This page describes what happens when you have defined more than one user directory in Confluence. For example, you may have an internal directory and you may also connect to an LDAP directory server and/or other types of user directories. When you connect to a new directory server, you also need to define the directory order.

Duplicate usernames across directories are not supported. If you are connecting to more than one user directory, please ensure that the usernames are unique to one directory. For example, if you have a user jsmith in both 'Directory1' and 'Directory2', that is an unsupported configuration.

Overview

Here is a summary of how the directory order affects the processing:
  • The order of the directories is the order in which they will be searched for users and groups.
  • Changes to users and groups will be made only in the first directory where the application has permission to make changes.

On this page:

Configuring the Directory Order

You can change the order of your directories as defined to Confluence. Select 'User Directories' from the Confluence Administration Console and click the blue up- and down-arrows next to each directory.

Notes:

  • Please read the rest of this page to understand what effect the directory order will have on authentication (login) and permissions in Confluence, and what happens when you update users and groups in Confluence.

Effect of Directory Order

This section summarises the effect the order of the directories will have on login and permissions, and on the updating of users and groups.

Login

The directory order is significant during the authentication of the user, in cases where the same user exists in multiple directories. When a user attempts to log in, the application will search the directories in the order specified, and will use the credentials (password) of the first occurrence of the user to validate the login attempt.

Permissions

The directory order is significant when granting the user permissions based on group membership. If the same username exists in more than one directory, the application will look for group membership only in the first directory where the username appears, based on the directory order.

Example:

  • You have connected two directories: The Customers directory and the Partners directory.
  • The Customers directory is first in the directory order.
  • A username jsmith exists in both the Customers directory and the Partners directory.
  • The user jsmith is a member of group G1 in the Customers directory and group G2 in the Partners directory.
  • The user jsmith will have permissions based on membership of G1 only, not G2.

Updating Users and groups

If you update a user or group via the application's administration screens, the update will be made in the first directory where the application has write permissions.

Example 1:

  • You have connected two directories: The Customers directory and the Partners directory.
  • The application has permission to update both directories.
  • The Customers directory is first in the directory order.
  • A username jsmith exists in both the Customers directory and the Partners directory.
  • You update the email address of user jsmith via the application's administration screens.
  • The email address will be updated in the Customers directory only, not the Partners directory.

Example 2:

  • You have connected two directories: A read/write LDAP directory and the internal directory.
  • The LDAP directory is first in the directory order.
  • All new users will be added to the LDAP directory. It is not possible to add a new user to the internal directory.

RELATED TOPICS

Configuring User Directories

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