12.3. Choose the Right SSO Implementation

JBoss EAP 6 runs Java Enterprise Edition (EE) applications, which may be web applications, EJB applications, web services, or other types. Single Sign On (SSO) allows you to propagate security context and identity information between these applications. Several SSO solutions are available but choosing the right solution depends on your requirements.

Note that there is a distinct difference between a clustered web application and clustered SSO. A clustered web application is one which is distributed across the nodes of a cluster to spread the load of hosting that application. If marked as distributable, all new sessions, and changes to existing sessions are replicated to other members of the cluster. An application is marked as able to be distributed across cluster nodes with the <distributable/> tag in the web.xml deployment descriptor. Clustered SSO allows for replication of security context and identity information, regardless of whether or not the applications are themselves clustered. Although these technologies may be used together they are separate concepts.