Apache Syncope tutorial - part I

Apache Syncope is a new open source Identity Management project at Apache. This is the first of a planned four-part set of tutorials on how to get Apache Syncope up and running, how to integrate it with various backends, and how to interact with its REST API.

In this tutorial we will explain how to create a new Apache Syncope project and how to deploy it to a container. We will also cover how to set up internal storage with a database, and how to install Connector bundles to communicate with backend resources. Please note that if you wish to download and play around with Apache Syncope, without going through the steps detailed in this tutorial to set it up for a standalone deployment, it is possible to download the 1.1.3 distribution and use an embedded Tomcat instance. In that case you can completely skip this tutorial and go straight to the next one.

1) Set up a database for Internal Storage

The first step in setting up a standalone deployment of Apache Syncope is to decide what database to use for Internal Storage. Apache Syncope persists internal storage to a database via Apache OpenJPA. In this article we will set up MySQL, but see here for more information on using PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc. Install MySQL in $SQL_HOME and create a new user for Apache Syncope. We will create a new user "syncope_user" with password "syncope_pass". Start MySQL and create a new Syncope database:

• Start: sudo $SQL_HOME/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql
• Log on: $SQL_HOME/bin/mysql -u syncope_user -p
• Create a Syncope database: create database syncope; 

2) Set up a container to host Apache Syncope

The next step is to figure out in what container to deploy Syncope to. In this demo we will use Apache Tomcat, but see here for more information about installing Syncope in other containers. Install Apache Tomcat to $CATALINA_HOME. Now we will add a datasource for internal storage in Tomcat's 'conf/context.xml'. When Syncope does not find a datasource called 'jdbc/syncopeDataSource', it will connect to internal storage by instantiating a new connection per request, which carries a performance penalty. Add the following to 'conf/context.xml':

<Resource name="jdbc/syncopeDataSource" auth="Container"
    type="javax.sql.DataSource"
    factory="org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory"
    testWhileIdle="true" testOnBorrow="true" testOnReturn="true"
    validationQuery="SELECT 1" validationInterval="30000"
    maxActive="50" minIdle="2" maxWait="10000" initialSize="2"
    removeAbandonedTimeout="20000" removeAbandoned="true"
    logAbandoned="true" suspectTimeout="20000"
    timeBetweenEvictionRunsMillis="5000" minEvictableIdleTimeMillis="5000"
    jdbcInterceptors="org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.interceptor.ConnectionState;
    org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.interceptor.StatementFinalizer"
    username="syncope_user" password="syncope_pass"
    driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
    url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/syncope?characterEncoding=UTF-8"/>

Uncomment the "<Manager pathname="" />" configuration in context.xml as well. Next, download the JDBC driver jar for MySQL and put it in Tomcat's 'lib' directory. As we will be configuring a connector for a Derby resource in a future tutorial, also download the JDBC driver jar for Apache Derby and put it in Tomcat's 'lib' directory as well.

3) Create a new Apache Syncope project

To create a new Apache Syncope project, we must start with a Maven Archetype. For the purposes of this tutorial we will use Apache Syncope 1.1.3. Create a new directory to hold all of the project artifacts ($SYNCOPE_HOME). Create a new project in this directory as follows:

mvn archetype:generate
    -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.syncope
    -DarchetypeArtifactId=syncope-archetype
    -DarchetypeRepository=http://repos1.maven.apache.org/maven2/
    -DarchetypeVersion=1.1.3

Enter values as requested for the 'groupId', 'artifactId', 'version', 'package' and 'secretKey'. A new Syncope project will be created in a directory corresponding to the value entered for 'artifactId'. Build the project by going into the newly created directory and typing "mvn clean package". To launch Syncope in "embedded" mode, go into the "console" subdirectory and type "mvn -Pembedded". This provides a quick way to start up Syncope with some test data and connectors pre-installed, along with a H2 instance for internal storage. However, instead of doing this we will set up a proper standalone deployment.

4) Install ConnId bundles

Apache Syncope uses bundles supplied by the ConnId project to communicate with backend resources. In part III of this series of tutorials we will cover importing users from a database backend, and part IV will cover using a directory backend. Therefore, we need two ConnId bundles to handle these scenarios. Create two new directories in $SYNCOPE_HOME, one called "bundles" to store the ConnId bundles, and another called "logs" to store logging information. Go to the ConnId download page, and download the relevant jars to the bundles directory you have created. It should have the following files:

• org.connid.bundles.ldap-1.3.6.jar
• org.connid.bundles.db.table-2.1.5.jar.

5) Configure the Apache Syncope project

After creating the Apache Syncope project, we need to configure it to use the ConnId bundles we have downloaded, the logging directory we have created, and the MySQL instance for internal storage.

Edit 'core/src/main/resources/persistence.properties' in your Syncope project, and replace the existing configuration with the following:

jpa.driverClassName=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
jpa.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/syncope?characterEncoding=UTF-8
jpa.username=syncope_user
jpa.password=syncope_pass
jpa.dialect=org.apache.openjpa.jdbc.sql.MySQLDictionary
quartz.jobstore=org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.StdJDBCDelegate
quartz.sql=tables_mysql.sql
logback.sql=mysql.sql

Edit 'core/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml' and uncomment the "resource-ref" section (this is required as we are using a DataSource in Tomcat). If your Tomcat instance is starting on a port other than 8080, edit 'console/src/main/resources/configuration.properties' and change the port number.

6) Deploy Apache Syncope to Tomcat

Package everything up by executing the following command from the Syncope project:

mvn clean package -Dbundles.directory=${bundles.dir} -Dlog.directory=${log.dir}

Deploy 'core/target/syncope.war' and 'console/target/syncope-console.war' to the Tomcat 7 container. Start Tomcat and point a browser at "localhost:8080/syncope-console", logging in as "admin/password". You should see the following:

At this point you should have successfully deployed Apache Syncope in the Apache Tomcat container, using MySQL as the internal storage. If this is not the case then consult the Tomcat logs, as well as the Syncope logs in the directory you have configured. In the next couple of tutorials we will look at importing data into our Syncope application from various backend resources.