Defining User Directories - MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION 5-ADVANCED ADMINISTRATION Manual

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Defining User Directories

User and group authentication is carried out against either an existing Windows NT
domain, an LDAP directory, or an ODBC data source. When you set up Advanced
security, you must specify at least one user directory. You can add as many user
directories as you like. Once you define a user directory, it is available for you to use
with any security context you define for this security server.
To define a user directory:
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Windows NT Domains Authenticating against a Windows NT domain makes
sense if you are already working in a Windows NT environment or will be
deploying your application code to a Windows NT environment. This method is a
very quick way to implement ColdFusion Advanced security, since users and
groups have already been defined. ColdFusion Advanced security doesn't provide
any user/group management facilities; you must manage users and groups using
the Windows NT User Manager for Domains administrative utility.
LDAP Directories If you are running ColdFusion Server on a UNIX server, you
can only use LDAP directories to store your security profile information.
You must install the LDAP Directory Server on UNIX before installing ColdFusion
Server. If you have already installed ColdFusion Server and you want to use the
LDAP Directory Server to store security profile information, you must reinstall
ColdFusion after installing the LDAP Directory Server.
ODBC Data Sources If your ColdFusion applications are already using a
Sybase, Oracle, or any other database that supports connections through ODBC,
you can use your existing database to also store your security profile tables. You
must register an ODBC data source with ColdFusion before you can use it to store
security profile information. See
Management" on page
with ColdFusion. See "Specifying Resources to Protect" on page 96 to learn how
to use an ODBC data source for username and password security authentication.
In the Advanced Server Security page of the Administrator, click the User
Directories button.
Enter a name for the user directory in the User Directory text box and click Add.
The name you enter here is an internal name that ColdFusion uses to refer to this
user directory. You can enter any name you want.
You see the New User Directory page.
Select Windows NT, LDAP , or ODBC in the Namespace drop-down menu.
Enter the appropriate information the Location field:
If your user directory is an LDAP directory, enter the name of the LDAP server
that hosts the directory.
If your user directory is an ODBC data source, enter the fully-qualified name
of the database file to use.
If your user directory is an NT Domain, enter the domain name.
Chapter 5 Configuring Advanced Security
Chapter 1, "Advanced Data Source
3" for more information about registering data sources