Overview

The Atlassian Suite of products is a comprehensive set of collaboration tools designed for project management, software development, and team communication, including popular applications like Jira, Confluence, Trello, and Bitbucket.

Supported Licenses

All Licenses

While Atlassian does support signing in with Google, they don’t allow you to enforce it. That means that signing in with Google makes things easier for your employees, but their usernames and passwords can still be compromised. Atlassian also doesn’t require multi-factor authentication by default, so you could be at risk if you don’t enforce this for your organization.

Atlassian Guard

In order to configure and use Single Sign-On (SSO) and SCIM with Atlassian products you need to purchase an Atlassian Guard license for your users. You can find out more info here

Atlassian Guard was formerly called Atlassian Access

What you need to know

Enabling Third-Party Login via Google

Atlassian enables third-party login via Google by default. If it was disabled for any reason in your organization you can follow this guide to turn it back on. Do this if you want to make it easier for your employees to login via Google.

You don’t need to do this if you plan to use Atlassian Guard! Atlassian Guard will enforce SSO via JumpCloud.
1

Log in to Atlassian as an admin

Log in to the Atlassian Admin Panel at https://admin.atlassian.com as an admin.

2

Go to Security

Click on the Security tab at the top.

Atlassian Security Tab
3

Go to Authentication Policies

Click on the Authentication Policies menu on the left.

Authentication Policies
4

Edit your default policy

Your organization may already have several authentication policies configured. Here we’ll walk you through updating a default policy. Find your default policy and click on the Edit button.

Edit the default policy
5

Enable third-party login

Make sure that “Allow third-party login” is enabled.

You could take this chance to also make sure you have better defaults set for your security policies. Follow the guide in this document to implement stronger security default!

Set third party logins to true
6

Click update

Click the update button at the bottom.

Click update

Any user that matches the policy is now able to login to Atlassian via their Google account.

Configuring stronger security defaults

By default, Atlassian sets the security policies for your organization to be very insecure. By using these defaults you have significant risk of being compromised. We’ll help you set your security policies to something safer that doesn’t impact your employee productivity.

We recommend doing this even if you are configuring Atlassian Guard because some accounts such as admins can bypass SSO configurations.
1

Log in to Atlassian as an admin

Log in to the Atlassian Admin Panel at https://admin.atlassian.com as an admin.

2

Go to Security

Click on the Security tab at the top.

Atlassian Security Tab
3

Go to Authentication Policies

Click on the Authentication Policies menu on the left.

Authentication Policies
4

Edit your default policy

Your organization may already have several authentication policies configured. Here we’ll walk you through updating a default policy. Find your default policy and click on the Edit button.

Edit the default policy
5

Require two-step verification

Click on the Mandatory button to require two-step verification. This means that Atlassian will ask for a username, password, and an additional factor like a one time password or passkey.

Enable two-step verification
6

Enable third-party login

We recommend that you enable third-party logins to make it easier for employees to login without a normal username and password, especially if you didn’t purchase Atlassian Guard.

Set third party logins to true
7

Set strong passwords as the default

You should change the minimum password strength to at least Strong. You can also choose Stronger if you’d like. We don’t think it’s necessarily useful to force a user to change their password periodically, unless you have compliance reasons to do so. Forcing password changes often forces worse passwords because users try to use patterns to make it easier.

Default to strong passwords
8

Click update

Click the update button at the bottom.

Click update

Any user that matches the policy is now required to register a for multi-factor authentication next time they log in and set a strong password. Congratulations, your organization is now more secure!

Enable SSO & User Sync with Atlassian Guard

The best way to secure your organization and identity for the Atlassian Suite is by using SSO via Atlassian Guard.

You need an Atlassian Guard license in order to enable SSO.
1

Log in to ShiftControl & go to Apps

Log into ShiftControl at https://app.shiftcontrol.io and go to the Apps area.

2

Add a new app in ShiftControl

In the apps area, click Add new app.

Add New App
3

Add the Atlassian Cloud App

Search for “Atlassian” and click on Add SSO App for “Atlassian Cloud”.

Add Atlassian Cloud
4

Rename the app and update the description

Rename the app if you’d like (We recommend calling it Atlassian), and add a description.

