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The LDAP server connection is specified by manually editing the file atlassian-user.xml. Confluence 2.3 onwards supports multiple LDAP servers by repeating the instructions below for each server so that there are multiple repositories defined.

Stage 1 - Configure Connection Details

Edit the file .../confluence/WEB-INF/classes/atlassian-user.xml and configure the connection for either AD or LDAP.
- Connections in Active Directory
- Connections in other LDAP servers
If your Active Directory Server allows anonymous searches, then you do not need to specify a securityPrincipal and securtyCredential at all. For an example of how you would configure Confluence to allow anonymous authentication, see Enable Anonymous Authentication in LDAP or Active Directory
To connect to LDAP over SSL, see Connect to LDAP via SSL

Check your configuration against the example connection details shown below.

<ldap key="ldapRepository" name="LDAP Repository@hecate.atlassian.com" cache="true">
    <host>hecate.atlassian.com</host>
    <port>389</port>
    <securityPrincipal>cn=admin,dc=atlassian,dc=private</securityPrincipal>
    <securityCredential>secret</securityCredential>
    <securityProtocol>plain</securityProtocol>
    <securityAuthentication>simple</securityAuthentication>
    <baseContext>dc=atlassian,dc=private</baseContext>

....

Stage 2 - Map LDAP Data Tree

Configuring the mappings in atlassian-user.xml for either AD or LDAP.
- Mapping Active Directory
- Mapping other LDAP servers

Check your configuration against the example connection details shown below.

...

    <baseUserNamespace>dc=staff,dc=perftest,dc=atlassian,dc=private</baseUserNamespace>
    <baseGroupNamespace>dc=groups,dc=perftest,dc=atlassian,dc=private</baseGroupNamespace>
    <usernameAttribute>cn</usernameAttribute>
    <userSearchFilter>(objectClass=inetorgperson)</userSearchFilter>
    <firstnameAttribute>givenname</firstnameAttribute>
    <surnameAttribute>sn</surnameAttribute>
    <emailAttribute>mail</emailAttribute>
    <groupnameAttribute>cn</groupnameAttribute>
    <groupSearchFilter>(objectClass=groupOfNames)</groupSearchFilter>
    <membershipAttribute>member</membershipAttribute>
</ldap>

Stage 3 - Optional LDAP Settings

The following settings do not appear in the default atlassian-user.xml file:

<poolingOn>true</poolingOn>
<maxSize>0</maxSize>
<initSize>10</initSize>
<prefSize>10</prefSize>
<debugLevel>none</debugLevel>
<securityProtocol>plain ssl</securityProtocol>
<authentication>simple</authentication>
<timeout>0</timeout>
<initialContextFactory>com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory</initialContextFactory>
<batchSize>100</batchSize>
<timeToLive>0</timeToLive>
<userSearchAllDepths>true</userSearchAllDepths>
<groupSearchAllDepths>true</groupSearchAllDepths>

However, if you want to override the default values listed above, you can add the value onto the end like so:

...
    <groupnameAttribute>cn</groupnameAttribute>
    <groupSearchFilter>(objectClass=groupOfNames)</groupSearchFilter>
    <membershipAttribute>member</membershipAttribute>
    <initSize>20</initSize>
</ldap>

It is important that the connection pool timeout value be set to 0, as this will force Atlassian User (via the JNDI layer) to clean up lingering connections that have lived past one request. More information about LDAP pools here.

Stage 4 - Configure LDAP for User Authentication only

Description

There are two kinds of Confluence/LDAP integration available:

User Authentication	Internal Users	Internal Groups	LDAP Users	LDAP Groups
LDAP Without Groups
LDAP With Groups

This section covers LDAP without groups, where if a username exists in both Confluence and LDAP, they use their LDAP password to login. You still maintain users from Confluence and use internal Confluence groups for group permissions.

Alternatively, you may use LDAP with Groups to have users and groups automatically updated from LDAP, and use LDAP groups for group permissions.

Applies For

Enabling LDAP for the first time
Upgrading existing LDAP without enabling group management

Important Points

Only the password lookup is done against LDAP and only if the Confluence username coincides with the LDAP username. Users and user profiles are still managed in Confluence. See technical explanation below.

Each LDAP user in Confluence must be added to an internal Confluence group having Can Use permissions in order for those LDAP users to access Confluence.If a password is created for an LDAP user in Confluence,it will be ignored as the LDAP password will override it.

User management in Confluence 2.0 and earlier is handled by OSUser. OSUser is configured through the osuser.xml file located in confluence/WEB-INF/classes.

Instructions

If you do not wish Confluence to retrieve any of your LDAP groups and display them inside Confluence then you can do this by specifying a dummy value for the groupSearchFilter filter in your atlassian-user.xml file. That is update your atlassian-user.xml file with the following:

<groupSearchFilter>(objectClass=dummyValue)</groupSearchFilter>

An example atlassian-user.xml file:

<baseUserNamespace>cn=users,dc=ad,dc=atlassian,dc=com</baseUserNamespace>
<baseGroupNamespace>ou=groups,dc=ad,dc=atlassian,dc=com</baseGroupNamespace>
<usernameAttribute>sAMAccountName</usernameAttribute>
<userSearchFilter>(objectClass=user)</userSearchFilter>
<firstnameAttribute>givenname</firstnameAttribute>
<surnameAttribute>sn</surnameAttribute>
<emailAttribute>mail</emailAttribute>
<groupnameAttribute>cn</groupnameAttribute>
<groupSearchFilter>(objectClass=dummyValue)</groupSearchFilter>
<membershipAttribute>member</membershipAttribute>
<userSearchAllDepths>false</userSearchAllDepths>
<groupSearchAllDepths>false</groupSearchAllDepths>

Configuring multiple LDAP repositories

For some LDAP servers, it might be necessary to configure Confluence to connect to multiple LDAP servers. This functionality is available in Confluence 2.3 and above, and has a separate guide: Configuring multiple LDAP repositories.