httpauthenticationdashboarddatazen-server

How to use header authentication with DataZen?


We are using DataZen to visualize some data via dashboards.

We want to use header authentication, but the documentation does not provide any information which header field to set with the external_auth_key.

Does someone know which header fields to set when using DataZen's header authentication?


Solution

  • Quick preface: this feature really shouldn't be used. It isn't documented well because it's almost never the right way to set up the server. You should always heavily consider alternatives, like the default mode (where Datazen handles credentials for you) or better-yet, Active Directory Federation Services.

    External Authentication is a relatively unsecure approach, because all faith is placed in the proxy. Unless you absolutely need it and you aren't using Active Directory, it should generally be avoided.


    You have to tell Datazen which header or cookie to look for. You can do that through the Control Panel UI.

    Datazen External Authentication setup

    Note that the "Authentication key" setting is case-sensitive, so I typically suggest sticking to something in all lowercase.

    Once you've got that setting set, just go to your proxy (in whatever form you choose to implement that) and set a header with that name, and the 1:1 Datazen username that should be authenticated.

    For example, if I'm logged in on the proxy with the above settings, the proxy should make the following request:

    GET /viewer HTTP/1.1
    thisistheheadername: v-mhauge
    ...
    

    After reading that header, Datazen server will respond as if that user was logged in.

    Disclaimer: I'm a support engineer with Microsoft, paid to support Datazen.