Getting started with OpenSSO

Few days back i have started reading about OpenSSO. OpenSSO is Sun's open Web access management project that's based on the Sun Java System Access Manager source code. Future versions of Sun Java System Access Manager will be built from OpenSSO. After getting a basic idea of OpenSSO i have followed a four part article given at Sun Developer Network to get a good feel of developing secure web application using OpenSSO.

Below are the steps to successfully complete the exercises given at http://developers.sun.com/identity/reference/techart/id-svcs.html

1. Follow the steps given at http://developers.sun.com/identity/reference/techart/opensso-glassfish.html to download and deploy the OpenSSO on Glassfish Application Server. (I have used OpenSSO V1 Build 5 Zip to complete the exercises.)
2. Follow the steps given for each one of the 4 exercises given at http://developers.sun.com/identity/reference/techart/id-svcs.html. The steps in each exercise are in detail and self explanatory. Below are those 4 exercises.

Exercise 1:-

Securing Applications With Identity Services, Part 1: AuthenticationThrough an example of a client web application(IdSvcsClient) built with the NetBeans IDE and deployed on GlassFish Application Server, this article, Part 1 of a series, shows you how to configure OpenSSO so as to authenticate—by means of identity services—users who access protected resources.

Exercise 2:-

Securing Applications With Identity Services, Part 2: AuthorizationHere in Part 2, again with IdSvcsClient, an example client application built with the NetBeans IDE, you learn how to further configure OpenSSO so as to allow authenticated users to perform tasks for which they have been authorized.

Exercise 3:-

Securing Applications With Identity Services, Part 3: User AttributesIn this exercise the task of obtaining the attributes of users whose tokens are passed in service calls will be handled. User attributes are also called profile attributes, This article, Part 3 of the series, describes how to fetch user attributes by means of the attribute service, still with IdSvcsClient as an example.

Exercise 4:-

Securing Applications With Identity Services, Part 4: Single Sign-On and Logout Here in Part 4, you're shown how to achieve single sign-on (SSO) and logout with REST. Even though the procedures in this part start with authentication as a key part of the process, the emphasis is on SSO and logout.

Note:- I have done all these exercise in VMWare WinXp-image. The size of WinXP-Image has reached to 4.13GB after installing NetBeans IDE, GlassFish Application Server and after deploying OpenSSO and sample client web application IdSvcsClient, so if you also want to do this in virtual environment, make sure you have sufficient memory available before starting these exercises and also make sure you have minimum 1GB RAM setting for the virtual image to get a better response. Ignore this note if you don't want to do these exercises in virtual environment.