Hi,
I've scoured the 'net for a couple of days now, and can't find a hint on how to do
this one. Either I'm missing
something, or this is not a commonly approached problem.
I am developing a system with a web front-end (in JSP). This system consists of
several modules, and each
module has a (install-time specified) server on which it runs. All modules across all
servers together make up a
single application. In this way I am storing a financial database (and associated
logic) on one server, purchase
orders on another server, and so on.
I am facing two problems in making this work this way:
1. Sessions are not shared between servers. Although I do not store any information
in sessions (at this stage,
at least), I need to transfer a user's identity and roles between servers. At the
moment a redirection to another
server means the user have to log in again, which is obviously unacceptable.
2. A user can log in on any system, but this means somehow authenticating the user
against a central system or
copying and synchronizing the password database. Centralised authentication is not a
great idea as failure of a
single server will not affect the function of (around 80% of) the application.
Note: For now I'm looking at a solution that DOES NOT USE Enterprise JavaBeans (or any
part of J2EE). (This
is for political reasons, so it will be a pointless argument for me to attempt).
Is there any accepted or recommended way to tackle these issues?
Does anyone else have a system in which the responsibility is divided among multiple
servers (not a load-
balancing scenario!), and if so, how have you tackled the problem?
Thanks in advance.
Twylite
