With a third-party network-based security mechanism, users are authenticated by the security system at login. Authentication is the process of verifying that users are who they say they are. Users receive a credential that can be presented to remote servers in lieu of a password. As a result, users have seamless access to the components of the replication system through a single login.
Network-based security mechanisms also provide a variety of data-protection services, such as message confidentiality and out-of-sequence checking. Replication Server requests the service, prepares the data, and sends it to the network server for encryption or validation. Once the service is performed, data is returned to the requesting Replication Server for distribution.
Once a secure pathway has been established, data can move in both directions. Both ends of the pathway must support the same security mechanism and be configured the same. The security mechanism must be installed on all machines that make use of network security, and Replication Server 12.0 or later must be installed on all participating machines.
See the Replication Server Reference Manual for information about network-based security in the replication system.
