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Single Sign-On (SSO)

PagerDuty can be configured with Single Sign-On (SSO) to external identity providers (IdPs) such as Microsoft Active Directory (using ADFS), Bitium, OneLogin, Okta, Ping Identity, SecureAuth and others using the SAML 2.0 protocol. Alternatively, your account can also be configured to support Google authentication using the OAuth 2.0 protocol (with user consent). Accessing Private Status Pages is handled via the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol.

SSO comes with the following benefits:

  • One-Click Corporate Login: This eliminates the need for a separate PagerDuty username and password, which means one less thing to remember.
  • On-Demand User Provisioning: PagerDuty user accounts are created on-demand once access is granted via the SSO provider.
  • Revoke User Access: When an employee leaves the company, administrators can quickly remove PagerDuty access within the SSO provider.

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Pricing Plans

Single Sign-On is available on the following pricing plans: Professional, Business, Enterprise for Incident Management and Digital Operations (Legacy). Please contact our Sales team to upgrade to a plan with this feature.

Configure Identity Provider Single Sign-On (SAML)

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Required User Permissions

Only Account Owners can configure Single Sign-On.

To configure SAML SSO:

  1. Search for your Identity Provider’s integration guide and follow the instructions in the guide.
  2. If the guide instructs you to paste information from your identity provider into your PagerDuty SSO configuration page, the Account Owner can access SSO settings by navigating to User Icon Account Settings Single Sign-On. Select the SAML radio button to continue steps in the integration guide. Note: Not all identity providers require this step. Please defer to the instructions in the integration guide.
  3. Configure your settings related to Allow username/password login, Require EXACT authentication context comparison and Require signed authentication requests depending on your integration guide’s instructions and your preferences.
  4. Optional: Under User Provisioning you can choose to Auto-provision users on first login or Redirect non-provisioned users.
  5. Once you are finished with the steps in your integration guide, click Save Changes in PagerDuty.

Shibboleth Configuration Help

You can hand-craft a metadata file if you wish. The contents should look similar to the following. Be sure to replace subdomain with your own PagerDuty subdomain.

In addition to configuration via metadata, you will need to configure RelyingParty in Shibboleth, as in the example below. Be sure to replace the provider URL with your own.

<rp:RelyingParty 
id="https://subdomain.pagerduty.com" 
provider="https://domain/idp/shibboleth" 
defaultAuthenticationMethod="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:unspecified" 
defaultSigningCredentialRef="IdPCredential"> 
<rp:ProfileConfiguration xsi:type="saml:SAML2SSOProfile" 
includeAttributeStatement="true" 
assertionLifetime="300000" 
assertionProxyCount="0" 
signResponses="conditional" 
signAssertions="never" 
signRequests="conditional" 
encryptAssertions="never" 
encryptNameIds="never" 
/> 
</rp:RelyingParty>

Custom SAML Configuration

For custom SAML configurations, we provide the following metadata URL to make your configuration easier:

https://{subdomain}.pagerduty.com/sso/saml/metadata

Required Attributes

For manual SAML configurations, we will validate and enforce the following attributes in the SAML payload:

  1. Destination (sometimes labeled SAML Recipient in identity provider configuration forms) is expected to be: 
https://{subdomain}.pagerduty.com/sso/saml/consume
  1. Audiences (sometimes labeled SAML Audience in identity provider configuration forms) is expected to be:
https://{subdomain}.pagerduty.com

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Important

There should be no trailing slash. Users will receive an HTTP 400 error when trying to log in if there is a / at the end of the URL.

  1. Name ID is expected to be the user's email address:
urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress

Optional Attributes for Auto-Provisioning

  • User names will be set to the value of the Name or name attribute we receive in your SAML payload. If there is no Name or name attribute in your SAML payload, then the user's name will default to their email address.
  • User roles will be set to the value of the Role or role attribute we receive, where the value must match one of our REST API user role values: admin, limited_user, user or read_only_user (known as Stakeholder user). Accounts with Advanced Permissions may also pass an observer role. If there is no Role or role attribute in your SAML payload then the user's role will default to the user role. This User role is linked to the User basic role and Manager advanced permission role.
  • The job title of the user will be derived from the jobresponsibilities attribute in the SAML payload, if present.

