We have an instance of OTRS (current version:4.0.5) and have implemented 
Federated SSO based on SAML2 and the Shibboleth Service Provider plugin for 
Apache.

Initial setup and effort was about 3-6hrs  on an OTRS instance with a small set 
of users.  We use it for agents only at the moment, but CAN use it for OTRS 
customers.

The strategic element for enabling Federated SSO for customers is to use scoped 
usernames (e.g. networkn...@domain.com).
Our sign ins originate from our Shibboleth IdP as well as other customers who 
also have IdPs.  We use the Canadian Access Federation(CAF) as our aggregate 
(full disclosure: We operate CAF)


In your case, you have a more complex situation and likely own more of the 
infrastructure than you expect.

You have both a Portal and an OTRS instance to sign in and need to harmonize 
usernames across both systems.

This means that you would not only need to install and configure the federation 
components for OTRS, but your portal as well.  Not a small task, but not 
insurmountable either.
It does double your migration/implementation project effort to not just be 
OTRS, but OTRS+Portal.

There are a few ways to do this and be strategic about it.  If you are really a 
'federation of one IdP to your small set of service providers', then you can 
possibly stand up an Identity Provider pointing to your Portal database and 
declare those as the primary or singular identity and then use those to sign 
into OTRS and create the necessary records for the customers.
This way you have full control over all pieces of the environment.

There is another aspect which is the provisioning part of this model.
AFAIK, there is no 'autocreate' for accounts signing into OTRS - and you may 
not want to either.  This means you need to create the necessary OTRS customer, 
OTRS contact, and then assign necessary permissions to the account for each one 
and any other SLA/Service Catalogue elements.
I'm assuming that your portal identities are handled automatically as needed.

If you are looking for technologies to assist with doing any of this, I 
recommend using the Shibboleth components for the Service Providers and the 
Identity Providers(www.shibboleth.net).  Creating the federation metadata is 
not too hard (if you know what you are doing) for the trust set of your one idp 
and 2 services (portal+OTRS).
Other tools you could consider are SimpleSAMLPHP and ADFS if you are more 
aligned with .NET and claims.  AAIedu.hr used SimpleSAMLPHP if I recall 
correctly.
You can still use ADFS with SAML2 tools but it may be a more difficult path and 
need to be sufficiently knowledgable about how to implement.

Your 'expense' is not really the OTRS part but your migration to a new 
authentication/authorization model between BOTH services.
However, once implemented and migrated it would be maintainable using standard 
practices - especially if you have a addressed a good way to manage the 
provisioning of the OTRS environment.
You may be small enough that this is manually achievable, but from experience 
you will quickly tire of the manual part and may want to pursue automation very 
quickly.

How big is your user base BTW?

Chris.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Chris Phillips
Technical Architect, Canadian Access Federation | CANARIE| 
chris.phill...@canarie.ca<mailto:chris.phill...@canarie.ca> | W: 613.943.5370 
|GPG: 0x0380811D
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/CPhillipsLinkedIn





From: <otrs-boun...@otrs.org<mailto:otrs-boun...@otrs.org>> on behalf of Bogdan 
Iosif <bogdan.io...@gmail.com<mailto:bogdan.io...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: "User questions and discussions about OTRS." 
<otrs@otrs.org<mailto:otrs@otrs.org>>
Date: Friday, October 2, 2015 at 8:16 AM
To: "User questions and discussions about OTRS." 
<otrs@otrs.org<mailto:otrs@otrs.org>>
Subject: [otrs] SSO / Federated Identity

Hi,

I use v3.3 with the default db backend for customer login and need to integrate 
it with an in-house-built customer experience portal (view 
reports/bills/marketing materials/etc.).

The customer should login only once (in the portal) and then seamlessly jump 
between the portal and OTRS. The OTRS authentication & session lifetime should 
be settled transparently behind the scenes between the systems (i.e. log out / 
switch id from portal => same in OTRS).

QUESTION: Is there an authentication module in OTRS or in Apache which could be 
tweaked to create this integration against our new portal?

Thanks,
Bogdan

P.S:

OTRS' manual points to Kernel::System::Auth::HTTPBasicAuth which seems to rely 
on Apache doing the authentication. I know nothing about this approach but if 
someone would tell me that it supports log out / switch id in OTRS when 
customer does that in our portal, I would look into it.

I also found this http://developer.aaiedu.hr/faq/11.html ~ solution for v3.0 
that integrates with a custom-built PHP SAML provider. I could modify it to use 
a [custom] NET provider but I would end up with a very expensive solution.

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