Kerberos authentication is available in the following DataDirect Connect Series for ODBC drivers:

• Greenplum Wire Protocol
• Impala Wire Protocol
• Sybase Wire Protocol
• Driver for the Teradata Database

Kerberos authentication can take advantage of the user name and password maintained by the operating system to authenticate users to the database or use another set of user credentials specified by the application.

The Kerberos method requires knowledge of how to configure your Kerberos environment. This method supports both Windows Active Directory Kerberos and MIT Kerberos environments.

To use Kerberos authentication, the application user first must obtain a Kerberos Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) from the Kerberos server. The Kerberos server verifies the identity of the user and controls access to services using the credentials contained in the TGT.

If the application uses Kerberos authentication from a Windows client, the application user does not explicitly need to obtain a TGT. Windows Active Directory automatically obtains a TGT for the user.

If the application uses Kerberos authentication from a UNIX or Linux client, the user must explicitly obtain a TGT. To obtain a TGT explicitly, the user must log onto the Kerberos server using the kinit command. For example, the following command requests a TGT from the server with a lifetime of 10 hours, which is renewable for 5 days:

kinit -l 10h -r 5d user

where user is the application user.

Refer to your Kerberos documentation for more information about using the kinit command and obtaining TGTs for users.