Security Guide for Siebel eBusiness Applications > Security Adapter Authentication >

About User Authentication

Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user. Siebel Systems supports multiple approaches for authenticating users. You choose either security adapter authentication or Web SSO authentication for your Siebel application users:

• Security adapter authentication. Siebel applications provide a security adapter framework to support several different user authentication scenarios:
  • Database authentication. Siebel applications support authentication against the underlying database. In this architecture, the security adapter authenticates users against the Siebel Database. Siebel Systems provides a database security adapter (it is configured as the default security adapter).
  • LDAP/ADSI authentication. Siebel applications support authentication against LDAP-compliant directories or Microsoft Active Directory Server (ADS). In this architecture, the security adapter authenticates users against the directory. Siebel Systems provides a security adapter for LDAP and a security adapter for ADSI.
  • Custom. You can use a custom adapter you provide and configure the Siebel applications to use this adapter. For more information, see Security Adapter SDK.
• Web Single Sign-On (Web SSO). This approach uses an external authentication service to authenticate users before they access the Siebel application. In this architecture, a security adapter does not authenticate the user. The security adapter simply looks up and retrieves a user's Siebel user ID and database account from the directory based on the identity key that is accepted from the external authentication service. For more information, see Web Single Sign-On Authentication.

You may choose the approach for user authentication individually for each application in your environment, based on the specific application requirements. However, there are administrative benefits to using a consistent approach across all of your Siebel applications, because a consistent approach lowers the overall complexity of the deployment. Siebel Mobile Web Client can use only database authentication.

Referential and procedural information in the following topics relates to all major authentication strategies. Much of the specific information in these topics applies to more than one authentication strategy. Some of the information applies to both authentication and user administration.

• Configuration parameters related to authentication. Configuration parameter values determine how your authentication architecture components interact. For information about the purposes of configuration parameters and procedures for setting their values, see Configuration Parameters Related to Authentication.
• Seed data. When you install your Siebel eBusiness Applications, you are provided seed data that is related to authentication, user registration, and user access to Siebel applications. For detailed information on the seed data that is provided and for procedures for viewing and editing seed data, see Seed Data.