Use Identity and Access Management (IAM) Authentication with Autonomous Database

About Identity and Access Management (IAM) Authentication with Autonomous Database

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM integration with Autonomous Database supports both database password authentication and token-based authentication. See Authenticating and Authorizing IAM Users for Oracle Autonomous Databases for complete details about the architecture for using IAM users on Autonomous Database.

IAM Database Password Authentication

Note:

Any supported 12c and above database client can be used for IAM database password access to Autonomous Database.

An Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM database password allows an IAM user to log in to an Autonomous Database instance as Oracle Database users typically log in with a user name and password. The user enters their IAM user name and IAM database password. An IAM database password is a different password than the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console password. Using an IAM user with the password verifier you can login to Autonomous Database with any supported database client.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) SSO Token Based Authentication

There are several ways a database client can obtain an IAM database token:

A client application or tool can request the database token from IAM for the user and can pass the database token through the client API. Using the API to send the token overrides other settings in the database client. This type of IAM database token usage is supported for the following clients:
- JDBC-thin on all platforms
- Oracle Instant Client OCI-C on Linux
- Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) Core
If the application or tool does not support requesting an IAM database token through the client API, the IAM user can first use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure command line interface (CLI) to retrieve the IAM database token and save it in a file location. For example, to use SQL*Plus and other applications and tools using this connection method, you first obtain the database token using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Command Line Interface (CLI). If the database client is configured for IAM database tokens, when a user logs in with the slash login form, the database driver uses the IAM database token that has been saved in a default or specified file location.
A client application or tool can use an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM instance principal or resource principal to get an IAM database token, and use the IAM database token to authenticate itself to an Autonomous Database instance.
IAM users and OCI applications can request a database token from IAM with several methods, including using an API-key. See Configuring a Client Connection for SQL*Plus That Uses an IAM Token for an example. See About Authenticating and Authorizing IAM Users for an Oracle Autonomous Database for a description of other methods such as using a delegation token within an OCI cloud shell.

If a user enters a username/password to login, then the database driver uses the password verifier method to access the database regardless of the client's database token setting.

Prerequisites for Identity and Access Management (IAM) Authentication on Autonomous Database

Before using Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication on Autonomous Database, you must use the Networking service to add a service gateway, a route rule, and an egress security rule to the VCN (Virtual Cloud Network) and subnets where your Autonomous Database resources reside.

Create a service gateway in the VCN (Virtual Cloud Network) where your Autonomous Database resources reside by following the instructions in Task 1: Create the service gateway in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation.
After creating the service gateway, add a route rule and an egress security rule to each subnet (in the VCN) where Autonomous Database resources reside so that these resources can use the gateway to use Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication:
1. Go to the Subnet Details page for the subnet.
2. In the Subnet Information tab, click the name of the subnet's Route Table to display its Route Table Details page.
3. In the table of existing Route Rules, check whether there is already a rule with the following characteristics:
  - Destination: All IAD Services In Oracle Services Network
  - Target Type: Service Gateway
  - Target: The name of the service gateway you just created in the VCN
  If such a rule does not exist, click Add Route Rules and add a route rule with these characteristics.
4. Return to the Subnet Details page for the subnet.
5. In the subnet's Security Lists table, click the name of the subnet's security list to display its Security List Details page.
6. In the side menu, under Resources, click Egress Rules.
7. In the table of existing Egress Rules, check whether there is already a rule with the following characteristics:
  - Stateless: No
  - Destination: All IAD Services In Oracle Services Network
  - IP Protocol: TCP
  - Source Port Range: All
  - Destination Port Range: 443
8. If such a rule does not exist, click Add Egress Rules and add an egress rule with these characteristics.

Change External Identity Providers on Autonomous Database

Describes the steps to change the external identity provider from (IAM) authentication and authorization to another external authentication provider and vice-versa.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (IAM) authentication and authorization for users is enabled for newly provisioned Autonomous Databases and Autonomous Container Databases, by default. There are other external authentication schemes such as, Centrally Managed Users with Active Directory (CMU-AD), Azure AD, and Kerberos that you can enable for your Autonomous Database. However, there can only be one external authentication scheme enabled at any given time.

