Security overview

There are various levels of security that can be configured:

None: Agent Controller will accept connection requests from any client (Workbench) on any host on the network. This setting is not recommended unless the Agent Controller is operating in a very controlled network environment.
Local access only: Agent Controller will accept connection requests only from a client (Workbench) on the same machine. This level of security is sufficient when using Agent Controller on the local machine.
Specific hosts only: Agent Controller will accept connection requests from any client on a specified list of hosts on the network.
Full security enablement: In addition to the security selected above, users requesting access will be required to authenticate first by providing their operating system user name and password. You can specify that any user, once authenticated, can have access, or that only a specified list of users can have access. Note: Currently, only operating system authentication is supported. If you use other authentication mechanisms such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), do not enable full security. To protect access in such cases, use one of the other options, above.

During the configuration step of Agent Controller (via SetConfig.bat or SetConfig.sh), you can choose to enable or disable communications security. By enabling the security, you ensure that communication to Agent Controller will be encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, and that all connections will be forced to authenticate.

If the security was enabled in the configuration, you will be prompted as follows for authentication purposes when connecting using the Workbench:

If the server security certificate is unknown, you will be prompted with a pop-up on whether you want to accept the certificate.

For a trusted Agent Controller:

Click View Certificate Details to see the values of the certificate properties.
Click OK to close the Certificate Properties dialog box.
If the host is trusted, click Yes to accept the certificate. The certificate is saved in the local keystore.
You will not be prompted to accept the certificate again when connecting to this host the next time.

For an untrusted Agent Controller:

Click View Certificate Details to see the values of the certificate properties.
Click OK to close the Certificate Properties dialog box.
If the host is untrusted, click No. Do not accept the certificate.
You will be prompted to accept the certificate again when connecting to this host the next time.
To connect to this host now as an untrusted Agent Controller, click Yes on the Certificate Properties dialog box.

To connect, you will be prompted with a pop-up for user name and password. Enter a valid user names as configured (as the username must be a valid operating system username, the password would be the operating system password applicable for that username).

Note:

A sample keystore and certificate is installed under <rac_install_dir>/security. It is recommended that you create your own keystores and certificates, as appropriate.
If security is configured, the keystore used by the Agent Controller is specified in the <rac_install_dir>/config/serviceconfig.xml.