Scripted SSH Connector

The scripted SSH connector is an implementation of the Scripted Groovy Connector Toolkit, and is based on Java Secure Channel (JSch) and the Java implementation of the Expect library (Expect4j). This connector enables you to interact with any SSH server, using Groovy scripts for the OpenICF operations.

The SSH connector is a poolable connector. This means that each connector instance is placed into a connection pool every time an action is completed. Subsequent actions can re-use connector instances from the connector pool. When a new connector instance is created, a new SSH client connection is created against the target SSH server. This SSH connection remains open as long as the connector instance is in the connection pool. Note that when a new action is performed, it finds the SSH connection in the exact state that it was left by the previous action.

The following image shows the relationship between SSH connector instances and SSH connections to the target server:

ssh connector

Configuring Authentication to the SSH Server

The SSH connector authenticates to the SSH server using either a login/password or a public/private key. The authentication method is specified in the authenticationType property in the connector configuration file (conf/provisioner.openicf-ssh.json).

Authenticating with a login and password

To authenticate with a login and password, set the authenticationType to PASSWORD in the connector configuration file, and set a user and password. For example:

"configurationProperties" : {
    ...
    "authenticationType" : "PASSWORD",
    "user" : "<USERNAME>",
    "password" : "<PASSWORD>",
    ...

The password is encrypted when OpenIDM loads the provisioner file.

Authenticating with a passphrase and private key

To authenticate with a secure certificate, generate a pair of public/private keys. Install the public key on the server side and the private key on the OpenIDM host (where the connector is located). Set the authenticationType to PUBKEY in the connector configuration file and set the user, password, passphrase and privateKey properties. For example:

"configurationProperties" : {
    ...
    "authenticationType" : "PUBKEY",
    "user" : "<USERNAME>",
    "password" : "<PASSWORD>",
    "passphrase" : "secret",
    "privateKey" : ["-----BEGIN DSA PRIVATE KEY-----",
              "MIIBugIBAAKBgQDcB0ztVMCFptpJhqlLNZSdN/5cDL3S7aOVy52Ae7vwwCqQPCQr",
              "6NyUk+wtkDr07NlYd3sg7a9hbsEnlYChsuX+/WUIvbOKdMfeqcQ+jKK26YdkTCGj",
              "g86dBj9JYhobSHDoQ9ov31pYN/cfW5BAZwkm9TdpEjHPvMIaOxx7GPGKWwIVALbD",
              "CEuf1yJk9UB7v0dmJS7bKkbxAoGARcbAuDP4rB6MsgAAkVwf+1sHXEiGPShYWrVV",
              "qBgCZ/S45ELqUuiaN/1N/nip/Cc/0SBPKqwl7o50CUg9GH9kTAjmXiwmbkwvtUv+",
              "Xjn5vCHS0w18yc3rGwyr2wj+D9KtDLFJ8+T5HmsbPoDQ3mIZ9xPmRQuRFfVMd9wr",
              "DY0Rs7cCgYAxjGjWDSKThowsvOUCiE0ySz6tWggHH3LTrS4Mfh2t0tnbUfrXq2cw",
              "3CN+T6brgnpYbyX5XI17p859C+cw90MD8N6vvBxaN8QMDRFk+hHNUeSy8gXeem9x",
              "O0vdIxCgKvA4dh5nSVb5VGKENEGNEHRlYxEPzbqlPa/C/ZvzIvdKXQIUQMoidPFC",
              "n9z+mE2dAADnPf2m9vk=",
              "-----END DSA PRIVATE KEY-----"
             ],
    ...

The default value for the passphrase property is null. If you do not set a passphrase for the private key, the passphrase value must be equal to an empty string.

You must set a value for the password property, because the connector uses sudo to perform actions on the SSH server.

The private key (PEM certificate) must be defined as a JSON String array.

The values of the passphrase, password and privateKey are encrypted when OpenIDM loads the provisioner file.

Configuring the SSH Connector

OpenIDM provides a sample connector configuration (provisioner.openicf-ssh.json) in the /path/to/openidm/samples/ssh/conf/ directory. You can copy the sample connector configuration to your project’s conf/ directory, and adjust it to match your Kerberos environment.

Set the authentication properties, as described in "Configuring Authentication to the SSH Server". In addition, set at least the following properties:

host

Specify the hostname or IP address of the SSH server.

port

Set the port on which the SSH server listens.

