Authentication is the mechanism for verifying the identity of a user or an application. You can use one of the following mechanisms to authenticate users with a solidDB server:
▪ solidDB authentication (default): By default, the solidDB server offers a traditional authentication mechanism in which a user provides a valid user ID and password combination to connect to a database. By default, passwords are encrypted by using the built-in DES algorithm. However, you can choose to install the OpenSSL libraries and use the stronger OpenSSL encryption. See Default solidDB authentication.
▪ Operating-system-based external authentication: Users are authenticated by services that are provided by the operating system. If you are using external authentication, you must install the OpenSSL libraries to configure password encryption. See Operating-system-based external authentication.
▪ Token-based authentication: Users are authenticated by using a security token that is authenticated by the server. See Token-based authentication.