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Documentation Grafana documentation Set up Configure security Configure authentication SAML

Configure SAML authentication using the configuration file

SAML authentication integration allows your Grafana users to log in by using an external SAML 2.0 Identity Provider (IdP). To enable this, Grafana becomes a Service Provider (SP) in the authentication flow, interacting with the IdP to exchange user information.

You can configure SAML authentication in Grafana through one of the following methods:

• the Grafana configuration file
• the API (refer to SSO Settings API)
• the user interface (refer to Configure SAML authentication using the Grafana user interface)
• the Terraform provider (refer to Terraform docs)

All methods offer the same configuration options, but you might prefer using the Grafana configuration file or the Terraform provider if you want to keep all of Grafana’s authentication settings in one place. Grafana Cloud users do not have access to Grafana configuration file, so they should configure SAML through the other methods.

Supported SAML

Grafana supports the following SAML 2.0 bindings:

• From the Service Provider (SP) to the Identity Provider (IdP):

  • HTTP-POST binding
  • HTTP-Redirect binding

• From the Identity Provider (IdP) to the Service Provider (SP):

  • HTTP-POST binding

In terms of security:

• Grafana supports signed and encrypted assertions.
• Grafana does not support signed or encrypted requests.

In terms of initiation, Grafana supports:

• SP-initiated requests
• IdP-initiated requests

By default, SP-initiated requests are enabled. For instructions on how to enable IdP-initiated logins, see IdP-initiated Single Sign-On (SSO).

Edit SAML options in the Grafana config file

1. In the [auth.saml] section in the Grafana configuration file, set enabled to true.
2. Configure the certificate and private key.
3. On the Okta application page where you have been redirected after application created, navigate to the Sign On tab and find Identity Provider metadata link in the Settings section.
4. Set the idp_metadata_url to the URL obtained from the previous step. The URL should look like https://<your-org-id>.okta.com/app/<application-id>/sso/saml/metadata.
5. Set the following options to the attribute names configured at the step 10 of the SAML integration setup. You can find this attributes on the General tab of the application page (ATTRIBUTE STATEMENTS and GROUP ATTRIBUTE STATEMENTS in the SAML Settings section).
   • assertion_attribute_login
   • assertion_attribute_email
   • assertion_attribute_name
   • assertion_attribute_groups
6. (Optional) Set the name parameter in the [auth.saml] section in the Grafana configuration file. This parameter replaces SAML in the Grafana user interface in locations such as the sign-in button.
7. Save the configuration file and then restart the Grafana server.

When you are finished, the Grafana configuration might look like this example:

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[server]
root_url = https://grafana.example.com

[auth.saml]
enabled = true
name = My IdP
auto_login = false
private_key_path = "/path/to/private_key.pem"
certificate_path = "/path/to/certificate.cert"
idp_metadata_url = "https://my-org.okta.com/app/my-application/sso/saml/metadata"
assertion_attribute_name = DisplayName
assertion_attribute_login = Login
assertion_attribute_email = Email
assertion_attribute_groups = Group

Enable SAML authentication in Grafana

To use the SAML integration, in the auth.saml section of in the Grafana custom configuration file, set enabled to true.

Refer to Configuration for more information about configuring Grafana.

Additional configuration for HTTP-Post binding

If multiple bindings are supported for SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) by the Identity Provider (IdP), Grafana will use the HTTP-Redirect binding by default. If the IdP only supports the HTTP-Post binding then updating the content_security_policy_template (in case content_security_policy = true) and content_security_policy_report_only_template (in case content_security_policy_report_only = true) might be required to allow Grafana to initiate a POST request to the IdP. These settings are used to define the Content Security Policy (CSP) headers that are sent by Grafana.

To allow Grafana to initiate a POST request to the IdP, update the content_security_policy_template and content_security_policy_report_only_template settings in the Grafana configuration file and add the IdP’s domain to the form-action directive. By default, the form-action directive is set to self which only allows POST requests to the same domain as Grafana. To allow POST requests to the IdP’s domain, update the form-action directive to include the IdP’s domain, for example: form-action 'self' https://idp.example.com.

Certificate and private key

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. The private key needs to be issued in a PKCS#8 format.

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 attempts to read the file from the file system.

Generate private key for SAML authentication:

An example of how to generate a self-signed certificate and private key that’s valid for one year:

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$ openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes​

The generated key.pem and cert.pem files are then used for certificate and private_key.

