A federated database system (FDBS) is a distributed system that consists of a number of autonomous and heterogeneous database management systems (DBMS). Administration of a FDBS is a challenging task due to the heterogeneity of database management systems in the FDBS, heterogeneous platforms these DBMS are deployed on, and non-standard access protocols these systems provide. One of the important tasks in the management of FDBS is user management. In this paper we propose a new architecture for user management in FDBS, based on the “web services” middleware. The system includes a Central Controller for maintaining a directory of component databases, database access roles, and users. Each database component and the Central Controller are accessed via web services providers that are deployed on each component site. These web services are lightweight interfaces hiding the heterogeneity of different platforms. The system is highly scalable and portable. New DBMS can be easily added to the FDBS after the web services interfaces for the regarding DBMS are installed on the component sites.
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