To enable database users to connect to Autonomous Database using another external authentication scheme:

Disable IAM integration using the DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DISABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION procedure:
For example:
```
BEGIN    
  DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DISABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION;
END;
/
```
For additional information, see DISABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION Procedure.
Follow the steps outlined in the following pages to configure another external authentication scheme of your choice:
Re-enable IAM users to connect to Autonomous Database using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (IAM) Authentication and Authorization.
As an ADMIN user, run the DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION procedure with the parameters shown below:
```
BEGIN
  DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION(
    type => 'OCI_IAM'
    force => TRUE
    );
END;
/
```
The above example disables any external authentication provider that is currently enabled and enables Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (IAM) Authentication and Authorization.
In this example:
- force is set to TRUE to disable the external authentication that is currently enabled.
- type is set to 'OCI_IAM' to enable and use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (IAM) Authentication and Authorization.
Note:
By default the force parameter is FALSE. When another external authentication method is enabled and force is FALSE, DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION reports the following error: ORA-20004: Another external authentication is already enabled.
See ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION Procedure for further reference.

Verify the value of IDENTITY_PROVIDER_TYPE system parameter as shown below:

SELECT NAME, VALUE FROM V$PARAMETER WHERE NAME='identity_provider_type';
NAME                   VALUE   
---------------------- ------- 
identity_provider_type OCI_IAM

Create Identity and Access Management (IAM) Groups and Policies for IAM Users

Describes the steps to write policy statements for an IAM group to enable IAM user access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources, specifically Autonomous Database instances.

A policy is a group of statements that specifies who can access particular resources, and how. Access can be granted for the entire tenancy, databases in a compartment, or individual databases. This means you write a policy statement that gives a specific group a specific type of access to a specific type of resource within a specific compartment.

Note:

Defining a policy is required to use IAM tokens to access Autonomous Database. A policy is not required when using IAM database passwords to access Autonomous Database.

To enable Autonomous Database to allow IAM users to connect to the database using IAM tokens:

Perform Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Identity and Access Management prerequisites by creating a group and adding users to the group.

For example, create the group sales_dbusers.

See Managing Groups for more information.
Write policy statements to enable access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources.
1. In the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console click Identity & Security.
2. Under Identity & Security click Policies.
3. To a write policy, click Create Policy.
4. On the Create Policy page, enter a Name and a Description.
5. On the Create Policy page, select Show manual editor.
  
  Description of the illustration adb_iam_create_policy_manual.png
6. Use the Policy Builder to create a policy.
  For example to create a policy to allow users in IAM group DBUsers to access any Autonomous Database in their tenancy:
```
Allow group DBUsers to use autonomous-database-family in tenancy
```
  For example to create a policy that limits members of DBUsers group to access Autonomous Databases in compartment testing_compartment only:
```
allow group DBUsers to use autonomous-database-family in compartment testing_compartment 
```
  For example to create a policy that limits group access to a single database in a compartment:
```
allow group DBUsers to use autonomous-database-family in compartment testing_compartment where target.database.id = 'ocid1.autonomousdatabase.oc1.iad.aaaabbbbcccc'
```
  Refer to Creating an IAM Policy to Authorize Users Authenticating with Tokens in Database Security Guide for more information on IAM policies to access the database.
7. Click Create.
  
  See Managing Policies for more information on policies.

Notes for creating policies for use with IAM users on Autonomous Database:

Policies can allow IAM users to access Autonomous Database instances across the entire tenancy, in a compartment, or can limit access to a single Autonomous Database instance.
You can use either instance principal or resource principal to retrieve database tokens to establish a connection from your application to an Autonomous Database instance. If you are using an instance principal or resource principal, you must map a dynamic group. Thus, you cannot exclusively map instance and resource principals; you only can map them through a shared mapping and putting the instance or resource instance in an IAM dynamic group.

You can create Dynamic Groups and reference dynamic groups in the policies you create to access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. See Plan Access Controls and Create Supporting Resources and Managing Dynamic Groups for details.

Add IAM Users on Autonomous Database

To add IAM users to allow access to Autonomous Database, map database global users to IAM groups or users with CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements (with IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause).

The authorization of IAM users to an Autonomous Database instance works by mapping IAM global users (schemas) to IAM users (exclusive mapping) or IAM groups (shared schema mapping).

