ZOWE Secure credential management considerations

Products

• Zowe

Issue/Introduction

When a user has credentials synchronized across all systems defined in zowe.config and secure properties are set at the base level, a conflict occurs when switching between different IDs (such as an operations ID and a developer ID) on the same system. This appears to cause login failures in extensions like JCL Check.

Environment

ZOWE CLI v3

Code4z vscode extensions

Cause

The operations ID and the developer ID are currently configured to use the same secure properties. Each user should have their own unique secure properties instead.

Resolution

Add user layer to the team configuration file, here is the example:

{
  "$schema": "./zowe.schema.json",
  "profiles": {
    "lpar1": {
      "properties": {
        "host": "example1.com",
        "rejectUnauthorized": true
      },
      "profiles": {
        "user1": {
          "properties": {},
          "profiles": {
            "zosmf": {
              "type": "zosmf",
              "properties": {
                "port": 443
              }
            },
            "jclcheck": {
              "type": "jclcheck",
              "properties": {
                "account": 1234
              }
            }
          },
          "secure": ["user", "password"]
        },
        "user2": {
          "properties": {},
          "profiles": {
            "zosmf": {
              "type": "zosmf",
              "properties": {
                "port": 443
              }
            },
            "jclcheck": {
              "type": "jclcheck",
              "properties": {
                "account": 1234
              }
            }
          },
          "secure": ["user", "password"]
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "defaults": {
    "zosmf": "lpar1.user1.zosmf",
    "jclcheck": "lpar1.user2.jclcheck"
  },
  "autoStore": true
}