Troubleshooting User Authentication Issues

This topic describes problems that can occur when authenticating users. To resolve the problem, look for it in the list of Symptoms or Error Messages in the following table.

Symptom or Error Message

Diagnostic Steps or Cause

Solution

User is unable to access the Administration - Server Configuration or Administration - Server Management screen.

If the Siebel system is configured to use the Siebel Audit Trail feature, then problems running audit trail occur.

This problem can occur when using external authentication, either Web SSO or Siebel security adapter authentication.

The server administration component performs its own authentication by verifying that the Siebel user ID it gets from the Application Object Manager is the user name for a database account. An external authentication system returns the user’s Siebel user ID and, typically, a database account used by many users from a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory.

Use database authentication instead of external authentication for administration users.

Administrator users must log into the application using a different Application Object Manager or a Siebel Developer Web Client; in each case, database authentication must be configured. For more information about database authentication, see About Database Authentication and related sections.

Alternatively, authentication for a secondary data source such as the Siebel Gateway can be configured.

Adding users or changing passwords is not reflected in the directory.

The Propagate Change parameter is set to FALSE for the security adapter.

Set the Propagate Change parameter to TRUE for the security adapter. For more information, see Server Parameters for Siebel Gateway.

Responsibilities in the directory conflict with responsibilities in Siebel Business Applications.

User responsibilities are assigned in the directory and in Siebel Business Applications.

It is recommended that you assign user responsibilities in the directory or by using Siebel Business Applications, but not both. For more information, see Configuring Roles Defined in the Directory.

Upgrading Siebel Business Applications appears to disable Checksum validation.

A security adapter’s CRC checksum value must be recalculated whenever you upgrade Siebel Business Applications.

Recalculate the security adapter’s CRC checksum value when you upgrade Siebel Business Applications. For information, see Configuring Checksum Validation.