Rename the app
5

Go to the SSO tab, configure SSO and Save

Click on the SSO tab to configure your SSO settings.

  • Update the IdP Entity ID to: JumpCloud
  • Update the Default RelayState to your Atlassian vanity url. (You can find this url under Products->Product Urls in Atlassian)

The rest of the fields can remain as the default, then click Save.

Don’t close this window, we’ll need to come back to the ShiftControl app for another step later.

Configure SSO
6

Log in to Atlassian as an admin

Log in to the Atlassian Admin Panel at https://admin.atlassian.com as an admin.

7

Go to Security

Click on the Security tab at the top.

Atlassian Security Tab
8

Go to Identity Providers

Click on the Identity Providers menu on the left.

Identity Providers
9

Choose JumpCloud

You’ll see a list of supported Identity Providers. Find JumpCloud and click the Choose link.

Choose JumpCloud
10

Set the directory name

Enter “JumpCloud” in the directory name and click the Add button.

Set the directory name
11

Choose Set up SAML single sign-on

We have two options, first we’ll set up Single Sign-on, and we’ll enable provisioning afterwards.

Choose Set up SAML single sign-on
12

Click Next

Review the warning and click Next. We’ll be setting up SAML via a policy to test it, and then you’ll cut over/enable it for all users afterwards - at a time of your choosing.

Click next
13

Edit the Atlassian app in ShiftControl

In the apps section in ShiftControl, click on Edit for the Atlassian App and browse to the SSO tab. We will need to copy some information from this page to the Atlassian Page.

14

Download the certificate

Click on the Download IdP Public Certificate button to download the certificate.

Download certificate
15

Fill in the SSO fields for Atlassian

Fill in the fields by copying the information from the ShiftControl App.

  1. Identity provider Entity ID - This field is IdP Entity ID in ShiftControl and the value should be JumpCloud.
  2. Identity provider SSO URL - This field is IdP Url in ShiftControl.
  3. Public x509 certificate - Open the certificate you downloaded in a text editor (Like Notepad) and then copy and paste it into this field.
16

Verify the details and click Next

Your screen should look similar to the image below. Once you have verified your entries, click Next.

Complete SAML config
17

Copy the Atlassian SSO configs to ShiftControl

Now that we’ve completed providing Atlassian with our settings, we need to take their settings and save them into the app on ShiftControl.

Atlassian SP Details
  1. Service provider entity URL - This field is SP Entity ID in ShiftControl. Copy the value in.
  2. Service provider assertion consumer service URL - This field is ACS Url in ShiftControl. Copy the value in.

Your configuration should look similar to the one in the image below. Review your settings and click Save.

Finalize Atlassian SSO config
18

Click next on Atlassian

Not that we’re done copying the settings, click Next.

Click next
19

Select your domain and click Next

Click on the pull down and select your domain and click Next.

Choose the domain and click next
20

Set up provisioning

We’re now done with the SSO configuration. One of the more powerful aspects of this kind of setup is that we can automatically provision and deprovision users as you assign or remove the app from them in ShiftControl or when you disable or delete a user. Click on Set up provisioning.

Set up provisioning
21

Review the warning and click Next

Review the warning and click Next.

Accept user provisioning warning
22

Log in to JumpCloud Admin

Make sure you log in to the JumpCloud Admin portal at https://console.jumpcloud.com/login/admin with your admin account.

😠 JumpCloud APIs do not yet allow us to fully configure user provisioning, you’ll need to do this step in the JumpCloud platform. We’re actively working with JumpCloud to allow this kind of configuration via APIs.

23

Go to SSO Applications

Go to SSO Applications on the left hand side.

Go to SSO Applications
24

Access the Atlassian Application

Choose the Atlassian app from the list. It’ll be named here the same way it is named in ShiftControl.

Access the Atlassian Application
25

Access Identity Management

Click on the Identity Management tab and click on the Configure button next to Configuration Settings.

Access Identity Management
26

Configure the SCIM Endpoint

Copy the SCIM Base Url from the Atlassian site and paste it in the Base Url field in JumpCloud.

27

Configure the Token Key

Copy the API key from AWS and paste it into the Token Key in JumpCloud.

