Cisco Systems Servers Manuale Utente

Regardless of which database is used to authenticate users, the CiscoSecure user 
database, internal to Cisco Secure ACS, is used to authorize requested network 
services.

For Cisco Secure ACS to interact with an external user database, 
Cisco Secure ACS requires an API for third-party authentication source. The 
Cisco Secure ACS communicates with the external user database using the API. 
For Windows NT/2000, Generic LDAP, and Novell NDS authentication, the 
program interface for the external authentication is local to the Cisco Secure ACS 
system and is provided by the local operating system. In these cases, no further 
components are required.

In the case of ODBC authentication sources, in addition to the Windows ODBC 
interface, the third-party ODBC driver must be installed on the Cisco Secure ACS 
server.

To communicate with each traditional token server, you must have software 
components provided by the OTP vendors installed, in addition to the 
Cisco Secure ACS components. You must also specify in User Setup that a token 
card server is to be used.

For RADIUS-based token servers, such as ActivCard, CRYPTOCard, and Vasco, 
the standard RADIUS interface serves as the third-party API.

Authenticating users with an external user database requires more than 
configuring Cisco Secure ACS to communicate with an external user database. 
Performing one of the configuration procedures for an external database that are 
provided in this chapter does not on its own instruct Cisco Secure ACS to 
authenticate any users with that database.