OpenLDAP | Keycloak

Setting Up OpenLDAP with Keycloak for User Federation

Step-by-step guide on how to set up locally OpenLDAP with Keycloak for User Federation using Docker containers

Ivan Franchin
6 min readApr 23, 2023

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Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash

In this article, we will set up locally, using Docker containers, OpenLDAP server with Keycloak for user federation.

OpenLDAP is a widely-used open-source LDAP server that provides a centralized directory of user identities and credentials.

Keycloak is a powerful identity and access management solution that supports user federation with external user directories, including LDAP servers like OpenLDAP.

In case you are coming from my springboot-keycloak-openldap GitHub repository, you can jump directly to Configuring Keycloak section.

Project Diagram

This is the project diagram we will work with. On the left, we have the OpenLDAP where we have the directory of users and groups in our company. On the right is the application called simple-service, which requires authentication and authorization to access its resources. Finally, at the center, we have the Keycloak that will serve as a bridge between OpenLDAP and simple-service.

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Ivan Franchin

Lead Software Developer with BS and MS in Computer Science. Writing about Java, Spring, software development in general, and emerging technologies.