# System Administrators: Authentication methods

![](/files/-LioWGAEl3-8dcJrDqcC)

As a general rule of thumb, all configuration related to authentication methods can be found in a mix of the settings (inside the portal administration or the settings\_current table) and the main/inc/conf/auth.conf.php file.

In order to keep track of who's identified through what, Chamilo usually keeps track of the user's authentication source through the **auth\_source** field in the **user** table. A user identified through LDAP will use « ldap » (if synchronised automatically) or « extldap » (if first registered when logging in for the first time).


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