Configuration Server - Standalone Profile

This is the default configuration mode which indicates that CAS does NOT require connections to an external configuration server and will run in an embedded standalone mode. When this option is turned on, CAS by default will attempt to locate settings and properties inside a pre-defined directories and files and otherwise falls back to typically using /etc/cas/config as the configuration directory.

Similar to the Spring Cloud external configuration server, the contents of this directory include (cas|application).(yml|properties) files that can be used to control CAS behavior. Also, note that this configuration directory can be monitored by CAS to auto-pick up changes and refresh the application context as needed. Please review this guide to learn more.

Note that by default, all CAS settings and configuration is controlled via the embedded application.properties file in the CAS server web application. There is also an embedded application.yml file that allows you to override all defaults if you wish to ship the configuration inside the main CAS web application and not rely on externalized configuration files. If you prefer properties to yaml, then application-standalone.properties will override application.properties as well.

Settings found in external configuration files are and will be able to override the defaults provided by CAS. The naming of the configuration files inside the CAS configuration directory follows the below pattern:

  • An application.(properties|yml|yaml) file is always loaded, if found.
  • Settings located inside properties|yml|yaml files whose name matches the value of spring.application.name are loaded (i.e cas.properties) Note: spring.application.name defaults to uppercase CAS but the lowercase name will also be loaded.
  • Settings located inside properties|yml|yaml files whose name matches the value of spring.profiles.active are loaded (i.e ldap.properties).
  • Profile-specific application properties outside of your packaged web application (application-{profile}.properties|yml|yaml) This allows you to, if needed, split your settings into multiple property files and then locate them by assigning their name to the list of active profiles (i.e. spring.profiles.active=standalone,testldap,stagingMfa)

Configuration files are loaded in the following order where spring.profiles.active=standalone,profile1,profile2. Note that the last configuration file loaded will override any duplicate properties from configuration files loaded earlier:

  1. application.(properties|yml|yaml)
  2. (lower case) spring.application.name.(properties|yml|yaml)
  3. spring.application.name.(properties|yml|yaml)
  4. application-standalone.(properties|yml|yaml)
  5. standalone.(properties|yml|yaml)
  6. application-profile1.(properties|yml|yaml)
  7. profile1.(properties|yml|yaml)
  8. application-profile2.(properties|yml|yaml)
  9. profile2.(properties|yml|yaml)

If two configuration files with same base name and different extensions exist, they are processed in the order of properties, yml and then yaml and then groovy (last one processed wins where duplicate properties exist). These external configuration files will override files located in the classpath (e.g. files from src/main/resources in your CAS overlay that end up in WEB-INF/classes) but the internal files are loaded per the Spring Boot rules which differ from the CAS standalone configuration rules described here (e.g. <profile>.properties would not be loaded from classpath but application-<profile>.properties would).

Sources

CAS by default will attempt to locate settings and properties using:

  1. /etc/cas/config
  2. /opt/cas/config
  3. /var/cas/config

CAS has the ability to also load a Groovy file for loading settings. The file is expected to be found at the above matching directory and should be named ${cas-application-name}.groovy, such as cas.groovy. The script is able to combine conditional settings for active profiles and common settings that are applicable to all environments and profiles into one location with a structure that is similar to the below example:



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// Settings may be filtered by individual profiles
profiles {
    standalone {
        cas.some.setting="value"
    }
}

// This applies to all profiles and environments
cas.common.setting="value"

To prepare CAS to support and integrate with Apache Groovy, please review this guide.

You can also use a dedicated configuration file to directly feed a collection of properties to CAS in form of a file or classpath resource. This is specially useful in cases where a bare CAS server is deployed in the cloud without the extra ceremony of a configuration server or an external directory for that matter and the deployer wishes to avoid overriding embedded configuration files.

The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:

The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Optional in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting is not immediately necessary in the end-user CAS configuration, because a default value is assigned or the activation of the feature is not conditionally controlled by the setting value. In other words, you should only include this field in your configuration if you need to modify the default value or if you need to turn on the feature controlled by the setting.

Configuration Metadata

The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.

Be Selective

This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.

YAGNI

Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.

Naming Convention

Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty, cas.some-property, cas.some_property are all valid names. While all forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc.

:information_source: Note

When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value. The only possible exception to this rule is when naming actuator endpoints; The name of the actuator endpoints (i.e. ssoSessions) MUST remain in camelCase mode.

Settings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas. All other settings are controlled and provided to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the way you intend.

Validation

Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.

Indexed Settings

CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value. The index [0] is meant to be incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.

Handling Overrides

:warning: Remember

You are advised to not overlay or otherwise modify the built in application.properties or bootstrap.properties files. This will only complicate and weaken your deployment. Instead try to comply with the CAS defaults and bootstrap CAS as much as possible via the defaults, override via application.yml, application-standalone.properties or use the outlined strategies. Likewise, try to instruct CAS to locate configuration files external to its own. Premature optimization will only lead to chaos.

The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:

The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Optional in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting is not immediately necessary in the end-user CAS configuration, because a default value is assigned or the activation of the feature is not conditionally controlled by the setting value. In other words, you should only include this field in your configuration if you need to modify the default value or if you need to turn on the feature controlled by the setting.

The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Third Party in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the configuration setting is not controlled, owned or managed by the CAS ecosystem, and affects functionality that is offered by a third-party library, such as Spring Boot or Spring Cloud to CAS. For additional info, you might have to visit the third-party source to find more details.

Configuration Metadata

The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.

Be Selective

This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.

YAGNI

Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.

Naming Convention

Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty, cas.some-property, cas.some_property are all valid names. While all forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc.

:information_source: Note

When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value. The only possible exception to this rule is when naming actuator endpoints; The name of the actuator endpoints (i.e. ssoSessions) MUST remain in camelCase mode.

Settings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas. All other settings are controlled and provided to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the way you intend.

Validation

Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.

Indexed Settings

CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value. The index [0] is meant to be incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.