---
title: ASP.NET Identity
slug: cms-12/docs/aspnetidentity
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-10T15:55:53.000Z
---

You can configure the application to use **ASP.NET Identity** as the authentication module for managing users and roles. This configuration requires the following NuGet package as a dependency: `EPiServer.CMS.UI.AspNetIdentity`.

To use and configure ASP.NET Identity Core-based authentication, add the following code to the `Startup` class:

```csharp
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) {
  ...
  services.AddCmsAspNetIdentity<ApplicationUser>();
  ...
}
```

The `EPiServer.CMS.UI.AspNetIdentity` NuGet package implements the `UIUsersManager`, `UIRoleManager`, `SecurityEntityProvider`, `IQueryableNotificationUsers`, and `SignInManager` services, which are needed by the Optimizely user interface. This means the users, roles, and access rights can be managed from the admin view. There are already, by default, login or logout views in `EPiServer.Cms.Shell.UI`.

## Custom user model

There are two ways to define a custom user model.

- Inherit from `EPiServer.Cms.UI.AspNetIdentity.ApplicationUser`:

```csharp
public class CustomUser : ApplicationUser
{
// Your custom properties
}
```

- Inherit from `Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.EntityFramework.IdentityUser` and the `EPiServer.Shell.Security.IUIUser` interface:

```csharp
public class CustomUser: IdentityUser, IUIUser {
  public string Comment {
    get;
    set;
  }
  public bool IsApproved {
    get;
    set;
  }
  public bool IsLockedOut {
    get;
    set;
  }

  [Column(TypeName = "datetime2")]
  public DateTime CreationDate {
    get;
    set;
  }

  [Column(TypeName = "datetime2")]
  public DateTime ? LastLockoutDate {
    get;
    set;
  }

  [Column(TypeName = "datetime2")]
  public DateTime ? LastLoginDate {
    get;
    set;
  }

  public string PasswordQuestion {
    get;
  }

  public string ProviderName {
    get {
      return "MyProviderName";
    }
  }

  [NotMapped]
  public string Username {
    get {
      return base.UserName;
    }
    set {
      base.UserName = value;
    }
  }
}
```

After defining a custom user model, you must configure it in the `Startup` class:

```csharp
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) {
  ...
  services.AddCmsAspNetIdentity<CustomUser>();
  ...
}
```

## Migration

By default, the `EPiServer.CMS.UI.AspNetIdentity` provides a built-in `ApplicationDbContext` class to work with identity entities like Users and Roles. If you want to use EF Core migration for that context, you can configure the migration assembly when calling `AddCmsAspNetIdentity()` similar to the following:

```csharp
services.AddCmsAspNetIdentity<ApplicationUser>(configureSqlServerOptions: o => o.MigrationsAssembly(\"Your.Assembly\"));
```

Then, you can start creating migration for the `ApplicationDbContext` using [EF Core Tools](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/cli/dotnet):

```powershell
dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate
```

See [EF Core Migration guide](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/managing-schemas/migrations/?tabs=dotnet-core-cli).