The key you provide should look like:

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-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

Set up SAML with Azure AD

Grafana supports user authentication through Azure AD, which is useful when you want users to access Grafana using single sign-on. This topic shows you how to configure SAML authentication in Grafana with Azure AD.

Before you begin:

• Ensure you have permission to administer SAML authentication. For more information about roles and permissions in Grafana.
  • Roles and permissions.
• Learn the limitations of Azure AD SAML integration.
  • Azure AD SAML limitations
• Configure SAML integration with Azure AD, create an app integration inside the Azure AD organization first.
  • Add app integration in Azure AD
• If you have users that belong to more than 150 groups, you need to configure a registered application to provide an Azure Graph API to retrieve the groups.
  • Setup Azure AD Graph API applications

Generate self-signed certificates

Azure AD requires a certificate to sign the SAML requests. You can generate a self-signed certificate using the following command:

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$ openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes

This will generate a key.pem and cert.pem file that you can use for the private_key_path and certificate_path configuration options.

Add Microsoft Entra SAML Toolkit from the gallery

Taken from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/saas-apps/saml-toolkit-tutorial#add-microsoft-entra-saml-toolkit-from-the-gallery

1. Go to the Azure portal and sign in with your Azure AD account.
2. Search for Enterprise Applications.
3. In the Enterprise applications pane, select New application.
4. In the search box, enter SAML Toolkit, and then select the Microsoft Entra SAML Toolkit from the results panel.
5. Add a descriptive name and select Create.

Configure the SAML Toolkit application endpoints

In order to validate Azure AD users with Grafana, you need to configure the SAML Toolkit application endpoints by creating a new SAML integration in the Azure AD organization.

For the following configuration, we will use https://localhost as the Grafana URL. Replace it with your Grafana URL.

1. In the SAML Toolkit application, select Set up single sign-on.
2. In the Single sign-on pane, select SAML.
3. In the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML pane, select the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.
4. In the Basic SAML Configuration pane, click on the Edit button and update the following fields:
   • In the Identifier (Entity ID) field, enter https://localhost/saml/metadata.
   • In the Reply URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL) field, enter https://localhost/saml/acs.
   • In the Sign on URL field, enter https://localhost.
   • In the Relay State field, enter https://localhost.
   • In the Logout URL field, enter https://localhost/saml/slo.
5. Select Save.
6. At the SAML Certificate section, copy the App Federation Metadata Url.
   • Use this URL in the idp_metadata_url field in the custom.ini file.

Configure a Graph API application in Azure AD

While an Azure AD tenant can be configured in Grafana via SAML, some additional information is only accessible via the Graph API. To retrieve this information, create a new application in Azure AD and grant it the necessary permissions.

Azure AD SAML limitations

For the following configuration, the URL https://localhost will be used as the Grafana URL. Replace it with your Grafana instance URL.

Create a new Application registration

This app registration will be used as a Service Account to retrieve more information about the user from the Azure AD.

1. Go to the Azure portal and sign in with your Azure AD account.
2. In the left-hand navigation pane, select the Azure Active Directory service, and then select App registrations.
3. Click the New registration button.
4. In the Register an application pane, enter a name for the application.
5. In the Supported account types section, select the account types that can use the application.
6. In the Redirect URI section, select Web and enter https://localhost/login/azuread.
7. Click the Register button.

Set up permissions for the application

1. In the overview pane, look for API permissions section and select Add a permission.
2. In the Request API permissions pane, select Microsoft Graph, and click Application permissions.
3. In the Select permissions pane, under the GroupMember section, select GroupMember.Read.All.
4. In the Select permissions pane, under the User section, select User.Read.All.
5. Click the Add permissions button at the bottom of the page.
6. In the Request API permissions pane, select Microsoft Graph, and click Delegated permissions.
7. In the Select permissions pane, under the User section, select User.Read.
8. Click the Add permissions button at the bottom of the page.
9. In the API permissions section, select Grant admin consent for .

The following table shows what the permissions look like from the Azure AD portal:

Generate a client secret

1. In the Overview pane, select Certificates & secrets.
2. Select New client secret.
3. In the Add a client secret pane, enter a description for the secret.
4. Set the expiration date for the secret.
5. Select Add.
6. Copy the value of the secret. This value is used in the client_secret field in the custom.ini file.

