Objectives for the Tivoli WebSEAL performance tests

The Tivoli WebSEAL Sizing and Capacity Planning project performance tests were performed to determine performance characteristics for the WebSEAL environment on Linux for IBM System z.

WebSEAL is a component of Tivoli® Access Manager for e-business that provides an authentication and authorization mechanism to enable end-to-end Single Sign On (SSO) for HTTP based Web servers. One such Web server is WebSphere® Application Server residing on z/OS®. With the WebSEAL solution, the z/OS system can remain safely isolated from Internet traffic and threats. In this solution, WebSEAL acts as a reverse proxy (a proxy that lets users into a protected network as opposed to one that lets users out). The WebSEAL reverse proxy would likely be deployed in the DMZ or similar security zone. A client would be authenticated by WebSEAL via userID and password, and a token would be assigned and associated with the transaction for the remainder of the communication. Authentication via WebSEAL can be safely performed in the DMZ with no risk to applications running on z/OS.

While WebSEAL does not run on the z/OS platform, it does run on Linux® for IBM® System z™. An integrated solution with WebSEAL on Linux for System z providing authentication, authorization, and SSO for applications running in WebSphere on z/OS has been tested and documented as an IBM System z Linux Utility Service. See the System z Linux Utility Service Web page at:

http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/linux/utilities/index.html

The objectives of this project were to determine performance characteristics for the WebSEAL environment. The information obtained in these tests should not be used to develop capacity sizing rules-of-thumb for customer environments. For sizing and capacity planning, contact our educated specialists from the IBM System z sizing team who use the appropriate capacity planning tools.