App Connect Enterprise Vault

Since App Connect Enterprise v11 Fixpack 6 a new way of storing data records is provided. A vault can be used to encrypt and decrypt data records using symmetric encryption. Symmetric encryption is a type of encryption where only one key (a secret key) is used to both encrypt and decrypt information. In this case AES 256-bit encryption is used to encrypt this data. 256-bit AES encryption refers to the process of concealing plaintext data using the AES algorithm and an AES key length of 256 bits. In addition, 256 bits is the largest AES key length size, as well as its most mathematically complex. It is also the most difficult to crack.

Therefor this solution is a much better option in comparison to the older way of storing credentials using “mqsisetdbparms” at clients where the security aspect is more important. Mqsivault is also focused more on the use of Standalone Integration Server and containerization. Moving forward this will be the new way of working once “mqsisetdbparms” eventually becomes deprecated.

mqsivault

Before you can store encrypted credentials for an integration node or integration server, you must configure an App Connect Enterprise vault. You create a separate vault for each independent integration server, and for each integration node. Each independent integration server or Integration Node has its own vault, with its own vault key. Each integration node Vault is shared by all the integration servers that it manages. Each integration server that is managed by an integration node has its own credentials stored in the vault, but all the credentials in the vault are accessed by the same vault key.

You can use the mqsivault command to create or destroy a vault, change or verify a vault key, or retrieve credentials from the vault. The vault stores the credentials (in encrypted form), and the integration node or server uses them to access secured resources.

If a vault has been created in the work directory, then the vault key must be specified when starting the Integration Server. The vault key can be stored in a .mqsivaultrc file which can be used instead of specifying the vault key as a parameter value for a command.

For more information about this command, see mqsivault command.

mqsicreatebroker

If you create an integration node by running the mqsicreatebroker command, you can create a vault for that integration node by specifying either the –vault-key or –vaultrc-location parameter on the command. If either the –vault-key or –vaultrc-location parameter is specified on the command, an App Connect Enterprise vault is created to hold the credentials used by the integration node when accessing secured resources.

The following parameters should be used when creating the vault directly when creating a new integration node:

–vault-key <vaultKey>

This parameter specifies the vault key to be used for creating the vault. If this parameter is specified on the command, an App Connect Enterprise vault is created.

–vaultrc-location <mqsivaultrc_file_location>

This parameter specifies the location of the .mqsivaultrc file that is used to locate the vault key. f this parameter is specified on the command, an App Connect Enterprise vault is created.

The full command would look as follows:

mqsicreatebroker INODE --vault-key 12345678
mqsicreatebroker INODE --vaultrc-location /tmp/key.mqsivaulttrc

For more information about this command, see mqsicreatebroker command.

mqsicredentials

Use the mqsicredentials command to create, update, retrieve, or delete the security credentials for resources that are used by an integration node or integration server. The credentials are stored in an encrypted form in the App Connect Enterprise vault.

For more information about this command, see mqsicredentials command.

Test Setup

For getting familiar with the new command and understand the difference between the old way of storing credentials a poc was done. The test setup for this poc goes as follows:

  1. Create a small flow that requires a secure connection to a certain resource.
    • In my test this will be an HTTP flow that connects to a data source and sends back the result using HTTP Reply.
  2. Deploy the flow to an ACE instance with minimum fix pack version 6.
    • I will be using ACE v12 Fix pack 3 for this test.
  3. Make sure the connection to the secured resource is configured correctly on that server.
    • For my test I will be adding the data source to the odbc.ini file.
  4. Create the ACE Vault using the mqsivault command.
  5. Create the encrypted credential records using the mqsicredential command.
  6. Decrypt and check if the credentials are stored correctly
  7. Test if you can create a second set of the same credentials that are already defined using the mqsisetdbparms command.
  8. Test what happens when you want to update the credentials. Is a restart required? Do I need to stop the integration server before executing the command?
  9. Test the behavior of the –all-integration-servers parameter and determine when this would be useful.

Execution

Creating the flow

For this test, I have created a simple flow that uses an HTTP Input Node to trigger a DB query to a secured data source. When the data is received it is transformed into a json format and sent back to the caller.

 

Using HTTPS we can trigger the flow by doing a GET request to “https://<host>:<port>/pull/amount/data“.

Using a compute node we will perform a query to the data source that is defined in its properties.

