About external providers
Automation Suite allows you to configure an external identity provider to control how your users sign in. The following table provides an overview of the different host-level external providers available:
External Provider Integration | Authentication | Directory Search | Administrators Provisioning |
---|---|---|---|
Administrators can use SSO with Windows Authentication using the Kerberos protocol | Administrators can search for users from the Active Directory | For a user to be able to login, either the user or a group that the user is a member of should already be added to Automation Suite. Active Directory users and groups are available in Automation Suite through directory search. | |
Administrators can use SSO with Azure AD using the OpenID Connect protocol | Not supported | Users must be manually provisioned into the Automation Suite. with an email address matching their Azure AD account. | |
Users can use SSO with Google using the OpenID Connect protocol | Not supported | Users must be manually provisioned into the Automation Suite organization with an email address matching their Google account. | |
Users can use SSO with any Identity Provider that supports SAML | Not supported | Users must be manually provisioned into the Automation Suite organization with a username/email/external provider key (as configured in their external identity provider configuration) matching their SAML account. |
Differences between integrating Azure AD at host-level and organization-level
The host-level Azure AD external identity provider only enables SSO functionality. This means that the user must be manually provisioned into the Automation Suite organization with an email address matching their Azure AD account for them to sign in to the organization.
When organization-level Azure AD integration is configured, users that sign in to the organization through Azure AD (SSO) will be automatically provisioned in the Automation Suite. In addition, logged in directory users can search for other users in Azure AD.
Allowing or restricting basic authentication
Basic authentication refers to signing in with the username and password of a local account.
If basic authentication is restricted, your users can only log in with their directory account, as defined in the external identity provider. Otherwise, users can log in with both their local accounts, if any, and their directory accounts.
Configuration levels and inheritance
This option can be configured:
- at the host level, as described below.
When set at the host level, the setting applies to all organizations and all their accounts, except if the basic authentication setting at the organization or account level was not explicitly set differently. - for system administrator accounts, as described below.
Even when all organizations are restricted from using basic authentication, you can allow system administrators only to bypass this restriction. - at the organization level, as described in Configuring authentication and security.
If set at the organization level, the organization-level setting overrides the host-level setting for only that organization. The setting for an organization applies to all accounts that belong to that organization, except accounts for which basic authentication is set differently at the account level. - at the account level, as described in Adding accounts.
If set at the account level, the account-level setting overrides the host-level and organization-level basic authentication setting for only that account.
Setting basic authentication at the host level
This setting is only available if an external provider integration is enabled at the host level.
When set at the host level, the setting applies to all organizations and all their accounts. Set it according to the preference or recommendation across your company.
For exceptions, basic authentication can also be set at the organization or account level where you want this setting to apply differently.
To allow or restrict basic authentication for all organizations and all accounts:
- Log in to the host portal as a system administrator.
- Go to Security Settings.
- Under External Providers, click the Disable basic authentication for the organizations toggle to restrict or allow sign in using basic authentication:
- If off (left toggle position, gray toggle), basic authentication is allowed.
- If on (right toggle position, blue toggle), basic authentication is restricted. While restricted, the Allow basic authentication for the host administrators toggle is available.


- If you restricted basic authentication, use the Allow basic authentication for the host administrators toggle to choose if you want to allow basic authentications for system administrators, as an exception:
- If off (left toggle position, gray toggle), basic authentication is not allowed for system administrators either.
- If on (right toggle position, blue toggle), even though basic authentication is not allowed, as an exception, it is allowed for system administrator accounts only.
- At the bottom-right of the External Providers section, click Save to apply your changes.
Recovering from lock out
When basic authentication is disabled, it is possible to get locked out if you lose access to your directory account.
To recover from this situation, go to https://<FQDN>/host/orchestrator_/account/hostlogin
and log in using your basic authentication credentials.
Configuring security options
The settings you specify here are inherited by all organizations in your installation as default, but organization administrators can overwrite these settings as needed at the level of the individual organization.
To configure security options for your Automation Suite installation, log in to the host portal and go to Security Settings. In the Security section, you can update the following settings as needed.
Password complexity
Editing the Password complexity settings does not affect existing passwords.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Special characters | Select to force users to include at least one special character in their password. |
Lowercase characters | Select to force users to include at least one lowercase character in their password. |
Uppercase characters | Select to force users to include at least one uppercase character in their password. |
Digits | Select to force users to include at least one digit in their password. |
Minimum password length | Specify the minimum number of characters a password should contain. |
Days before password expiration | Specify the number of days for which the password is available. After this period, the password expires and needs to be changed. |
Number of times a password can be reused | The minimum accepted value is 0 (never allow reusing a password), while the maximum is 10. |
Change password on the first login | If set to Required, users that log in for the first time must change their password before being allowed to access Automation Suite. |
Account lockout
Field | Description |
---|---|
Enabled or Disabled toggle | If enabled, locks the account for a specific amount of seconds after a specific amount of failed login attempts. This also applies to the password change feature. |
Account lockout duration | The number of seconds a user needs to wait before being allowed to log in again after exceeding the Consecutive login attempts before lockout. |
Consecutive login attempts before lockout | The number of failed login attempts allowed before the account is locked. |
Updated 3 months ago