Service provider policy sets and bindings collection

You can attach and detach policy sets to an application, a service provider, its endpoints, or operations. You can select the default bindings, create new application-specific bindings, or use bindings that you created for an attached policy set. You can view or change whether the service provider can share its current policy configuration.

Detail information for an application and its associated web service providers, endpoints, and operations are provided. You can view and manage policy set attachments and bindings information.

To view this administrative console page, click Applications > Application Types > WebSphere enterprise applications > Service_provider_application_instance > Service provider policy sets and bindings.

Depending on your assigned security role when security is enabled, you might not have access to text entry fields or buttons to create or edit configuration data. Review the administrative roles documentation to learn more about the valid roles for the application server.

Table 1. Binding descriptions . Use the descriptions of the default bindings for the selected policy set attachment.
Bindings	Description
Attach Policy Set	Click this button to view a list of policy sets available for attachment to the selected service, endpoint, or operation. Select a policy set from the list to attach and it is attached to the selected service, endpoint, or operation. To close the menu list, click Attach Policy Set.
Detach Policy Set	Click this button to detach a policy set from a selected service, endpoint, or operation. After the policy set is detached, if there is no policy set attached to an upper-level service resource, the Attached Policy Set column displays None and the Binding column displays Not Applicable. If there is a policy set attached to an upper-level service resource, the Attached Policy Set column displays `policy_set_name` (inherited) and the binding used for the upper-level attachment is applied. The binding name is displayed followed by (inherited).
Assign Binding	Click this button to select from a list of available bindings for the selected policy set attachment. The options include the following: Default Specifies the default binding for the selected service reference, endpoint, or operation. You can specify client and provider default bindings to be used at the cell level or global security domain level, for a particular server, or for a security domain. The default bindings are used when an application-specific binding has not been assigned to the attachment. When you attach a policy set to a service resource, the binding is initially set to the default. If you do not specifically assign a binding to the attachment point using this Assign Binding action, the default specified at the nearest scope is used. For any policy set attachment, the run time checks to see if the attachment includes a binding. If so, it uses that binding. If not, the run time checks in the following order and uses the first available default binding: Default general bindings for the server Default general bindings for the domain in which the server resides Default general bindings for the global security domain New Application Specific Binding Select this option to create a new application-specific binding for the policy set attachments. The new binding you create is used for the selected resources. If you select more than one resource, ensure that all selected resources have the same policy set attached. Provider sample Select this option to use the Provider sample binding. Provider sample V2 Select this option to use the Provider sample V2 binding when you are using either the Kerberos V5 WSSecurity default or the TrustServiceKerberosDefault policy sets. Saml Bearer Provider sample Select this option to use the Saml Bearer Provider sample. The Saml Bearer Provider sample extends the Provider sample binding to support SAML Bearer token usage scenarios. You can use this sample with any of the SAML bearer token default policy sets. Saml HoK Symmetric Provider sample Select this option to use the Saml HoK Symmetric Provider sample. The Saml HoK Symmetric Provider sample extends the Provider sample binding to support SAML holder-of-key (HoK) symmetric key token usage scenarios. You can use this sample with one of the SAML HoK Symmetric key default policy sets: either SAML11 HoK Symmetric WSSecurity default or SAML20 HoK Symmetric WSSecurity default. SHA256 provider sample Select this option to use the SHA256 provider sample. The SHA256 provider sample extends the provider sample binding in the following ways: It adds the SignatureAlgorithm custom property for the SHA256 signature algorithms to all the symmetric and asymmetric sign parts. It contains the SAML bearer token consumers. Modify this binding to meet your security requirements before you use it in a production environment. SHA256 client sample Select this option to use the SHA256 client sample. The SHA256 client sample extends the client sample binding in the following ways: To all the symmetric and asymmetric sign parts, it adds the SignatureAlgorithm custom property for the SHA256 signature algorithms. It contains the SAML bearer token generators. Modify this binding to meet your security requirements before you use it in a production environment. To close the menu list, click Assign Binding.

