3.2.1 Integrating Crowd with Apache

IN DEVELOPMENT The attached Perl module is in beta, use the module with caution. (Apache-CrowdAuth-0.03.zip) - Works with Perl 1.99 and 2. If you find any problems with the module please comment on the following ticket: http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CWD-97

Introduction

This documentation describes how to configure Crowd to authenticate HTTP Authentication requests made to an Apache webserver.

• These instructions assume some Unix system and Apache configuration knowledge.

Prerequisites

• Apache web server version 2.0 or above with the mod_perl module installed and configured.
• SOAP::Lite perl module (v0.69 or greater recommended).

Installation and Configuration

The following instructions are for Unix systems. If you're running Apache on Windows, see the notes below.

Installing the SOAP::Lite Perl Module

SOAP::Lite is a Perl library for managing SOAP calls. It is used by the CrowdAuth module to talk to the Crowd server.

The easiest way to install SOAP::Lite is via CPAN, by running the following command.

perl -MCPAN -e 'install SOAP::Lite'

Alternatively, you can download and install the package manually.

Installing the Apache::CrowdAuth Perl Module

Download the Apache-CrowdAuth-0.03.tar.gz file and extract and install it as follows:

tar xvzf Apache-CrowdAuth-0.03.tar.gz
cd Apache-CrowdAuth-0.03
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install

Configuring Apache

Ensure that mod_perl is enabled.

Your Apache config file should contain a line like the following:

Many common distributions of Apache come with mod_perl preconfigured.

Configure Authentication

To tell Apache to use Crowd to authenticate requests for a particular location, edit the Apache config file to add the following commands to a <Location> or <Directory> section.

Subversion Integration

If you are using Apache to manage access to a subversion repository (instructions), you can use the same configuration method to delegate user authentication to Crowd.

Example:

Note that Apache will have to be restarted before any changes to its config files will take effect.

Troubleshooting

• The CrowdAuth module logs detailed output if the Apache LogLevel parameter is set to info or debug. This can be useful in diagnosing problems (WARNING: passwords are logged in plaintext to the Apache log file when LogLevel is set to debug).

Apache Log Error Messages

Installing Perl, mod_perl and Perl Modules on Windows

Setting up CrowdAuth on an Apache instance running on Windows requires that some things be done differently.

(The following instructions assume you are using ActivePerl as your Perl environment).

• If you don't already have a Perl interpreter installed, you'll need one. The following instructions assume an install of ActiveState's ActivePerl.
• Windows installations of Apache are less likely to come with mod_perl pre-installed. A Win32 version of mod_perl in PPM format is available here.
• The .tar.gz format used to distribute CrowdAuth (and other modules) is supported by most modern Windows archiving utilities (WinZip, for example).
• The make utility used to build the Perl modules is not part of a Windows. nmake, Microsoft's equivalent, is available (as a self-extracting archive) here.

Installing SOAP::Lite on Windows

Use the cpan shell

C:\ cpan
cpan> install SOAP::Lite

Installing Apache::CrowdAuth on Windows

Extract Apache-CrowdAuth-0.03.tar.gz using Winzip or equivalent...
cd Apache-CrowdAuth-0.03
perl Makefile.PL
nmake
nmake install

When editing the httpd.conf file and adding the mod_perl.so module to Apache, you may need to add the following line above the LoadModule line

LoadFile "C:/Perl/bin/perl58.dll"
LoadModule perl_module modules/mod_perl.so

This LoadFile line points to the perl58.dll in your Perl install directory.

Related Topics  

• 3.1 Using the Application Browser
• 3.2 Adding an Application
  • 3.2.1 Integrating Crowd with Apache
  • 3.2.2 Integrating Crowd with Atlassian Bamboo
  • 3.2.3 Integrating Crowd with Atlassian Confluence
  • 3.2.4 Integrating Crowd with Atlassian JIRA
  • 3.2.5 Integrating Crowd with Cenqua FishEye
  • 3.2.6 Integrating Crowd with Jive Forums
    • 3.2.6.1 Jive SSO
  • 3.2.7 Integrating Crowd with a Custom Application
• 3.3 Mapping a Directory to an Application
  • 3.3.1 Specifying the Directory Order for an Application
• 3.4 Specifying which Groups can access an Application
• 3.5 Specifying an Application's Address or Hostname
• 3.6 Managing an Application's Session
• 3.7 Deleting or Deactivating an Application

Crowd 1.0 Documentation