| Developer(s) | Red Hat |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2.1.3 / 19 October 2011 |
| Operating system | Linux / Unix |
| Type | Identity management |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | www.freeipa.org |
FreeIPA is a Red Hat sponsored open source project which aims to provide an easily managed Identity, Policy and Audit (IPA) suite primarily targeted towards networks of Linux and Unix computers. FreeIPA can be compared to Novell's Identity Manager or Microsoft's Active Directory in that the goals and mechanisms used are similar.
FreeIPA currently uses 389 Directory Server for its LDAP implementation and MIT's Kerberos 5 for authentication and single sign-on. This year FreeRADIUS and Samba are also to be included in the FreeIPA suite.
While each of the major components of FreeIPA is a pre-existing open source project it is the bundling of these components into a single manageable suite that make FreeIPA more comparable to its proprietary software cousins, Identity Manager and Active Directory.
FreeIPA aims to provide support not just for Linux and Unix based computers but ultimately Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh computers also.