Set up SAML with Okta

Grafana supports user authentication through Okta, which is useful when you want your users to access Grafana using single sign on. This guide will follow you through the steps of configuring SAML authentication in Grafana with Okta. You need to be an admin in your Okta organization to access Admin Console and create SAML integration. You also need permissions to edit Grafana config file and restart Grafana server.

Before you begin:

• To configure SAML integration with Okta, create an app integration inside the Okta organization first. Add app integration in Okta
• Ensure you have permission to administer SAML authentication. For more information about roles and permissions in Grafana, refer to Roles and permissions.

To set up SAML with Okta:

1. Log in to the Okta portal.

2. Go to the Admin Console in your Okta organization by clicking Admin in the upper-right corner. If you are in the Developer Console, then click Developer Console in the upper-left corner and then click Classic UI to switch over to the Admin Console.

3. In the Admin Console, navigate to Applications > Applications.

4. Click Create App Integration to start the Application Integration Wizard.

5. Choose SAML 2.0 as the Sign-in method.

6. Click Create.

7. On the General Settings tab, enter a name for your Grafana integration. You can also upload a logo.

8. On the Configure SAML tab, enter the SAML information related to your Grafana instance:

   • In the Single sign on URL field, use the /saml/acs endpoint URL of your Grafana instance, for example, https://grafana.example.com/saml/acs.

   • In the Audience URI (SP Entity ID) field, use the /saml/metadata endpoint URL, by default it is the /saml/metadata endpoint of your Grafana instance (for example https://example.grafana.com/saml/metadata). This could be configured differently, but the value here must match the entity_id setting of the SAML settings of Grafana.

   • Leave the default values for Name ID format and Application username.

     Note

      If you plan to enable SAML Single Logout, consider setting the **Name ID format** to `EmailAddress` or `Persistent`. This must match the `name_id_format` setting of the Grafana instance.
     

   • In the ATTRIBUTE STATEMENTS (OPTIONAL) section, enter the SAML attributes to be shared with Grafana. The attribute names in Okta need to match exactly what is defined within Grafana, for example:

     Attribute name (in Grafana)	Name and value (in Okta profile)	Grafana configuration (under auth.saml)
     Login	Login - user.login	assertion_attribute_login = Login
     Email	Email - user.email	assertion_attribute_email = Email
     DisplayName	DisplayName - user.firstName + " " + user.lastName	assertion_attribute_name = DisplayName

   • In the GROUP ATTRIBUTE STATEMENTS (OPTIONAL) section, enter a group attribute name (for example, Group, ensure it matches the asssertion_attribute_groups setting in Grafana) and set filter to Matches regex .* to return all user groups.

9. Click Next.

10. On the final Feedback tab, fill out the form and then click Finish.

Signature algorithm

The SAML standard recommends using a digital signature for some types of messages, like authentication or logout requests. If the signature_algorithm option is configured, Grafana will put a digital signature into SAML requests. Supported signature types are rsa-sha1, rsa-sha256, rsa-sha512. This option should match your IdP configuration, otherwise, signature validation will fail. Grafana uses key and certificate configured with private_key and certificate options for signing SAML requests.

Specify user’s Name ID

The name_id_format configuration field specifies the format of the NameID element in the SAML assertion.

By default, this is set to urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:transient and does not need to be specified in the configuration file.

The following list includes valid configuration field values:

IdP metadata

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.

Grafana supports three ways of specifying the IdP metadata.

• Without a suffix idp_metadata, Grafana assumes base64-encoded XML file contents.
• With the _path suffix, Grafana assumes a file path and attempts to read the file from the file system.
• With the _url suffix, Grafana assumes a URL and attempts to load the metadata from the given location.

Maximum issue delay

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.

The configuration options is specified as a duration, such as max_issue_delay = 90s or max_issue_delay = 1h.

Metadata valid duration

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 configuration option is specified as a duration, such as metadata_valid_duration = 48h.

Identity provider (IdP) registration

For the SAML integration to work correctly, you need to make the IdP aware of the SP.

The integration provides two key endpoints as part of Grafana:

• The /saml/metadata endpoint, which contains the SP metadata. You can either download and upload it manually, or you make 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.

IdP-initiated Single Sign-On (SSO)

By default, Grafana allows only service provider (SP) initiated logins (when the user logs in with SAML via Grafana’s login page). If you want users to log in into Grafana directly from your identity provider (IdP), set the allow_idp_initiated configuration option to true and configure relay_state with the same value specified in the IdP configuration.

