# Keycloak Realm Configuration Management Tools Survey Results

DevFeed: [Keycloak Realm Configuration Management Tools Survey Results](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/keycloak-realm-configuration-management-tools-survey-results-31658.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.keycloak.org/2024/09/realm-config-management-tools-survey-results>)

Author: Thomas Darimont

Published: 2024-09-11T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Keycloak Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/keycloak-blog.md>)

Topics: [Keycloak](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/keycloak.md>), [configuration-management](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/configuration-management.md>), [terraform provider](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/terraform-provider.md>), [API](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/api.md>), [Terraform](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/terraform.md>)

Tags: [code-completion](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code-completion.md>), [configuration-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/configuration-management.md>), [idm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/idm.md>), [kerberos](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kerberos.md>), [keycloak](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/keycloak.md>), [ldap](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ldap.md>), [management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/management.md>), [openid-connect](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/openid-connect.md>), [realm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/realm.md>), [saml](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/saml.md>), [sso](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sso.md>), [terraform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/terraform.md>), [terraform-provider](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/terraform-provider.md>), [validation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/validation.md>)

## AI overview

The Keycloak project reports results from a community survey on realm configuration management tools, based on 433 responses. The Terraform Keycloak Provider received about 51% of votes, and the five most-used tools accounted for 84% of responses. Respondents also identified challenges involving Admin API usability, configuration change detection, release compatibility, automatically created components, linting, validation, and code completion.

## Source excerpt

Three months ago, the Keycloak project conducted a survey to gather insights on realm configuration tooling within our community. The number of responses overwhelmed us! With a total of 433 (!) submissions, it highlighted the diverse range of options our community uses for configuring realms. Thank You for your valuable feedback! Popular Tools in Use The survey revealed a variety of tools employed by the community for realm configuration, including: Terraform Provider for Keycloak Keycloak-Config-CLI Self-developed Realm Configuration Management Keycloak JSON Import/Export Keycloak Admin CLI kcadm.sh EPAM Keycloak Operator Keycloak Ansible Keycloak Pulumi Custom Operator for Realm Import/Update and Client Provisioning Keycloak Operator Realm Import via Custom Resources Crossplane Provider for Keycloak KeycloakMigration keycloak-configurator Keycloak Groovy Helpers Tool Usage Distribution From the submissions, we observed the following distribution of tool usage among respondents: Terraform Keycloak Provider ~51% of the votes Keycloak-Config-CLI ~16% of the votes Self-developed Realm Configuration Management ~7% of the votes Keycloak JSON Realm Import/Export ~6% of the votes Keycloak Admin CLI ~4% of the votes These top five tools accounted for 84% of all responses. Areas for Improvement While each tool has its strengths and weaknesses, the survey highlighted several common challenges: Using the Admin API can be awkward and inconsistent, for example, with references using IDs versus aliases. Recognizing changes in the configuration, such as when new roles are added to service accounts via the Admin UI, can be challenging or impossible. Many tools depend heavily on the Keycloak version used and are often not compatible with new releases. Managing components that are automatically created by Keycloak, like service accounts, is challenging with existing configuration tools. Lack of support for configuration linting, validation and code completion What's Next? Based on t