How to Easily Install and Use Authentik: Embracing a New Era in Identity Management 🌟

Thursday, Jan 2, 2025 | 7 minute read

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Transform your identity management with a powerful, flexible, and open-source solution! 🛡️ Enjoy data ownership, customizable workflows, and multi-protocol support to ensure seamless user experiences while enhancing security with multi-factor authentication. 🔑🚀

“In today’s wave of digital transformation, the importance of identity management is increasingly prominent. It not only concerns the information security of enterprises but also serves as the bridge connecting users and services.”

As organizations become more reliant on digital tools, the complexity and significance of identity management cannot be underestimated. Modern businesses need a flexible and secure identity management solution to protect sensitive information and ensure a seamless user experience. In this context, the open-source identity provider Authentik has emerged, dedicated to providing powerful and user-friendly solutions for various organizations. 🛡️ Authentik combines the flexibility of open source with robust features, making it an ideal choice to meet modern demands.

1. Authentik: The Open Source Power Transforming Identity Management 🔑

Authentik is an open-source identity provider (IdP) specifically designed for flexible and diverse identity management. This platform offers a self-hosted solution as an alternative to large identity management tools like Okta, Auth0, or Microsoft’s Entra ID. ✨ Authentik’s design is suitable for various scenarios, whether for employee identity management or B2B2C environments, meeting needs comprehensively. By using Authentik, organizations can gain independent control over identity management while ensuring robust security for sensitive data, offering a new choice for modern enterprises.

2. The Unique Appeal of Authentik: Why Does It Stand Out? 🌈

One significant feature of Authentik is data ownership, allowing organizations to maintain the confidentiality of sensitive data and reduce exposure to the public internet. 🔒 Its flexible and scalable solutions support customizable workflows and a comprehensive API, automating various aspects of user identity management. The open-source nature of this platform means it is continually reviewed by the community, ensuring high security standards and promoting transparency and safety. Furthermore, its support for multiple authentication protocols (such as SAML2, OAuth2, OIDC, SCIM, and LDAP) allows users to enjoy an unparalleled identity management experience. 🔄 Best of all, the features supporting multi-factor authentication (MFA) and conditional access further enhance security, capable of meeting diverse authentication needs and providing users with greater peace of mind.

3. Why Developers Choose Authentik: The Best Choice for Ease and Power 🛠️

Developers favor Authentik primarily for its easy installation process, which allows users to complete it in just a few steps. ⚙️ The platform provides a user-friendly dashboard to accommodate different roles’ needs, enabling quick onboarding and improved productivity. 🎯 Authentik boasts an actively engaged community where developers can seek help, share experiences, and foster personal growth. Whether for startups or large enterprises, Authentik efficiently meets identity management needs of organizations across various scales, allowing flexible use of its powerful features. 🚀 Organizations can leverage the transparency and open-source nature of the platform, tailoring its rich features to fit their unique business characteristics, laying a solid foundation for future identity management.

In conclusion, Authentik simplifies and secures the identity management process thanks to its powerful functionalities and open characteristics. 🌍

Installing Authentik Using Docker Compose 🚀

If you’re a beginner, using Docker Compose to install authentik is an excellent choice, as this method simplifies many complex configurations! Let’s walk through the process step by step.

System Requirements 🖥️

Before getting started, make sure your system meets the following requirements:

• At least 2 CPU cores and 2 GB of RAM to ensure authentik runs smoothly.
• Docker and Docker Compose must be pre-installed. It is generally recommended to use Compose v2.

Preparations 📥

The first step is to download the docker-compose.yml file, which contains all the service configurations for authentik.

For Linux Users

You can use the following command:

wget https://goauthentik.io/docker-compose.yml

Note: This command uses wget to download the file from the specified URL.

For macOS Users

You can run:

curl -O https://goauthentik.io/docker-compose.yml

Note: curl is another download tool, and the -O option keeps the original filename.

Next, you need to generate a secure password and key, crucial for running authentik. You can use tools like pwgen or openssl to generate them.

