Oracle 5.0 Reference Manual page 1923

Connector/Net will automatically create, open, close and destroy connections, using the connection
pooling system for best performance.
Typed Datasets and the
classes that have methods that take a
take a connection string as an argument. This includes MySqlDataAdapter.
Instead of manually creating
MySqlHelper
connection pooling.
Resource Usage
Starting with MySQL Connector/Net 6.2, there is a background job that runs every three minutes
and removes connections from pool that have been idle (unused) for more than three minutes. The
pool cleanup frees resources on both client and server side. This is because on the client side every
connection uses a socket, and on the server side every connection uses a socket and a thread.
Prior to this change, connections were never removed from the pool, and the pool always contained
the peak number of open connections. For example, a web application that peaked at 1000 concurrent
database connections would consume 1000 threads and 1000 open sockets at the server, without ever
freeing up those resources from the connection pool. Note, connections, no matter how old, will not be
closed if the number of connections in the pool is less than or equal to the value set by the
connection string parameter.
Size
20.2.5.5. Using the Windows Native Authentication Plugin
Connector/Net applications can authenticate to a MySQL server using the Windows Native
Authentication Plugin as of Connector/Net 6.4.4 and MySQL 5.5.16/5.6.10. Users who have logged in
to Windows can connect from MySQL client programs to the server based on the information in their
environment without specifying an additional password. For background and usage information about
the authentication plugin, see,
The interface matches the
to the connection string with a value of
Security
Passing in a user ID is optional. When Windows authentication is set up, a MySQL user is created and
configured to be used by Windows authentication. By default, this user ID is named auth_windows,
but can be defined using a different name. If the default name is used, then passing the user ID to
the connection string from Connector/Net is optional, because it will use the
Otherwise, the name must be passed to the
20.2.5.6. Writing a Custom Authentication Plugin
Advanced users with special security requirements can create their own authentication plugins for
Connector/Net applications. You can extend the handshake protocol, adding custom logic. This
capability requires Connector/Net 6.6.3 or higher, and MySQL 5.5.16 or higher. For background and
usage information about MySQL authentication plugins, see,
Authentication
To write a custom authentication plugin, you will need a reference to the assembly MySql.Data.dll.
The classes relevant for writing authentication plugins are available at the namespace
MySql.Data.MySqlClient.Authentication.
How the Custom Authentication Plugin Works
At some point during handshake, the internal method
void Authenticate(bool reset)
of
MySqlAuthenticationPlugin
of the current plugin.
Connector/Net Programming
MembershipProvider
MySqlCommand
class. These take a connection string as an argument, and they fully support
The Windows Native Authentication
MySql.Data.MySqlClient
Plugins.
is called. This method in turns calls several overridable methods
and
RoleProvider
as an argument, also have methods that
MySqlConnection
objects, you can use the static methods of the
object. To enable, pass in
or sspi.
yes
connection string
Authentication Plugins
1903
classes use this approach. Most
Plugin.
Integrated
auth_windows
using the standard user ID element.
and
Min Pool
user.
Writing