Port 25: The Open Source Community at Microsoft : Interop, Identity and Authentication

Supernova

Sam Ramji — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:22:00 GMT

I’m writing this from EclipseCon in Santa Clara, California, where I’m going to announce the beginning of Microsoft’s collaborative work with the Eclipse Foundation.

This started about a year ago when I met Mike Milinkovich at an open source event (the Open Source Software Think Tank 2007) where we were seated at the same table, and assigned to discuss “key issues inhibiting the growth of open source”. We found we had pretty similar ways of looking at problems – I found Mike to be very pragmatic and straightforward in his thinking. That discussion led to a conversation about what we could do to help Eclipse developers building software for Windows.

At the same time, the CardSpace team at Microsoft was already working actively with the Higgins Project to establish a secure, interoperable framework for user identity on the web – an architecture known as the Identity Metasystem. Since the inception of Higgins, the CardSpace team has worked very closely with the Higgins team, providing them the protocol documentation they needed to be able to build an identity selector that is interoperable with CardSpace, as well as placing those protocol specifications under the OSP so that they knew that it was safe to do so. We share a commitment to building a user-centric, privacy-preserving, secure, easy-to-use identity layer for the Internet.

Currently, Higgins, Microsoft, and dozens of other companies and projects are in the midst of the third OSIS-sponsored user-centric identity interop, where we all try our code together, providing the data needed to improve both our implementations and the interoperability between them.

Among a range of other opportunities (which we’re still working on), we discovered that Steve Northover (the SWT team lead) had gotten requests to make it easy for Java developers to write applications that look and feel like native Windows Vista. He and a small group of developers built out a prototype that enables SWT to use Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). We’re committing to improve this technology with direct support from our engineering teams and the Open Source Software Lab, with the goal of a first-class authoring experience for Java developers.

This is exciting to me – as a Java developer in my prior life (as well as the first technical marketing manager for BEA’s WebLogic Workshop, now Apache Beehive) it just makes sense to enable Java on Windows. We started a collaborative effort with JBoss two years ago that continues to this day. At the end of the day, it’s all about the developer. There will be more to come from the conversations that Eclipse and Microsoft have begun, and I look forward to announcing those in the future as we have demonstrable technology results.

Cheers,
Sam

Technical Analysis: Installing Apache with SSL on Windows

jcannon — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:02:00 GMT

Abstract:
Often SSL or TLS is required to secure data from web applications. Sometimes this is just prudent to prevent confidential or sensitive data from being confiscated. Sometimes this is required by regulations like HIPAA or industry bodies, such as the Payment Card Industry. This guide will show how to install Apache with SSL on Windows.

Note: This paper represents testing and documentation in a lab environment. User Account Control (UAC) is an essential security component to Windows and Microsoft does not recommend turning off UAC in production environments.

Download Report Installing Apache on Windows

Technical Analysis: Active Directory and Linux Identity Management

jcannon — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:22:00 GMT

Abstract: This paper is written for a somewhat technical audience and covers how the identity management expectations differ between the Windows Server platform and Linux - and how Windows Server can be used to manage both. This paper assume that the reader is familiar with general Windows administration tasks, such as user management.

Note: This paper represents testing and documentation in a lab environment. User Account Control (UAC) is an essential security component to Windows and Microsoft does not recommend turning off UAC in production environments.

Deploying Identity Management in a Mixed Environment: Hank Interviews Dustin Puryear

hjanssen — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:50:00 GMT

Whether deploying Windows in a Linux or UNIX environment, or vice versa, identity management can be a challenge. In order to explore this topic, Hank spent some time talking with Dustin Puryear author, consultant, featured speaker at TechX World and owner of Puryear Information Technology, LLC. Dustin specializes in solving integration challenges related to mixed environments and has penned a few books on the topic. Two of his books: Best Practices for Managing Linux and UNIX Servers and "Spam Fighting and Email Security for the 21st Century" are available as free e-books on his site.

In this podcast (Part 1 of 2) Hank and Dustin explore issues related to implementing Identity Management solutions and focus primarily on the importance of policies. While the act of deployment is by default important, without proper policies even the best solution can fall short. In the next podcast the conversation will focus on implementation strategies. If you have particular questions you'd like answered in the next podcast, please feel free to comment below.

Centrify's Paul Moore Fields Questions from the Community

jcannon — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:40:00 GMT

Paul Moore sits down with Sam in this podcast, our second go around with Centrify. For those who don't know, Centrify builds software that provides access control and centralized identity management in mixed networks (Yes, this can include Windows, Linux, UNIX, Mac, J2EE and web platforms with Active Directory). This interview is a bit different as Sam runs through questions submitted to Port 25 from the first Centrify interview and Paul takes the opportunity to directly answer the community.