IdP-initiated SSO has some security risks, so make sure you understand the risks before enabling this feature. When using IdP-initiated SSO, Grafana receives unsolicited SAML requests and can’t verify that login flow was started by the user. This makes it hard to detect whether SAML message has been stolen or replaced. Because of this, IdP-initiated SSO is vulnerable to login cross-site request forgery (CSRF) and man in the middle (MITM) attacks. We do not recommend using IdP-initiated SSO and keeping it disabled whenever possible.

Single logout

SAML’s single logout feature allows users to log out from all applications associated with the current IdP session established via SAML SSO. If the single_logout option is set to true and a user logs out, Grafana requests IdP to end the user session which in turn triggers logout from all other applications the user is logged into using the same IdP session (applications should support single logout). Conversely, if another application connected to the same IdP logs out using single logout, Grafana receives a logout request from IdP and ends the user session.

HTTP-Redirect and HTTP-POST bindings are supported for single logout. When using HTTP-Redirect bindings the query should include a request signature.

Configure single logout

To configure single logout in Grafana:

1. Enable the single_logout option in your configuration.
2. Ensure the name_id_format matches the format your IdP expects (e.g., urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress).
3. Enable the improvedExternalSessionHandling feature toggle for complete NameID and SessionIndex support (Grafana v11.5+).

NameID and SessionIndex changes in Grafana v11.5

Before Grafana version 11.5, the Login attribute value (extracted from the SAML assertion using the assertion_attribute_login configuration) was used as the NameID in the logout request. This could cause issues with single logout if the assertion_attribute_login value differed from what the Identity Provider (IdP) expected.

Additionally, Grafana did not support IdP sessions and could not include the SessionIndex (a unique identifier for the user session on the IdP side) value in the logout request. This could result in issues such as the user being logged out from all of their applications/IdP sessions when logging out from Grafana.

Starting from Grafana version 11.5, Grafana uses the NameID from the SAML assertion to create the logout request. If the NameID is not present in the assertion, Grafana defaults to using the user’s Login attribute. Additionally, Grafana supports including the SessionIndex in the logout request if it is provided in the SAML assertion by the IdP.

Assertion mapping

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.

The assertion_attribute_name option

assertion_attribute_name is a special assertion mapping that can either be a simple key, indicating a mapping to a single assertion attribute on the SAML response, or a complex template with variables using the $__saml{<attribute>} syntax. If this property is misconfigured, Grafana will log an error message on startup and disallow SAML sign-ins. Grafana will also log errors after a login attempt if a variable in the template is missing from the SAML response.

Examples

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#plain string mapping
assertion_attribute_name = displayName

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#template mapping
assertion_attribute_name = $__saml{firstName} $__saml{lastName}

Allow new user signups

By default, new Grafana users using SAML authentication will have an account created for them automatically. To decouple authentication and account creation and ensure only users with existing accounts can log in with SAML, set the allow_sign_up option to false.

Configure automatic login

Set auto_login option to true to attempt login automatically, skipping the login screen. This setting is ignored if multiple auth providers are configured to use auto login.

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auto_login = true

Configure group synchronization

Group synchronization allows you to map user groups from an identity provider to Grafana teams and roles.

To use SAML group synchronization, set assertion_attribute_groups to the attribute name where you store user groups. Then Grafana will use attribute values extracted from SAML assertion to add user to Grafana teams and grant them roles.

Given the following partial SAML assertion:

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<saml2:Attribute
    Name="groups"
    NameFormat="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:unspecified">
    <saml2:AttributeValue
        xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:type="xs:string">admins_group
    </saml2:AttributeValue>
    <saml2:AttributeValue
        xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:type="xs:string">division_1
    </saml2:AttributeValue>
</saml2:Attribute>

The configuration would look like this:

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[auth.saml]
# ...
assertion_attribute_groups = groups

The following External Group IDs would be valid for configuring team sync or role sync in Grafana:

• admins_group
• division_1

To learn more about how to configure group synchronization, refer to Configure team sync and Configure group attribute sync documentation.

Configure role sync

Role sync allows you to map user roles from an identity provider to Grafana. To enable role sync, configure role attribute and possible values for the Editor, Admin, and Grafana Admin roles. For more information about user roles, refer to Roles and permissions.