For executing the query the following code will be used: ( the ViewName is defined as a UDP directly on the flow level: ACL_CCT_CustomerLedger_Summary)

BROKER SCHEMA net.lineas.sds.queries

DECLARE viewName EXTERNAL CHARACTER NULL;


CREATE COMPUTE MODULE performQuery
	CREATE FUNCTION Main() RETURNS BOOLEAN
	BEGIN		
		SET Environment.Variables.Result[] = PASSTHRU('select c.CustomerNumber as CRM_Number__c, s.TotalOutstandingAmount as Amount_Outstanding__c, s.TotalOutstandingAmountOverdue as Amount_Outstanding_Overdue__c, s.OutstandingAmountDisp as Amount_Disputes__c from ' || viewName || '  s RIGHT OUTER JOIN ACL_CCT_Customer c on s.customernumber = c.CustomerNumber group by c.CustomerNumber, s.TotalOutstandingAmount, s.TotalOutstandingAmountOverdue, s.OutstandingAmountDisp order by c.CustomerNumber asc;');
		RETURN TRUE;
	END;
END MODULE;
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

The next step will be to send back the result of the query in a more readable fashion.

CREATE COMPUTE MODULE ODBC_Connector_Compute
	CREATE FUNCTION Main() RETURNS BOOLEAN
	BEGIN
		DECLARE CRLF CHAR CAST(X'0D0A' AS CHAR CCSID 1208);
		DECLARE CSV CHARACTER '"CRM_Number__c","Amount_Outstanding__c","Amount_Outstanding_Overdue__c","Amount_Disputes__c"';
		DECLARE nrAmounts INTEGER CARDINALITY(Environment.Variables.Result[]);
		DECLARE i INTEGER 1;
		WHILE i < nrAmounts + 1 DO
			SET CSV = CSV || CRLF || '"' || COALESCE(CAST(Environment.Variables.Result[i].CRM_Number__c AS CHARACTER),'0') || '","';
			SET CSV = CSV || COALESCE(CAST(Environment.Variables.Result[i].Amount_Outstanding__c AS CHARACTER),'0') || '","';
			SET CSV = CSV || COALESCE(CAST(Environment.Variables.Result[i].Amount_Outstanding_Overdue__c AS CHARACTER),'0') || '","';
			SET CSV = CSV || COALESCE(CAST(Environment.Variables.Result[i].Amount_Disputes__c AS CHARACTER),'0') || '"';
			SET i = i+1;
		END WHILE;
		Set OutputRoot.HTTPRequestHeader."Content-Type" = 'text/csv';
		Set OutputRoot.BLOB.BLOB = CAST (CSV as blob CCSID 1208);
		RETURN TRUE;
	END;
END MODULE;
Code language: PHP (php)

Lastly, the result is sent back to the caller using the HTTP Reply node.

Testing the flow

After having deployed the flow to an Integration server that we will be using for this POC we can check if the flow is providing the expected result.

Because no error handling was added to the flow a default error is thrown by the node providing us with a list of reasons why the connection might have failed to the data source. Of course we didn’t create the vault yet or added the credentials for accessing the data source using mqsisetdbparms. The following error of the response is therefore the most likely cause : BIP2348E: Error detected while attempting to obtain a connection to data source O2015_DB_TSTof type ODBC using userid mqsiUser.

Doing this test, we now at least know that the flow can be called and that creating the vault and credentials should resolve this issue.

Creating the Vault

We will be doing our test on the following integration node:

mqsilist <Integration_Node_Name>

[ace@onvmbd01 ind_ace_gemini]$ mqsilist ind_ace_gemini
-----------------------------------
BIP1286I: Integration server 'isd_gemini' on integration node 'ind_ace_gemini' is running.
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Before creating the vault we will have to stop the integration node. If we don't stop the integration node the commands to create the vault cannot be executed. Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Before creating the vault we will have to stop the integration node. If we don’t stop the integration node the commands to create the vault cannot be executed.

mqsistop <Integration_Node_Name>

[ace@onvmbd01 ind_ace_gemini]$ mqsistop ind_ace_gemini
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.

Verify that the integration node is stopped using mqsilist <Integration_Node_Name>

[ace@onvmbd01 ind_ace_gemini]$ mqsilist ind_ace_gemini
BIP8019E: Integration node 'ind_ace_gemini' stopped.
This integration node is stopped; the command you issued cannot be processed when an integration node is stopped.
A previous command has been issued to stop this integration node, or this integration node has never been started.
This integration node can be started, changed, or deleted.Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Create a .mqsivaultrc file that contains the vault key in the home directory of the runtime user. This location will also be the location that the integration node will look for by default.