To authorize IAM users on an Autonomous Database instance:

Log in as the ADMIN user to the database that is enabled to use IAM (the ADMIN user has the required CREATE USER and ALTER USER system privileges that you need for these steps).
Create a mapping between the Autonomous Database user (schema) with CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements and include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause, specifying the IAM group name.
Use the following syntax to map a global user to an IAM group:
```
CREATE USER global_user IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_GROUP_NAME=IAM_GROUP_NAME';
```
For example, to map an IAM group named db_sales_group to a shared database global user named sales_group:
```
CREATE USER sales_group IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
     'IAM_GROUP_NAME=db_sales_group';
```
This creates a shared global user mapping. The mapping, with global user sales_group, is effective for all users in the IAM group. Thus, anyone in the db_sales_group can log in to the database using their IAM credentials (through the shared mapping of the sales_group global user).
The following example shows how to accomplish this for a non-default domain:
```
CREATE USER shared_sales_schema IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
     'IAM_GROUP_NAME=sales_domain/db_sales_group';
```
If you want to create additional global user mappings for other IAM groups or users, follow these steps for each IAM group or user.

Note:

Database users that are not IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY can continue to login as before, even when the Autonomous Database is enabled for IAM authentication.

To exclusively map a local IAM user to an Oracle Database Global User:

Log in as the ADMIN user to the database that is enabled to use IAM (the ADMIN user has the required CREATE USER and ALTER USER system privileges that you need for these steps).
Create a mapping between the Autonomous Database user (schema) with CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements and include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause, specifying the IAM local IAM user name.

For example, to create a new database global user named peter_fitch and map this user to an existing local IAM user named peterfitch:
```
CREATE USER peter_fitch IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_PRINCIPAL_NAME=peterfitch'
```
The following example shows how to create the user by specifying a non-default domain, sales_domain:
```
CREATE USER peter_fitch2 IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
'IAM_PRINCIPAL_NAME=sales_domain/peterfitch';
```

Add IAM Roles on Autonomous Database

Optionally, create global roles to provide additional database roles and privileges to IAM users when multiple IAM users are mapped to the same shared global user.

The use of global roles is optional when using either an exclusive IAM mapping to user (schema) or shared user mapping on Autonomous Database. For example, all privileges and roles can be granted to the shared schema and all IAM users who map to the shared schema would be granted the privileges and roles assigned to the shared schema.

You can use a global role to optionally differentiate users who use the same shared schema. For example, a set of users can all have the same shared schema and the shared schema could have the CREATE SESSION privilege. Then global roles can be used to provide differentiated privileges and roles assigned to different groups of users who all use the same shared schema.

Granting additional roles to IAM users in Autonomous Database works by mapping Autonomous Database global roles to IAM groups.

To map Autonomous Database global roles to IAM groups:

Log in as the ADMIN user to the database that is enabled to use IAM (the ADMIN user has the required CREATE USER and ALTER USER system privileges that you need for these steps).
Set database authorization for Autonomous Database roles with CREATE ROLE or ALTER ROLE statements and include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause, specifying the IAM group name.
Use the following syntax to map a global role to an IAM group:
```
CREATE ROLE global_role IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
    'IAM_GROUP_NAME=IAM_GROUP_of_WHICH_the_IAM_USER_IS_a_MEMBER';
```
For example, to map an IAM group named ExporterGroup to a shared database global role named export_role:
```
CREATE ROLE export_role IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
     'IAM_GROUP_NAME=ExporterGroup';
```
The following example shows how to create the role by specifying a non-default domain, sales_domain:
```
CREATE ROLE export_role IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
     'IAM_GROUP_NAME=sales_domain/ExporterGroup';
```
All members of the ExporterGroup in the sales_domain domain will be authorized with the database global role export_role when they log in to the database.
Use GRANT statements to grant the required privileges or other roles to the global role.
```
GRANT CREATE SESSION TO export_role;
GRANT DWROLE TO export_role;
```
If you want an existing database role to be associated with an IAM group, then use ALTER ROLE statement to alter the existing database role to map the role to an IAM group. Use the following syntax to alter an existing database role to map it to an IAM group:
```
ALTER ROLE existing_database_role 
   IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_GROUP_NAME=IAM_Group_Name';
```

If you want to add additional global role mappings for other IAM groups, follow these steps for each IAM group.

Create IAM Database Password for IAM Users

To add an IAM user and allow the IAM user to login to Autonomous Database by supplying a username and password, you must create an IAM database password.

See Working with IAM Database Passwords for more information.

Connect to Autonomous Database with Identity and Access Management (IAM) Authentication

After the database ADMIN user maps global users and global roles to the IAM users and IAM groups, users log in to the Autonomous Database instance using their Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM credentials or access the database through an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM database token.

You can still log in to the Autonomous Database using your local database account username and password (non-global database user account).

You can use a database client to access an Autonomous Database instance as an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM user. To use a client with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM username and password credentials and a password verifier, the database client must be 12c or newer.

