An Authorization ID (AuthID) is a string from one to eight characters long. While AuthIDs may logically represent a person, an organizational group, or a function, the server only acknowledges the unique AuthID string itself as the owner of a privilege or database object.
The XDB Server supports three types of AuthIDs to administer security: Primary AuthID, GroupID and SQL AuthID (SQLID). Individual Primary AuthIDs can also be mapped to something called a SecondaryID, which replaces the Primary AuthID as soon as the user logs in to the XDB Server.
How an AuthID is used at a given time determines the type of the AuthID. A given AuthID may be the Primary AuthID for one process, the SQLID for another, and a GroupID for a third. In order for an AuthID to be used as a Primary AuthID, however, it must be registered through the SQL Wizard (Windows) or CREATE USER command in Interactive SQL (UNIX). See the chapters Security and Authority and Multiserver Security for a full treatment of security issues.