The present invention provides a method and apparatus for implementing distributed
user management information in telecommunications networks. At least a portion
of a user's management information is stored in a team session file that is accessible
by a network management system (NMS) client. For example, the team session file
may be saved in memory that is local to the NMS client or, if a user logs in through
a remote system using a web browser, the team session file may be saved as a cookie
in memory local to the remote system. The NMS client may then utilize the user
management information in the team session file while the user is logged into the
NMS client. In one embodiment, the user management information stored within the
team session file includes NMS server connection information. Thus, when a user
logs into an NMS client, the NMS client uses the NMS server connection information
to connect to an NMS server. The user management information stored within the
team session file may be retrieved from user profile information corresponding
to the user and stored in a central data repository, and since the user profile
data is stored in a central repository, changes may be easily made to the user
profile data and consequently pushed out to the team session files accessible by
one or more NMS clients. Consequently, a user's management data may widely distributed
for access by NMS clients located anywhere in the network.