This article discusses functionality that is included in the Aha! Knowledge Advanced plan. Please contact us if you would like a live demo or want to try using it in your account.

Aha! Roadmaps | Knowledge base SSO | SAML 2.0 (Aha! Knowledge Advanced plan)

Single sign-on (SSO) allows your users to log in to your knowledge base using their existing SAML-enabled ID provider, such as Active Directory, OneLogin, PingIdentity, Okta, and many more. With SSO, you can increase usage of your knowledge base as employees and customers no longer need to keep track of yet another email and password.

Click any of the following links to skip ahead:

How it works
Enable SSO for any knowledge base
Configure your SAML identity provider
Share your SSO configuration
Troubleshooting

How it works

When a user navigates to the knowledge base, they will be presented with the option to authenticate to the knowledge base via SSO only. If they are already logged in to the SSO provider, they will automatically be logged in to your knowledge base without any additional actions.

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Enable SSO for any knowledge base

To enable SAML 2.0 SSO in your knowledge base:

Navigate to Settings ⚙️ Account Knowledge Knowledge bases. You will need to be an administrator with customizations permissions to configure a knowledge base.
Click the knowledge base you want to configure. This opens that knowledge base's settings.
On the Overview tab, find the Access settings. Next to the Authentication dropdown, select SSO.
In the SSO identity provider dropdown, select +Add new provider.
If you already have SSO set up for an ideas portal and would like to share that SSO configuration with your knowledge base, you can select the existing provider you have already set up during this step and skip adding a new one.
On the next screen, enter a Name to identify the SSO configuration. Next to Type, select SAML. Click Save.
Enter the remaining fields following the SAML 2.0 configuration requirements. Note: The SAML 2.0 configuration will differ based on the SAML provider that you've selected.
Click Enable SSO to complete the configuration.

Beneath Access for Aha! users, you will find two additional advanced settings. These are disabled by default for knowledge base SSO configurations, as they are intended for ideas portal SSO configurations.

Most Aha! accounts will not need these advanced settings — and you can break your SSO configuration if you do not use them correctly. If you are also using this configuration for both your knowledge base and your ideas portal and you need help configuring these options, you are welcome to reach out to our Customer Success team.

Enable CNAME for SSO URLs: This option is rarely needed and will break SSO if not carefully configured. Enabling this option causes SSO to use the CNAME as well. This is not necessary for knowledge bases or for most ideas portals, even when using a CNAME for the portal. It may be useful if your customers have strict corporate networking policies.
CNAME: This must match an existing CNAME used in an active ideas portal in your Aha! account. After adding the CNAME click Update URLs and Save or Update SSO. If you have previously configured SSO the URLs must be updated in your external system.

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Configure your SAML identity provider

The last step in configuring your knowledge base for SAML 2.0 SSO is to configure your identity provider so that it will send your Aha! account the right information. Particularly, you should ensure that the identity provider is sending the required user attributes to your Aha! account.

EmailAddress
FirstName
LastName
NameID
We strongly recommend using a persistent, unique identifier in this field rather than the user's email address.

Your Aha! account uses these attributes to identify users and match them to users in your Aha! account, ideas portal, or knowledge base.

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Troubleshooting

We have created an article to help you troubleshoot common SSO configuration issues, complete with explanations and resolutions.

The best place to start in most of these situations is the Recent SSO events for your SSO configuration, at the bottom of the configuration page. Those messages will help diagnose and solve the problem.

It is possible to invite an ideas portal user from your ideas portal settings who has not been configured with the identity provider your portal is using. The user will not be able to log in to the ideas portal until they can be authenticated by the identity provider.

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If you get stuck, please reach out to our Customer Success team. Our team is made up entirely of product experts and responds fast.

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Release notes

Aha! plans	Number of ideas portals on a single SSO configuration	Number of knowledge bases on a single SSO configuration	Notes
Aha! Roadmaps	1	0*	One SSO configuration per ideas portal.
Aha! Roadmaps + Aha! Ideas Advanced	2+	0*	One SSO configuration can be shared between multiple ideas portals.
Aha! Roadmaps + Aha! Knowledge Advanced	2+	2+	One SSO configuration can be shared between one ideas portal and multiple knowledge bases.
Aha! Roadmaps + Aha! Ideas Advanced + Aha! Knowledge Advanced	2+	2+	One SSO configuration can be shared between multiple ideas portals and multiple knowledge bases.