Lesson in Brief: What Is Keycloak, Why Use It & Next Steps

Data breaches are already far too common and the IT security industry is ever evolving to combat unauthorized access to systems. So, how can we as FileMaker developers and deployers embrace modern security practices? One way is to utilize an Identity and Access Management solution, such as Keycloak, and in this multi-part series we'll be looking at how to install, configure and connect Keycloak to authenticate users to a FileMaker database.

Lesson in Brief: Installing Ubuntu On A Virtual Machine Utilizing Windows 10

In part one of our Keycloak series, we jump straight in with getting our operating system of choice installed on a virtual machine, ready for Keycloak to be installed. As explained in our introduction blog post, we've chosen to use Ubuntu and Hyper-V on Windows 10, so let's get started on our epic journey!

Lesson in Brief: Installing Keycloak And Configuring Ubuntu

In our previous blog post, we installed Ubuntu on a virtual machine and then applied OS updates, ready for us to install Keycloak which is going to be our authentication server for our users to access our FileMaker database. So, next up, downloading and installing Keycloak. Let's dig in...

Lesson in Brief: Installing A Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate With Auto-Renew

So far in our adventure into the depths of setting up an authentication server, we've installed Ubuntu, installed Keycloak and completed some initial configuration to allow us to log in to the software. We must remember that what we're trying to achieve here is better security and as such having our authentication server be secure is critical. So, we're going to need to have encryption, which means installing a SSL certificate. Let's do this!

Lesson in Brief: Installing MySQL And Configuring Keycloak To Use It

If you've been following our Keycloak series and have survived the previous SSL certificate article, congratulations. We're close to actually getting stuck into Keycloak itself, but we have one last installation item to take care of. Out of the box, Keycloak comes with a relational database called H2, but this is primarily intended for development and testing purposes and is not designed for high concurrency environments. So, we need to set up Keycloak to connect to a more solid database, for which we are going to use MySQL.

Lesson in Brief: Setting Up A Realm, Client, Groups And Users

So far in our Keycloak series we have been setting up the infrastructure for our server to run on, but now that's done we can actually configure Keycloak to act as our authentication server for FileMaker. We'll be using the Keycloak Administrator Console to do this, so let's get logged in and get things set up.

Lesson in Brief: Adjusting External Authentication And Setting Up Groups

In our last article we configured Keycloak with a realm, client, users and more, ready for it to act as our authentication server for our FileMaker database. In the final stretch of our epic Keycloak journey, we turn our attention to FileMaker and the items we need to take care of there to bring this all together. We're almost there, let's get stuck in!

Lesson in Brief: Taking Advantage Of Additional Security Features In Keycloak

Now that we have configured Keycloak to allow us to authenticate to a FileMaker database, we can take advantage of other features of Keycloak to further secure our database. Two factor authentication is popular nowadays and we're going to implement that in this article.

Lesson in Brief: Logging Into A Database Without Using A Password & Then Serious MFA

In our last article we set up two factor authentication to make access to our database file more secure - one factor is your username/password and the second factor is the authenticator app on your mobile device. But, we can go another direction too, utilzing something like a YubiKey for password-less authentication. Let's check out how...

Lesson in Brief: New Options In FileMaker Server 19.4 Allow For Less Complex Set Up

Back in part 6 of our Keycloak series, we walked through the steps of how to set up FileMaker Server to use Keycloak to authenticate to a database. With the release of FileMaker 19.4, things have got a little easier, so let's check out what's new...

Lesson in Brief: Changes In Keycloak 16 Require A Different SSL Configuration Set Up

In part 3 of our Keycloak series, our most popular Keycloak article by far, we tackled the beast that is securing the Keycloak server with a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate. When we released that article, Keycloak was on version 12 but technology moves at a rapid pace and now Keycloak 16.1.0 is the current version with some significant changes under the hood that affect our SSL configuration. Let's check out what's changed and how we go about configuring our SSL certificate in this version of Keycloak...

Lesson in Brief: Setting Up A Server With Ubuntu And MySQL In Preparation For Keycloak 17

We have previously written a complete and lengthy series about Keycloak, an Identity and Access Management solution that can be used with FileMaker to provide centralized management of users, multi-factor authentication, password-less authentication, act as a broker for other Identity Providers and more.

But the folks over at Keycloak HQ have been relentless in their pursuit of improvements to the software, and in mid February 2022, Keycloak 17 was released with a new underlying technology that requires us to revisit and update our deployment tutorial. So, let's get to it!

Lesson in Brief: Obtaining A Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate For Keycloak 17

Our previous Keycloak article on SSL certificates has been, by far, the most popular article in the series. Undoubtedly, it's not just FileMaker developers visiting that page, but it's encouraging that the security article within the security series has picked up that much traction. We must encrypt the traffic between our servers, be that Keycloak or FileMaker, and again to that end we'll be utilizing Let's Encrypt certificates for Keycloak 17.

Lesson in Brief: Downloading Keycloak And Configuring The Configuration File

So far in this Keycloak 17 series, we have been preparing our server by installing Ubuntu, MySQL, and downloading our SSL certificate. Now it's time to download the star of the show, Keycloak 17, and do our final bit of preparation before we can get it started. Without further ado...

Lesson in Brief: Starting Keycloak 17 Including On Boot And Next Steps

We're approaching the finish line with our Keycloak 17 series, with just a couple more things to take care of. In this final article, we'll be getting our Keycloak server up and running, along with getting it to start when the machine reboots, and looking at some port considerations and next steps for integrating with FileMaker. Let's get this finished up!