Product Information
SAP Cloud Integration – OAuth2 SAML Bearer/X.509 Certificate Authentication Support in SuccessFactors Connector
Introduction
SAP Cloud Integration version 3.36.**/5.20.**/6.12.** comes with enhancement on SuccessFactors OData V2 outbound connector with OAuth2 SAML Bearer/X.509 Certificate authentication.
Note: The forecasted SAP Cloud Integration customer tenant updates/availability of this version is planned on or after 3rd/10th April 2021 as per the phased tenant update procedures, which may be subjected to change.
OAuth2 SAML Bearer /X.509 Certificate authentication is not new to SuccessFactors OData V2 outbound connector in SAP Cloud Integration, because it has been used in the context of principal propagation as described in the blog https://blogs.sap.com/2018/07/30/sap-cloud-platform-integration-principal-propagation-with-successfactors-odata-v2/ , but here in this blog, the support of OAuth2 SAML Bearer in the context of a dedicated/technical user has been described to support planned retirement of Basic Authentication in SAP SuccessFactors system as per the plan https://help.sap.com/viewer/62b1a0b4b34c4c36869e21c8db128e49/latest/en-US/a2f874d8f3194cc5adba237d00c134ac.html.
Setup
To consume this new feature, below steps have to be followed.
Step 1: Creating a key pair in SAP Cloud Integration (or you can also upload one if you have)
Step 2: Registering an OAuth2 client in SAP SuccessFactors System
Step 3: Deploying OAuth2 SAML Bearer credentials in SAP Cloud Integration
Step 4: Designing Integration Flow with SuccessFactors OData V2 outbound connector
Step 1: Creating a Key Pair in SAP Cloud Integration
In this example, a new key pair creation is considered, if you have a valid key pair, you can re-use it by uploading the same.
In SAP Cloud Integration Web UI Monitoring section, click on Keystore tile
Keystore UI Tile
Click on the Create -> Key Pair
Create Key Pair
Provide the relevant details. The value for Common Name (CN) should be the user name exists in your SAP SuccessFactors instance who has the access/authority to invoke the SuccessFactors API through OAuth2 token.
Key Pair details. CN value should be of a user at SAP SuccessFactors system
Click on Create button once finished providing details. Copy (or remember) the Alias name for further use. In this example, the alias is “samplekeypair1”.
Download Certificate
Step 2: Registering an OAuth2 client in SAP SuccessFactors System
Login to your SAP SuccessFactors system as administrator and then create a new OAuth2 Client in ‘Manage OAuth2 Client Applications” section. .
Click on Register Client Application
Open the certificate file you have downloaded in Step 1 in text editor.
Certificate File in text editor
In creating OAuth2 Client Application, provide relevant details, copy the certificate part (the content between —–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—– and —–END CERTIFICATE—–) and add/paste that into X.509 Certificate place. Click on Register, and get hold of API Key (which will be treated as Client Key when deploying OAuth2 SAML Bearer credentials in SAP Cloud Integration)
Click on Register button
Click on View button of your OAuth2 client application
Copy the API Key value, which will be treated as Client Key while deploying OAuth2 SAML Bearer credentials in SAP Cloud Integration
Step 3: Deploying OAuth2 SAML Bearer credentials
In the Monitoring Section of SAP Cloud Integration, click on the ‘Security Material’ UI tile, and then click on Create -> OAuth2 SAML Bearer Assertion. Provide the relevant details, and select User ID as Key Pair Common Name (CN) and provide the alias of Key Pair created in step 1, in this case, samplekeypair1.
Monitoring Security Material UI tile
Create – OAuth2 SAML Bearer Assertion credentials
While creating the credentials,
Name, allowed name of your choice, ‘sampleOAuth2Alias’ in this example
Client Key will be the API Key received after registering the OAuth2 client in SAP SuccessFactors system.
Token Service URL is the URL of SAP SuccessFactors OAuth2 token server.
User ID select Key Pair Common Name(CN) in the drop down control.
Select User ID as Key Pair Common Name (CN)
Provide the Key Pair Alias, and click on Deploy
Step 4: Designing Integration Flow
In SAP Cloud Integration, create an integration flow with SuccessFactors OData V2 outbound adapter and select the authentication as OAuth2 SAML Bearer, and provide the credential alias created in step 3, in this example, it is ‘sampleOAuth2Alias’
Note: A side remark; the Accept-Encoding GZIP configuration has been provided for the newer SuccessFactors OData V2 connector version 1.18, which is aimed to reduce the time taken between SAP Cloud Integration and SAP SuccessFactors endpoint HTTP communication through zip stream over the network.
