If set, this means that any authentication should be performed via JAAS and its value specifies the name of the entry to use in the JAAS login configuration file. JAAS is an established Java standard which is beyond the scope of the UM documentation and the login configuration file's pathname is specified by the usual JAAS system property, java.security.auth.login.config. The Nirvana client SDK supplies the username and password to the JDK's built-in JAAS subsystem, and the JAAS login config file specifies one or more pluggable JAAS modules that will perform the authentication. The precise modules to use are a matter of site-specific policies determined by the Nirvana admins, and the JAAS modules configured into a client should obviously be aligned with those configured on the server. If Nirvana.auth.client.jaaskey is not set, then the authentication mechanism defaults to SASL.

This specifies which SASL mechanism to use, and the supported options are Plain or CRAM-MD5. The mechanism defaults to Plain if this system property is not set, and the usual SASL trade-offs apply. SASL-Plain transmits the user password in cleartext, so it is advisable to only use it over an SSL connection, while Cram-MD5 does not transmit it in cleartext, but does require it to be stored in plaintext on the server (whereas Plain can work with stored passwords in either plain or encrypted format).