Managing Users in Confluence Data Center

This insight appears when your Confluence instance approaches or exceeds the recommended limit of 70,000 users. The users metric tracks the total number of user accounts across all your directories. This includes both active and inactive users from internal and external directories.

How does high user count affect performance?

Exceeding the recommended user limits can impact your Confluence Data Center instance in several ways:

• Increased strain on authentication and authorization processes

• Slower login times and directory synchronization

• Degraded performance in user-related operations (e.g., user picker, permission checks)

• Increased system resource consumption

• Longer space permission calculation times

• Potential impact on collaborative features

What's the recommendation?

To ensure optimal performance, follow these steps to manage your user count:

Analyze user distribution

Before making changes, understand your current user distribution:

1. Go to Administration > System Information

2. Run this query to analyze user distribution across directories:

SELECT directory_name, count(lower_email_address) 
FROM cwd_user cu join cwd_directory cd 
on cu.directory_id = cd.id 
group by directory_name;

Clean up inactive users

Identify and manage inactive users systematically:

1. Review inactive users:

   • Go to Administration > User Management

   • Use filters to identify inactive accounts

   • Check last login dates

   • Review access requirements

2. Take action on inactive accounts:

   • For internal directories: Use bulk operations through the REST API

   • For external directories: Coordinate with directory administrators

   • Consider deactivating instead of deleting users with content

How to identify inactive users in Confluence

Configure directory synchronization

If using LDAP/Active Directory, optimize your synchronization:

1. Navigate to Administration > User Management > User Directories

2. Select your LDAP directory

3. Configure user filters:

   • Review and adjust Base DN

   • Set appropriate User Object Filter

   • Test configuration in staging environment

4. Enable incremental synchronization (Microsoft Active Directory only):

   • Expand Advanced Settings

   • Select Enable Incremental Synchronization

   • Verify sync account permissions:

     • Read access to uSNChanged attribute

     • Access to Active Directory deleted objects container

Learn about configuring directory synchronization

Implement user lifecycle management

Establish processes for managing users throughout their lifecycle:

Onboarding procedures

• Create clear processes for new user requests

• Define standard permission sets

• Document access approval workflows

Regular maintenance

• Schedule quarterly user audits

• Review user access patterns

• Monitor user growth trends

• Clean up invalid or duplicate email addresses

Offboarding processes

• Establish procedures for departing users

• Create content transition plans

• Archive or reassign user content