Implementing Siebel Business Applications on DB2 for z/OS > Security Concepts for a DB2 for z/OS Environment > DB2 z/OS Authorization IDs >

About Using an External Security Adapter on z/OS

An external security adapter is an interface that lets you use an external system to authenticate users. For example, you might employ an LDAP repository, a protocol for storing and retrieving directory-related information that includes authentication services. LDAP can reside on the mainframe.

When users log in to the Siebel application, the external security adapter validates user names, passwords, user roles, and database credentials against the information in the external system. If the external security adapter finds a match, it retrieves a generic set of user credentials (user name and password) that supply access to the database. For LDAP, the generic set of user credentials can be the same for every user, if desired. For more information on implementing an external security adapter, refer to Siebel Security Guide.