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Attributes

These attributes will only be used when a user is initially created. Changing the user's email address, name, or role in your identity provider will not change these values in PagerDuty; you will still need to update a user's login email address, name, or role in PagerDuty via API if you change them in your identity provider after the user has already been automatically provisioned in PagerDuty.

Configure Google Authentication (OAuth 2.0)

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Required User Permissions

Only Account Owners can configure Google Authentication (OAuth 2.0).

To configure Google Authentication:

  1. Navigate to User Icon Account Settings Single Sign-On. Select the Google radio button.
  2. Enter the Google Domain associated with your Google Apps account.
  3. Depending on your preferences, optionally select whether you would like to Allow username/password login and/or Auto-provision users on first login.
  4. Click Save Changes. Users will now be prompted to login via Google Authentication.

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Revoke User Access

Revoking a user's access in your SSO provider will prevent the user from logging in via SSO, but will not delete the user account in PagerDuty. You must still log in to the PagerDuty web app to remove them from schedules, escalation policies, and delete their user account. Please read Offboarding for more information about removing user accounts in PagerDuty.

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GSuite Multiple Domains Limitation

The PagerDuty Google Auth integration supports a single domain and cannot be used for multiple domains available in GSuite.

Configure Open ID Connect (OIDC)

Users can access private status pages via SSO using the OpenID Connect protocol. Please read Private Status Pages for more information.

User Log In via SSO

Please read Log In to PagerDuty for more information about logging in to PagerDuty via SSO as an end user.

Redirect Non-Provisioned Users

Auto-provisioning users can get responders up and running quickly, but it will affect your account’s billing. If you do not wish to auto-provision users, you can optionally redirect non-provisioned users to a destination link, such as an internal wiki, for more information about getting provisioned in your identity provider.

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Required User Permissions

Only the Account Owner can configure non-provisioned user settings.

To redirect non-provisioned users to a destination link:

  1. Navigate to User Icon Account Settings Single Sign-On.
  2. The SAML radio button should be selected. Under the User Provisioning section, check the checkbox next to Redirect non-provisioned users and enter the Destination Link where they should be redirected.
  3. Click Save Changes.
Redirect non-provisioned users

Redirect non-provisioned users

Troubleshooting Tips

Error Account saml configuration x509 cert is invalid in the web app after inserting your x509 cert

  1. Confirm that you are using a valid x509 certificate.
  2. Confirm that each row in your x.509 certificate is a maximum of 64 characters.
  3. Confirm there is the text -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- at the beginning of the certificate and -----END CERTIFICATE----- at the end of the certificate.

FAQ

Can I use a self-signed certificate for my SAML SSO integration?

Yes. PagerDuty will treat signatures from the identity provider as valid as long as:

  • The certificate stored in the PagerDuty SAML settings matches the private key that the identity provider uses to sign SAML responses, and:
  • The identity provider is configured to sign assertions.

Once these conditions have been met, users should be able to authenticate.

Why does the Account Owner have the ability to log in using email and password after enabling SSO?

Account Owners retain the ability to log in by email address and password in the event that there is an issue with the SSO provider. This cannot be turned off.

What happens if my identity provider has an outage?

If your identity provider has an outage and users are unable to log in via SSO, the Account Owner can log in using their email and password and temporarily enable email/password login for all users.

  1. In the PagerDuty web app, navigate to User Icon Account Settings.
  2. Select the tab Single Sign-on.
  3. In the section Allow username/password login, switch the toggle to the on position.
  4. At the bottom of the screen, click Save.

Note: Please remember to turn this setting off again after your identity provider restores service.

Can one PagerDuty Account have multiple SSO/SAML providers?

Not at this time. Currently only one SSO option is configurable.

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Security Recommendation

If configuring an on-premises identity provider, you should treat its private key with utmost secrecy and take appropriate security precautions.

When switching from password login to SSO, are password-using users logged out from their accounts?

Enabling SSO on the account, and then unchecking the option to Allow username/password login, does not by default log out any users currently logged in. If you would like all users to be force-logged-out and then required to log back in via SSO, there is a public API to manage user sessions that an account Admin can use to log out all users after the switch to SSO has occurred.

Updated about 1 month ago

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