Default: 22

user

The username of the account that connects to the SSH server.

This account must be able to ssh into the server, with the password provided in the next parameter.

password

The password of the account that is used to connect to the SSH server.

prompt

A string representing the remote SSH session prompt. This must be the exact prompt string, in the format username@target:, for example admin@myserver:~$. Include any trailing spaces.

The following list describes the configuration properties of the SSH connector shown in the sample connector configuration file. You can generally use the defaults provided in the sample connector configuration file, in most cases. For a complete list of all the configuration properties of the SSH connector, see "Configuration Properties".

sudoCommand

A string that shows the full path to the sudo command, for example /usr/bin/sudo.

echoOff

If set to true (the default), the input command echo is disabled. If set to false, every character that is sent to the server is sent back to the client in the expect() call.

terminalType

Sets the terminal type to use for the session. The list of supported types is determined by your Linux/UNIX system. For more information, see the terminfo manual page ($ man terminfo).

Default: vt102

setLocale

If set to true, indicates that the default environment locale should be changed to the value of the locale property.

Default: false

locale

Sets the locale for the LC_ALL, LANG and LANGUAGE environment variables, if setLocale is set to true.

Default: en_US.utf8

connectionTimeout

Specifies the connection timeout to the remote server, in milliseconds.

Default: 5000

expectTimeout

Specifies the timeout used by the expect() calls in scripts, in milliseconds.

Default: 5000

authenticationType

Sets the authentication type, either PASSWORD or PUBKEY. For more information, see "Configuring Authentication to the SSH Server".

Default: PASSWORD

throwOperationTimeoutException

If true, the connector throws an exception when the expectTimeout is reached for an operation. Otherwise, the operation fails silently.

Default: true

scriptRoots

The path to the Groovy scripts that will perform the OpenICF operations, relative to your OpenIDM installation directory. The sample connector configuration expects the scripts in project-dir/tools, so this parameter is set to &{launcher.project.location}/tools in the sample configuration.

classpath

The directory in which the compiler should look for compiled classes. The default classpath, if not is specified, is install-dir/lib.

reloadScriptOnExecution

By default, scripts are loaded and compiled when a connector instance is created and initialized. Setting reloadScriptOnExecution to true makes the connector load and compile the script every time it is called. Do not set this property to true in a production environment, because it will have a significant impact on performance.

Default: false

*ScriptFileName

The name of the Groovy script that is used for each OpenICF operation.

OpenICF Interfaces Implemented by the SSH Connector

The SSH Connector implements the following OpenICF interfaces.

Authenticate

Provides simple authentication with two parameters, presumed to be a user name and password.

Create

Creates an object and its uid.

Delete

Deletes an object, referenced by its uid.

Resolve Username

Resolves an object by its username and returns the uid of the object.

Schema

Describes the object types, operations, and options that the connector supports.

Script on Connector

Enables an application to run a script in the context of the connector. Any script that runs on the connector has the following characteristics:

  • The script runs in the same execution environment as the connector and has access to all the classes to which the connector has access.

  • The script has access to a connector variable that is equivalent to an initialized instance of the connector. At a minimum, the script can access the connector configuration.

  • The script has access to any script-arguments passed in by the application.

Script on Resource

Runs a script on the target resource that is managed by this connector.

Search

Searches the target resource for all objects that match the specified object class and filter.

Sync

Polls the target resource for synchronization events, that is, native changes to objects on the target resource.

Test

Tests the connector configuration. Testing a configuration checks all elements of the environment that are referred to by the configuration are available. For example, the connector might make a physical connection to a host that is specified in the configuration to verify that it exists and that the credentials that are specified in the configuration are valid.

This operation might need to connect to a resource, and, as such, might take some time. Do not invoke this operation too often, such as before every provisioning operation. The test operation is not intended to check that the connector is alive (that is, that its physical connection to the resource has not timed out).

You can invoke the test operation before a connector configuration has been validated.

Update

Updates (modifies or replaces) objects on a target resource.

SSH Connector Configuration

The SSH Connector has the following configurable properties.

Configuration Properties

Property

Type

Default

Encrypted

Required

Operation Script Files Properties

Property

Type

Default

Encrypted

Required

Groovy Engine configuration Properties

Property

Type

Default

Encrypted

Required

Basic Configuration Properties Properties

Property

Type

Default

Encrypted

Required