User Authentication

IBM® SPSS® Modeler Server uses the operating system on the server machine to authenticate users who connect to the server. When a user connects to SPSS Modeler Server, all operations that are performed on behalf of the user are performed in the user's security context. Access to database tables is subject to user and/or password privileges in the database itself.

Windows. On Windows, any user with a valid account on the host network can log on. With the default authentication, users must have modify access rights to the <modeler_server_install>\Tmp directory. Without these rights, users cannot log on to SPSS Modeler Server from the client using the default authentication on Windows.

UNIX. By default, SPSS Modeler Server is assumed to run as root on UNIX. This allows any user with a valid account on the host network to log on and limits users' file access to their own files and directories. However, you can configure SPSS Modeler Server to run without root privilege. In this case, you must create a private password database to be used for authentication, and all SPSS Modeler users must share a single UNIX user account (and, consequently, share access to data files). For more information, see Configuring as non-root using a private password database.

Configuring PAM

On the Linux platform, SPSS Modeler Server uses the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) for authentication.

To use PAM authentication the appropriate PAM modules must be correctly configured on the host system; for example, for PAM to interface with LDAP, a PAM LDAP module must exist on the host OS and be correctly configured. Refer to the operating system documentation for further information. This is a prerequisite for SPSS Modeler Server to be able to use PAM.

To configure SPSS Modeler Server to use PAM, edit the SPSS Modeler Server "options.cfg" file and add (or edit) the line authentication_methods, pam.

You can use the service name modelerserver to provide a specific PAM configuration for SPSS Modeler Server if required. For example, the following steps explain how to configure for Red Hat Linux:

  1. Change to the PAM configuration directory. For example: /etc/pam.d.
  2. Using a text editor, create a new file called "modelerserver".
  3. Add the PAM configuration information that you want to use. For example: 
    auth       include      system-auth
account    include      system-auth
password   required     pam_deny.so
session    required     pam_deny.so
    Note: These lines might vary depending on your particular configuration. For more information, see the Linux documentation.
  4. Save the file and restart the Modeler service.