Database user authentication

Different database user authentication methods exist.

Connecting to a database server is not just specifying a database name: the current user must be identified by the database server. Database users must be declared in the database server and must be authenticated.

The typical user authentication is done by passing a login name and password at connection time. Some database servers support external authentication methods, that do not require login/password information (for example when db users are based on operating system users), as well as delegated user authentication via credential tokens (for example, when using an LDAP distinguished name). See database vendor specific documentation for more details.

Additional user authentication solutions are provided to simplify migration from IBM® Informix®databases, but are not recommended in production for security reasons.

See also SQL adaptation guides for database vendor specific notes regarding user authentication.