How to use Security in NCache?

Note

This feature is only available in NCache Enterprise Edition.
This feature is provided for both Windows and Linux .NET Core applications.

NCache provides a customizable security feature for securing distributed cache access. You can prevent any unwanted or unauthorized access to your NCache cluster, and to the data that resides in the cluster by simply configuring NCache security. Moreover, the data being transmitted over the network between cache servers and your application can be secured by configuring the NCache data encryption mechanism. No code changes are required for NCache security and encryption customizations.

.NET/.NET Core
Java

Pre-requisites

Include the following namespaces in your application:
- Alachisoft.NCache.Client
- Alachisoft.NCache.Runtime.Exceptions
- System.Configuration
Add System.Configuration assembly through Reference Manager.
The application must be connected to cache before performing the operation.
Cache must be running.
To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Pre-Requisites

Include the following namespaces in your application:
- import com.alachisoft.ncache.web.caching.*;
- import com.alachisoft.ncache.runtime.exceptions.*;
- import com.alachisoft.ncache.web.security.*;
The application must be connected to cache before performing the operation.
Cache must be running.
Make sure that the data being added is serializable.
To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Here's an example which shows how to enable security on the cache. Once security is configured on the cache, security credentials need to be mentioned for initializing cache, using CacheConnectionOptions. For Java, the class used to mention the user credentials is SecurityParams.

.NET/.NET Core
Java

try
{
    // Initialize credentials
    string userid = "UserId";
    string password = "UserPassword";
    string cacheName = "myreplicatedcache";

    // Use CacheConnectionOptions to provide credentials 
    var options = new CacheConnectionOptions();

    // Use UserCredentials property to assign credentials
    options.UserCredentials = new Credentials(userid, password);

    // Connecting to cache with security credentials
    ICache cache = CacheManager.GetCache(cacheName, options);
}
catch (OperationFailedException ex)
{
      // NCache specific exception
      if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.NO_SERVER_AVAILABLE)
      {
            // Make sure NCache Service is running
            // Make sure that the cache is running
      }
      else
      {
            // Exception can occur due to:
            // Connection Failures: ErrorCode 17506
            // Operation Timeout: ErrorCode 35003
            // Operation performed during state transfer
      }
}
catch (ConfigurationException ex)
{
      if(ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.SERVER_INFO_NOT_FOUND)
      {     
            // client.ncconf must have server information
      }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
      // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
      // Argument exception occurs in case of empty string name
}

try
{     
      // Initialize credentials
      String userid = "UserId";
      String password = "UserPassword";
      String cacheName = "myreplicatedcache";

      // Use CacheInitParams to provide credentials 
      CacheInitParams cacheParam = new CacheInitParams();

      // Use UserCredentials property to assign credentials
      SecurityParams securityParam = new SecurityParams(userid, password);
      cacheParam.setPrimaryUserCredentials(securityParam);

      // Connecting to cache with security credentials
      Cache cache = NCache.initializeCache(cacheName, cacheParam);
}
catch (Exception ex) 
{
    // Exception can occur due to:
    // Connection Failures
    // Operation Timeout
    // Operation performed during state transfer
    // Any generic exception
}

Or as an alternative, the security credentials can be provided in the property file of your application:

./media/image1.png

.NET/.NET Core
Java

try
{
    // Initialize credentials
    string userName = string.Empty;
    string password = string.Empty;
    string cacheName = "myreplicatedcache";

    // Check if Username and Passwod is provided through App.config file
    if (ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Username"] != null)
    {
        userName = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Username"].ToString();
    }
    if (ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Password"] != null)
    {
        password = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Password"].ToString();
    }

    // Use CacheConnectionOptions to provide credentials 
    var options = new CacheConnectionOptions();

    options.UserCredentials = new Credentials(userName, password);

    // Connect to cache with security credentials provided in App.config file
    ICache cache = CacheManager.GetCache(cacheName, options);
}
catch (OperationFailedException ex)
{
      // NCache specific exception
      if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.NO_SERVER_AVAILABLE)
      {
            // Make sure NCache Service is running
            // Make sure that the cache is running
      }
      else
      {
            // Exception can occur due to:
            // Connection Failures: ErrorCode 17506
            // Operation Timeout: ErrorCode 35003
            // Operation performed during state transfer
      }
}
catch (ConfigurationException ex)
{
      if(ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.SERVER_INFO_NOT_FOUND)
      {     
            // client.ncconf must have server information
      }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
      // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
      // Argument exception occurs in case of empty string name
}

try
{     
      // Check if Username and Passwod is provided through App.config file
      Properties prop = new Properties();
      prop.load(new FileInputStream("security.properties"));
      String userName = (String) prop.getProperty("Username");
      String password = (String) prop.getProperty("password");

      // Use CacheInitParams to provide credentials 
      CacheInitParams cacheParam = new CacheInitParams();

      // Use setPrimaryUserCredentials property to assign credentials
      SecurityParams securityParam = new SecurityParams(userName, password);
      cacheParam.setPrimaryUserCredentials(securityParam);

      // Initializing cache with security credential provided in property file 
      Cache cache = NCache.initializeCache("clusteredcache", cacheParam);
}
catch (Exception ex) 
{
    // Exception can occur due to:
    // Connection Failures
    // Operation Timeout
    // Operation performed during state transfer
    // Any generic exception
}

Troubleshooting

Alachisoft.NCache.Runtime.Exceptions.SecurityException

This exception is raised if an unauthorized user tries to perform cache operations, or wrong credential information is given in the GetCache() or in client.ncconf file.

Workaround