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SCIM provisioning using SAML SSO for GitLab.com groups (SILVER ONLY)

Introduced in GitLab.com Silver 11.10.

System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM), is an open standard that enables the automation of user provisioning. When SCIM is provisioned for a GitLab group, membership of that group is synchronized between GitLab and the identity provider.

GitLab's SCIM API implements part of the RFC7644 protocol.

Currently, the following actions are available:

  • CREATE
  • UPDATE
  • DELETE (deprovisioning)

The following identity providers are supported:

  • Azure

Requirements

GitLab configuration

Once Single sign-on has been configured, we can:

  1. Navigate to the group and click Settings > SAML SSO.
  2. Click on the Generate a SCIM token button.
  3. Save the token and URL so they can be used in the next step.

SCIM token configuration

Identity Provider configuration

Azure

The SAML application that was created during Single sign-on setup now needs to be set up for SCIM.

  1. Check the configuration for your GitLab SAML app and ensure that Name identifier value (NameID) points to user.objectid or another unique identifier. This will match the extern_uid used on GitLab.

    Name identifier value mapping

  2. Set up automatic provisioning and administrative credentials by following the Provisioning users and groups to applications that support SCIM section in Azure's SCIM setup documentation.

During this configuration, note the following:

  • The Tenant URL and secret token are the ones retrieved in the previous step.
  • Should there be any problems with the availability of GitLab or similar errors, the notification email set will get those.
  • It is recommended to set a notification email and check the Send an email notification when a failure occurs checkbox.
  • For mappings, we will only leave Synchronize Azure Active Directory Users to AppName enabled.

You can then test the connection by clicking on Test Connection. If the connection is successful, be sure to save your configuration before moving on. See below for troubleshooting.

Configure attribute mapping

  1. Click on Synchronize Azure Active Directory Users to AppName, to configure the attribute mapping.

  2. Click Delete next to the mail mapping.

  3. Map userPrincipalName to emails[type eq "work"].value and change its Matching precedence to 2.

  4. Map mailNickname to userName.

  5. Determine how GitLab will uniquely identify users.

    • Use objectId unless users already have SAML linked for your group.
    • If you already have users with SAML linked then use the Name ID value from the SAML configuration. Using a different value will likely cause duplicate users and prevent users from accessing the GitLab group.

  6. Create a new mapping:

    1. Click Add New Mapping.
    2. Set:
      • Source attribute to the unique identifier determined above.
      • Target attribute to id.
      • Match objects using this attribute to Yes.
      • Matching precedence to 1.

  7. Create another new mapping:

    1. Click Add New Mapping.
    2. Set:
      • Source attribute to the unique identifier determined above.
      • Target attribute to externalId.

  8. Click the userPrincipalName mapping and change Match objects using this attribute to No.

    Save your changes and you should have the following configuration:

    Azure's attribute mapping configuration

    NOTE: Note: If you used a unique identifier other than objectId, be sure to map it instead to both id and externalId.

  9. Below the mapping list click on Show advanced options > Edit attribute list for AppName.

  10. Leave the id as the primary and only required field.

    NOTE: Note: username should neither be primary nor required as we don't support that field on GitLab SCIM yet.

    Azure's attribute advanced configuration

  11. Save all the screens and, in the Provisioning step, set the Provisioning Status to On.

    Provisioning status toggle switch

    NOTE: Note: You can control what is actually synced by selecting the Scope. For example, Sync only assigned users and groups will only sync the users assigned to the application (Users and groups), otherwise, it will sync the whole Active Directory.

Once enabled, the synchronization details and any errors will appear on the bottom of the Provisioning screen, together with a link to the audit logs.

CAUTION: Warning: Once synchronized, changing the field mapped to id and externalId will likely cause provisioning errors, duplicate users, and prevent existing users from accessing the GitLab group.

Troubleshooting

This section contains possible solutions for problems you might encounter.

Testing Azure connection: invalid credentials

When testing the connection, you may encounter an error: You appear to have entered invalid credentials. Please confirm you are using the correct information for an administrative account. If Tenant URL and secret token are correct, check whether your group path contains characters that may be considered invalid JSON primitives (such as .). Removing such characters from the group path typically resolves the error.

Azure: (Field) can't be blank sync error

When checking the Audit Logs for the Provisioning, you can sometimes see the error Namespace can't be blank, Name can't be blank, and User can't be blank.

This is likely caused because not all required fields (such as first name and last name) are present for all users being mapped.

As a workaround, try an alternate mapping:

  1. Follow the Azure mapping instructions from above.
  2. Delete the name.formatted target attribute entry.
  3. Change the displayName source attribute to have name.formatted target attribute.