Is it possible to have mixed mode authentication (LDAP and JIRA internal) in JIRA Data Center?

Question

My company has JIRA datacenter, and we use JIRA internal authentication. We would like to switch to LDAP, but we have some JIRA integrations developed internally that won't be able to be ported to use LDAP authentication any time soon.

My question is: Is it possible to set-up JIRA in such a way that it is able to authenticate some users using LDAP and authenticate another limited set of users using JIRA internal directory? If the answer is yes, then could someone please point me to the right documentation? My limited efforts in searching for this information yielded no results.

Thanks!

-IM

Radek Dostál · Answer

Exactly as Jon says - it's a standard practice to keep 2 and more directories in parallel and the order plays the most important role there.

For example, after switching to LDAP authentication, you will still require a service account, or well, any internal account that will be able to do maintenance and updates of that LDAP authentication settings in Jira (you cannot modify the user directory you are logged in through, to prevent locking yourself out).

Jon Espen Ingvaldsen Kantega SSO · Answer

You make use of both Jira internal and a LDAP directory in parallel. The standard way this is handled is by assigning priority order to the user directories in Jira. If you have user duplicates (users with the same username in multiple user directories), the user record and permissions found in the user directory with the highest order will apply.

The "up" and "down" arrows in the user directory page allow you to change the priority order.

I do not see any other standard and facilitated way of applying user directories to a limited subset of users (without deactivating users manually).

Regards,

Jon Espen
Kantega SSO