freeipa Installation Guide Installation Guide

freeipa is a free and open-source integrated identity and authentication solution. FreeIPA provides centralized authentication, authorization, and account information, serving as an open-source alternative to Microsoft Active Directory

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores recommended

RAM: 2GB minimum (4GB+ recommended)

Storage: 10GB for installation

Network: LDAP, Kerberos, DNS, HTTPS

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 389 (default freeipa port)

Ports 636, 88, 464, 80, 443

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 freeipa
sudo dnf install -y freeipa-server

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=389/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
ipa --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install freeipa
sudo apt install -y freeipa-server

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

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 389

# Verify installation
ipa --version

bash

# Install freeipa
sudo pacman -S freeipa-server

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

# Verify installation
ipa --version

bash

# Install freeipa
apk add --no-cache freeipa-server

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

# Verify installation
ipa --version

bash

# Install freeipa
sudo zypper install -y freeipa-server

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=389/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
ipa --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install freeipa-server

# Start service
brew services start freeipa-server

# Verify installation
ipa --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install freeipa-server

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

# Start service
service ipa start

# Verify installation
ipa --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install freeipa-server

# Or using Scoop
scoop install freeipa-server

# Verify installation
ipa --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/freeipa-server

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

# Test configuration
ipa --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable ipa

# Start service
sudo systemctl start ipa

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop ipa

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart ipa

# Check status
sudo systemctl status ipa

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u ipa -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add ipa default

# Start service
rc-service ipa start

# Stop service
rc-service ipa stop

# Restart service
rc-service ipa restart

# Check status
rc-service ipa status

bash

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

# Start service
service ipa start

# Stop service
service ipa stop

# Restart service
service ipa restart

# Check status
service ipa status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start freeipa-server
brew services stop freeipa-server
brew services restart freeipa-server

# Check status
brew services list | grep freeipa-server

powershell

# Start service
net start ipa

# Stop service
net stop ipa

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

# Check status
Get-Service ipa

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream freeipa-server_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:389;
}

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

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name freeipa-server.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/freeipa-server.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/freeipa-server.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://freeipa-server_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 freeipa-server.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://freeipa-server.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName freeipa-server.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/freeipa-server.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/freeipa-server.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:389/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:389/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend freeipa-server_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/freeipa-server.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend freeipa-server_backend

backend freeipa-server_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server freeipa-server1 127.0.0.1:389 check

bash

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=389/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 ipa

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u ipa -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep freeipa-server)

bash

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

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

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

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop ipa

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

# Start service
sudo systemctl start ipa

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u ipa -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/freeipa-server/freeipa-server.log

# Check configuration
ipa --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/freeipa-server

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 389

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 389

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

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep freeipa-server)

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

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 389

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  freeipa-server:
    image: freeipa-server:latest
    ports:
      - "389:389"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/freeipa-server
      - ./data:/var/lib/freeipa-server
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update freeipa-server

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade freeipa-server

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu freeipa-server

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade freeipa-server

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update freeipa-server

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade freeipa-server

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

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart ipa

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/freeipa-server

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

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/freeipa-server

Official Documentation: https://docs.freeipa-server.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/freeipa-server/freeipa-server

Community Forum: https://forum.freeipa-server.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.freeipa-server.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

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