Tarantella Administration Guide > Users and authentication > Can I use other web authentication schemes with Tarantella web server authentication?

Can I use other web authentication schemes with Tarantella web server authentication?

Yes. However Tarantella web server authentication relies on the web server setting the REMOTE_USER cgi-bin environment variable to identify the user. If users are authenticated with another web authentication scheme, it is likely that another variable will be used and this means they can't be authenticated to Tarantella. The solution is to use a cgi wrapper script which sets the REMOTE_USER variable and allows Tarantella to authenticate users.

About the wrapper script

In a standard installation, Tarantella provides two wrapper scripts:

• ttaclientcert.cgi for use with client SSL certificates. This exports the SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_CN variable.
• ttaauthsafeword.cgi for use with SafeWord® PremierAccess™. This exports the HTTP_SAFEWORD_USER variable.

If your web authentication scheme uses another variable, you can create your own wrapper script with the following content:

#!/bin/sh
REMOTE_USER=$your_variable_name
export REMOTE_USER 
exec ./ttawlogin.cgi $*

Save the script to a sub-directory in the install_dir/var/docroot/cgi-bin/secure directory. The script must have the same file permissions as the other scripts in this directory.

Implementing the wrapper script

To implement the wrapper script, follow this process:

1. Configure Tarantella web server authentication in the normal way.
2. Test that web server authentication works.
3. Configure your web authentication scheme so that users have to log in to access to the /tarantella/cgi-bin/secure/ directory.
4. Test that your web authentication scheme works.
5. Log in as root on the Tarantella host and run the following command:

   tarantella config edit --tarantella-config-server-cgibin-bootscript secure/wrapper_script_name

   Note This command sets the path to the wrapper script and is relative to the install_dir/var/docroot/cgi-bin directory.

6. Restart the Tarantella server.