28

Activate identity management

Click Activate

Activate identity management
29

Save the changes

Click Save in the JumpCloud app. You can close JumpCloud Admin.

30

Click next in Atlassian to finalize provisioning

We’re done configuring provisioning, click next in the Atlassian site.

Finalize provisioning
31

Save the SCIM configuration

Finally, save the SCIM configuration.

Save the SCIM config
32

Go to Security

Click on the Security tab at the top.

Atlassian Security Tab
33

Go to Authentication Policies

Click on the Authentication Policies menu on the left.

Authentication Policies
34

Go to Authentication Policies

You’ll now see a new policy called “Users in JumpCloud”. You’ll notice that by default Single Sign-On isn’t enforced, we’ll need to enforce it.

You will be able to see how many members are tied to each policy, and can see the details if you click on Edit for the policy and view the Member tab. If you don’t have any members assigned to the SSO policy, you’ll need to make sure you assign users or groups to the app in ShiftControl.

Users will be in either in the local directory policy or the JumpCloud policy, depending on when they were created.

When the user was createdPolicy Assignment
Existing user created before SSO configurationThe user will be in the local directory policy until they are moved to the SSO policy.
A user synced in via User Sync that didn’t exist before SSO configurationThe user will be in the JumpCloud policy from the start.
View auth policies
35

Edit the JumpCloud Policy

Click Edit on the JumpCloud Policy

Edit the JumpCloud policy
36

Enforce SSO

Select the Enforce Single Sign-on option, and click Update. SSO will not work properly until you enforce it.

It is safe to enforce SSO now because no existing users will be in this policy. We’ll hove to move them over later

Enforce SSO
37

Confirm the update

Confirm the SSO policy update by clicking Update.

Verify update

Congratulations, you have configured SSO and User Sync for Atlassian!

Understanding Group Sync

One powerful feature of ShiftControl and this integration with Atlassian is the ability to sync groups to Atlassian and update them dynamically. You can use these groups in your permissions scheme or anywhere you can reference a group in Atlassian.

Any group that you assign to the Atlassian app in ShiftControl will automatically be synced to Atlassian.

You can view the groups that are synced in the Atlassian site.

1

Log in to Atlassian as an admin

Log in to the Atlassian Admin Panel at https://admin.atlassian.com as an admin.

2

Go to Security

Click on the Security tab at the top.

Atlassian Security Tab
3

Go to Identity Providers

Click on the Identity Providers menu on the left.

Click Identity Providers
4

Click on JumpCloud

Click on the directory named JumpCloud.

Click JumpCloud Directory
5

Click on View groups

Click on the View groups in order to see which groups have been synced.

Click view groups
6

Review the synced groups

You can view the groups that are synced in from JumpCloud and how many members are in each.

Synced group details

Assigning users to the SSO Authentication Policy

You should only take this step once you are ready to have everyone in your organization use SSO to log in to Atlassian.

Prerequisites

You should already have added all the users to the application in ShiftControl. If you miss this step, then the users will be forced to use SSO but they won’t be able to login because they wouldn’t have yet been assigned the application.

Move users to the JumpCloud Authentication Policy

1

Log in to Atlassian as an admin

Log in to the Atlassian Admin Panel at https://admin.atlassian.com as an admin.

2

Go to Security

Click on the Security tab at the top.

Atlassian Security Tab
3

Go to Authentication Policies

Click on the Authentication Policies menu on the left.

Authentication Policies
4

Edit the JumpCloud Policy

Click Edit on the JumpCloud Policy

Edit the JumpCloud policy
5

Go to Members and click Add Members

Click on the Members tab at the top and then click the Add Members button.

Add members
6

Select members to add and click Add members

You can manually enter up to 20 members to add here and then click Add members.

It may take a few minutes to reflect the change
If you have more than 20 users or simply prefer to do a bulk entry, see the next step

Add selected members
7

[Optional] Bulk import members

If you’d like to add members in bulk, you can do so with a csv file. Save the info from the box below and modify the list of emails by adding all the emails you’d like to add, and then save it as a csv file.

Then click on Bulk Entry, Select your CSV File and click Add members.

It may take a few minutes to reflect the change

Bulk add members

You’ll receive an email when the users are done being added to the policy. You can then go back into the policy to view and confirm the members.

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