# Stash Latest (2.9) : External user directories

Added by spittet , edited by pwatson on Oct 23, 2013

You can connect Stash to external user directories. This allows you to make use of existing users and groups stored in an enterprise directory.

Note that Stash comes with an internal user directory, already built-in, that is enabled by default at installation. When you create the first administrator during the setup procedure, that administrator's username and other details are stored in the internal directory.

See also this information about deleting users and groups in Stash.

Icon

Connecting Atlassian Stash to your external directory is not sufficient to allow your users to log in to Stash. You must explicitly grant them access to Stash in the global permission screen.

We recommend that you use groups instead of invidual accounts when granting permissions.

There are several approaches to consider when using external user directories wth Stash, described briefly below:

## LDAP

You should consider connecting to an LDAP directory server if your users and groups are stored in an enterprise directory.

There are two common ways of using an external LDAP directory with Stash:

- For full user and group management, and for user authentication — see Connecting Stash to an existing LDAP directory for instructions.
- For delegated user authentication only, while using Stash's internal directory for user and group management — see Delegating Stash authentication to an LDAP directory for instructions.

Related pages:

- Connecting Stash to an existing LDAP directory
- Delegating Stash authentication to an LDAP directory
- Connecting Stash to Crowd
- Connecting Stash to JIRA for user management
- Users and groups

Stash is able to connect to the following LDAP directory servers:

- Microsoft Active Directory
- Apache Directory Server (ApacheDS) 1.0.x and 1.5.x
- Apple Open Directory (Read-Only)
- Fedora Directory Server (Read-Only Posix Schema)
- Novell eDirectory Server
- OpenDS
- OpenLDAP
- OpenLDAP (Read-Only Posix Schema)
- Generic Posix/RFC2307 Directory (Read-Only)
- Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition (DSEE)
- Any generic LDAP directory server

## JIRA

You can delegate Stash user and group management, as well as user authentication, to an Atlassian JIRA instance. This is a good option if you already use JIRA in your organization. Note that Stash can only connect to a JIRA server running JIRA 4.3 or later.

You should consider using Atlassian Crowd for more complex configurations with a large number of users.

See Connecting Stash to JIRA for user management for configuration instructions.

## Crowd

You can connect Stash to Atlassian Crowd for user and group management, as well as for user authentication.

Crowd is an application security framework that handles authentication and authorisation for your web-based applications. With Crowd you can integrate multiple web applications and user directories, with support for single sign-on (SSO) and centralised identity management. See the Crowd Administration Guide.

You should consider connecting to Crowd if you want to use Crowd to manage existing users and groups in multiple directory types, or if you have users of other web-based applications.

See Connecting Stash to Crowd for configuration instructions.

## Attachments:

STASH10_externalDirectories.png (image/png)
STASH10_externalDirectories.png (image/png)
STASH10_externalDirectories.png (image/png)
image2012-3-27 14:45:11.png (image/png)
Stash_1_1_user_directories.png (image/png)
Stash_1_1_user_directories.png (image/png)
image2012-3-27 14:45:11.png (image/png)
STASH10_externalDirectories.png (image/png)
Stash12_user_directories.png (image/png)
Stash12_user_directories.png (image/png)
STASH10_externalDirectories.png (image/png)
image2012-3-27 14:45:11.png (image/png)
Stash_1_1_user_directories.png (image/png)