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Use Microsoft Azure as an OAuth 2.0 authentication provider

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You can enable the Microsoft Azure OAuth 2.0 OmniAuth provider and sign in to GitLab with your Microsoft Azure credentials.

Register an Azure application

To enable the Microsoft Azure OAuth 2.0 OmniAuth provider, you must register an Azure application and get a client ID and secret key.

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

  2. If you have multiple Azure Active Directory tenants, switch to the desired tenant. Note the tenant ID.

  3. Register an application and provide the following information:

    • The redirect URI, which requires the URL of the Azure OAuth callback of your GitLab installation. https://gitlab.example.com/users/auth/azure_activedirectory_v2/callback.
    • The application type, which must be set to Web.

  4. Save the client ID and client secret. The client secret is only displayed once.

    If required, you can create a new application secret.

client ID and client secret are terms associated with OAuth 2.0. In some Microsoft documentation, the terms are named Application ID and Application Secret.

Add API permissions (scopes)

After you create the application, configure it to expose a web API. Add the following delegated permissions under the Microsoft Graph API:

  • email
  • openid
  • profile

Alternatively, add the User.Read.All application permission.

Enable Microsoft OAuth in GitLab

NOTE: For new projects, you should use the OpenID Connect protocol, which uses the Microsoft identity platform (v2.0) endpoint.

  1. On your GitLab server, open the configuration file.

    • For Linux package installations:

      sudo editor /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb

    • For self-compiled installations:

      cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H editor config/gitlab.yml

  2. Configure the common settings to add azure_activedirectory_v2 as a single sign-on provider. This enables Just-In-Time account provisioning for users who do not have an existing GitLab account.

  3. Add the provider configuration. Replace <client_id>, <client_secret>, and <tenant_id> with the values you got when you registered the Azure application.

    • For Linux package installations:

      gitlab_rails['omniauth_providers'] = [
  {
    "name" => "azure_activedirectory_v2",
    "label" => "Provider name", # optional label for login button, defaults to "Azure AD v2"
    "args" => {
      "client_id" => "<client_id>",
      "client_secret" => "<client_secret>",
      "tenant_id" => "<tenant_id>",
    }
  }
]

    • For alternative Azure clouds, configure base_azure_url under the args section. For example, for Azure Government Community Cloud (GCC):

      gitlab_rails['omniauth_providers'] = [
  {
    "name" => "azure_activedirectory_v2",
    "label" => "Provider name", # optional label for login button, defaults to "Azure AD v2"
    "args" => {
      "client_id" => "<client_id>",
      "client_secret" => "<client_secret>",
      "tenant_id" => "<tenant_id>",
      "base_azure_url" => "https://login.microsoftonline.us"
    }
  }
]

    • For self-compiled installations:

      For the v2.0 endpoint:

      - { name: 'azure_activedirectory_v2',
    label: 'Provider name', # optional label for login button, defaults to "Azure AD v2"
    args: { client_id: "<client_id>",
            client_secret: "<client_secret>",
            tenant_id: "<tenant_id>" } }

      For alternative Azure clouds, configure base_azure_url under the args section. For example, for Azure Government Community Cloud (GCC):

      - { name: 'azure_activedirectory_v2',
    label: 'Provider name', # optional label for login button, defaults to "Azure AD v2"
    args: { client_id: "<client_id>",
            client_secret: "<client_secret>",
            tenant_id: "<tenant_id>",
            base_azure_url: "https://login.microsoftonline.us" } }

    You can also optionally add the scope for OAuth 2.0 scopes parameter to the args section. The default is openid profile email.

  4. Save the configuration file.

  5. Reconfigure GitLab if you installed using the Linux package, or restart GitLab if you self-compiled your installation.

  6. Refresh the GitLab sign-in page. A Microsoft icon should display below the sign-in form.

  7. Select the icon. Sign in to Microsoft and authorize the GitLab application.

Read Enable OmniAuth for an existing user for information on how existing GitLab users can connect to their new Azure AD accounts.

Troubleshooting

User sign in banner message: Extern UID has already been taken

When signing in, you might get an error that states Extern UID has already been taken.

To resolve this, use the Rails console to check if there is an existing user tied to the account:

  1. Find the extern_uid:

    id = Identity.where(extern_uid: '<extern_uid>')

  2. Print the content to find the username attached to that extern_uid:

    pp id

If the extern_uid is attached to an account, you can use the username to sign in.

If the extern_uid is not attached to any username, this might be because of a deletion error resulting in a ghost record.

Run the following command to delete the identity to release the extern uid:

 Identity.find('<id>').delete