Sun Java System Access Manager 7 2005Q4 Technical Overview

Authentication Overview

The following example demonstrates a user's view of how Authentication service works. A company employee must look up a colleague’s phone number, so he uses a browser to access the company’s online phone book. To log in to the phone book service, the employee must provide a user name and password. Access Manager compares the user’s input with data stored in Directory Server. If Access Manager finds a match for the user name, and if the given password matches the password stored in Directory Server, Access Manager authenticates the user’s identity. After authentication, the policy evaluation process occurs. If the policy agent allows access to the user, and the corporate phone book is displayed.

See Basic User Session for a detailed description and illustration of the authentication process within a basic user session.

Authentication Service is client-type aware and supports all configured client types such as cookieless and cookie-enabled client types.