What would cause SmartCloud to redirect a REST call to a login page? - ibm-sbt

Question

I am not using the SBT, but making direct REST calls with Abdera to the current version of Connections on IBM SmartCloud. REST URL in question: https://apps.na.collabserv.com/search/serviceconfigs
Observations
When testing from my laptop (using Firefox and the REST client add-on,) this works as expected. I get back an ATOM feed.
When testing from a server (on a different network,) using the same method (Firefox + REST client,) I get back HTML that is a log-in page.
In addition, I get this same result when I call the URL from a Java program on the same server.
In all cases, I am using the same credentials with basic authentication.
Update: If I log into SmartCloud first, on a separate tab in Firefox on the server, then call the URL as before, from another tab, it works. I get the ATOM feed as desired. Naturally, this is unsuitable as a solution, but I present it as additional information that could lead to an actual solution.
Update: Further testing shows that the local (laptop) log-in exhibits the same behavior as the server. A form-based log-in is required from the same browser, then subsequent REST calls work.
Update: Here is a relevant simplified code snippet:
private static Abdera ABDERA = new Abdera();
private static AbderaClient ABDERA_CLIENT = new AbderaClient(ABDERA);
...
String host = "https://apps.na.collabserv.com";
ABDERA_CLIENT.addCredentials(host, AuthScope.ANY_REALM, "basic", new UsernamePasswordCredentials("user", "password"));
...
ClientResponse response = ABDERA_CLIENT.get("https://apps.na.collabserv.com/search/serviceconfigs");
Summary
It appears that something about the originating server or the call is causing SmartCloud to respond with a log-in page. Whereas, the same call and credentials from my laptop, work as expected.
Question
Where should I start to trouble-shoot this? How can I build the client credentials to allow programmatic log-in?
Response Headers
If it helps, here are the response headers that I get back in each case.
Unsuccessful
Status Code: 200 OK
Cache-Control: no-cache
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Encoding: gzip
Content-Length: 1850
Content-Type: text/html
Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 14:15:03 GMT
Pragma: no-cache
Server: WebSEAL/6.1.1.3 (Build 110428)
Set-Cookie: PD-H-SESSION-ID=4_0_IR4***masked***oRKlJI;secure; Path=/; HttpOnly BIGipServerE3A-WebSEAL-80-fe=2132806922.20480.0000;secure; path=/
Vary: Accept-Encoding
p3p: CP="NON CUR OTPi OUR NOR UNI"
Successful
Status Code: 200 OK
Cache-Control: public, max-age=86400, s-maxage=86400, no-cache=set-cookie, private, must-revalidate
Content-Encoding: gzip
Content-Language: en-US
Content-Length: 1164
Content-Type: application/atom+xml; charset=UTF-8
Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 17:21:12 GMT
Expires: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 17:21:12 GMT
Server: WebSphere Application Server/8.0
Vary: Accept-Encoding
p3p: CP="NON CUR OTPi OUR NOR UNI"
x-lconn-auth: true
x-powered-by: Servlet/3.0

Answer 1

#Grant is your login using SAML? I could see this redirect happening. also could be TFIM related... maybe you should grab the auth on a different page, store the cookies, and then try connecting to the endpoint above.