Database Security

Replicable databases use the same security model as nonreplicable databases: Users’ permissions on the database are determined at the time they start Microsoft Access and log on. As a programmer, it’s up to you to make sure the same security information is available at each location where a replica is used. You can do this by making the identical workgroup information file (the file that stores security information) available to users at each location where a replica is used. The default security workgroup information file is called System.mdw. The System.mdw file cannot be replicated, but it can be manually copied to each location. Another way to make the same workgroup information file available to all your users is to re-create the entries for users and groups at each location in the local system database by entering the same user and group names with their associated PIDs at each location. Note that making modifications to permissions is a design change and can only be done in the Design Master.

Security permissions control certain aspects of database replication. For example, a user must have Administer permission on the database to:

• Convert a nonreplicable database into a replicable database.
  
  
• Make a local object replicable or make a replicable object local.
  
  
• Designate a replica as the new Design Master. You can perform this action in any replica in the set; however, you should never have more than one Design Master in a set at one time.

See Also For more information about database security, see Chapter 10, “Managing Security.”