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Conference star::wizards

Title:	"ASK THE WIZARDS"

Moderator:	QUARK::LIONEL

Created:	Mon Oct 30 1995
Last Modified:	Mon May 12 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1857
Total number of notes:	3728

1699.0. "Open: authenticating users?" by STAR::JKEENAN () Tue Mar 25 1997 16:28

Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 14:02:38 -0500
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
From: "VMS001::WWW"@vms001.das-x.dec.com (25-Mar-1997 1402)
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Ask the Wizard: '[email protected]'

Remote Host: www-relay2.pa-x.dec.com
Browser Type: Mozilla/3.01 (Win95; I)
Remote Info: <null>
Name: Rob Crombie
Email Address: [email protected]
CPU Architecture: Alpha
Version: v 6.2
Questions: 

I'd like to use an Alpha/VMS machine to authenticate 
users in an NT Domain.  I believe this is possible 
with Pathworks V5.0.  If it is, could you explain how the
UAF data is propagated to the domain? I'm trying not
to have to recreate users/passwords on the NT machine.

Thanks much,
Rob Crombie

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1699.1	External Source, Not Provider...	XDELTA::HOFFMAN	Steve, OpenVMS Engineering	`Wed Mar 26 1997 09:25`	4
	OpenVMS uses LANMANAGER information as an external source of authentication information, and does not propogate the local SYSUAF information out to the network.
1699.2		STAR::BARRY	Rick Barry, SE/VMS(B1) Eng., 381-0634	`Wed Mar 26 1997 09:59`	32
	.-1 is correct. The external authentication feature allows LAN Manager username and password information to be used to grant access to OpenVMS via a logon. PATHWORKS maps a LAN Manager username to a native SYSUAF-based username which is then used to construct the normal OpenVMS process profile. SYSUAF information does not flow out to LAN Manager. External authentication is use dby LOGINOUT for interactive and network logins and for password changes using SET PASSWORD. In this context, external authentication means the following: "For users that have the EXTAUTH flag set in their SYSUAF.DAT account record, authentication will be based on an external policy (in this case LAN Manager username and password) rather than the password stored in the SYSUAF.DAT file. All other SYSUAF.DAT information remains in effect (ie., modal restrictions, DISUSER, quotas, etc.)" What does this accomplish? For interactive and network logins, the user is able to use the same username and password for logins to OpenVMS or LAN Manager (Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT). The actual LAN Manager username and password is used - not synchronized copies. For password changes from SET PASSWORD, the actual LAN Manager password is updated. External authentication is not a panacea. All existing OpenVMS applications that need to perform some form of their own authentication will continue to operate using the SYSUAF.DAT policy. This software will not know about the LAN Manager policy. In order for this software to work correctly, the SYSUAF.DAT password must be kept synchronized with the LAN Manager policy - this is not always possible. There's plenty of room for confusion depending on the application mix. Please refer to the release notes for more details.