Installation and Upgrade Guides › Policy Server Installation Guide › Configuring CA SiteMinder® Data Stores in a Relational Database › How to Store Session Information in Oracle

How to Store Session Information in Oracle

To configure an Oracle database as a session store, complete the following procedures:

1. Gather database information.
2. Create the session store schema.
3. Configure an Oracle data source for CA SiteMinder®.
4. Point the Policy Server to the database.
5. Restart the Policy Server.

More information:

Configure an Oracle Data Source for CA SiteMinder®

Gather Database Information

Create the Session Store Schema

Create the session store schema so the Oracle database can store the session information.

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to Oracle as the user who administers the database information. Log in with an Oracle utility, such as sqlplus.

   Note: We recommend that you do not create the schema with the SYS or SYSTEM users. If necessary, create an Oracle user, such as SMOWNER, and create the schema with that user.

2. To store Unicode characters, confirm that the character set for the Oracle database is set correctly. If you plan to use only English characters, skip this step.
   1. To find the character set, use the following query:

      SELECT value$ FROM sys.props$ WHERE name = 'NLS_CHARACTERSET' ;

   2. Verify that the character set is AL32UTF8 or UTF8 before importing the schema.
3. Import the following script:

   $NETE_PS_ROOT/db/sql/sm_oracle_ss.sql

   Note: Some Oracle SQL utilities have problems with environment variables. If you experience problems importing the script using the utility, specify an explicit path.

The session store schema is created in the database.

Point the Policy Server to the Database

You point the Policy Server to the database so the Policy Server can read and store session information.

To point the Policy Server to the data store

1. Open the Policy Server Management Console, and click the Data tab.

   Database settings appear.

2. Select Session Server from the Database list.

   Data source settings become active.

3. Enter the name of the data source in the Data Source Information field.
   • (Windows) this entry must match the name you entered in the Data Source Name field when you created the data source.
   • (UNIX) this entry must match the first line of the data source entry in the system_odbc.ini file. By default, the first line in the file is [CA SiteMinder® Data Sources]. If you modified the first entry, be sure that you enter the correct value.
4. Enter and confirm the user name and password of the database account that has full access rights to the database instance in the respective fields.
5. Specify the maximum number of database connections allocated to CA SiteMinder®.

   Note: We recommend retaining the default for best performance.

6. Click Apply.

   The settings are saved.

7. Click Test Connection.

   SiteMinder returns a confirmation that the Policy Server can access the data store.

8. Click OK.

   The Policy Server is configured to use the database as a session store.

Restart the Policy Server

You restart the Policy Server for certain settings to take effect.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the Policy Server Management Console.
2. Click the Status tab, and click Stop in the Policy Server group box.

   The Policy Server stops as indicated by the red stoplight.

3. Click Start.

   The Policy Server starts as indicated by the green stoplight.

   Note: On UNIX or Linux operating environments, you can also execute the stop-all command followed by the start-all command to restart the Policy Server. These commands provide an alternative to the Policy Server Management Console.