Tutorial: Configure G Suite for automatic user provisioning

This tutorial describes the steps you need to perform in both G Suite and Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to configure automatic user provisioning. When configured, Azure AD automatically provisions and de-provisions users and groups to G Suite using the Azure AD Provisioning service. For important details on what this service does, how it works, and frequently asked questions, see Automate user provisioning and deprovisioning to SaaS applications with Azure Active Directory.

Note

This tutorial describes a connector built on top of the Azure AD User Provisioning Service. For important details on what this service does, how it works, and frequently asked questions, see Automate user provisioning and deprovisioning to SaaS applications with Azure Active Directory.

Capabilities supported

• Create users in G Suite
• Remove users in G Suite when they do not require access anymore (note: removing a user from the sync scope will not result in deletion of the object in GSuite)
• Keep user attributes synchronized between Azure AD and G Suite
• Provision groups and group memberships in G Suite
• Single sign-on to G Suite (recommended)

Prerequisites

The scenario outlined in this tutorial assumes that you already have the following prerequisites:

• An Azure AD tenant
• A user account in Azure AD with permission to configure provisioning (e.g. Application Administrator, Cloud Application administrator, Application Owner, or Global Administrator).
• A G Suite tenant
• A user account on a G Suite with Admin permissions.

Step 1. Plan your provisioning deployment

1. Learn about how the provisioning service works.
2. Determine who will be in scope for provisioning.
3. Determine what data to map between Azure AD and G Suite.

Step 2. Configure G Suite to support provisioning with Azure AD

Before configuring G Suite for automatic user provisioning with Azure AD, you will need to enable SCIM provisioning on G Suite.

1. Sign in to the G Suite Admin console with your administrator account, then click on Main menu and then select Security. If you don't see it, it might be hidden under the Show More menu.

   

   

2. Navigate to Security -> Access and data control -> API Controls .Select the check box Trust internal,domain-owned apps and then click SAVE

   

   Important

   For every user that you intend to provision to G Suite, their user name in Azure AD must be tied to a custom domain. For example, user names that look like bob@contoso.onmicrosoft.com are not accepted by G Suite. On the other hand, bob@contoso.com is accepted. You can change an existing user's domain by following the instructions here.

3. Once you have added and verified your desired custom domains with Azure AD, you must verify them again with G Suite. To verify domains in G Suite, refer to the following steps:

   1. In the G Suite Admin Console, navigate to Account -> Domains -> Manage Domains.

      

   2. In the Manage Domain page, click on Add a domain.

      

   3. In the Add Domain page, type in the name of the domain that you want to add.

      

   4. Select ADD DOMAIN & START VERIFICATION. Then follow the steps to verify that you own the domain name. For comprehensive instructions on how to verify your domain with Google, see Verify your site ownership.

   5. Repeat the preceding steps for any additional domains that you intend to add to G Suite.

4. Next, determine which admin account you want to use to manage user provisioning in G Suite. Navigate to Account->Admin roles.

   

5. For the Admin role of that account, edit the Privileges for that role. Make sure to enable all Admin API Privileges so that this account can be used for provisioning.

   

Step 3. Add G Suite from the Azure AD application gallery

Add G Suite from the Azure AD application gallery to start managing provisioning to G Suite. If you have previously setup G Suite for SSO you can use the same application. However it is recommended that you create a separate app when testing out the integration initially. Learn more about adding an application from the gallery here.

Step 4. Define who will be in scope for provisioning

The Azure AD provisioning service allows you to scope who will be provisioned based on assignment to the application and or based on attributes of the user / group. If you choose to scope who will be provisioned to your app based on assignment, you can use the following steps to assign users and groups to the application. If you choose to scope who will be provisioned based solely on attributes of the user or group, you can use a scoping filter as described here.

• Start small. Test with a small set of users and groups before rolling out to everyone. When scope for provisioning is set to assigned users and groups, you can control this by assigning one or two users or groups to the app. When scope is set to all users and groups, you can specify an attribute based scoping filter.

• If you need additional roles, you can update the application manifest to add new roles.

Step 5. Configure automatic user provisioning to G Suite

This section guides you through the steps to configure the Azure AD provisioning service to create, update, and disable users and/or groups in TestApp based on user and/or group assignments in Azure AD.

Note

To learn more about the G Suite Directory API endpoint, refer to the Directory API reference documentation.

To configure automatic user provisioning for G Suite in Azure AD:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal. Select Enterprise Applications, then select All applications. Users will need to log in to portal.azure.com and will not be able to use aad.portal.azure.com.

   

   

2. In the applications list, select G Suite.

   

3. Select the Provisioning tab. Click on Get started.

   

   

4. Set the Provisioning Mode to Automatic.

   

5. Under the Admin Credentials section, click on Authorize. You will be redirected to a Google authorization dialog box in a new browser window.

   

6. Confirm that you want to give Azure AD permissions to make changes to your G Suite tenant. Select Accept.

   

7. In the Azure portal, click Test Connection to ensure Azure AD can connect to G Suite. If the connection fails, ensure your G Suite account has Admin permissions and try again. Then try the Authorize step again.

8. In the Notification Email field, enter the email address of a person or group who should receive the provisioning error notifications and select the Send an email notification when a failure occurs check box.

