# Groups

A **Group** is a collection of permissions that defines the level of access for users belonging to it. Groups consist of:

* Namespaces
* Application permissions
* Administration permissions

Groups must be pre-created, and the group's names in Lenses must match (case sensitive) those in the SSO provider.

## Creating groups

To create a new Group, go to **`Admin->Groups->New Group.`**

For every Group, you must set the data namespaces for Kafka or other available connections to data sources.

Groups must be given names, optionally a description.

## Adding namespaces to groups

Namespace permissions define the access to datasets. and

Each group must have a namespace. A namespace is a set of permissions that apply to topics or a set of topics, for example, ***prod\****. This allows you to define virtual multi-tenancy.

## Adding application permissions

Application permissions define how a user can interact with applications and linked resources associated with those datasets.

Application permissions cover:

1. Viewing or resetting Consumer group offsets linked to a group's namespaces
2. Deploying or viewing connectors linked to a group's namespaces
3. Deploying or viewing SQL Processors linked to a group's namespaces

Additionally, application permissions define whether a group can access a specified Connect cluster.

## Adding administration permissions

Admin permissions refer to activities that are in the global scope of Lenses and affect all the related entities.


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