Patent ID: 7530094

Claim:
A method for facilitating single sign-on of an application cluster, wherein the application cluster hosts a plurality of computer applications on the same computer system, the method comprising: receiving a logon request at a database server from a specific application in the application cluster, wherein the logon request specifies the application cluster and an authentication credential for the server, wherein the application facilitates a user client system to access the database server, and wherein the application cluster resides in a middle-tier system that is different from the database server as well as the user client system; authenticating the application cluster to the server using the authentication credential, wherein the plurality of computer applications within the application cluster share a common authentication credential that is unique to the application cluster; subsequent to authenticating the application cluster, accessing a directory service on a directory server to determine if the specific application is authorized to access a given database schema on the database server; and if so, authorizing the specific application to access the database schema.