SAML authentication integration allows your Grafana users to log in by using an external SAML Identity Provider (IdP). To enable this, Grafana becomes a Service Provider (SP) in the authentication flow, interacting with the IdP to exchange user information.
The SAML single-sign-on (SSO) standard is varied and flexible. Our implementation contains the subset of features needed to provide a smooth authentication experience into Grafana.
The table below describes all SAML configuration options. Continue reading below for details on specific options. Like any other Grafana configuration, you can apply these options as [environment variables]({{< relref "../installation/configuration.md#configure-with-environment-variables" >}}).
The SAML SSO standard uses asymmetric encryption to exchange information between the SP (Grafana) and the IdP. To perform such encryption, you need a public part and a private part. In this case, the X.509 certificate provides the public part, while the private key provides the private part.
Grafana supports two ways of specifying both the `certificate` and `private_key`.
* Without a suffix (`certificate` or `private_key`), the configuration assumes you've supplied the base64-encoded file contents.
* With the `_path` suffix (`certificate_path` or `private_key_path`), then Grafana treats the value entered as a file path and attempt to read the file from the file system.
You can only use one form of each configuration option. Using multiple forms, such as both `certificate` and `certificate_path`, results in an error.
You also need to define the public part of the IdP for message verification. The SAML IdP metadata XML defines where and how Grafana exchanges user information.
Prevents SAML response replay attacks and internal clock skews between the SP (Grafana) and the IdP. You can set a maximum amount of time between the IdP issuing a response and the SP (Grafana) processing it.
SP metadata is likely to expire at some point, perhaps due to a certificate rotation or change of location binding. Grafana allows you to specify for how long the metadata should be valid. Leveraging the `validUntil` field, you can tell consumers until when your metadata is going to be valid. The duration is computed by adding the duration to the current time.
* The `/saml/metadata` endpoint, which contains the SP metadata. You can either download and upload it manually, or youmake the IdP request it directly from the endpoint. Some providers name it Identifier or Entity ID.
* The `/saml/acs` endpoint, which is intended to receive the ACS (Assertion Customer Service) callback. Some providers name it SSO URL or Reply URL.
During the SAML SSO authentication flow, Grafana receives the ACS callback. The callback contains all the relevant information of the user under authentication embedded in the SAML response. Grafana parses the response to create (or update) the user within its internal database.
For Grafana to map the user information, it looks at the individual attributes within the assertion. You can think of these attributes as Key/Value pairs (although, they contain more information than that).
Grafana provides configuration options that let you modify which keys to look at for these values. The data we need to create the user in Grafana is Name, Login handle, and email.
An example is `assertion_attribute_name = "givenName"` where Grafana looks within the assertion for an attribute with a friendly name or name of `givenName`. Both, the friendly name (e.g. `givenName`) or the name (e.g. `urn:oid:2.5.4.42`) can be used interchangeably as the value for the configuration option.
To troubleshoot and get more log information, enable SAML debug logging in the configuration file. Refer to [Configuration]({{< relref "../installation/configuration.md#filters" >}}) for more information.
