From Setup to Migration: Tools for ACL Management in AEM

Keeping control over who has access to what in your AEM environment is crucial for security and efficient content management. Managing Access Control Lists (ACLs) as a manual process, can be tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming. Fortunately, several tools can help you streamline and simplify ACL management, both for setting up new permissions and migrating existing ones.

Lets first start with the summarized view of available Tools.

Aspect	AEM 6.5	AEM as a Cloud Service
Permission set-up	• Netcentric ACL Tool • Repo-init	• Netcentric ACL Tool • Repo-init
Troubleshooting ACLs	• Useradmin • Access Control Editor • CRXDE	• Permissions UI
Reordering ACL	• Access Control Editor	•Not available
ACL Migration between AEM environments	• ACL Package manager	• ACL Package manager (mutable areas) • Repo-init scripts • Netcentric ACL tool (if its already being used)
ACL Migration from On-premise to Cloud		• Content Transfer Tool (CTT) • Netcentric ACL tool (if its already being used)

Links to various tools compared on the blog:

• Netcentric ACL Tool
  • Blog on deploying ACL tool: Deploying ACLs with Netcentric accesscontroltool in AEM
• AEM Permissions UI
  • Global Navigation > Tools > Security > Permissions
  • Details: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-65/content/security/touch-ui-principal-view.html?lang=en
• Repo-init scripts
• CRXDE Acccess Control Tab

• Access Control Editor
  • CRX Explorer > <Select_a_node_you_want_to_debug> > Security > Access Control Editor

• ACL Package Manager
• Content Transfer Tool (CTT)

Tools that I prefer using:

Aspect	AEM 6.5	AEM as a Cloud Service	AEM SDK
Permission set-up (Mutable Areas)	Netcentric ACL Tool	Netcentric ACL Tool	Netcentric ACL Tool
Permission set-up (Immutable Areas)	Netcentric ACL Tool	Repo-init	Repo-init
Troubleshooting ACLs	Useradmin + Access Control Editor	Permissions UI	Useradmin + Access Control Editor
Granular permission set-up	– Permissions UI for exploring – Access Control Editor for ACL reordering* – Netcentric ACL Tool for permission set-up **Avoid reordering by using “Allow-based” set-up	– Permissions UI for exploring – Netcentric ACL Tool for permission set-up	– Permissions UI for exploring – Access Control Editor for ACL reordering* – Netcentric ACL Tool for permission set-up **Avoid reordering by using “Allow-based” set-up
ACL Migration	– ACL Package manager – Netcentric ACL tool, if already in use	– Content Transfer Tool (CTT) – Netcentric ACL tool, if already in use

Detailed comparison between various Tools

Aspect	NetCentric ACL Tool	Repo-init Scripts	ACS Commons Package Manager	Content Transfer Tool
Permission Setup (Mutable Area)	✅ Configs via YAML files can be used for setting up permissions in mutable areas. Best suited for large ACL set-ups, like MSM	✅ Permissions can be set via scripts	❌Cannot be used for permission set-up.	❌Cannot be used for permission set-up.
Permission Setup (Immutable Area)	✅ Configs via YAML files can be used for setting up permissions in immutable areas. Best suited for large ACL set-ups, like MSM	✅ Permissions can be set via scripts	❌Cannot be used for permission set-up..	❌Cannot be used for permission set-up.
Granular Permission Setup	✅ Configs via YAML files can be used for set-up granular permissions via glob.	✅ Offers options for fine-grained permission management via glob.	✅ Supports granular permission setup via packages	✅ Granular permissions can be migrated from On-premise to Cloud.
ACL Ordering	✅ order of ACEs is ensured	❌ACLs can’t be reordered after set-up	🔶ACLs are migrated, but can’t be reorderd	🔶ACLs are migrated, but can’t be reorderd
Available OOTB	🔶Additional package	✅ OOTB	🔶Additional package	✅ OOTB
Old Entries Can be Deleted	✅ Provides functionality for deleting old entries, ensuring efficient maintenance of ACL configurations.		❌Not meant for deleting ACLs	❌Not meant for deleting ACLs
Best suited for	Permission Set-up	Permission Set-up	ACL Migration between AEM instances. On AEMaaCS, only mutable area might be supported	ACL Migration from on-premise to Cloud

Detailed comparison between various UI:

Aspect	AEM Permissions UI	AEM CRXDE (Access Control Tab)	Useradmin	Access Control Editor
Permission Setup (Mutable Area)	✅ Offers a user-friendly interface for managing permissions.	🔶Offers technical interface for managing permissions on 6.5 and AEM SDK   ❌Not available on Cloud	🔶Enables setting permissions in mutable areas on 6.5 and AEM SDK.   ❌Not available on Cloud	🔶 Offers technical interface for managing permissions on 6.5 and AEM SDK   ❌Not available on Cloud
Permission Setup (Immutable Area)	🔶 Offers a user-friendly interface for managing permissions. ❌Cannot be used on cloud to set permissions in immutable areas	🔶Offers technical interface for managing permissions on 6.5 and AEM SDK   ❌Not available on Cloud	🔶Enables setting permissions in immutable areas on 6.5 and AEM SDK.   ❌Not available on Cloud	🔶 Offers technical interface for managing permissions on 6.5 and AEM SDK   ❌Not available on Cloud
Granular Permission Setup	✅ Offers options for fine-grained permission management via glob.	✅ Offers options for fine-grained permission management via glob.	❌Granular permissions cannot be applied	✅ Offers options for fine-grained permission management via glob.
ACL Ordering	❌ACLs can’t be reordered	❌ACLs can’t be reordered	❌ACLs can’t be reordered	✅ ACLs can be reordered.
Troubleshooting	🔶 UI not intuitive enough to understand Effective & ineffective ACLs	🔶 UI not intuitive enough to understand Effective & ineffective ACLs	✅ Provides options for troubleshooting ACL issues via Effective & ineffective ACLs	✅ Can be used along with Useradmin to reorder ACLs and validate effective ACLs
Resource/Principal View	🔶 Principal-centric view limits visibility of effective permissions on resource	🔶Principal-centric view limits visibility of effective permissions on resource	✅ Resource-centric view. Best available UI to understand effective v/s ineffective permissions	🔶 Resource Centric View with all ACLs.  Doesn’t display effective ACLs directly.
Available OOTB	✅ OOTB	🔶Available only on 6.5 & AEM SDK	🔶Available only on 6.5 & AEM SDK	🔶Available only on 6.5 & AEM SDK
Old Entries Can be Deleted	🔶 For Cloud, enteries can only be deleted from Mutable areas.	🔶Old enteries can be deleted on 6.5 and AEM SDK   ❌Not available on Cloud	🔶Old enteries can be removed on 6.5 and AEM SDK   ❌Not available on Cloud	🔶Old enteries can be deleted on 6.5 and AEM SDK   ❌Not available on Cloud
Best suited for	Urgent permission Set-up via admins.	Urgent permission Set-up via admins.	Troubleshooting	Troubleshooting & ACL reordering

Additional Resources

For tips on how to Effectively manage ACLs, visit AEM User Permissions: Tips for Effortless Control