Set Up SAML Authentication

Create a server profile.
The server profile identifies the external authentication service and instructs the firewall on how to connect to that authentication service and access the authentication credentials for your users.
The following steps describe how you can import a SAML metadata file from the IdP so that the firewall can automatically create a server profile and populate the connection, registration, and IdP certificate information. If the IdP does not provide a metadata file, select
Device
Server Profiles
SAML Identity Provider
, and then
Add
a server profile manually.
Export the SAML metadata file from the IdP to an endpoint that the firewall can access.
Refer to your IdP documentation for instructions on how to export the file.
Select
Device
Server Profiles
SAML Identity Provider
.
Import
the metadata file onto the firewall.
Enter a
Profile Name
to identify the server profile, such as
GP-User-Auth
.
Browse
for the metadata file.
(
Recommended
) Select
Validate Identity Provider Certificate
(default) so that the firewall validates the IdP certificate.
Validation occurs only after you assign the server profile to an authentication profile and
Commit
the changes. The firewall uses the certificate profile within the authentication profile to validate the certificate.
Enter the
Maximum Clock Skew
, which is the allowed system time difference (in seconds) between the IdP and the firewall when the firewall validates IdP messages. The default value is 60 seconds, and the range is 1 to 900 seconds.If the difference exceeds this value, authentication fails.
Click
OK
to save the server profile.
(
Optional
) Create an authentication profile.
The authentication profile specifies the server profile that the portal or gateways use when they authenticate users. On a portal or gateway, you can assign one or more authentication profiles to one or more client authentication profiles. For more information on how an authentication profile within a client authentication profile supports granular user authentication, see Configure a GlobalProtect Gateway and Set Up Access to the GlobalProtect Portal.
SAML authentication supports Remote Access VPN with Pre-Logon with GlobalProtect app 5.0 and later releases.
Select
Device
Authentication Profile
, and then
Add
a new authentication profile.
Enter a
Name
for the authentication profile.
Set the
Authentication
Type
to
SAML
.
Select the SAML
IdP Server Profile
that you created in step 1.
Configure the following options to enable certificate authentication between the firewall and the SAML identity provider. Refer to SAML 2.0 Authentication for more details.
The
Certificate for Signing Requests
that the firewall uses to sign messages that it sends to the IdP.
The
Certificate Profile
that the firewall uses to validate the IdP certificate.
Specify the username and admin role formats.
Specify the
Username Attribute
and
User Group Attribute
.
Unlike other external authentication types, the SAML authentication profile does not have a
User Domain
attribute.
(
Optional
) If you plan to use this profile to authenticate the administrative accounts that you manage in the IdP identity store, specify the
Admin Role Attribute
and
Access Domain Attribute
.
On the
Advanced
tab,
Add
an
Allow List
to select the users and groups that are allowed to authenticate with this profile. The
all
option allows every user to authenticate with this profile. By default, the list has no entries, which means no users can authenticate.
Make sure the username in the
Allow List
matches the username returned from the SAML IdP server.
Click
OK
.
Commit
the configuration.
(
Chromebooks only
) Install the SAML SSO for Chrome Apps extension to enable SAML SSO for Chrome applications.
Launch the Chrome
Web Store
and install the
SAML SSO for Chrome Apps
extension.
(
Chromebooks only
) Configure SAML Single Sign-On for Chrome apps.
In order for GlobalProtect to support SAML SSO, the GlobalProtect application ID (
nicidmbokaedpmoegdbcebhnchpegcdc
) must be added to the allow list configuration file for the
SAML SSO for Chrome Apps
extension.