1. In the configuration file, set assertion_attribute_role option to the attribute name where the role information will be extracted from.
2. Set the role_values_none option to the values mapped to the None role.
3. Set the role_values_viewer option to the values mapped to the Viewer role.
4. Set the role_values_editor option to the values mapped to the Editor role.
5. Set the role_values_admin option to the values mapped to the organization Admin role.
6. Set the role_values_grafana_admin option to the values mapped to the Grafana Admin role.

If a user role doesn’t match any of configured values, then the role specified by the auto_assign_org_role config option will be assigned. If the auto_assign_org_role field is not set then the user role will default to Viewer.

For more information about roles and permissions in Grafana, refer to Roles and permissions.

Example configuration:

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[auth.saml]
assertion_attribute_role = role
role_values_none = none
role_values_viewer = external
role_values_editor = editor, developer
role_values_admin = admin, operator
role_values_grafana_admin = superadmin

Important: When role sync is configured, any changes of user roles and organization membership made manually in Grafana will be overwritten on next user login. Assign user organizations and roles in the IdP instead.

If you don’t want user organizations and roles to be synchronized with the IdP, you can use the skip_org_role_sync configuration option.

Example configuration:

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[auth.saml]
skip_org_role_sync = true

Configure organization mapping

Organization mapping allows you to assign users to particular organization in Grafana depending on attribute value obtained from identity provider.

1. In configuration file, set assertion_attribute_org to the attribute name you store organization info in. This attribute can be an array if you want a user to be in multiple organizations.
2. Set org_mapping option to the comma-separated list of Organization:OrgId pairs to map organization from IdP to Grafana organization specified by ID. If you want users to have different roles in multiple organizations, you can set this option to a comma-separated list of Organization:OrgId:Role mappings.

For example, use following configuration to assign users from Engineering organization to the Grafana organization with ID 2 as Editor and users from Sales - to the org with ID 3 as Admin, based on Org assertion attribute value:

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[auth.saml]
assertion_attribute_org = Org
org_mapping = Engineering:2:Editor, Sales:3:Admin

Starting from Grafana version 11.5, you can use the organization name instead of the organization ID in the org_mapping option. Ensure that the organization name you configure matches exactly with the organization name in Grafana, as it is case-sensitive. If the organization name is not found in Grafana, the mapping will be ignored. If the external organization or the organization name contains spaces, use the JSON syntax for the org_mapping option:

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org_mapping = ["Org 1:2:Editor", "ExternalOrg:ACME Corp.:Admin"]

If one of the mappings contains a :, use the JSON syntax and escape the : with a backslash:

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# Assign users from "External:Admin" to the organization with name "ACME Corp" as Admin
org_mapping = ["External\:Admin:ACME Corp:Admin"]

For example, to assign users from Engineering organization to the Grafana organization with name ACME Corp as Editor and users from Sales - to the org with id 3 as Admin, based on Org assertion attribute value:

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[auth.saml]
assertion_attribute_org = Org
org_mapping = ["Engineering:ACME Corp:Editor", "Sales:3:Admin"]

You can specify multiple organizations both for the IdP and Grafana:

• org_mapping = Engineering:2, Sales:2 to map users from Engineering and Sales to 2 in Grafana.
• org_mapping = Engineering:2, Engineering:3 to assign Engineering to both 2 and 3 in Grafana.

You can use * as the SAML Organization if you want all your users to be in some Grafana organizations with a default role:

• org_mapping = *:2:Editor to map all users to 2 in Grafana as Editors.

You can use * as the Grafana organization in the mapping if you want all users from a given SAML Organization to be added to all existing Grafana organizations.

• org_mapping = Engineering:* to map users from Engineering to all existing Grafana organizations.
• org_mapping = Administration:*:Admin to map users from Administration to all existing Grafana organizations as Admins.

Configure allowed organizations

With the allowed_organizations option you can specify a list of organizations where the user must be a member of at least one of them to be able to log in to Grafana.

