Citadel offers several authentication modes that can be selected during initial setup. Once a mode is chosen, you should not attempt to change it, as doing so will prevent existing users from logging in.
The available authentication modes are:
This is the standard mode used by the vast majority of Citadel installations. Citadel maintains its own internal user database independently of the underlying operating system or any external directory services.
Self-contained authentication is the right choice for almost all sites. It requires zero external dependencies, zero ongoing directory maintenance, and allows users to change passwords or self-register according to the policies you configure in Citadel.
In this mode, Citadel authenticates logins against an external LDAP directory using the standard RFC 2307 POSIX accounts schema (common with OpenLDAP and FreeIPA).
When selecting this mode, you will need to provide the hostname or IP address of your LDAP server, the port number, the search base DN, a bind DN, and the bind password.
This mode authenticates users against a Microsoft Active Directory domain controller, utilizing Active Directory object attributes and schema conventions.
You will need the hostname or IP address and port number of your domain controller, along with the search base DN, bind DN, and bind password.
Unless you are deploying Citadel in an enterprise environment that already mandates centralized authentication through an existing Active Directory or OpenLDAP infrastructure, choose self-contained authentication.