Alternatively, you can use an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM database token to access an Autonomous Database instance with supported clients:

JDBC-Thin with support for IAM Token Authentication is supported with the following:
- JDBC version 19.13.0.0.1 (or later): See JDBC and UCP Downloads for JDBC drivers.
- JDBC version 21.4.0.0.1 (or later): See JDBC and UCP Downloads for JDBC drivers.
See Support for IAM Token-Based Authentication for more information:
SQL*Plus and Oracle Instant Client: Supported with SQL*Plus and Instant Client on Linux versions 19.13 or later, and Instant Client on Linux versions 21.4 or later.
See Identity and Access Management (IAM) Token-Based Authentication for more information.
The database client can also be configured to retrieve a database token using the IAM username and IAM database password.

See Client Connections That Use a Token Requested by an IAM User Name and Database Password for more information.
.NET clients (latest version of Linux or Windows). .NET software components are available as a free download from the following sites:

Note:

If your Autonomous Database instance is in Restricted Mode, only the users with the RESTRICTED SESSION privilege such as ADMIN can connect to the database.

About Connecting to an Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure Instance Using IAM

IAM users can connect to the Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure instance by using either an IAM database password verifier or an IAM token.

Using the IAM database password verifier is similar to the Oracle Database password authentication process. However, instead of the password verifier (encrypted hash of the password) being stored in the Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure, the verifier is instead stored as part of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) IAM user profile.

The second connection method, the use of an IAM token for the database, is more modern. The use of token-based access is a better fit for Cloud resources such as Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure. The token is based on the strength that the IAM endpoint can enforce. This can be multi-factor authentication, which is stronger than the use of passwords alone. Another benefit of using tokens is that the password verifier (which is considered sensitive) is never stored or available in memory.

Client Connections That Use an IAM Database Password Verifier

After you have configured the authorization needed for the IAM user, this user can log in using existing client application, such as SQL*Plus or SQLcl without additional configuration.

The IAM user enters the IAM user name and IAM database password (not the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) console password) using any currently supported database client. The only constraint is that the database client version be either Oracle Database release 12.1.0.2 or later to use Oracle Database 12c passwords. The database client must be able to use the 12C password verifier. Using the 11G verifier encryption is not supported with IAM. No special client or tool configuration is needed for the IAM user to connect to the Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure instance.

Client Connections That Use a Token

For IAM token access to the Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure, the client application or tool requests a database token from IAM for the IAM user.

The client application will pass the database token directly to the database client through the database client API.

If the application or tool has not been updated to request an IAM token, then the IAM user can use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) command line interface (CLI) to request and store the database token. You can request a database access token (db-token) using the following credentials:

Security tokens (with IAM authentication), delegation tokens (in the OCI cloud shell) and API-keys, which are credentials that represent the IAM user to enable the authentication
Instance principal tokens, which enable instances to be authorized actors (or principals) to perform actions on service resources after authenticating
Resource principal token, which is a credential that enables the application to authenticate itself to other Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services

When the IAM users logs into the client with a slash / login and the OCI_IAM parameter is configured (sqlnet.ora, tnsnames.ora, or as part of a connect string), then the database client retrieves the database token from a file. If the IAM user submits a user name and password, the connection will use the IAM database verifier access described for client connections that use IAM database password verifiers. The instructions in this guide show how to use the OCI CLI as a helper for the database token. If the application or tool has been updated to work with IAM, then follow the instructions for the application or tool. Some common use cases include the following: SQL*Plus on-premises, SQLcl on-premises, SQL*Plus in Cloud Shell, or applications that use SEP wallets.

The following topics explain how to:

Configure a client connection for SQL*Plus to use an IAM database password.
Configure a client connection for SQL*Plus that uses an IAM token.
Access the database through an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM database token using an instance principal.

Configuring a Client Connection for SQL*Plus That Uses an IAM Database Password

You can configure SQL*Plus to use an IAM database password.

As the IAM user, log in to the Autonomous Database instance by using the following syntax:
```
CONNECT user_name@db_connect_string
Enter password: password
```
In this specification, user_name is the IAM user name. There is a limit of 128 bytes for the combined domain_name/user_name.

The following example shows how IAM user peter_fitch can log in to an Autonomous Database instance.
```
sqlplus /nolog
connect peter_fitch@db_connect_string
Enter password: password
```
Some special characters will require double quotation marks around user_name and password. For example:
```
"peter_fitch@example.com"@db_connect_string

"IAM database password"
```

Configuring a Client Connection for SQL*Plus That Uses an IAM Token

You can configure a client connection for SQL*Plus that uses an IAM token.

