The first time a SAML SSO login is successful, the Abiquo API will need to create a user in the platform. This user requires an enterprise and a role, so do these steps to configure enterprise and role binding.
In Abiquo create enterprises with Names or enterprise propertyKeys that will match the values of SAML attributes.
On the Abiquo Server, set the abiquo.saml.attributes.enterprise.claims property to specify the SAML attributes to match. Abiquo will get the values of these attributes and search for an enterprise name or enterprise property with this key to match the SAML values.
In Abiquo create roles and set the External roles value to match the value of one or more SAML attributes. One Abiquo role can match multiple external roles, but each external role should only match one Abiquo role.
On the Abiquo Server, set the abiquo.saml.attributes.role.claim property to specify the SAML attribute to match the roles
Matching examples
abiquo.saml.attributes.enterprise.claims = example
the API will get the value of the attribute "example" from the SAML Response. It will try to find an Abiquo enterprise with the same name. If it can't find an enterprise, it will look for an enterprise with a property key called "example" that has a property value that matches the SAML Response value.
the API will get the value of the attributes organization and acc_id. It will try to find an enterprise with a name that matches one of these values. If it can't find an enterprise, it will search by properties, and return the enterprise that has the property organizationwith the value from the SAML Response and the property account with the value from the SAML Response.
Enable SAML authentication mode
Abiquo integrates different authentication options and the default authentication mode is "abiquo", which is basic authentication for users stored in the Abiquo database.
To enable SAML in Abiquo:
On the Abiquo Server, set the abiquo.auth.module property to a value of "saml".
Before you start the Abiquo API again, complete the configuration in the follow sections to ensure that Abiquo API will start successfully.
Configure login modules in the UI
To enable users to log in with SAML, set the following UI configuration properties in client-config-custom.json. See Configure Abiquo UI for more details.
Property
Description
client.login.modules
Configure Abiquo modules to log in with Basic Auth (default), Open ID, SAML, or SAML + user. For the initial SAML configuration, use SAML. When you add multiple IdPs, use SAML + user. See client-config-default.json for details.
client.skip.login.view
By default, when in OpenID or SAML mode, Abiquo shows an initial screen with a link to the Authentication portal. If this property is set to true, then Abiquo will not display the initial screen and will redirect users directly to the Authentication portal.
Configure SameSite flag of login cookie
Optionally, on the Abiquo Server set the abiquo.login.samesite property to control the value of the SameSite flag of the login cookie. See Abiquo configuration properties#samesite
Configure the maximum authentication age
On the Abiquo server set the abiquo.saml.authentication.maxage property to control the maximum time in seconds that users can use SAML single sign-on after their initial authentication with the IDP. The default value is 2073600 seconds, which is 24 days.
Configure SAML identity provider
To enable Abiquo to identify and trust the SAML SSO Server (aka Identity Provider or IdP):
Get the IdP metadata and save it on the Abiquo Server
On the Abiquo Server, set the following property pointing to this file: abiquo.saml.metadata.identityprovider.path=/opt/abiquo/config/saml/identityprovider_metadata.xml
On the Abiquo Server, you must set the default IdP with the following property: abiquo.saml.metadata.identityprovider.default.id If you do not add this property, the Abiquo API will not start
Configure the Abiquo API as a SAML service provider
To configure Abiquo to act as a SAML Service Provider (SP) that can sign and encrypt SAML requests:
Create a dedicated keystore with the keys that Abiquo will need for signing and encrypting.
Configure the details of the keystore in Abiquo with the following properties:
If you do not have an SP metadata XML file, you can generate one using the Abiquo API.
Configure the SP properties as described in the above steps.
On the Abiquo Server, set the following properties with these values
abiquo.saml.metadata.mode=generated
abiquo.saml.metadata.serviceprovider.path= # can be left empty because it is not used
abiquo.saml.mode=multi
Start the Abiquo API
Log in as an administrator user (with the PHYS_DC_MANAGE privilege)
Perform an authenticated request to the path /api/saml/metadata
Save the metadata response in a file
The API SAML metadata path is always enabled but it returns "provided" or "generated" metadata, depending on the value of the metadata.mode property.
This path is protected, so the property abiquo.saml.mode=multi allows the API to enable basic authentication and SAML SSO authentication. This means that even if the SAML authentication is not already finished, you'll be able to perform the request with basic auth.
After you obtain the SP metadata, do these steps:
Add the metadata XML file to the IdP
Provide the SP metadata to the Abiquo API as described below
We also recommend that you do these additional steps
Disable basic authentication. To do this, set the abiquo.saml.mode property to single (or just delete it because single is the default value).
Configure the API to use the "provided" metadata file and stop the API from generating metadata each time you restart it. To do this, set the abiquo.saml.metadata.mode property to "provided"
Provide the SP metadata to the service provider and the identity provider
The Abiquo API (SP) and the SAML IdP require the SP metadata XML file. To configure the SP metadata XML file for the Abiquo API:
Save the SP metadata XML file on the Abiquo Server
Your environment is now ready to use SAML SSO, just start the API and open the user interface in the browser.
Optionally configure custom login error messages for SAML
By default, when there is a login error, the UI displays a generic error view and the user can return to the main login screen.
To display custom error messages, configure the redirect to add an error parameter.
On the Abiquo API Server, set the abiquo.saml.redirect.error.endpoint to point to your UI server and add an error code as follows:
Then for each error code, create a UI label with the error message text. For example, for US English, in lang_en_US_custom.json, you could create a label as follows:
Optionally configure a SAML enterprise pool
If you will only be using a single identity provider, you can enable users to log in to an enterprise pool of enterprises with the same enterprise claim value.
The login process will select the first matching enterprise from the pool.
To configure this option, set the following property.