Grouper is a Java-based open source (Apache 2 license) group registry designed to provide sophisticated group management (and therefore authorisation) capabilities. The project is hosted by Internet2, and has been funded by Internet2, the US National Science Foundation, Jisc, and various universities.
Features
Grouper operates on a hierarchical tree or folder based design, where groups can be nested within other groups. Management of individual groups or entire folders can be delegated, and group memberships can be automatically calculated based on various criteria. Database level point-in-time audit capability is provided.
Groups can be sourced from authoritative sources ("loader" groups), calculated based on rules applied to other groups ("composite" groups), or managed manually ("ad hoc" groups). Group members are based on "subject sources", typically provided by an external person registry. Support for email invitation of external participants is also available. The resultant groups can be published to LDAP or queried via VOOT or web services APIs.
Supported standards
Provisioning and integration via LDAP, SCIM, SQL, VOOT.
User Interfaces and APIs
As of v2.2, Grouper ships with a completely new web-based user interface. (The legacy "admin" and "lite" interfaces remain available.) Grouper Web Services offer access to group management capabilities via SOAP and REST-like interfaces.
Support for Virtual Organisations
Grouper offers VOs the ability to represent complex group relationships (hierarchical, set oriented, etc.), and the delegated administration of those memberships.
Dependencies on other technologies
Grouper requires Java and an RDBMS (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, etc.). In addition, the UI and WS require ant, a servlet container (e.g. Tomcat), and a web server (e.g. Apache).
Operational overview
High Availability is achieved by making the relevant components highly available.
Expected level of support
On-going maintenance will be funded by the Internet2 TIER initiative for the next several years.