Show Navigation
|
Hide Navigation
You are here:
Geodatabases and ArcSDE > Administering ArcSDE geodatabases > Creating and administering user accounts
Geodatabases and ArcSDE > Administering ArcSDE geodatabases > Creating and administering user accounts
Operating system authentication |
|
|
Release 9.2
Last modified December 3, 2010 |
Print all topics in : "Creating and administering user accounts" |
Related Topics
Operating system (OS) authentication is a method for identifying an individual user with credentials supplied by the operating system of the user's computer. These credentials can be the OS password or can include digital certificates in the user's computer.
Pros
- You do not have to keep track of multiple user names and passwords; if the login to your computer is successful, you do not have to enter another user name and password to connect to the database.
- The database administrator (DBA) does not have to keep track of password changes, since that is changed on each user's computer.
Cons
- Using operating system authentication with certain database products (those that don't use digital certificates in addition to user name and password) could be an increased security risk; if the password for an OS account becomes known, access is granted without the extra level of security of a different database account.
- Additional configuration in the database may be needed to support OS authentication.
DB2 and Informix do not store the users in the database; user accounts are only managed by the operating system. Therefore, there are no additional steps needed to use OS authentication with these two databases.
You will only be able to make a database connection using OS authentication from ArcCatalog to an Oracle, Informix, or DB2 database if you are using a direct connection. If you choose to use OS authentication with an Oracle database, there are specific settings you need to make to the user account and Oracle configuration files. Consult your Oracle documentation for the specific steps necessary for your database release. There is also specific syntax you must use to make the spatial database connection from ArcCatalog. See the 'Adding a direct connection to an Oracle geodatabase' section of Creating spatial database connections for details.
SQL Server uses a digital certificate along with the user name and password to authenticate a user. For this reason, using operating system authentication can be more secure than using database accounts.
Learn more about Windows authentication for SQL Server