   

9. Select Save.

10. Under the Mappings section, select Provision Azure Active Directory Users.

11. Review the user attributes that are synchronized from Azure AD to G Suite in the Attribute-Mapping section. Select the Save button to commit any changes.

Note

GSuite Provisioning currently only supports the use of primaryEmail as the matching attribute.

Attribute	Type
primaryEmail	String
relations.[type eq "manager"].value	String
name.familyName	String
name.givenName	String
suspended	String
externalIds.[type eq "custom"].value	String
externalIds.[type eq "organization"].value	String
addresses.[type eq "work"].country	String
addresses.[type eq "work"].streetAddress	String
addresses.[type eq "work"].region	String
addresses.[type eq "work"].locality	String
addresses.[type eq "work"].postalCode	String
emails.[type eq "work"].address	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].department	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].title	String
phoneNumbers.[type eq "work"].value	String
phoneNumbers.[type eq "mobile"].value	String
phoneNumbers.[type eq "work_fax"].value	String
emails.[type eq "work"].address	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].department	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].title	String
addresses.[type eq "home"].country	String
addresses.[type eq "home"].formatted	String
addresses.[type eq "home"].locality	String
addresses.[type eq "home"].postalCode	String
addresses.[type eq "home"].region	String
addresses.[type eq "home"].streetAddress	String
addresses.[type eq "other"].country	String
addresses.[type eq "other"].formatted	String
addresses.[type eq "other"].locality	String
addresses.[type eq "other"].postalCode	String
addresses.[type eq "other"].region	String
addresses.[type eq "other"].streetAddress	String
addresses.[type eq "work"].formatted	String
changePasswordAtNextLogin	String
emails.[type eq "home"].address	String
emails.[type eq "other"].address	String
externalIds.[type eq "account"].value	String
externalIds.[type eq "custom"].customType	String
externalIds.[type eq "customer"].value	String
externalIds.[type eq "login_id"].value	String
externalIds.[type eq "network"].value	String
gender.type	String
GeneratedImmutableId	String
Identifier	String
ims.[type eq "home"].protocol	String
ims.[type eq "other"].protocol	String
ims.[type eq "work"].protocol	String
includeInGlobalAddressList	String
ipWhitelisted	String
organizations.[type eq "school"].costCenter	String
organizations.[type eq "school"].department	String
organizations.[type eq "school"].domain	String
organizations.[type eq "school"].fullTimeEquivalent	String
organizations.[type eq "school"].location	String
organizations.[type eq "school"].name	String
organizations.[type eq "school"].symbol	String
organizations.[type eq "school"].title	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].costCenter	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].domain	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].fullTimeEquivalent	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].location	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].name	String
organizations.[type eq "work"].symbol	String
OrgUnitPath	String
phoneNumbers.[type eq "home"].value	String
phoneNumbers.[type eq "other"].value	String
websites.[type eq "home"].value	String
websites.[type eq "other"].value	String
websites.[type eq "work"].value	String

10. Under the Mappings section, select Provision Azure Active Directory Groups.

11. Review the group attributes that are synchronized from Azure AD to G Suite in the Attribute-Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the groups in G Suite for update operations. Select the Save button to commit any changes.

    Attribute	Type
    email	String
    Members	String
    name	String
    description	String

12. To configure scoping filters, refer to the following instructions provided in the Scoping filter tutorial.

13. To enable the Azure AD provisioning service for G Suite, change the Provisioning Status to On in the Settings section.

    

14. Define the users and/or groups that you would like to provision to G Suite by choosing the desired values in Scope in the Settings section.

    

15. When you are ready to provision, click Save.

    

This operation starts the initial synchronization cycle of all users and groups defined in Scope in the Settings section. The initial cycle takes longer to perform than subsequent cycles, which occur approximately every 40 minutes as long as the Azure AD provisioning service is running.

Note

If the users already have an existing personal/consumer account using the email address of the Azure AD user, then it may cause some issue which could be resolved by using the Google Transfer Tool prior to performing the directory sync.

Step 6. Monitor your deployment

Once you've configured provisioning, use the following resources to monitor your deployment:

1. Use the provisioning logs to determine which users have been provisioned successfully or unsuccessfully
2. Check the progress bar to see the status of the provisioning cycle and how close it is to completion
3. If the provisioning configuration seems to be in an unhealthy state, the application will go into quarantine. Learn more about quarantine states here.

Troubleshooting Tips

• Removing a user from the sync scope will disable them in GSuite but will not result in deletion of the user in G Suite

Change log

• 10/17/2020 - Added support for additional G Suite user and group attributes.
• 10/17/2020 - Updated G Suite target attribute names to match what is defined here.
• 10/17/2020 - Updated default attribute mappings.
• 03/18/2021 - Manager email is now synchronized instead of ID for all new users. For any existing users that were provisioned with a manager as an ID, you can do a restart through Microsoft Graph with scope "full" to ensure that the email is provisioned. This change only impacts the GSuite provisioning job and not the older provisioning job beginning with Goov2OutDelta. Note, the manager email is provisioned when the user is first created or when the manager changes. The manager email is not provisioned if the manager changes their email address.

Additional resources

• Managing user account provisioning for Enterprise Apps
• What is application access and single sign-on with Azure Active Directory?

Next steps

• Learn how to review logs and get reports on provisioning activity