This can be done using the mqsivault command in combination with the –vaultrc-store-key parameter,

mqsivault <Integration_Node_Name>–vaultrc-store-key –vault-key <vaultkey> –vaultrc-location <mqsivaultrc_file_location>

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsivault ind_ace_gemini --vaultrc-store-key --vault-key [ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsivault ind_ace_gemini --vaultrc-store-key --vault-key myvaultkey --vaultrc-location /home/ace/
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ cat .mqsivaultrc
Node=ind_ace_gemini=bXl2YXVsdGtleQ==

Create the App Connect Enterprise Vault. Because the .mqsivaultrc is created in the home directory we dont have to provide it in the command. It will be found automatically. When using the vault-key option instead we will have to provide it every time we execute a vault command.

mqsivault <Integration_Node_Name> --create --vaultrc-location <location of vaulttrc>     OR ( mqsivault <Integration_Node_Name> --create --vault-key myvaultkey)

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsivault ind_ace_gemini --create
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Start the integration node. Again, Providing the location of the .mqsivaultrc is optional in this case because we saved it in the homedirectory.

mqsistart <Integration_Node_Name> OR (mqsistart <Integration_Node_Name> -vault-key myvaultkey)

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsistart ind_ace_gemini
BIP8873I: Starting the component verification for component 'ind_ace_gemini'.
BIP8096I: Successful command initiation, check the system log to ensure that the component started without problem and that it continues to run without problem.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

To destroy the vault when no longer needed we can use the following command.

mqsivault <Integration_Node_Name> –destroy

[ace@onvmbd01 overrides]$ mqsistop ind_ace_gemini
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.

[ace@onvmbd01 overrides]$ mqsivault ind_ace_gemini --destroy
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.

Creating the Credentials

Now it is time to create the credentials that we will use in our test. This can be done when the integration server is running and WILL NOT require a restart when creating the credentials for the first time. It would however require a restart when updating the credentials.

m

mqsicredentials <Integration_Node_Name> -e <Integration_Server_Name> –create –credential-name <DSN_NAME> –credential-type odbc –username <USERNAME> –password <PASSWORD>

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsicredentials ind_ace_gemini -e isd_gemini --create --credential-name O2015_DB_TST --credential-type odbc --username  svc_nav2015t_acl --password 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
BIP15119I: The 'create' action was successful for credential name 'O2015_DB_TST' of type 'odbc'.

BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

To check if the credentials we created are correctly configured we can report them using the following command.

mqsicredentials <Integration_Node_Name> -e <Integration_Server_Name> –report

As you can see in the commands below also the mqsisetdbparms credentials are shown. This makes it easier when migration to the vault as no credentials with the same DSN can be created in both the vault and the mqsisetdbparms.

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsicredentials ind_ace_gemini -e  isd_gemini  --report
BIP15110I: The credential name 'LINEMAIL01' of type 'email' contains user name 'fmb_150323162759' from provider 'setdbparms' and has the following properties defined: 'password'
BIP15110I: The credential name 'IIBDEV' of type 'odbc' contains user name 'b2bconnectd_rw' from provider 'setdbparms' and has the following properties defined: 'password'
BIP15110I: The credential name 'IIBDEV_B2BCONNECTD' of type 'odbc' contains user name 'b2bconnectd_rw' from provider 'setdbparms' and has the following properties defined: 'password'
BIP15110I: The credential name 'O2015_DB_TST' of type 'odbc' contains user name 'svc_nav2015t_acl' from provider 'vault' and has the following properties defined: 'password'


BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

To check if the credentials we created also have the correct password configured we can decrypt and report them using the following command. This can also be useful when the credentials were not documented properly. (retrieving the credentials was never possible using mqsisetdbparms. So, this is also a huge advantage in comparison to the old way of storing credentials)

mqsivault <Integration_Node_Name> -e <Integratrion_Server> –decode credentials/odbc/<DSN_NAME> –vault-key myvaultkey_

For this command we do need the vault key for security reasons.

