Starting Locators and Servers with GemFire Security Management Enabled

Products

• VMware Tanzu Gemfire

Issue/Introduction

A customer has encountered challenges when attempting to start a second locator with the GemFire Security Manager enabled. They are requesting assistance in understanding the necessary steps to initiate multiple locators and how to properly provide the required credentials during this process.

Environment

All environments.

Cause

The members will not start up if the supplied credentials are incorrect or if they cannot provide the credentials in the required format for servers and locators.

Resolution

Below are the steps to pass credentials to start the locators (please note this step is needed if you need to launch more than one locator).

1) Use the gfsecurity.properties file for configuring the Locator’s security configuration in the cluster. The file’s path can be absolute or relative to gfsh’s working directory and Start the locator, referencing the file:

security-username=admin
security-password=xyz1234

start locator --name=locator1 --security-properties-file=path/to/gfsecurity.properties

 

2)An alternative method is to launch the locator by providing the credentials as JVM arguments in GFSH.

start locator --J=-Dgemfire.security-password= admin --J=-Dgemfire.security-username=xyz1234

 

Below are the steps to pass credentials to start the servers.

1) Use the gfsecurity.properties file for configuring the Locator’s security configuration in the cluster. The file’s path can be absolute or relative to gfsh’s working directory, and the Start the server  referencing the file:

security-username=admin
security-password=xyz1234

start server --name=server1 --security-properties-file=path/to/gfsecurity.properties

 

2)An alternative method is to launch the server by providing the credentials as JVM arguments in GFSH.

start server--name=server1 --user=admin --password=xyz1234

Additional Information

The gfsecurity.properties approach allows centralized credential management, while command line options provide flexibility for different scenarios.Choose the method that best fits your security requirements and operational needs.