Querying User API/Entity as an example under Processing tab
In this Integration Flow example, I am using HTTP sender adapter, which will provide an HTTP endpoint after deployment. After invoking that HTTP endpoint, the integration flow message executes, the OAuth2 token is fetched by the SAP SuccessFactors OData V2 outbound connector and further invokes the SAP SuccessFactors system endpoint to fetch all the User records with OAuth2 SAML Bearer authentication.
The token caching is also handled as well.
Result of invoking HTTP endpiont of Integration Flow in this example
Next Steps
As you might have observed, currently, the SuccessFactors OData V2 outbound connector has got the OAuth2 SAML Bearer assertion for a dedicated/technical user.
As next steps, the same support for
- SuccessFactors SOAP outbound connector : Update : The support for OAuth2 SAML Bearer/x.509 authentication has been enabled for SuccessFactors SOAP outbound connector with SAP Cloud Integration version 5.23.**/6.15.**. You can refer the blog post https://blogs.sap.com/2021/07/29/how-to-use-oauth2-saml-bearer-assertion-in-sap-cloud-platform-integration-connecting-with-sap-successfactors-sfapi-soap/ for more details.
- SuccessFactors OData V2 Query Wizard and SuccessFactors SOAP Query Wizard : Update : The support for OAuth2 SAML Bearer/x.509 authentication has been enabled for SuccessFactors OData V2 Query Wizard and SuccessFactors SOAP Query Wizard with SAP Cloud Integration version 5.24.**/6.16.**.
will be provided in next increments, for which the blog shall be updated.
Summary
The support for OAuth2 SAML Bearer assertion/X.509 Certificate authentication has now been enabled for SuccessFactors OData V2 for a dedicated/technical user to support the planned retirement activities of Basic Authentication in SAP SuccessFactors. Now, the OAuth2 SAML Bearer can be used in the context of principal propagation as well as in the context of a dedicated/technical user.
Thanks Deepak G Deshpande for sharing the upcoming most waited features for connecting to Successfactor from SAP CPI using Oauth Authentication after the announcement of retirement of basic Authentication 🙂
Below features will be also get updated with Oauth right while connecting to Successfactor in Adapter level to generate Query?
Regards,
Souvik
Hi Souvik,
Thanks for the feedback.
What you ask is the Query Wizard of SuccessFactors OData V2 outbound connector, and as I mentioned in the Next Steps section of my blog, OAuth2 SAML Bearer connectivity will also be enabled in next release.
-Thanks
Deepak
Hi Deepak G Deshpande
Much awaited one 😊.
Thanks for the informative blog with detailed configuration info.
Regards,
Vijay
Hi Vijay,
Thank you 🙂
-Deepak
Hi Deepak G Deshpande
Thanks for your blog, this helps in configuring "OAuth2 SAML Bearer authentication”, this helps me to refer E2E steps at one place 🙂 .
Hi,
Thanks for the response 🙂
Thanks
Deepak
Dear Deepak G Deshpande
Thanks for the informative blog with detailed configuration steps.
We follow the steps and achieved ODATA - OAUTH SAML authentication.
we have tried for the SuccessFactors - Compound Employee API authentication but we didn't achieve it. May I know for the SuccessFactors - Compound Employee API authentication.
Is there any update for the SuccessFactors - Compound Employee API authentication?
Regards,
Ayub Ahmed.
Hi Ayub Ahmed,
SuccessFactors - Compound Employee API is part of the SOAP APIs, for which we in SAP Cloud Integration, need to enable it for SuccessFactors SOAP outbound connector, as mentioned in the "Next Steps" section of my blog here.
Thanks
Deepak
Great info Deepak. Congrats!
Hello Deepak,
Looking at the publication date of your blog I happened to publish roughly at the same time a mini series of blogs under one common title, namely SAP SuccessFactors Integration with OAuth2SAMLBearerAssertion flow.
Happy reading; best regards; Piotr;
Hello Deepak,
We tried using your blog, but did not succeed. Question is also for CN (Common Name) - should we use it with company behind it? Like username@C0000123456T4 or just as username... The mandatory country (C) we have set to DE. We tried both options but got this error:
Hi Yves,
As mentioned in the blog, the value for Common Name (CN) should be the username that exists in your SAP SuccessFactors instance who has the access/authority to invoke the SuccessFactors API through OAuth2 token, don't append the company ID.
