com/.

• Include the following two parameters in your URL string. Any URL request that contains j_username and j_password redirects, so the actual user name and password are not visible in the Web browser:

  1. j_username

  2. j_password

     Caution There is an inherent vulnerability in passing a plain text password as a URL parameter. Consider configuring the NNMi management server to use https/SSL (secure sockets layer encryption) so that user names/passwords are encrypted between client and server. To configure the NNMi Web server to use https instead of http, see the "Managing Certificates" chapter in the Network Node Manager i Software Deployment Reference.

  It is recommended that these parameters be used to bypass the NNMi sign-in page for only NNMi users mapped to the User Group: NNMi Guest Users (providing "read-only" access to a subset of console features). For example, if you have previously defined an account where both the user Name and Password are "guest", the following brings up a list of example URLs:

  http://<serverName>:<portNumber>/nnm/launch?j_username=guest&j_password=guest

  Note If the NNMi Web server uses the https protocol, use https instead of http.

  <serverName> = the fully-qualified domain name of the NNMi management server (values allowed here are determined by the Enable URL Redirect setting in User Interface Configuration, see Configure the NNMi User Interface)

  <portNumber> = the NNMi HTTP port number

If the user name and password are not valid, the NNMi sign-in page appears with an authentication error message.