Centrify is also a sponsor of TechX, a roadshow being sponsored by IBM, Linux.com, Slashdot, Microsoft and others to help customers better enable interoperabiliy between operating systems, directories, applications (headed to DC, Chicago, Dallas & San Fran - check it out).

UNIX Interop in Vista Beta 2 and Longhorn Server

jcannon — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 17:06:00 GMT

Another guest blog this week from Identity Management Program Manager, Shamit Patel:
---------------------------------------------

Hi,
Last week, we released two new utilities to help customers achieve UNIX / Windows Interop. The first is a set of utilities and the SDK for the Subsystem for UNIX Architecture (SUA) in Vista Beta 2 & Longhorn. For those unaware, SUA is a native subsystem residing on top of the Windows kernel, just like the Win32 subsystem. It provides the basic infrastructure to run UNIX-based applications and scripts on Windows Vista (Ultimate and Enterprise) and Longhorn Server.

We've also released the UNIX-side components for Identity Management with UNIX. This essentially provides the utilities which enable password sync between Windows and UNIX environments. These are the UNIX-based utilities to enable successful synchronization.

I realize many of you may not be testing Vista or Longhorn, but for those who are, or have corporate testing, we would love to hear your feedback on the product, scripts and documentation.

View full post on Longhorn Server Identity Management for UNIX components and Vista Beta 2/Longhorn Utilities and SDK for UNIX Subsystem.
Download Utilities and SDK for Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications in Microsoft Windows Vista / Longhorn Server Beta 2.
Download UNIX Side Components for Identity Management for UNIX – Shipped with Windows Server codenamed Longhorn Server Beta 2.

Thanks all,
Shamit

Security and Directory Services for UNIX Guide Released

admin — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 18:23:00 GMT

We've got a quick guest blog before the holiday weekend on a new set of interoperability tools released this week by Microsoft, and in conjunction with some very talented folks in our partner, sales & services group. Welcome Luis Camara Manoel, Program Manager for in Communications & Collaboration...take it away Luis:

------------------

(Luis Camara Manoel)

Hi all,
The Interoperability and Migration Solutions team at Microsoft is very happy to have just released the Windows Security and Directory Services for UNIX Guide. This guide details step-by-step instructions for providing security and directory services for mixed Windows and UNIX environments using Active Directory. The approach we followed here describes multiple options to achieve two different system end-states:

1. UNIX clients are enabled to use Windows Active Directory Kerberos for authentication while continuing to use a UNIX-based store for authorization.

2. UNIX clients are enabled to use Windows Active Directory Kerberos for authentication and use Active Directory LDAP for authorization.

We have also added some tools and templates to help plan, develop, deploy, and operate these solutions.

Although this release addresses AD integration only for Solaris 9 and for RedHat 9, it is pretty simple to see how it would apply to other UNIX and UNIX-like systems.

You can download the guide at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5118169 and please let me know what you think. I am very interested in finding out how the guidance is received.

Have a great holiday weekend,
-Luis

Windows Security and Directory Services for UNIX Solution Guide

admin — Thu, 11 May 2006 19:36:00 GMT

Jason Zions pointed us to this newly revised Windows Security and Directory Services for UNIX solution guide, still in beta.

Description of the Guide and access instructions from Luis Camara Manoel, Program Manager, Collaboration Solutions Team:

"The Windows Security and Directory Services for UNIX v1.0 Beta guide provides several solutions for enabling interoperability between UNIX and Windows infrastructures. The solutions included in this Beta release describe multiple options to achieve two different end states:

How to enable UNIX clients to use Windows Active Directory Kerberos for authentication while continuing to use a UNIX-based store for authorization.
How to enable UNIX clients to use Windows Active Directory Kerberos for authentication and use Active Directory LDAP for authorization.

To download and read the solution online, please visit Microsoft Connect: https://connect.microsoft.com/default.aspx. Follow registration procedures and select “The Windows Security and Directory Services Guide for UNIX v1.0” program to enroll and download the beta."

Per Jason: "Although the guide gives step-by-step instructions for setting up AD integration only for Solaris 9 and for RedHat 9, it's pretty easy to see how it would extend to lots of other UNIX and UNIX-like systems."

To download the paper you'll need a Passport Account (the link above will prompt you for one) which is used to send updates, if you wish, on new releases and an announcement when the guide is final.

Let us and Luis know what you think!

Partner Spotlight: Do your directories play nicely?

admin — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 08:35:00 GMT

Directory specialist Jackson Shaw from Quest Software joins Sam Ramji from the Open Source Software Lab at Microsoft, to talk Active Directory and interoperability.

View Video
Format: WMV
Duration: 25:20

Updated:
Download this interview in MPEG4 format.
Download the transcript (PDF)