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Okta/SAML SSO

Ent Pro
Note
This feature is available as part of the Honeycomb Pro and Enterprise plans.

In Honeycomb, Team Owners can require that their team members authenticate using Single Sign-On (SSO) via an external SAML 2.0 Identity Provider, such as Okta.

When you configure SSO via an external SAML Identity Provider, you must get information generated during the configuration process from both Honeycomb and your Identity Provider. Because you will also need to enter information into both Honeycomb and your Identity Provider’s user interface, you will need to use more than one browser tab.

Note
In this guide, we demonstrate a typical SAML Identity Provider configuration using Okta. If you are using a different SAML Identity Provider, field names and locations may vary, so you will need to locate the corresponding fields in your Identity Provider’s user interface.

Before You Begin 

To successfully complete this guide, you should have an active Okta account.

Enable SSO in Honeycomb 

To begin, enable SSO in Honeycomb, which will allow you to get Honeycomb’s Service Provider settings:

  1. In Honeycomb, navigate to Account > Team Settings, and select the Team Details view.

  2. Locate the Single Sign-On section, which displays any previous SSO configuration.

  3. If your team is already configured to use Google SSO, turn off Google SSO. Turn off SSO

  4. Select Enable SSO. Enable SSO

  5. In the SSO provider configuration modal, select SAML/Okta, then select Next.

  6. Locate the settings required by your Identity Provider. Information you will need includes:

    • Service Provider Issuer
    • Service Provider ACS URL
    • Service Provider Certificate (optional, used when your Identity Provider requires encrypted SAML assertions or signed authentication requests)

    Leave this browser tab open, so you will have the information you need to configure your Identity Provider.

    SAML Honeycomb settings screen
    Note
    Honeycomb generates a unique identifier based on your team name. You will see the identifier appended to the values in the Service Provider Issuer and Service Provider ACS URL fields. For this example, the team name is Crewbacca, so the team’s generated identifier is crewbacca.

Configure Your Identity Provider 

Next, configure your Identity Provider to work with Honeycomb. To do this, you must set up SSO for an application integration in your Identity Provider, and then specify which users should be able to use SSO to log in to your team in Honeycomb.

Note
In this section, we demonstrate a typical SAML Identity Provider configuration using Okta. If you are using a different SAML Identity Provider, field names and locations may vary, so you will need to locate the corresponding fields in your Identity Provider’s user interface.

Set Up SSO 

Set up SSO in your Identity Provider using the Service Provider settings you retrieved from Honeycomb:

  1. Open a new browser tab, and go to your Okta admin console.

  2. In Okta, go to Applications > Applications, and select Create App Integration. Create an application

  3. In the sign-in method modal, select SAML 2.0, then select Next.

  4. For General Settings, locate App Name and enter a name for your application, such as in the format Honeycomb [Your Team Name], then select Next. Gather Honeycomb settings

    Tip

    Because you can have multiple Honeycomb teams connected to SSO and separate SSO configurations for each Honeycomb team, be sure the application name you choose clearly defines which team uses this SSO integration. The application name will appear in your application directory after installation.

    For this example, our team name is Crewbacca, so we name our application Honeycomb Crewbacca.

  5. For Configure SAML, locate the SAML Settings section, and enter your retrieved Honeycomb setting values according to the following mapping:

    Okta Field Honeycomb Setting Name
    Single sign-on URL Service Provider ACS URL
    Audience URI (SP Entity ID) Service Provider Issuer/Entity ID
    Fill in SAML settings

  6. Locate the Attribute Statements section, and add the following exact values, then select Next:

    Important
    The values for SAML attributes must be the exact values we provide below. For example, for the Email attribute, enter user.email–not the actual email address of the user.
    Name Name format Value
    FirstName Unspecified user.firstName
    LastName Unspecified user.lastName
    Email Unspecified user.email
    Fill in attribute statements

  7. For Feedback, select the following values, then select Finish:

    Field Value
    Are you a customer or a partner? I'm an Okta customer adding an internal app
    Contact app vendor It's required to contact the vendor to enable SAML

  8. From the application’s SSO settings, locate and copy the Metadata URL. You will need this information to configure Honeycomb. Sign on tab

    Note

    Although most modern SAML Identity Providers, like Okta, provide a Metadata URL, not all do. If your Identity Provider does not provide a Metadata URL, you must locate the required information to configure Honeycomb. Information you need includes:

    • Identity Provider Issuer
    • Identity Provider SSO URL
    • Identity Provider Certificate (optional, used when your Identity Provider requires signed authentication requests)

Assign Users 

Assign users to the Honeycomb application in your Identity Provider:

Important
To finish your Honeycomb configuration, you must assign your own user account to the Honeycomb application in your Identity Provider. If you want, you can wait and add more users later.
  1. Go to your new application, and select the Assignments view.
  2. Select Assign > Assign to People or Assign to Groups, depending on whether you want to allow individual users or specific groups to log in to your team in Honeycomb. Select Assignments tab in your Honeycomb Application settings
  3. In the group assignment modal, search for and select Assign next to the individual users or specific groups you want to allow to log in to your team in Honeycomb using SSO, then select Done. Remember to assign your own account to the application.
  4. Confirm that the Assignments view reflects your selections.

Configure Honeycomb 

Finally, configure SSO in Honeycomb using the Identity Provider settings you retrieved from your Identity Provider.

Some Identity Providers, like Okta, provide a metadata URL, which allows Honeycomb to fetch the settings it needs and update them automatically. Other SAML Identity Providers may not provide metadata URLs. If your Identity Provider does not provide a metadata URL, you must configure Honeycomb manually and maintain its configuration settings.

If your Identity Provider provided a metadata URL, like Okta does, automatically configure SSO in Honeycomb:

  1. Switch to the browser tab that contains your Honeycomb Service Provider settings, locate the Identity Provider Metadata URL, and paste the metadata URL you copied from your Identity Provider.
  2. Select Convert to SAML SSO Team.

If your Identity Provider does not provide a metadata URL, you must configure Honeycomb manually with the information that you located from your Identity Provider:

  1. Switch to the browser tab that contains your Honeycomb Service Provider settings, and select Enter settings manually. Notice that the Identity Provider Metadata URL field has been replaced by separate fields corresponding to the settings that Honeycomb requires.

  2. Enter the retrieved Identity Provider setting values:

    • Identity Provider Issuer
    • Identity Provider SSO URL
    • Identity Provider Certificate (optional, used when your Identity Provider requires signed authentication requests)

  3. Select Convert to SAML SSO Team.

Note
If a “SAML Assertion” error appears, verify that your SSO Identity Provider Audience and Recipient fields match your Honeycomb team settings SSO Service Provider Issuer/Entity ID and Service Provider ACS URL fields. The Audience field should contain: https://ui.honeycomb.io/saml/<team-identifier>, while the Recipient field should contain: https://ui.honeycomb.io/auth/callback/saml/<team-identifier>.
SAML Honeycomb settings screen

You should see the SAML authentication flow begin. If you configured Okta as your Identity Provider, you see an Okta animation. If successful, your team should now be able to use SAML SSO to authenticate.

Log in to Honeycomb Using Your Okta / SAML SSO Account 

After establishing configuration for Okta / SAML SSO, view instructions on How to log in to Honeycomb using SAML SSO.

Troubleshooting 

To explore common issues when configuring access, visit Common Issues with Configuring Honeycomb: SAML SSO.

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