Ensure you have an IAM user account.
Check with an IAM administrator and an Oracle Database administrator to ensure you have a policy allowing you to access the database in the compartment or your tenancy and that you are mapped to a global schema in the database.
If your application or tool does not support direct IAM integration, then download, install, and configure the OCI CLI. (See OCI Command Line Interface Quickstart.) Set up an API key as part of the OCI CLI configuration and select default values.
1. Set up the API key access for the IAM user.
2. Retrieve the db-token. For example:
  - Retrieving a db-token with an API-key using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) command-line interface:
```
oci iam db-token get
```
  - Retrieving a db-token with a security (or session) token:
```
oci iam db-token get --auth security_token
```
    If the security token has expired, a window will appear so the user can log in to OCI again. This generates the security token for the user. OCI CLI will use this refreshed token to get the db-token.
  - Retrieving a db-token with a delegation token: When you log in to the cloud shell, the delegation token is automatically generated and placed in the /etc directory. To get this token, execute the following command in the cloud shell:
```
oci iam db-token get
```
  - Retrieving an instance token by using the OCI command-line interface:
```
oci iam db-token get --auth instance_principal
```
3. The database client can also be configured to retrieve a database token using the IAM username and IAM database password.
  
  See Client Connections That Use a Token Requested by an IAM User Name and Database Password for more information.
See Required Keys and OCIDs for more information.
Ensure that you are using the latest release updates for the Oracle Database client releases 19c and 21c.
This configuration only works with the Oracle Database client release 19c or 21c.
Follow the existing process to download the wallet from the Autonomous Database and then follow the directions for configuring it for use with SQL*Plus.
1. Confirm that DN matching is enabled by looking for SSL_SERVER_DN_MATCH=ON in sqlnet.ora.
2. Configure the database client to use the IAM token by adding TOKEN_AUTH=OCI_TOKEN to the sqlnet.ora file. Because you will be using the default locations for the database token file, you do not need to include the token location.
The TOKEN_AUTH and TOKEN_LOCATION values in the tnsnames.ora connect strings take precedence over the sqlnet.ora settings for that connection. For example, for the connect string, assuming that the token is in the default location (~/.oci/db-token for Linux):
```
(description= 
  (retry_count=20)(retry_delay=3)
  (address=(protocol=tcps)(port=1522)
  (host=example.us-phoenix-1.oraclecloud.com))
  (connect_data=(service_name=aaabbbccc_exampledb_high.example.oraclecloud.com))
  (security=(ssl_server_cert_dn="CN=example.uscom-east-1.oraclecloud.com, 
     OU=Oracle BMCS US, O=Example Corporation, 
     L=Redwood City, ST=California, C=US")
  (TOKEN_AUTH=OCI_TOKEN)))
```

After the connect string is updated with the TOKEN_AUTH parameter, the IAM user can log in to the Autonomous Database instance by running the following command to start SQL*Plus. You can include the connect descriptor itself or use the name of the descriptor from the tnsnames.ora file.

connect /@exampledb_high

Or:

connect /@(description= 
  (retry_count=20)(retry_delay=3)
  (address=(protocol=tcps)(port=1522)
  (host=example.us-phoenix-1.oraclecloud.com))
  (connect_data=(service_name=aaabbbccc_exampledb_high.example.oraclecloud.com))
  (security=(ssl_server_cert_dn="CN=example.uscom-east-1.oraclecloud.com, 
     OU=Oracle BMCS US, O=Example Corporation, 
     L=Redwood City, ST=California, C=US")
  (TOKEN_AUTH=OCI_TOKEN)))

The database client is already configured to get a db-token because TOKEN_AUTH has already been set, either through the sqlnet.ora file or in a connect string. The database client gets the db-token and signs it using the private key and then sends the token to the Autonomous Database. If an IAM user name and IAM database password are specified instead of slash /, then the database client will connect using the password instead of using the db-token.

Use Instance Principal to Access Autonomous Database with Identity and Access Management (IAM) Authentication

After the ADMIN user enables Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM on Autonomous Database, an application can access the database through an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM database token using an instance principal.

See Accessing the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure API Using Instance Principals for more information.

Configure Proxy Authentication

Proxy authentication allows an IAM user to proxy to a database schema for tasks such as application maintenance.

Proxy authentication is typically used to authenticate the real user and then authorize them to use a database schema with the schema privileges and roles in order to manage an application. Alternatives such as sharing the application schema password are considered insecure and unable to audit which actual user performed an action.