To put values containing spaces in the list, use the following JSON syntax:

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allowed_organizations = ["org 1", "second org"]

Example SAML configuration

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[auth.saml]
enabled = true
auto_login = false
certificate_path = "/path/to/certificate.cert"
private_key_path = "/path/to/private_key.pem"
idp_metadata_path = "/my/metadata.xml"
max_issue_delay = 90s
metadata_valid_duration = 48h
assertion_attribute_name = displayName
assertion_attribute_login = mail
assertion_attribute_email = mail

assertion_attribute_groups = Group
assertion_attribute_role = Role
assertion_attribute_org = Org
role_values_viewer = external
role_values_editor = editor, developer
role_values_admin = admin, operator
role_values_grafana_admin = superadmin
org_mapping = Engineering:2:Editor, Engineering:3:Viewer, Sales:3:Editor, *:1:Editor
allowed_organizations = Engineering, Sales

Example SAML configuration in Terraform

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resource "grafana_sso_settings" "saml_sso_settings" {
  provider_name = "saml"
  saml_settings {
    name                       = "SAML"
    auto_login                 = false
    certificate_path           = "/path/to/certificate.cert"
    private_key_path           = "/path/to/private_key.pem"
    idp_metadata_path          = "/my/metadata.xml"
    max_issue_delay            = "90s"
    metadata_valid_duration    = "48h"
    assertion_attribute_name   = "displayName"
    assertion_attribute_login  = "mail"
    assertion_attribute_email  = "mail"
    assertion_attribute_groups = "Group"
    assertion_attribute_role   = "Role"
    assertion_attribute_org    = "Org"
    role_values_editor         = "editor, developer"
    role_values_admin          = "admin, operator"
    role_values_grafana_admin  = "superadmin"
    org_mapping                = "Engineering:2:Editor, Engineering:3:Viewer, Sales:3:Editor, *:1:Editor"
    allowed_organizations      = "Engineering, Sales"
  }
}

Go to Terraform Registry for a complete reference on using the grafana_sso_settings resource.

Troubleshoot SAML authentication in Grafana

To troubleshoot and get more log information, enable SAML debug logging in the configuration file. Refer to Configuration for more information.

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[log]
filters = saml.auth:debug

Troubleshooting

Following are common issues found in configuring SAML authentication in Grafana and how to resolve them.

Infinite redirect loop / User gets redirected to the login page after successful login on the IdP side

If you experience an infinite redirect loop when auto_login = true or redirected to the login page after successful login, it is likely that the grafana_session cookie’s SameSite setting is set to Strict. This setting prevents the grafana_session cookie from being sent to Grafana during cross-site requests. To resolve this issue, set the security.cookie_samesite option to Lax in the Grafana configuration file.

SAML authentication fails with error:

• asn1: structure error: tags don't match

We only support one private key format: PKCS#8.

The keys may be in a different format (PKCS#1 or PKCS#12); in that case, it may be necessary to convert the private key format.

The following command creates a pkcs8 key file.

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openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes

Convert the private key format to base64

The following command converts keys to base64 format.

Base64-encode the cert.pem and key.pem files: (-w0 switch is not needed on Mac, only for Linux)

sh Copy

$ base64 -w0 key.pem > key.pem.base64
$ base64 -w0 cert.pem > cert.pem.base64

The base64-encoded values (key.pem.base64, cert.pem.base64 files) are then used for certificate and private_key.

The keys you provide should look like:

Copy

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

SAML login attempts fail with request response “origin not allowed”

When the user logs in using SAML and gets presented with “origin not allowed”, the user might be issuing the login from an IdP (identity provider) service or the user is behind a reverse proxy. This potentially happens as Grafana’s CSRF checks deem the requests to be invalid. For more information CSRF.

To solve this issue, you can configure either the csrf_trusted_origins or csrf_additional_headers option in the SAML configuration.

Example of a configuration file:

ini Copy

# config.ini
...
[security]
csrf_trusted_origins = https://grafana.example.com
csrf_additional_headers = X-Forwarded-Host
...

SAML login attempts fail with request response “login session has expired”

Accessing the Grafana login page from a URL that is not the root URL of the Grafana server can cause the instance to return the following error: “login session has expired”.

If you are accessing grafana through a proxy server, ensure that cookies are correctly rewritten to the root URL of Grafana. Cookies must be set on the same url as the root_url of Grafana. This is normally the reverse proxy’s domain/address.

Review the cookie settings in your proxy server configuration to ensure that cookies are not being discarded

Review the following settings in your grafana config:

ini Copy

[security]
cookie_samesite = none

This setting should be set to none to allow grafana session cookies to work correctly with redirects.

ini Copy

[security]
cookie_secure = true

Ensure cookie_secure is set to true to ensure that cookies are only sent over HTTPS.

Configure SAML authentication in 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.