Application/Service/Endpoint/Operation

Specifies the name of the application and the associated service providers, endpoints or operations.

The Application/Service/Endpoint/Operation column lists the service application and the service providers, endpoints, or operations that the application contains.

Attached Policy Set

Specifies the policy set that is attached to a service provider, endpoint, or operation.

The Attached Policy Set column can contain the following values:

None. No policy set is attached, either directly or to a higher-level service resource.
Policy_set_name. The name of the policy set that is attached directly to the service resource, for example, WS-I RSP.
Policy_set_name (inherited). The name of the policy set that is not attached directly to a service resource, but that is attached to a higher-level service resource.

When the value in the column is a link, click the link to view or change settings about the attached policy set.

Binding

Specifies the binding configuration that is available for a service provider, endpoint, or operation.

The Binding column can contain the following values:

Not applicable. No policy set is attached, either directly or to a higher-level service resource.
Binding_name or Default. The binding name is displayed if a policy set is attached directly and an application-specific binding or a general binding is assigned, for example, MyBindings1. Default is displayed if a policy set is attached directly but the service resource uses the default bindings.
Binding_name (inherited) or Default (inherited). A service resource inherits the bindings from an attachment to a higher-level resource.

When the value in the Binding column is a link, click the link to view or change settings about the binding.

About policy set bindings

In this release, there are two types of bindings: application-specific bindings and general bindings.

Application-specific bindings

You can create application-specific bindings only at a policy set attachment point. These bindings are specific to, and constrained by, the characteristics of the defined policy. Application-specific bindings can provide configuration for advanced policy requirements such as multiple signatures; however, these bindings are reusable only within an application. Also, application-specific bindings have very limited reuse across policy sets.

When you create an application-specific binding for a policy set attachment, the binding begins in a completely unconfigured state. You must add each policy, such as WS-Security or HTTP transport, that you want to override the default binding, and fully configure the bindings for each policy that you add. For WS-Security policy, some high level configuration attributes such as TokenConsumer, TokenGenerator, SigningInfo, or EncryptionInfo might be obtained from the default bindings if they are not configured in the application-specific bindings.

For service providers, you can create application-specific bindings only by selecting Assign Binding > New Application Specific Binding, on the Service providers policy sets and bindings collection page, for service provider resources that have an attached policy set. Similarly, for service clients, you can create application-specific bindings only by selecting Assign Binding > New Application Specific Binding, on the Service clients policy sets and bindings collection page, for service client resources that have an attached policy set.

General bindings

You can configure general bindings to be used across a range of policy sets and they can be reused across applications and for trust service attachments. Although general bindings are highly reusable, they cannot provide configuration for advanced policy requirements such as multiple signatures. There are two types of general bindings: general provider policy set bindings and general client policy set bindings.

You can create general provider policy set bindings by clicking Services > Policy sets > General provider policy set bindings > New in the general provider policy sets panel, or by clicking Services > Policy sets > General client policy set bindings > New in the general client policy set and bindings panel. For details about defining and managing service client or provider bindings, see the related links. General provider policy set bindings might also be used for trust service attachments.

Policy Sharing

Specifies whether the service provider can share its current policy configuration.

The Policy sharing column can contain the following values:

Not applicable. The resource does not have a policy set attached, so there is no policy configuration to share.
Disabled. The policy set of the resource cannot be shared. This is the default setting if a policy set is attached to a service.
Enabled. The policy set of the resource can be shared.

When the value in the column is a link, click the link to view or change settings about how the policy configuration can be shared.

For a service, if the policy set is inherited from the parent application, the policy sharing value is also inherited, and you cannot change it. The value is not a link and it is followed by the term inherited in parentheses.

For an endpoint or operation, the value is not a link and it is followed by the term inherited in parentheses. The setting is inherited from the parent application or service and you cannot change it.