Zimbra cloud application

You must be signed in as a super administrator for this task.

With Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), your users can sign in to enterprise cloud applications with their Google Cloud credentials.

Set up SSO via SAML for Zimbra

Step 1: Set up Google as a SAML identity provider (IdP)

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsWeb and mobile apps.
3. Click Add appSearch for apps.
4. Enter Zimbra in the search field.
5. In the search results, hover over the Zimbra SAML app and click Select.
6. On the Google Identity Provider details page:
   1. Copy the SSO URL and Entity ID values
   2. Download the Certificate.
7. Click Continue.
8. On the Service provider details page, edit the ACS URL and Entity ID, replacing {your-hostname} with the URL you use to access your Zimbra instance.
9. Click Continue.
10. (Optional) On the Attribute Mapping page, map Google directory attributes to corresponding application attributes:

    1. Click Add Mapping.
    2. Click the Select field menu and select a Google directory attribute.
    3. Enter the corresponding application attribute under App attributes.
11. (Optional) To enter group names that are relevant for this app:

    1. For Group membership (optional), click Search for a group, enter one or more letters of the group name, and select the group name.
    2. Add additional groups as needed (maximum of 75 groups).
    3. For App attribute, enter the service provider’s corresponding groups attribute name.

    Regardless of how many group names you enter, the SAML response will include only groups that a user is a member of (directly or indirectly). For more information, go to About group membership mapping.

12. On the Attribute mapping page, click Finish.

Step 2: Set up Zimbra as a SAML 2.0 service provider (SP)

1. Sign in to your Zimbra server console with root privileges and enter the following commands:
   • mkdir /opt/zimbra/lib/ext/saml 
   • cp /opt/zimbra/extensions-network-extra/saml/samlextn.jar /opt/zimbra/lib/ext/saml/
2. Sign out, then back in to the Zimbra server as 'zimbra' user.
3. Update the certificate:

   zmprov md {domain-name} zimbraMyoneloginSamlSigningCert "{certificate}"

   replacing {domain-name} with your Google domain name, and {certificate} with the contents of the Certificate you downloaded in Step 1.

4. (Optional) Update the login and logout URLs:
   • zmprov md {domain-name} zimbraWebClientLoginURL {SSO-URL}
   • zmprov md {domain-name} zimbraWebClientLogoutURL {SSO-URL}

     replacing {domain-name} with your Google domain name, and {SSO-URL} with the SSO URL you downloaded in Step 1.

5. Enter the following commands:
   • zmprov mcf zimbraCsrfRefererCheckEnabled FALSE
   • service zimbra restart
6. (Optional) Enter the following commands to confirm your settings, replacing {domain-name} with your Google domain name:
   • zmprov gd {domain-name} zimbraMyoneloginSamlSigningCert
   • zmprov gd {domain-name} zimbraWebClientLoginURL
   • zmprov gd {domain-name} zimbraWebClientLogoutURL
   • zmprov gcf zimbraCsrfRefererCheckEnabled

 

Step 3: Enable the Zimbra app

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsWeb and mobile apps.
3. Select Zimbra.
4. Click User access.

5. To turn a service on or off for everyone in your organization, click On for everyone or Off for everyone, and then click Save.

6. (Optional) To turn a service on or off for an organizational unit:

   1. At the left, select the organizational unit.
   2. To change the Service status, select On or Off.
   3. Choose one:
      • If the Service status is set to Inherited and you want to keep the updated setting, even if the parent setting changes, click Override.
      • If the Service status is set to Overridden, either click Inherit to revert to the same setting as its parent, or click Save to keep the new setting, even if the parent setting changes.
        Note: Learn more about organizational structure.
7. To turn on a service for a set of users across or within organizational units, select an access group. For details, go to Use groups to customize service access.
8. Ensure that your Zimbra user account email IDs match those in your Google domain.

Step 4: Verify that the SSO is working

Zimbra supports both Identity Provider (IdP) initiated and Service Provider (SP) initiated SSO. Follow these steps to verify SSO in either mode:

IdP-initiated

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsWeb and mobile apps.
3. Select Zimbra.
4. At the top left, click Test SAML login. 

   Zimbra should open in a separate tab. If it doesn’t, use the information in the resulting SAML error messages to update your IdP and SP settings as needed, then retest SAML login.

SP-initiated

1. Close all browser windows.
2. Navigate to your Zimbra instance. You should be redirected to the Google sign-in page.
3. Enter your username and password.

After your credentials are authenticated, you are redirected back to Zimbra.

 

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