authelia Installation Guide Installation Guide

authelia is a free and open-source authentication and authorization server. Authelia provides 2FA and SSO for your applications via a web portal, serving as an open-source alternative to Auth0 or Okta

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum

Storage: 100MB for installation

Network: HTTPS for authentication

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 9091 (default authelia port)

LDAP backend if used

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install authelia
sudo dnf install -y authelia

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now authelia

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9091/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
authelia --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install authelia
sudo apt install -y authelia

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now authelia

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 9091

# Verify installation
authelia --version

bash

# Install authelia
sudo pacman -S authelia

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now authelia

# Verify installation
authelia --version

bash

# Install authelia
apk add --no-cache authelia

# Enable and start service
rc-update add authelia default
rc-service authelia start

# Verify installation
authelia --version

bash

# Install authelia
sudo zypper install -y authelia

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now authelia

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9091/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
authelia --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install authelia

# Start service
brew services start authelia

# Verify installation
authelia --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install authelia

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'authelia_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service authelia start

# Verify installation
authelia --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install authelia

# Or using Scoop
scoop install authelia

# Verify installation
authelia --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/authelia

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
authelia --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable authelia

# Start service
sudo systemctl start authelia

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop authelia

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart authelia

# Check status
sudo systemctl status authelia

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u authelia -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add authelia default

# Start service
rc-service authelia start

# Stop service
rc-service authelia stop

# Restart service
rc-service authelia restart

# Check status
rc-service authelia status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'authelia_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service authelia start

# Stop service
service authelia stop

# Restart service
service authelia restart

# Check status
service authelia status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start authelia
brew services stop authelia
brew services restart authelia

# Check status
brew services list | grep authelia

powershell

# Start service
net start authelia

# Stop service
net stop authelia

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service authelia
Stop-Service authelia
Restart-Service authelia

# Check status
Get-Service authelia

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream authelia_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:9091;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name authelia.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name authelia.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/authelia.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/authelia.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://authelia_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName authelia.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://authelia.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName authelia.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/authelia.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/authelia.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:9091/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:9091/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend authelia_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/authelia.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend authelia_backend

backend authelia_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server authelia1 127.0.0.1:9091 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R authelia:authelia /etc/authelia
sudo chmod 750 /etc/authelia

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9091/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status authelia

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u authelia -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep authelia)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/authelia"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/authelia-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/authelia /var/lib/authelia

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/authelia-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop authelia

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/authelia/authelia-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start authelia

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u authelia -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/authelia/authelia.log

# Check configuration
authelia --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/authelia

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 9091

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 9091

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep authelia)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep authelia)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 9091

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  authelia:
    image: authelia:latest
    ports:
      - "9091:9091"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/authelia
      - ./data:/var/lib/authelia
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update authelia

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade authelia

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu authelia

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade authelia

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update authelia

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade authelia

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/authelia-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/authelia

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart authelia

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/authelia

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/authelia -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/authelia

Official Documentation: https://docs.authelia.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/authelia/authelia

Community Forum: https://forum.authelia.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.authelia.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources