Is it possible to set up an alias for a Confluence access group?

Linda Durst

We have a Confluence Access Group named "Confluence-FY2425".  Rather than making the module users update their space permissions each June for the next fiscal year, could an alias like "Confluence-CurrentYR" be set up?  That way this year it would be an alias for "Confluence-FY2425" and next year, behind the scenes, be changed to point to "Confluence-FY2526".   Is this possible or is there a better solution?  Thank you.

Manoj Kumar Gangwar

Hi @Linda Durst Welcome to the community! 

Confluence does not support the concept of aliases for access groups natively. However, there are a couple of possible approaches to achieve something similar to what you're asking for, without the need for users to manually update permissions each year.

 

 1. **Maintain a "Current Year" Group and Update it Annually:**

   - You can create a **group called "Confluence-CurrentYR"**, which would have the necessary permissions across spaces.

   - Every year, an admin would update the membership of the "Confluence-CurrentYR" group to include the users from the new fiscal year's group (e.g., "Confluence-FY2526").

   - This way, permissions stay consistent, and users don’t need to manually update them. Only the group membership changes in the background, which can be handled by a single admin action.

 

 2. **Automation Using Group Synchronization (for Jira Service Management or SSO Integration):**

   - If you're using **Atlassian Access** with Single Sign-On (SSO) integration or have group synchronization via a directory service like **LDAP** or **Active Directory**, you can automate group membership changes.

   - For example, set up a rule or script in your directory that automatically updates group memberships (or renames the group) at the start of the fiscal year, and synchronize that with Confluence.

   - This would remove the need to manually update group permissions each June.

 

 3. **Use Group Nesting (for External Directory Integration):**

   - Some directory services allow **nested groups**. In this case, you could create a **permanent group like "Confluence-CurrentYR"** and have it include the fiscal year groups (e.g., "Confluence-FY2425").

   - Every year, instead of changing permissions in Confluence, you just update the nested group in your directory service to reflect the new fiscal year group.

 

 4. **Manual Yearly Process (No Automation):**

   - If you cannot automate group membership updates, the simplest method would be to create the **"Confluence-CurrentYR" group** and manually update the membership behind the scenes at the start of each fiscal year. This avoids users needing to change permissions on individual spaces.