Need to decode WebSphere/Domino LTPA token for SSO?

I needed to implement Single Sign-On between IBM WebSphere Portal and HP Operations Dashboard (HPOD) without using a SSO product, and figured that we could do that using the LTPA token generated by WPE on login to the Portal. For LTPA token based SSO to work, we need to be able to decode the LTPA token on the HPOD front – HPOD is based on Jetspeed – in other words, we are looking at implementing SSO between WebSphere and Jetspeed. I was just getting ready to look up some info that I have from Jerry Cuomo on the LTPA token format, when I tried a quick Google search and found an even better answer. I stumbled upon a blog entry and functional code for LTPA token decoding at http://offbytwo.com/2007/08/21/working-with-ltpa.html. I downloaded the code, exported the LTPA keys from a test WPE server, copied the 3DESKey and our LTPA encryption password into LtpaUtils, logged in to the WPE test server, determined the LTPA token cookie value for test purposes, and was able to decrypt it just fine using LtpaUtils. And thanks to Cosmin, all of this took about 20 minutes!

HP OpenView Operations Basic Tutorial: Working around an issue with the “Send Email” sample policy

Recently I started to delve into HP OpenView Operations for Windows (OVOW) policy management from the perspective of learning how to build custom policies and determining what standard policies to apply on some WebSphere Portal related servers that I needed monitored. I skimmed through the OVO Basic Tutorial and tried to actually perform step 10 of the tutorial around creating a custom policy and step 11 around deploying a standard policy. Creating the custom policy (NotepadTest) from the tutorial was a piece of cake – 10 minutes. However getting the standard “email notification” policy to work was not so straightforward!

HP Operations Dashboard does appear to be the answer!

I have spent a significant part of the last couple of weeks chasing down the right solution for integrating data from HP OpenView Operations (OVO), HP Network Node Manager (NNM), HP OpenView Performance Insight (OVPI), and HP OpenView Internet Services (OVIS). And I have finally settled on the HP Operations Dashboard!

Frustrated with HP OpenView Documentation!

Recently I have been looking into HP Software (formerly OpenView) as we have an opportunity to create an IT dashboard for a customer that uses several management products from this HP product suite. We are looking at integrating data from HP OpenView Operations (OVO), HP Network Node Manager (NNM), HP OpenView Performance Insight (OVPI), and HP OpenView Internet Services (OVIS). Rather than tying the dashboard directly to the database, we would prefer to interface to these products at a higher level. While skimming through the HP site, I discovered HP Operations Dashboard – a product that does integrate data from all the fore-mentioned products. I have been trying to absorb as much information as I can about the dashboard product and the other underlying OpenView products so that I can make the right choices. However, HP certainly does not make it easy!