Web Agent showing post preservation data error page
Article ID: 227573
Updated On:
Products
CA Single Sign On Federation (SiteMinder)
CA Single Sign On Agents (SiteMinder)
SITEMINDER
Issue/Introduction
When running a Web Agent, the browser shows the message on Post
Preservation action :
"This page is used to hold your data while you are being authorized
for your request. You will be forwarded to the continue the
authorization process. If this does not happen automatically, please
click the continue button below."
1) How to stop this message ?
2) How to edit this message and modify with another userful message ?
3) Under what circumstances we get this message ?
4) Why only few customers are reporting it ?
5) What are the most common reason for such messages ?
Resolution
Overall, this page doesn't mean an error message. It's informative
message. This message is related to the Postpreservation Web Agent
feature.
1. As per this KD and doc, PostPreservation can disabled by "setting
PreservePostData=no in the ACO." (1)(2).
2. The message can be customized following indications from this KD
and doc (3)(4).
3. As per documentation, the Post Preservation occurs "When a timeout
or other interruption occurs during a POST operation, the POST
preservation page is displayed." (5).
One of these interruption might be when the Web Agent needs the
browser to visit another Web Agent instance for updating the
SMSESSION cookie by a Cookie Provider as per this KD (6).
4. As per the following KD, this page is not seen on each request, but
only when there's a need to "maintain the data, Siteminder must
invoke PostPreservation and this will result in the white page
being displayed to the user. If PostPreservation is disabled, then
the data that the user submitted will be lost and the user will
need to resubmit the data [...]" (7).
Note that if the operation goes quite fast, the user might even not
see it in the browser, even if the postpreservation occurs as
mentioned in the documentation (8).
5. The most common situation where Postpreservation is needed :
- Interaction between Framework and Traditional Agent (9).
- Usage of a Cookie Provider (10)(11).
- Usage of Dynamic Account Linking at the SP as per documentation
(12).
Additional Information
(1)
Web Agent ACO SessionUpdatePeriod and PostPreservation message
1. Disable PostPreservation by setting PreservePostData=no in
the ACO. This would force the users to have to resubmit
their POST data each time we redirect to the cookie
provider (as dictated by the SessionUpdatePeriod / validity
of the SMSESSION cookie)
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=54212
(2)
(Optional) Disable POST Preservation
To disable POST preservation, set the value of the
PreservePostData parameter to no.
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/identity-security/siteminder/12-8/configuring/web-agent-configuration/forms-authentication/how-to-configure-an-agent-to-support-html-forms-authentication/configure-post-preservation.html
(3)
Web Agent Customizing the POST preservation page
The intermittent page can be customized by modifying the POST
preservaqtion template. There are two samples which get
installed with the Web Agent and have the extension
".pptemplate" which do fancy things with POST
preservation. These files are located in the samples directory
of the SiteMinder Web Agent installation. For instance, if
SiteMinder were installed at /app/netegrity/webagent, these
files would be located at:
/app/netegrity/webagent/samples_default/forms/fw2tr.pptemplate
/app/netegrity/webagent/samples_default/forms/tr2fw.pptemplate
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=53734
(4)
Customize the POST Preservation Page
To customize the POST preservation page, create a POST
preservation template file.
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/identity-security/siteminder/12-8/configuring/web-agent-configuration/forms-authentication/how-to-configure-an-agent-to-support-html-forms-authentication/configure-post-preservation.html
(5)
Customize the POST Preservation Page
When a timeout or other interruption occurs during a POST
operation, the POST preservation page is displayed.
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/identity-security/siteminder/12-8/configuring/web-agent-configuration/forms-authentication/how-to-configure-an-agent-to-support-html-forms-authentication/configure-post-preservation.html
(6)
Web Agent ACO SessionUpdatePeriod and PostPreservation message
The interim white page that is displayed will occur when
PostPreservation takes place. With a single domain,
PostPreservation takes place only when the SMSESSION is no
longer valid however when there are multiple domains,
PostPreservation also takes place when the cookie in the
primary domain needs to be updated in order to maintain SSO
between multiple domains. The ACO parameter
"SessionUpdatePeriod" dictates the frequency that the web agent
in the second domain redirects to update the SMSESSION cookie
in the primary domain.
This has the same default value of SessionGracePeriod. If the
request is of a POST method and the Web Agent needs to go talk
to the cookie provider (caused by the secondary cookie is no
longer valid or the SessionUpdatePeriod is updated), then the
Web Agent in the secondary domain will need to speak with the
Web Agent in the primary domain. This is done via a HTTP 302
redirect and as such, in order to maintain the data, Siteminder
must invoke PostPreservation and this will result in the white
page being displayed to the user. If PostPreservation is
disabled, then the data that the user submitted will be lost
and the user will need to resubmit the data before the
SessionUpdatePeriod is exceeded.
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=54212
(7)
Web Agent ACO SessionUpdatePeriod and PostPreservation message
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=54212
(8)
Customize the POST Preservation Page
However, the Post Preservation page can be displayed for as
long as 5 seconds when the amount of form data being posted is
large.
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/identity-security/siteminder/12-8/configuring/web-agent-configuration/forms-authentication/how-to-configure-an-agent-to-support-html-forms-authentication/configure-post-preservation.html
(9)
Enable Post Preservation Between Framework and Traditional Agents
If your SiteMinder environment uses a combination of Framework
and Traditional agents, and resources that are hosted by one
type of Agent are protected by Forms Credential Collectors
(FCCs) hosted on the other type of agent,
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/identity-security/siteminder/12-8/configuring/web-agent-configuration/forms-authentication/how-to-configure-an-agent-to-support-html-forms-authentication/configure-post-preservation.html
(10)
Web Agent ACO SessionUpdatePeriod and PostPreservation message
The interim white page that is displayed will occur when
PostPreservation takes place. With a single domain,
PostPreservation takes place only when the SMSESSION is no
longer valid however when there are multiple domains,
PostPreservation also takes place when the cookie in the
primary domain needs to be updated in order to maintain SSO
between multiple domains.
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=54212
(11)
Enable Post Preservation Between Framework and Traditional Agents
Framework Agents handle POST preservation data differently than
Traditional Agents do. If your SiteMinder environment uses a
combination of Framework and Traditional agents, and resources
that are hosted by one type of Agent are protected by Forms
Credential Collectors (FCCs) hosted on the other type of agent,
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/identity-security/siteminder/12-8/configuring/web-agent-configuration/forms-authentication/how-to-configure-an-agent-to-support-html-forms-authentication/configure-post-preservation.html
(12)
Configure Dynamic Account Linking at the SP
Protect the linkaccount.jsp file with a SiteMinder forms
authentication scheme, which supports POST-Preservation. The
SAML response that contains the assertion is posted to the
Assertion Consumer Service after the user has logged in locally
at the Service Provider. Preserve the SAML response POST data
during the entire local authentication process..
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/identity-security/siteminder/12-8/implementing/implementing-federation-in-your-enterprise/saml-2-0-federation-use-cases-and-solutions.html
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