Configuration of Keycloak

The concept of realms

Keycloak uses a notion of realms to separate users, each realm having its own set of users, its own authentication mechanisms, and its own purpose. For a standard Olvid installation, we will use three realms:

• the master realm is the default realm created by Keycloak and is used for administration. The first admin user we created at installation is part of this realm and users in this realm have full administration right on Keycloak and the Olvid Management Console.
• the olvid realm we will create will be used for users of the Olvid application. This is where we will configure how collaborators using Olvid authenticate with Keycloak.
• the olvid_admin realm is dedicated to administrators of the Olvid Management Console, that is, persons that should not have access to the configuration of Keycloak itself, but should be able to manage Olvid users through the Olvid Management Console. This last realm is optional, especially if Keycloak administrators will be the ones managing the Olvid users.

Each of these three realms is configured independently, with a dedicated page (see left menu).

Check everything is functional

Before we start configuring our realms, we need to check that our Keycloak install is fully functional and that we can connect and authenticate on the server.

1. Connect to the address Keycloak is bound to.

   • If the reverse proxy is properly set up, this can be the public DNS of your Keycloak.

   • If the reverse proxy is not set up yet, or if access to the Keycloak Administration pages is blocked from outside your network, you may connect directly to the internal IP/DNS of your Keycloak server on port 8080 (this could be http://localhost:8480/).

   You should be redirected to an authentication page, customized with the Olvid logo, with an url starting with /auth/realms/master/. The master here is the name of the realm you are trying to authenticate with:

   

2. Enter the credentials you chose for the administrator in the Installation of Keycloak section and click Sign in.

3. After you signed in, you should reach a page that looks like this, with a Management Console entry in the left menu:

   

4. Click on Management Console and the Olvid Management Console should open. This means that the Olvid Plugin is functional.

   

5. You may close the Management Console for now and go back the Keycloak Administration tab.