grafana/docs/sources/setup-grafana/configure-security/configure-scim-provisioning/_index.md

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Learn how to use SCIM provisioning to synchronize users and groups from your identity provider to Grafana. SCIM enables automated user management, team provisioning, and enhanced security through real-time synchronization with your identity provider.	grafana scim provisioning user-management team-management	products cloud enterprise	Configure SCIM provisioning	Configure SCIM provisioning	300

Configure SCIM provisioning

System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) is an open standard that allows automated user provisioning and management. With SCIM, you can automate the provisioning of users and groups from your identity provider to Grafana.

{{< admonition type="note" >}} Available in Grafana Enterprise and Grafana Cloud Pro and Advanced in public preview. Grafana Labs offers limited support, and breaking changes might occur prior to the feature being made generally available. {{< /admonition >}}

{{< admonition type="warning" >}} Public Preview: SCIM provisioning is currently in Public Preview. While functional, the feature is actively being refined and may undergo changes. We recommend thorough testing in non-production environments before deploying to production systems. {{< /admonition >}}

{{< admonition type="note" >}} This feature is behind the enableSCIM feature toggle. You can enable feature toggles through configuration file or environment variables.

For more information, refer to the feature toggles documentation. {{< /admonition >}}

{{< admonition type="warning" title="Critical: Aligning SAML Identifier with SCIM externalId" >}} When using SAML for authentication alongside SCIM provisioning, a critical security measure is to ensure proper alignment between the the SCIM user's externalId and the SAML user identifier. The unique identifier used for SCIM provisioning (which becomes the externalId in Grafana, often sourced from a stable IdP attribute like Azure AD's user.objectid) must also be sent as a claim in the SAML assertion from your Identity Provider. Furthermore, the Grafana SAML configuration must be correctly set up to identify and use this specific claim for linking the authenticated SAML user to their SCIM-provisioned user. This can be achieved by either ensuring the primary SAML login identifier by using the assertion_attribute_external_uid setting in Grafana to explicitly set the name of the SAML claim that contains the stable unique identifier attribute.

Why is this important? A mismatch or inconsistent mapping between this SAML login identifier and the SCIM externalId creates a critical security vulnerability. If these two identifiers are not reliably and uniquely aligned for each individual user, Grafana may fail to correctly link an authenticated SAML session to the intended SCIM-provisioned user profile and its associated permissions. This can enable a malicious actor to impersonate another user—for instance, by crafting a SAML assertion that, due to the identifier misalignment, incorrectly grants them the access rights of the targeted user.

Grafana relies on this linkage to correctly associate the authenticated user from SAML with the provisioned user from SCIM. Failure to ensure a consistent and unique identifier across both systems can break this linkage, leading to incorrect user mapping and potential unauthorized access.

Always verify that your SAML identity provider is configured to send a stable, unique user identifier that your SCIM configuration maps to externalId. Refer to your identity provider's documentation and the specific Grafana SCIM integration guides (e.g., for Azure AD or Okta) for detailed instructions on configuring these attributes correctly. {{< /admonition >}}

Benefits

{{< admonition type="note" >}} SCIM provisioning only works SAML authentication. Other authentication methods aren't supported. {{< /admonition >}}

SCIM offers several advantages for managing users and teams in Grafana:

• Automated user provisioning: Automatically create, update, and disable users in Grafana when changes occur in your identity provider
• Automated team lifecycle management: Automatically create teams when new groups are added, update team memberships, and delete teams when groups are removed from your identity provider
• Reduced administrative overhead: Eliminate manual user management tasks and reduce the risk of human error
• Enhanced security: Automatically disable access when users leave your organization

Authentication and access requirements

When you enable SCIM in Grafana, the following requirements and restrictions apply:

1. Use the same identity provider for user provisioning and for authentication flow: You must use the same identity provider for both authentication and user provisioning.

2. Authentication restrictions:

   • Users attempting to log in through other methods (LDAP, OAuth) will be blocked
   • By default, users who are not provisioned through SCIM cannot access Grafana

3. Security restriction: When using SAML, the login authentication flow requires the SAML assertion exchange between the Identity Provider and Grafana to include the userUID SAML assertion with the user's unique identifier at the Identity Provider.

   • Configure userUID SAML assertion in Azure AD
   • Configure userUID SAML assertion in Okta

4. Exceptions: Users with Basic Auth credentials and those using their Grafana Cloud accounts can still log in regardless of these restrictions.

Configure SCIM in Grafana

The table below describes all SCIM configuration options. Like any other Grafana configuration, you can apply these options as environment variables.

Setting	Required	Description	Default
user_sync_enabled	Yes	Enable SCIM user provisioning. When enabled, Grafana will create, update, and deactivate users based on SCIM requests from your identity provider.	false
group_sync_enabled	No	Enable SCIM group provisioning. When enabled, Grafana will create, update, and delete teams based on SCIM requests from your identity provider. Cannot be enabled if Team Sync is enabled.	false
allow_non_provisioned_users	No	Allow non SCIM provisioned users to sign in to Grafana.	false

{{< admonition type="warning" >}} Team Sync Compatibility:

• SCIM group sync (group_sync_enabled = true) and Team Sync cannot be enabled simultaneously
• You can use SCIM user sync (user_sync_enabled = true) alongside Team Sync
• For more details about migration and compatibility, see SCIM vs Team Sync {{< /admonition >}}

Example SCIM configuration

[auth.scim]
user_sync_enabled = true
group_sync_enabled = false

Supported identity providers

The following identity providers are supported:

• Azure AD
• Okta

How it works

The synchronization process works as follows:

1. Configure SCIM in both your identity provider and Grafana
2. Your identity provider sends SCIM requests to the Grafana SCIM API endpoint
3. Grafana processes these requests to create, update, or deactivate users and teams, and synchronize team memberships

Comparison with other sync methods

Grafana offers several methods for synchronizing users, teams, and roles. The following table compares SCIM with other synchronization methods to help you understand the advantages:

Sync Method	Users	Teams	Roles	Automation	Key Benefits	Limitations	On-Prem	Cloud
SCIM	✅	✅	⚠️	Full	Complete user and team lifecycle management with automatic team creation	Requires SAML authentication; uses Role Sync for basic roles	✅	✅
Team Sync	❌	⚠️	❌	Partial	Syncs team memberships to existing teams	Requires manual team creation; no team lifecycle management	✅	✅
Active LDAP Sync	✅	❌	❌	Full	Background synchronization of LDAP users	Limited to LDAP environments	✅	❌
Role Sync	❌	❌	✅	Full	Full automation of basic role assignment	Limited to basic roles only	✅	✅
Org Mapping	❌	❌	⚠️	Full	Full automation of basic role assignment per organization	Limited to basic roles only; on-premises only	⚠️	❌

Key advantages

• Comprehensive user and team automation: SCIM provides full automation for user and team provisioning, while role management is handled separately through Role Sync
• Dynamic team creation: Teams are created automatically based on identity provider groups
• Near real-time synchronization: Changes in the identity provider are reflected based on the provider synchronization schedule
• Enterprise-ready: Designed for large organizations with complex user management needs

Next steps

• Manage users and teams with SCIM provisioning
• Configure SCIM with Azure AD
• Configure SCIM with Okta