Configure User Authentication and Authorization with Okta LDAP Interface

Set up the Okta LDAP interface.

1. To learn more about setting up the Okta LDAP interface, see the Okta documentation.

2. Note your <okta-instance-id>. You must provide it in several places during the configuration process.

   The instance name is located in the URL you use to sign in to your Okta account:

   https://<okta-instance-id>.admin.okta.com

Create a bind user.

1. Create a new Okta user to use as the Atlas bind user. The bind user is an Okta user that you use to query the account and to authenticate database users' credentials when they connect to an Atlas database.

   Important

   Don't use your own user account for the bind user.

2. Use the following template to determine the full Distinguished Name (DN) of your bind user:

   uid=<bind-user-email>,dc=<okta-instance-id>,dc=okta,dc=com

   For example, if your <bind-user-email> is bind@example.com and your <okta-instance-id> is mdb-example, your bind user's DN is:

   uid=bind@example.com,ou=users,dc=mdb-example,dc=okta,dc=com

Create database users in Okta.

If they don't exist already, create users in Okta that you want to grant database access to:

1. Navigate to your Okta People page.

2. Click Add Person.

3. Enter the user's details. Use email addresses for usernames.

   Note

   Avoid entering email addresses with plus symbols (+). The Atlas LDAP integration may encounter issues with email addresses containing plus symbols.

4. Click Save.

In Atlas, go to the Advanced page for your project.

1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

3. In the sidebar, click Advanced under the Security heading.

   The Advanced page displays.

Toggle the button next to LDAP Authentication to On.

Enter the server details and bind credentials for all of your LDAP servers in the Configure Your LDAP Server panel.

You may list multiple servers separated by commas. You cannot use different ports.

Add a User to DN Mapping.

Add a User to DN mapping similar to the following example to allow clients to provide their email addresses instead of full DNs when they connect to Atlas databases:

[
   {
       "match": "(.+)",
       "substitution": "uid={0},ou=users,dc=<okta_instance_id>,dc=okta,dc=com"
   }
]

Enter certificates issued from a Certificate Authority (CA) for your LDAP servers, separated by commas, in the CA Root Certificate field.

You may provide self-signed certificates.

Click Verify and Save.

Wait for Atlas to deploy your changes. Atlas verifies that your clusters can connect to, authenticate with, and query your LDAP servers using the configuration details that you provided.

In Atlas, go to the Database Access page for your project.

1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

3. In the sidebar, click Database Access under the Security heading.

   The Database Access page displays.

Add LDAP users to Atlas.

Add users managed in the Okta LDAP to Atlas.

1. Click Add New Database User.

2. Click LDAP User.

3. Perform one of the following:

   1. If you have not entered a User to DN Mapping, enter the full DN of the LDAP user. Follow this template:

      uid=<user-name>,ou=users,dc=<okta-instance-id>,dc=okta,dc=com

      For example, if your <user-name> is jane@example.com and your <okta-instance-id> is mdb-example, your user's DN is:

      uid=jane@example.com,ou=users,dc=mdb-example,dc=okta,dc=com

   2. If you entered a User to DN Mapping, enter the username or email address that your mapping requires.

4. Select the database access level to grant to the user.

5. Click Add User.

Create Okta database access groups.

Atlas LDAP authorization uses LDAP groups to determine if users are authorized to perform database actions.

Create separate Okta groups for each level of access that you want to grant to users. For example, you create one group for read access to one database, another for read and write access, and so on.

1. Navigate to your Okta Groups page by clicking Directory, then Groups.

2. Click Add Group.

3. Enter a group name, for example db-read.

4. Click Add Group.

Add Okta users to database access groups.

Assign users to groups based on the level of access each user requires.

1. Click the group you want to add users to.

2. Click Manage People.

3. Add users to the group, and then click Save.

Assign privileges to the bind user.

The bind user must have Read Only Administrator privileges to authorize users against specific Okta groups and to perform LDAP searches. To assign the bind user Read Only Administrator privileges:

1. Navigate to your Okta Administrators page by clicking Security, then Administrators.

2. Click Add Administrator.

3. Search for your bind user, then select the Read Only Administrator role.

4. Click Add Administrator.

In Atlas, go to the Database Access page for your project.

1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

3. In the sidebar, click Database Access under the Security heading.

   The Database Access page displays.

Add the database access LDAP groups to Atlas.

Add each of the Okta database groups you created to Atlas. Members of groups that you add are authorized to perform database actions granted to the group.

1. Click Add New Database User.

1. Click LDAP Group, and then enter the full DN of the group containing your database users, even if you enabled User to DN Mapping. Follow this template:

   cn=<group-name>,ou=groups,dc=<okta-instance-id>,dc=okta,dc=com

   For example, if your <group-name> is db-read and your <okta-instance-id> is mdb-example, your bind user's DN is:

   cn=db-read,ou=groups,dc=mdb-example,dc=okta,dc=com

1. Select the database access level to grant to users in this group.

2. Click Add User.

In Atlas, go to the Advanced page for your project.

1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

3. In the sidebar, click Advanced under the Security heading.

   The Advanced page displays.

Toggle the button next to LDAP Authorization to On.

Verify the server details and bind credentials for your LDAP server are correct in the Configure Your LDAP Server panel.

Enter a query template in Query Template.

When a user attempts to perform an action, Atlas executes the LDAP query template to obtain the LDAP groups to which the authenticated user belongs. Atlas permits the action if the query returns at least one group that is authorized to perform the action. Atlas does not permit the action if the query returns no groups that are authorized to perform the action.

Atlas substitutes the authenticated username in the {USER} placeholder when it runs the query. The query is relative to the host specified in Server Hostname.

The formatting for the query must conform to RFC4515.

If you want to identify what group a user is a member of, you can use the following Query Template:

ou=groups,dc=<okta-instance-id>,dc=okta,dc=com?dn?sub?(&(objectClass=groupofUniqueNames)(uniqueMember={USER}))

Click Verify and Save.

Wait for Atlas to deploy your changes. Atlas verifies that your clusters can connect to, authenticate with, and query your LDAP server using the configuration details that you provide.

In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.

1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your desired project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

2. If it's not already displayed, select your desired project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

3. If it's not already displayed, click Clusters in the sidebar.

   The Clusters page displays.

Connect to your cluster with the user credentials that you added to Atlas.

Use mongosh to connect to your cluster. To copy the connection string:

1. Click Connect.

2. Click LDAP, and then click Copy.

3. Paste and edit the string with your User DN and password.

After connecting to your cluster, run commands to verify the user has the read or write privileges you assigned them.