Jira Software and Confluence Cloud login with ADFS

[ptunstad]

Im trying to find out if it is possible to login to Atlassian services(Jira and Confluence) using the companys already existing ADFS.

I noticed the possibility for SAML single sign-on in Atlassian Access, but in the documentation they claim to not officially support ADFS(https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/saml-single-sign-on-943953302.html?_ga=2.100312606.1287436313.1528705498-1122072327.1528705498#SAMLsinglesign-on-Supportedidentityproviders), could Atlassian Access still be the way to go?

I read that Jira Cloud has support for synchronization with Googles Gsuite, maybe i could enable SSO via ADFS there and then link Gsuite to Atlassian?(https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/security-with-g-suite-938859740.html )

I also found guides for connecting to LDAP for both Jira(https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver071/connecting-to-an-ldap-directory-802592350.html) and Confluence(https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/connecting-to-an-ldap-directory-229838241.html) "natively", but for both solutions im missing the User Directories-field in admin settings. Also im not sure LDAP might not be supported on ADFS below version 4.0.

Lastly if there exist an add-on from the marketplace that could be used, but the relevant onces i could find seem to be just for server and not cloud.

Any input is appreciated.

[Rodrigo B_ · Accepted solution]

Hello everybody who is still watching this question, Atlassian has provided an official guide for the integration: https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/configure-saml-single-sign-on-with-active-directory-federation-services-ad-fs-975020616.html

Also, we must thank @Bill Webster for sharing his own guide for the integration! We really want to give you a little treat, Bill, let us know if we can contact you through email.

Thank you,

Rod

Atlassian Cloud Support

[Bill Webster]

Hi Rod, feel free to contact me via e-mail.  I'm glad this can provide value for others. 

In the future, we will likely migrate to the AzureAD as recommended but we're not quite ready for that change yet.

[Lloyd Langley]

Hi Bill and Rod,

Many thanks for this great posting, but I have a query (aimed at Rod)..  the official guide (you link to above) has section 2 under "Prepare your Atlassian Organization" saying "Subscribe to Atlassian Access".  This is something I don't want to do.. do I have to just to get SSO working?

Thank you both for you contribution. It is much appreciated.

Lloyd

[Rodrigo B_]

Hi Lloyd,

We only provide SAML as the means to integrate with other Identity Providers on the Cloud for SSO, SAML is a feature from Atlassian Access, hence you would need to subscribe.

Access has some additional features that might be useful for you too, such as user and group provisioning through SCIM, overall audit logs for sites under your Atlassian organization, etc. More details into https://www.atlassian.com/software/access.

You can trial it for 30 days and it's important to highlight that you won't be billed for Access for the Service Desk only users with Atlassian accounts (a customer without licenses to products).

We hope this clarifies your concerns!

Rod

[Lloyd Langley]

hi Rod,

Thank you for replying.

The reason I asked the above question is that I have been in discussion with Ariel Munchrath (Atlassian Customer Advocate II) and tried to explain that much as I'm sure Access is a wonderful product... I don't want all the bells & whistles.. I just want SSO and I'm pointing out that the documentation (like a lot of Atlassian documentation) doesn't tell the whole story and clouds the issue by toeing the company line and not telling the customer what they need to know as in...  "Subscribe to Atlassian Access"... why?  SAML should work fine.  Also.. despite being $3pm... it's not cheap for something I want, that could be free.

So in answer to your question.. it clarifies that Atlassian bundles stuff you don't want, with (free) stuff that you do and charges. $36 pa, per user.

If you do have a way of setting up SSO in the cloud without using Access.. that would be great!

Finally, I am grateful for your contributions to the forum; Thank you.

Best regards

Lloyd

[DevSecOps_bot]

Hi, buddy,

  May I know if integrate with ADFS can grant project to LDAP group, seems there is ldap group mapping in claims?

Thanks

[Shahzad Faisal]

Mr. Tunstad, Any luck so far with the resolution of being able to use the Jira / Confluence cloud login with ADFS? i was searching for the similar solution and came across this page.   

[Bill Webster]

I came across this post while trying to solve this issue for myself.  It's kind of late but I was able to get it working.

I followed their documentation and then these additional steps:

- Added E-Mail Address to the claim rule

- Added a transform claim rule to transform E-mail Address to Name ID with the outgoing name ID format of Email.

[Deleted user]

Hello Bill, I would really appreciate if you could give me a little more detail on how you have configured adfs

Thanks

[Bill Webster]

On the Atlassian side (In https://admin.atlassian.com on the SAML single sign-on settings), I set the SAML configuration as shown below:

  Identity provider Entity ID: http://adfs.domain.com/adfs/services/trust

  Identity provider SSO URL: https://adfs.domain.com/adfs/ls/idpinitiatedSignon.aspx

  Public x509 certificate: I pasted in the ADFS token signing certificate after exporting it to a base 64 encoded .CER

Also on this page, you'll need to copy the SP Entity ID and SP Assertion Consumer Service URL.

When you set up the relying party in ADFS, you'll need to use the SP Entity ID as the Relying party identifier as shown here:

You'll need to use the SP Assertion Consumer Service URL on the Endpoint properties:

From there, I added 2 claim rules as shown here:

Send LDAP Attributes

Transform and Incoming Claim