Stéphanie,
I don't want to interfere with the other people here who are trying to
help you in the direction of a "pure Tomcat" solution. I am incompetent
in that area, while they are, and their recommendations may in the end
be better than mine.
So let's say that there are alternative ways in which your basic issue
could be solved, and what I am suggesting is one of these possible
alternatives.
The solution I am suggesting consists of separating the "user management
business" from the "Tomcat application business".
My first premise is that managing users, passwords, rules for these
passwords, aging, people coming and going etc.. is a complicated and
time-consuming task and, if there already exists an AD infrastructure
(or 3) that does this and people who manage it, maybe you do not want to
create and manage a 4th system.
(For example, if you create a mechanism based on a database, then you
will probably have to synchronise that database with the 3 existing AD
databases; and you will probably never obtain from the separate admins
of the 3 AD domains, that they send you every day a new list of their
users and passwords).
My second premise is that users, in general, do not like to have to
login several times, and remember different user-id's and/or passwords
for different things.
So if you can propose a solution which requires less additional
programming and setup, and less management hassle later on, that may be
to your own and to the users' advantage.
Based on your previous explanations, I will imagine that there are 3
locations from where users can access your Tomcat system; that at each
of those locations, there is a Windows domain based on an AD system; and
that the users in each of those locations already login to their local
domain before they access your Tomcat applications; and that these
systems already manage the business of password rules and aging, and the
day-to-day business of people coming and going.
If it is so, you can set up a system whereby the local login which each
user has already done once when they started their workstation, can be
used by your Tomcat application(s). Your Tomcat application(s) will
automatically receive, for each access, a unique and pre-authenticated
user-id for each user, just as if you had done the authentication
yourself at the Tomcat level. This user-id can include the original
domain name of the user (iow the location), so that if two users
"john.smith" exist in two separate AD domains, they will not be confused.
This method does not necessarily cover all your needs, and it may still
require some user data and some management at the Tomcat level, but it
may also avoid having to re-implement and manage stuff that is already
being done elsewhere.
If you are still interested, then go have a look here :
http://www.ioplex.com/
I am not saying that this is necessarily the solution for you, but it is
maybe worth having a look at it.
(and no, I am not an employee of that company; it is just something I
use myself with Tomcat, in contexts apparently similar to yours.)
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