Managing single sign-on (SSO) configurations

Fastpath: Admin Center > Account > Security > Single sign-on

Zendesk provides the ability to create separate authentication configurations for different collections of users. This could be as simple one authentication policy for end users and another for team members, or as complex as different authentication policies for specific groups and organizations of users.

This article contains the following sections:

• Viewing your SSO configurations
• Setting an SSO configuration as the primary authentication method
• Editing SSO configurations
• Activating SSO configurations

Related articles:

• Single sign-on (SSO) options for Zendesk
• Enabling SAML single sign-on
• Enabling JWT single sign-on

Viewing your SSO configurations

All SSO configurations are listed on the Single sign-on page in Admin Center. The list includes the configuration's name, whether it's a SAML or JWT configuration, which types of users it's assigned to, and whether or not it's active. SSO configurations are listed from newest to oldest and can't be sorted.

Setting an SSO configuration as the primary authentication method

If you have more than one authentication method assigned to your users, you must specify primary SSO methods for end users and team members. Zendesk attempts to anticipate whether an unauthenticated user is an end user or team member and routes them to the appropriate remote login page based on that.

To set a primary SSO configuration

1. Open the Security settings for team members or end users.
   • In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Security > Team member authentication.
   • In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Security > End user authentication.
2. For Primary SSO, select the name of the SSO configuration you want to send end users or team members to by default.
3. Click Save.

Editing SSO configurations

You may need to edit your SSO configurations after you create them. For example, you may need to create a new shared secret for a JWT configuration or update the URL for your remote login page.

To edit an SSO configuration

1. In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Security > Single sign-on.
2. Hover over the SSO configuration you want to create a new shared secret for, then click the option menu icon () and select Edit.

Activating SSO configurations

SSO configurations are considered inactive when they aren't assigned to any users. To assign an SSO configuration to your users, open the Security settings for team members or end users and select the SSO configuration(s) you want to use.

• In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Security > Team member authentication.
• In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Security > End user authentication.