Documentation for Crowd 2.5. Documentation for other versions of Crowd is available too.
Known issues, hints and tips and answers to commonly asked questions about Crowd:
Concepts:
Technical:
Compatibility:
Common Evaluator Questions:
Single sign-on enables users to authenticate (login) once and gain access to multiple web applications within a single domain. See also centralized authentication.
Authorization is the act of deciding whether a person is allowed to access a specific resource or web application. This often comes in the form of groups, roles and permissions.
Authentication is the act of verifying that a user is who they say they are. This is often done through a credential such as user name and password.
Centralized authentication is when an end-user has the same username and password used across all web applications, even if the application cannot participate in single sign-on. This is often a major milestone before single sign-on is achieved within an organisation.
Crowd provides centralization authentication and/or single sign-on depending on your application's capabilities.
Identity management is the process of defining a user (a 'principal') and managing their attributes. In addition to username and credentials (e.g. password), attributes might include phone number, address, etc.
Identity management also includes assigning users to relevant groups and roles, so that users can access appropriate applications and resources.
Another important part of identity management is managing the entire user lifecycle, for example, disabling the user account when someone leaves the organization.
A directory is a repository of information containing user identities, their attributes and their group and role memberships.
Crowd is made up of two parts:
An application connector is the link between Crowd and one of your applications. An application connector makes it possible to connect, say, Crowd and JIRA. When you download and install Crowd, you'll automatically get its application connectors, along with an integration API so that you can code your own application connectors too.
A directory connector is the link between Crowd and one of your directories. It makes it possible to connect, say, Crowd and Active Directory. When you download and install Crowd, you'll automatically get its directory connectors, along with an integration API so that you can code your own directory connectors too.
Crowd can support over 500 users depending upon which license you purchase. View the licensing and pricing breakdown for more information.
So long as they're compatible with Crowd, you can add in as many applications as your organization needs.
If one or more of the following apply, Crowd will be of benefit to you:
Crowd runs everywhere Java can, and is compatible with most organisations' existing infrastructure. Requirements include:
For more information on compatible databases, application servers, and operating systems, read the Supported Platforms page.
A complete list of currently supported applications and directories can be found in Crowd's documentation. Check back often, as new connectors will be added regularly.
Crowd provides a simple and intuitive integration API (backended by SOAP) that allows you to connect in your new or existing applications. This makes it easy to choose how much or how little to integrate based on your needs.
Crowd ships with connectors for Atlassian products.
Using the out-of-the-box connectors you can consolidate all of your users into a single repository giving you the ability to manage all of your users in a single location. Users can then take advantage of single sign-on, giving them one username and password to access all of your applications.
Crowd does not currently support kerberos-based authentication.