[ace@onvmbd01 ind_ace_gemini]$ mqsistop ind_ace_gemini
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsivault  ind_ace_gemini -e isd_gemini --decode credentials/odbc/O2015_DB_TST --vault-key myvaultkey
Namespace: credentials
Record: odbc/O2015_DB_TST
{"name":"O2015_DB_TST","type":"odbc","properties":{"authType":"basic","password":"XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX","username":"svc_nav2015t_acl"}}
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Deleting the credentials can be done using the following command

mqsicredentials <Integration_Node_Name> -e <Integration_Server_Name> –delete –credential-name <DSN_NAME> –credential-type odbc

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsicredentials ind_ace_gemini -e isd_gemini --delete --credential-name O2015_DB_TST --credential-type odbc
BIP15119I: The 'delete' action was successful for credential name 'O2015_DB_TST' of type 'odbc'.

BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Testing the flow with MQSIVAULT

Now that everything is configured correctly we can test the flow.

Make sure the integration node is running:

[ace@onvmbd01 ind_ace_gemini]$ mqsistart ind_ace_gemini
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.

Test the flow again using postman:

As you can see the flow is now working correctly and using the credentials we defined in the vault.

Extra Tests

1. Test if you can create a second set of the same credentials that are already defined using the mqsisetdbparms command. In our previous command where we did a report of all stored credentials we noticed there was already an entry for LINEMAIL01.
BIP15110I: The credential name ‘LINEMAIL01′ of type ’email’ contains user name ‘fmb_150323162759’ from provider ‘setdbparms’ and has the following properties defined: ‘password’

We will now try and create the same credentials in the vault. As you can see this is not possible and we get the desired result.

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsicredentials ind_ace_gemini -e isd_gemini --create --credential-name LINEMAIL01 --credential-type email --username fmb_150323162759 --password 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
BIP9505E: Credential provider 'vault' was unable to create or load credential with name 'LINEMAIL01' and type 'email' as it has already been defined by credential provider 'setdbparms'.
 An attempt was made to create or load a credential but there is already a credential which exists with the same name and type which has already been defined.
Retry the action having either: modified the name to avoid the clash, or removed the original credential.
BIP15105E: The mqsicredentials command could not complete due to earlier errors.
An error occurred while running the mqsicredentials command.
Check the previous errors to find out why the mqsicredentials command failed, correct the error, and then rerun the command.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

2. Test what happens when you want to update the credentials. Is a restart required? Do I need to stop the integration server before executing the command?

As you can see we first need to stop the integration node before executing this command. It is not possible to update it on the fly because a flow might still be using those credentials causing a transaction to fail.

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$  mqsicredentials ind_ace_gemini -e isd_gemini --update --credential-name O2015_DB_TST --credential-type odbc --username  svc_nav2015t_acl --password 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
BIP15112E: The credential 'O2015_DB_TST' of type 'odbc' cannot be updated or deleted while the Integration Server is running.
The request to update or delete the credential failed as the credential may be in use by a flow deployed to the running Integration Server.
Stop the Integration Server and then retry the command to update or delete the credential.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

3. Test the behavior of the –all-integration-servers parameter and determine when this would be useful.

Because of course we only have one integration server per integration node the command will only show that integration server and not a list of multiple integration servers. It is important to keep in mind that this command will add credentials for all integration servers. This means that should we want to move to containers or standalone integration servers it would be more difficult to know what credentials are used by what integration server. The only added benefit for this in my opinion is when the same credentials are used by all integration server. Using this command for all credentials that are not necessarily used by all integration servers could also potentially provide a security risk.

[ace@onvmbd01 ~]$ mqsicredentials ind_ace_gemini  --all-integration-servers --create --credential-name O2015_DB_TST --credential-type odbc --username  svc_nav2015t_acl --password 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
BIP15127I: Integration Server 'isd_gemini': The 'create' action was successful for credential name 'O2015_DB_TST' of type 'odbc'.

BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Independent Integration Server

Independent integration servers (not associated with an integration node) are very useful to quickly get up and running with App Connect Enterprise software, especially if you are working in a development phase of your project or trying out the product for the first time. If you are planning to run the App Connect Enterprise in conjunction with a container framework such as Kubernetes or IBM Cloud Private, then it is the responsibility of this framework to ensure that the servers remain running (or are restarted appropriately) so in this situation using independent integration servers would be the better choice.

Because it would be interesting to also work with an app connect enterprise vault in such a setup it is important to know how this should be configured and how it differes from a setup with a Integration Node that manages the Integration Server.

