Kanidm is a modern, secure, and comparatively lightweight identity management solution developed in Rust, focusing on clear standards, self‑healing mechanisms, and simple administration. The platform is suitable for home labs, small businesses, and even enterprise environments.
Compared to many other IAM systems (e.g., Keycloak), Kanidm comes with built‑in features such as OAuth2/OIDC, Unix integration, passkey authentication (WebAuthn), and an application portal.
Kanidm supports modern security features:
Configuration is done via CLI and configuration files – you can find the complete references in the Kanidm Book: https://kanidm.github.io/kanidm/master/
Kanidm is officially provided as a container. You can find the official images on Docker Hub:
In the following example, Kanidm is set up with a bind mount for certificates and a persistent volume for data.
/etc/kanidm/
├── chain.pem
├── key.pem
└── server.toml
version = "2"
bindaddress = "0.0.0.0:8443"
db_path = "/data/kanidm.db"
tls_chain = "/data/chain.pem"
tls_key = "/data/key.pem"
domain = "idm.example.com"
origin = "https://idm.example.com"
log_level = "info"
Note: Domain, origin, tls_chain & tls_key must be set, or Kanidm will not start.
services:
kanidmd:
container_name: kanidmd
image: kanidm/server:latest
restart: always
volumes:
- type: bind
source: /etc/kanidm/
target: /data/
- kanidm_data:/var/lib/kanidm/
ports:
- "443:8443"
volumes:
kanidm_data:
docker compose up -d
docker logs -f kanidmd
If TLS and configuration are correct, the server should start successfully.
docker run --rm -it --network host kanidm/tools:latest kanidm login --user admin --password
You can then manage users, groups, and applications.
Configuration is done via CLI and configuration files – full references in the Kanidm Book.
docker kill -s HUP kanidmd
Kanidm is a modern, secure, and lightweight identity management solution that is easy to deploy via containers. Its strict but simple configuration makes it ideal for home labs and larger environments.
