Abstract: A method and system for managing access information for users and other entities in a distributed computing system is disclosed. In one approach, information relating to user access is stored in a centralized directory while user roles are locally defined at a networked node. When the user connects to the system, the system looks up the necessary information about the user in the central directory to authorize the user. Thereafter, the user's privileges are determined by the user's assigned roles.

Abstract: An improved method and system for centrally managing and accessing attribute information in a distributed computing system is disclosed. Applications set up application specific user attributes in a directory. When an application user connects to a server, the server automatically accesses the directory to identify the relevant user attributes for that application. These user attributes are retrieved and stored in the session context. Standard LDAP attributes can also be retrieved from the directory and stored in the session context.

Abstract: A method and system for managing access information for users and other entities in a distributed computing system is disclosed. An aspect is directed to sharing schemas across multiple users. This can be accomplished by mapping multiple global users to the same local schema. Any users mapped to that local schema would, upon logging in, receive the set of privileges associated with the global user and the local schema. In this manner, separate schemas would not need to be defined for each global user.

Abstract: A method and system for managing access information for users and other entities in a distributed computing system is disclosed. An aspect of the invention relates to current user links between a first computing node and a second computing node. Objects are created/maintained to identify allowable links between computing nodes. Objects can also be created/maintained to store identification of chains of links. The current user link allows access for a user from the first computing node to the second computing node without user authentication by the second computing node. This can be implemented using trust relationships between the first and second computing nodes. Transitive aspects of the trust relationships can be handled by accessing information about chains of users/nodes. In addition, trust relationships can be administered by a local computing node.