Accessing a web portal not tied to a specific device

Products

• CA Privileged Access Manager (PAM)

Issue/Introduction

You are trying to configure access to ansible automation platform web services. These web services are accessed using a DNS entry that does not point to a specific device and may get updated. You tried configuring a web service that has a hardcoded launch URL, but trying to save it gives an "Invalid value specified for Launch URL" error:

 

How can you configure access to a web service that is not running on a specific device?

Cause

The Launch URL configured in the TCP/UDP service is what the browser running on the PAM client side uses to connect to the listener port that the PAM client creates for this service. The actual target URL uses the address of the device to which the service is assigned. PAM services can only be used after assigning them to a device.

Resolution

Define a device that uses the DNS entry as address, even though this is not a physical device. When the device address is an FQDN, PAM will get the actual address to connect to from DNS. The Launch URL in the web portal service should be, or start with, the standard Launch URL https://<Local IP>:<First Port>:

Then configure a device with the FQDN from the URL as address, assign the Web Portal service to it and configure access policies as needed.

 

Additional Information

Restrictions on the Launch URL string are discussed in KB 125263.