A use case can be in an environment in which a named IAM user who is an application database administrator can authenticate by using their credentials and then proxy to a database schema user (for example, hrapp). This authentication enables the IAM administrator to use the hrapp privileges and roles as user hrapp in order to perform application maintenance, yet still use their IAM credentials for authentication. An application database administrator can sign in to the database and then proxy to an application schema to manage this schema.

You can configure proxy authentication for both the password authentication and token authentication methods.

Configuring Proxy Authentication for the IAM User

To configure proxy authentication for an IAM user, the IAM user must already have a mapping to a global schema (exclusive or shared mapping). A separate database schema for the IAM user to proxy to must also be available.

After you ensure that you have this type of user, alter the database user to allow the IAM user to proxy to it.

Log in to the Autonomous Database instance as a user who has the ALTER USER system privileges.
Grant permission for the IAM user to proxy to the local database user account.An IAM user cannot be referenced in the command so the proxy must be created between the database global user (mapped to the IAM user) and the target database user.In the following example, hrapp is the database schema to proxy to, and peterfitch_schema is the database global user exclusively mapped to user peterfitch.
```
ALTER USER hrapp GRANT CONNECT THROUGH peterfitch_schema;
```

At this stage, the IAM user can log in to the database instance using the proxy. For example:

To connect using a password verifier:

CONNECT peterfitch[hrapp]@connect_string
Enter password: password

To connect using a token:

CONNECT [hrapp]/@connect_string

Validating the IAM User Proxy Authentication

You can validate the IAM user proxy configuration for both password and token authentication methods.

Log in to the Autonomous Database instance as a user who has the CREATE USER and ALTER USER system privileges.

Connect at the IAM user and execute the SHOW USER and SELECT SYS_CONTEXT commands. For example, suppose you want to check the proxy authentication of the IAM user peterfitch when they proxy to database user hrapp. You will need to connect to the database using the different types of authentication methods shown here, but the output of the commands that you execute will be the same for all types.

For password authentication:

CONNECT peterfitch[hrapp]/password\!@connect_string
SHOW USER;
--The output should be USER is "HRAPP"
SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','AUTHENTICATION_METHOD') FROM DUAL;
--The output should be "PASSWORD_GLOBAL"
SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','PROXY_USER') FROM DUAL;
--The output should be "PETERFITCH_SCHEMA"
SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','CURRENT_USER') FROM DUAL;
--The output should be "HRAPP"

For token authentication:

CONNECT [hrapp]/@connect_string
SHOW USER;
--The output should be USER is "HRAPP "
SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','AUTHENTICATION_METHOD') FROM DUAL;
--The output should be "TOKEN_GLOBAL"
SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','PROXY_USER') FROM DUAL;
--The output should be "PETERFITCH_SCHEMA"
SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','CURRENT_USER') FROM DUAL;
--The output should be "HRAPP"

Use Database Link with IAM Authenticated Users

You can use a database link to connect from one Autonomous Database instance to another as an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM user.

You can use either connected user or fixed user database link to connect to an Autonomous Database as an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM user.

Note:

Current user database link is not supported for connecting to an Autonomous Database as an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM user.

Connected User Database Link: For a connected user database link, an IAM user must be mapped to a schema in both the source and target databases connected by a database link. You can use a database password verifier or an IAM database token to use a connected user database link.
Fixed User Database Link: A fixed user database link can be created using a database user or an IAM user. When using an IAM user as a fixed user database link, the IAM user must have a schema mapping in the target database. The IAM user for a database link can be configured with a password verifier only.

Disable Identity and Access Management (IAM) Authentication on Autonomous Database

Describes the steps to disable IAM external authentication user access for Autonomous Database.

You can disable IAM user access on your Autonomous Database instance using the ALTER SYSTEM command as shown below:

ALTER SYSTEM RESET IDENTITY_PROVIDER_TYPE SCOPE=BOTH;

If you also want to update access to IAM from the resource, that is, Autonomous Container Database or Autonomous Database, you may need to remove or modify the IAM group and the policies you set up to allow access to IAM from those resources.

Notes for Using Autonomous Database Tools with Identity and Access Management (IAM) Authentication

Provides notes for using Autonomous Database tools with IAM authentication enabled.

Oracle APEX is not supported for IAM users with Autonomous Database. See Access Oracle Application Express Administration Services for information on using regular database users with Autonomous Database.
Database Actions is not supported for IAM users with Autonomous Database. See Enabling User Access to Database Actions for information on using regular database users with Autonomous Database.