IBM Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) is a framework from
IBM that allows the mapping of different identities (user IDs) on various platforms, user repositories and applications to a single identity.
It can be used with a range of authentication mechanisms such as
Kerberos (protocol) (e.g. as used by MS
Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of Process (computing), processes and Windows service, services. Initially, Active D ...
) to allow one user repository to authenticate the user and for this information to be passed via a secure token to another platform for authorisation even when the User IDs differ. The target platform refers to EIM to obtain the mapping identity for its own repository.
In this way it enables
single sign-on
Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication scheme that allows a user to log in with a single ID to any of several related, yet independent, software systems.
True single sign-on allows the user to log in once and access services without re-enterin ...
. It is sometimes possible to eliminate passwords on the target system.
It is available free of charge on all IBM server platforms including those running
z/OS
z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for IBM z/Architecture mainframes, introduced by IBM in October 2000. It derives from and is the successor to OS/390, which in turn was preceded by a string of MVS versions.Starting with the earliest:
* ...
,
IBM i,
IBM AIX
AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive, pronounced , "ay-eye-ex") is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms.
Background
Originally released for the IBM RT PC RISC ...
,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
,
PowerLinux and
Windows Server
Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a group of operating systems (OS) for servers that Microsoft has been developing since July 27, 1993. The first OS that was released for this platform was Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server. With the r ...
plus earlier releases such as i5/OS. In the case of
IBM i both EIM and Kerberos authentication are an integral part of the OS.
References
1. IBM Redbook: Windows-based Single Signon and the EIM Framework on the IBM eServer iSeries Server, {{ISBN, 9780738498997, IBM Form Number SG24-6975-00, Number of pages 316. http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246975.html
2. Enterprise Identity Mapping. IBM Knowledge Center. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_72/rzalv/rzalvmst.htm?lang=en
IBM software