Generate these values and write them to a .env file with the following commands:

echo "PG_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 36 | tr -d '\n')" >> .env
echo "AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 60 | tr -d '\n')" >> .env

Note: This code generates random passwords using openssl. tr -d '\n' removes newline characters from the generated string for a neat environment configuration.

Caution: The password for the PostgreSQL database must meet specific character limits (99 characters), so please keep that in mind!🔒

Additionally, enabling error reporting is a good idea:

echo "AUTHENTIK_ERROR_REPORTING__ENABLED=true" >> .env

This sets error reporting to enabled, allowing the system to report issues when they occur.

Email Configuration (Optional but Recommended) 📧

To ensure authentik can send notifications and alerts, it is advisable to configure the email functionality. You need to add the following content to the .env file:

AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__HOST=localhost
AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__PORT=25
AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__USERNAME=
AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__PASSWORD=
AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__USE_TLS=false
AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__USE_SSL=false
AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__TIMEOUT=10
AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__FROM=authentik@localhost

Note: These settings define the SMTP configuration, ensuring the email functionality works correctly.

Configuring Ports 80/443 🔍

authentik listens on ports 9000 and 9443 by default. If you want to run authentik on standard HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443) ports, you can set the following in the .env file:

COMPOSE_PORT_HTTP=80
COMPOSE_PORT_HTTPS=443

This makes it easier for users to access authentik, simplifying entry into the system.

Starting Up 🚀

The final step! You can now start authentik. First, run:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

• docker compose pull is used to download Docker images, ensuring all service files are up to date.📥
• docker compose up -d starts all containers in the background.

Warning: Be careful not to change the local timezone settings on the system to avoid issues with OAuth and SAML authentication.

Once the installation is complete, visit the following address to begin initial setup:

http://<your server's IP or hostname>:9000/if/flow/initial-setup/

Here, you’ll set a password for the default user akadmin and be ready to start using authentik!

Countless others can easily use Docker Compose, so give it a try! 🎉

Installing Authentik Using Kubernetes 🐳

For those already using Kubernetes, here’s a guide on how to install authentik via Helm.

System Requirements 🛠️

First, make sure your system has the following components installed:

• Kubernetes cluster
• Helm tool (the package manager for Kubernetes)

Generating Passwords 🔑

To securely use your database and caching services, you need to generate a sufficient number of secure passwords. You can run the following commands:

pwgen -s 50 1
openssl rand 60 | base64 -w 0

Note: These two commands provide the length and format of the generated passwords, ensuring you have robust passwords to protect your data.

Setting Values 📄

Next, create a values.yaml file that includes the following basic configurations:

authentik:
  secret_key: "PleaseGenerateASecureKey"
  error_reporting:
    enabled: true
  postgresql:
    password: "ThisIsNotASecurePassword"
server:
  ingress:
    ingressClassName: nginx | traefik | kong
    enabled: true
    hosts:
      - authentik.domain.tld
postgresql:
  enabled: true
  auth:
    password: "ThisIsNotASecurePassword"
redis:
  enabled: true

Note: This defines the authentik key, error reporting functionality, as well as passwords for PostgreSQL and Redis, among other settings.

You can visit ArtifactHub to see more configurable values to better customize your settings.

Installing the Authentik Helm Chart 📦

Use the following commands to install authentik:

helm repo add authentik https://charts.goauthentik.io
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install authentik authentik/authentik -f values.yaml

Note: This step first adds the authentik Helm repository to your system, updates the information, and then initiates the installation.

During deployment, database migrations will be automatically applied to ensure the correct data structure.

Accessing Authentik 🌐

After installation, you can access authentik at https://<ingress-host-name>/if/flow/initial-setup/. Here, you can set a secure password for the default user akadmin.

Optional Step: Configuring Global Email Credentials 📬

To enable authentik to send alerts or handle issues, you can add the following configuration to the values.yaml file:

authentik:
  email:
    host: ""
    port: 587
    username: ""
    password: ""
    use_tls: false
    use_ssl: false
    timeout: 30
    from: ""

Note: These settings configure the SMTP mail server so the system can send various notifications.

With these straightforward steps, you can install and configure authentik on Kubernetes using Helm! Everyone is welcome to experience this powerful identity management solution! 🎊