[Thinlinc-technical] Authentication with smart cards slow

[Peter Åstrand]

> Users login to a TL cluster consisting of two nodes and uses smart cards to authenticate.
> Authentication uses certificates and LDAP against an eDirectory source.
> Authentication is very slow, approx 90 secs when using smart cards. If we go without
> smart cards we reduce the login time by half.
> 
> Any pointers on where to start to look?

Hi, sorry for the delayed response. You can start checking the eDirectory 
performance by using the "Health and Performance Test" of the ThinLinc 
Novell Configurator. You can find this tool in the Webmin GUI. Also, start 
out with using manually entered usernames, ie do not activate 
"Automatically connect when smart card is inserted".

Which client platform are you using? If the drivers and/or card reader is 
not working properly, you can also get this kind of delays. In this case, 
you will see error messages in, say, the Windows Event Viewer. You can 
also check out the ThinLinc Client log file, which is %temp%\tlclient.log.

If you need to isolate the problem further, you can try using Public Key 
authentication. This mechanism is identical so smart card authentication 
on the server side.

Best regards, 
---
Peter Åstrand		ThinLinc Chief Developer
Cendio AB		http://www.cendio.com
Wallenbergs gata 4
583 30 Linköping	Phone: +46-13-21 46 00