Creating the Vault

We will be doing our test on the following independent integration Server:

IntegrationServer –work-dir <Working Directory of Integration Server>

C:\Program Files\IBM\ACE\12.0.3.0>IntegrationServer --work-dir C:\Users\cocxfrs\IBM\ACET12\workspace\SERVER_FRANCIS
2022-03-09 12:45:33.323380: BIP1990I: Integration server 'SERVER_FRANCIS' starting initialization; version '12.0.3.0' (64-bit)
2022-03-09 12:45:33.347244: BIP9905I: Initializing resource managers.
2022-03-09 12:45:39.098344: BIP9906I: Reading deployed resources.
2022-03-09 12:45:40.013528: BIP2866I: IBM App Connect Enterprise administrationsecurity is inactive.
2022-03-09 12:45:40.033168: BIP3132I: The HTTP Listener has started listening on port '7600' for 'RestAdmin http' connections.
2022-03-09 12:45:40.045168: BIP1991I: Integration server has finished initialization.

Before creating the vault we will have to stop the Independent integration server. If we don’t stop the integration server the commands to create the vault cannot be executed. This can be done by killing the process of the running integration server or using the rest admin.

POST http://localhost:7600/apiv2/shutdown

When executing this command the following information will be shown in the console window.

2022-03-09 12:48:50.530184: BIP1989I: Integration server is terminating due to a shutdown event.node.js process.on('exit') event emitted with exitCode of 0
2022-03-09 12:48:55.946024: BIP1992I: Integration server 'SERVER_FRANCIS' stopped.

rest API

The rest API documentation can always be retrieved using the following url:

http://localhost:7600/apidocs

Create the App Connect Enterprise Vault.

mqsivault –work-dir c:\myaceworkdir –vault-key vaultKey –create

C:\Program Files\IBM\ACE\12.0.3.0>mqsivault --work-dir C:\Users\cocxfrs\IBM\ACET12\workspace\SERVER_FRANCIS --vault-key myvaultkey --create

Creating the Credentials

Now it is time to create the credentials that we will use in our test. This can be done when the integration server is running and WILL NOT require a restart when creating the credentials for the first time. It would however require a restart when updating the credentials.

mqsicredentials –work-dir c:\myaceworkdir –create –credential-name <DSN_NAME> –credential-type odbc –username <USERNAME> –password <PASSWORD>

C:\Program Files\IBM\ACE\12.0.3.0>mqsicredentials --work-dir 

To check if the credentials we created are correctly configured we can report them using the following command.

mqsicredentials –work-dir c:\myaceworkdir –report

As you can see in the commands below also the setdbparms credentials are shown. This makes it easier when migration to the vault as no credentials with the same DSN can be created in both the vault and setdbparms.

C:\Program Files\IBM\ACE\12.0.3.0>mqsicredentials --work-dir C:\Users\cocxfrs\IBM\ACET12\workspace\SERVER_FRANCIS --report
BIP15110I: The credential name 'LINEMAIL01' of type 'email' contains user name 'fmb_150323162759' from provider 'setdbparms' and has the following properties defined: 'password'

To check if the credentials we created also have the correct password configured we can decrypt and report them using the following command. This can also be useful when the credentials where not documented properly. (retrieving the credentials was never possible using mqsisetdbparms. So, this is also a huge advantage in comparison to the old way of storing credentials)

mqsivault –work-dir c:\myaceworkdir –decode credentials/odbc/<DSN_NAME> –vault-key myvaultkey_

For this command, we do need the vault key for security reasons.

POST http://localhost:7600/apiv2/shutdown

C:\Program Files\IBM\ACE\12.0.3.0>mqsivault  --work-dir C:\Users\cocxfrs\IBM\ACET12\workspace\SERVER_FRANCIS --decode credentials/odbc/O2015_DB_TST --vault-key myvaultkey
Namespace: credentials
Record: odbc/O2015_DB_TST
{"name":"O2015_DB_TST","type":"odbc","properties":{"authType":"basic","password":"XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX","username":"svc_nav2015t_acl"}}
BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Deleting the credentials can be done using the following command

mqsicredentials –work-dir c:\myaceworkdir –delete –credential-name <DSN_NAME> –credential-type odbc

C:\Program Files\IBM\ACE\12.0.3.0>mqsicredentials --work-dir C:\Users\cocxfrs\IBM\ACET12\workspace\SERVER_FRANCIS --delete --credential-name O2015_DB_TST --credential-type odbc
BIP15119I: The 'delete' action was successful for credential name 'O2015_DB_TST' of type 'odbc'.

BIP8071I: Successful command completion.
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

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