Centralizing the Authentication Process on a Load Balanced Server

[Mohit]

Hello Friends,
Our department has created a few (6) Web Applications and all these
applications share a common piece of code which does the "User
Authentication".

I would like to isolate the authentication process.
I am thinking of having a common/central server which gets all
authentication requests and creates a valid session for all users who have
successfuly logged in.
If an unauthenticated user tires to access these application then he/she
should be redirected to the login page on this central server.
The authentication server will/should be load balanced.

This will help me reduce the time required for maintenance and deployment.

How should i go about achieveing this. Is there an article or any
documentation on this
Is there a server which could help me achieve this.

Any help/guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mohit

[Rakesh Rajan]

Hi Mohit,

If you are using Forms authentication, check out this:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/e...us,vs.80).aspx

I had a similar requirement, with the difference being that a central server
was not necessary, and the objective was to reuse security code.
So I created an HTTP Module with a custom principal, and client applications
may use this assembly and extend the custom principal to write app specific
code.
I don't whether this would apply to your requirement, so I am skipping
details. Let me know if this would also be helpful.

--
HTH,
Rakesh Rajan
MVP, MCSD
http://www.msmvps.com/rakeshrajan/

"Mohit" wrote:

Hello Friends,
Our department has created a few (6) Web Applications and all these
applications share a common piece of code which does the "User
Authentication".

I would like to isolate the authentication process.
I am thinking of having a common/central server which gets all
authentication requests and creates a valid session for all users who have
successfuly logged in.
If an unauthenticated user tires to access these application then he/she
should be redirected to the login page on this central server.
The authentication server will/should be load balanced.

This will help me reduce the time required for maintenance and deployment.

How should i go about achieveing this. Is there an article or any
documentation on this
Is there a server which could help me achieve this.

Any help/guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mohit