Managing inbound SSO

Okta allows the users to use external identity providers to log in to Okta with their own user database and login methods. This can be a Microsoft, Google, or a generic OIDC or SAML application. You could have contractors or outside partners needing access to some of your applications that want their IdP to be the source to log in with. Using inbound SSO with Okta makes it possible to connect with other IdPs and have their users login.

Even though Okta can easily connect to one of the aforementioned methods, we will focus specifically on connecting with an SAML IdP, allowing users to log in and have additional options to use. This is shown in the following IdP list:

Figure 3.19 – An overview of the identity providers configured

When navigating to Security | Identity Providers, you end up on the overview page for all inbound SSO connections.

Clicking on the Add Identity Provider button allows you to choose the type of IdP...