About Operating-System–Based Authentication

Caché supports what is called operating-system–based (or OS-based) authentication. With operating system authentication, Caché uses the operating system’s user identity to identify the user for Caché. When operating system authentication is enabled, the user authenticates to the operating system using according to the operating system’s protocols. For example, on UNIX®, this is traditionally a login prompt where the operating system compares a hash of the password to the value stored in the /etc/passwd file. When the user first attempts to connect to Caché, Caché obtains the process’ operating system level user identity. If this identity matches a Caché username, then that user is authenticated.

This capability only applies to server-side processes, such as terminal-based applications (for example, connecting through the Terminal) or batch processes started from the operating system. It is not available for an application that is connecting to Caché from another machine, such as when a copy of Studio on one machine is connecting to a Caché server on another.

This mechanism is typically used for UNIX® systems, in addition to the Windows console.

For detailed content, see “Configuring for Operating-System–Based Authentication” in the “Authentication” chapter.