Design and Implementation of a Highly Available Authentication and Authorization System in a University Environment

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Ensuring uninterrupted access to digital services such as learning management systems, email, and student portals is essential for the operational continuity of modern educational institutions. Single Sign-On (SSO) systems streamline authentication by enabling centralized identity management, but they inherently introduce a critical single point of failure (SPOF). This paper presents the design and experimental validation of a highly available, container-based SSO architecture tailored for university environments using open-source components. The proposed solution integrates Keycloak for identity and access management, HAProxy with Keepalived for resilient load balancing, and PostgreSQL with streaming replication for data persistence. Automated failover is achieved at the application and load balancing layers with sub-second recovery, while custom monitoring enables database layer recovery within 20 seconds. The architecture eliminates SPOFs across all major layers without relying on complex orchestration frameworks, offering a replicable and lightweight blueprint for resilient authentication infrastructure in academic settings.