Configure authentication

Set up how users log in - local accounts, LDAP, or SSO

Overview

Out-of-the-box, CAST Imaging is configured to use Local Authentication via a simple username/password system provided by third-party component called Keycloak (see below for more information). A default CAST Imaging local user is provided (with the login credentials admin/admin and with the global ADMIN profile) so that installation can be set up initially.

To manage and configure authentication, i.e. to manage existing local CAST Imaging user credentials and the addition of new local users/groups, or to change the authentication system to interact with your in-house LDAP/Active Directory or SAML system, connect to the Keycloak authentication system using the following URL (pointing to the machine on which the imaging-services component is installed) and login with the kcadmin account (see Keycloak accounts and passwords for details):

http://<imaging-services-fqdn>:8090/auth

CAST recommends configuring CAST Imaging to use your on-premises enterprise authentication system such as LDAP or SAML Single Sign-on, as detailed below:

About Keycloak

CAST uses a third-party component called Keycloakexternal link to handle authentication for CAST Imaging. This component is installed automatically during the install process. Some technical information about Keycloak follows:

Keycloak login credentials

A fresh installation provides several distinct accounts:

  • kcadmin in the master realm - the account used to log in to the Keycloak admin UI
  • admin in the master realm - an internal service account used for communication between CAST Imaging services, not intended for UI login
  • admin and any further local users in the aip-realm realm - used to log in to CAST Imaging itself

These accounts are entirely separate and distinct. In releases up to 3.6.5-funcrel they share the same default password (admin), which is why they are often mistaken for a single account. From 3.6.6-funcrel a fresh installation generates a random password for the admin service account on Linux via Docker/Podman and Kubernetes deployments, but not on Microsoft Windows.

For a full explanation of each account, the default password for each release, and the correct procedure for changing each password on every deployment type, see Keycloak accounts and passwords.

Product support

CAST supports this third-party component in the sense that tickets are created, and temporary or permanent fixes will be provided.

Version upgrades

When a permanent fix is required, CAST provides the latest corrections published by Keycloak.

Error management

CAST handles Keycloak errors when they are reported via support tickets.

Configuration and parameterization issues

As mentioned previously, CAST handles configuration issues when support tickets are created.

Software and security patching

When patching is required, CAST provides patches sourced from Keycloak.