When Identity runs in apache-httpd, you can use external authentication methods that differ from the authentication provided by the identity store back end. For example, you can use an SQL identity back end together with X.509 authentication, Kerberos, and so on instead of using the user name and password combination.

Web servers, like Apache HTTP, support many methods of authentication. Identity can allow the web server to perform the authentication. The web server then passes the authenticated user to Identity by using the REMOTE_USER environment variable. This user must already exist in the Identity back end to get a token from the controller. To use this method, Identity should run on apache-httpd.

The following Apache configuration snippet authenticates the user based on a valid X.509 certificate from a known CA: <VirtualHost _default_:5000> SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ssl.cert SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl.key SSLCACertificatePath /etc/ssl/allowed_cas SSLCARevocationPath /etc/ssl/allowed_cas SSLUserName SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_CN SSLVerifyClient require SSLVerifyDepth 10 (...) </VirtualHost>