For example, your SAP SuccessFactors instance may be having a username as sfadmin, you can try sfadmin as value of the CN.
Thanks
Deepak
Hi Yves,
Did you find out what caused this error?
Thanks,
Sam
Hi Sam,
Not yet - just discovered some more info in the system trace files, but could not yet resolve the case... latest error I see in this trace is Status code:401; Reason:{"errorHttpCode":"401","errorMessage":"Unable to validate \\"Audience\\" in the SAML assertion"}|
It was the Audience in the CPI definition of the credentials - it was missing www for www.successfactors.com
Regards, Yves
Hi Yves,
I am also facing the same error as below. Can you please let me know what is the resolution for this.
Error Details
As already mentioned for me:
It was the Audience in the CPI definition of the credentials - it was missing www for www.successfactors.com
Regards, Yves
Hello Deepak,
Great blog!
One question, for the Token Service URL, is it the api endpoint with append /oaut/token? like this one? https://apisalesdemo4.successfactors.com/oauth/token
If not, can you give an example?
Thank you,
Dy
Hi Dyanxela Almenario ,
Yes, your example https://apisalesdemo4.successfactors.com/oauth/token is correct.
Thanks
Deepak
Hello Deepak, Hope you could help me here. Referring to below image, though Technical User id is a Technical user still I get below error.
could you help me to get rid of this error.
Hi Avinash,
If you observe my screen of the blog for creating OAuth2 client, I have left the "Technical User ID" field empty. This is something that SAP SuccessFactors yet to consider technically.
But as of now, please don't provide any value for Technical User ID, keep it blank.
Hope this helps 🙂
Thanks
Deepak
Hello Deepak, Thanks for the reply.
There is a business requirement so I tried that option. It would be great help if you could help me to find about release time line of this feature from SF team.
Reg, Avinash
Hi Avinash Aallashetty :
Currently, external OAUTH does not support technical user ID binding with API key. Option you see on SF UI is for internal OAUTH only.
Guide URL: https://help.sap.com/viewer/d599f15995d348a1b45ba5603e2aba9b/2105/en-US/6b3c741483de47b290d075d798163bc1.html
However, our Engineering colleagues are already working on this feature. If all goes well as planned, tentative date of release would be 2111.
We also have KBA on this: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/3046598
Hello Deepa, Thanks for the information.
reg, Avinash
Hi Deepak,
I am getting the below error when I try to use this configuration. Could you please confirm if I can use this SAML credentials with HTTP adaptor instead of SuccessFactors oData adapter. I mean HTTP adaptor will call the SF oData V2 API URL.
Regards,
Kusuma K.
Hi Kusuma,
The offering of x.509 certificate/oAuth2 SAML bearer for dedicated/technical user (as explained in the above blog post) only supported for SuccessFactors OData Adapter, and not for HTTP adapter.
OAuth2 SAML Bearer authentication can still be used in the context of principal propagation for HTTP outbound adapter.
Thanks
Deepak
Thank you Deepak for your response.
in HTTP adapter, principal propogartion option for authentication is disabled, I cannot choose it.
Is there any documentation how this can be done or used in HTTP outbound adapter?
Regards,
Kusuma K.
Hi Kusuma,
For principal propagation scenarios via/from SAP Cloud Integration to any cloud application, one should use OAuth2 SAML Bearer authentication with proxy type "Internet" in connector properties UI and for principal propagation scenarios via/from SAP Cloud Integration to on-premise application through cloud connector, one should be using Principal Propagation authentication with proxy type "On Premise" in in connector properties UI. So, principal propagation authentication will be enabled for proxy type on premise.
Thanks
Deepak
Hi Deepak,
Many thanks for this detailed blog.
We have a requirement to extract SuccessFactors Metadata ODATA API information (PerPerson, PerPersonal, EmpJob etc. entities) through CPI and we followed the steps you have explained here. But we are unable to select columns from these entities with OAUTH authentication, however it is working fine while we switched back to BASIC authentication. Can you please help me on this? Thanks again.
Regards,
Sudip Banerjee
Hi Sudip,
What is the exact issue/error you are facing? Can you share more details? Or you can also raise a support ticket with all relevant information such that team can analyse it and respond you.
Thanks
Deepak
Hi Deepak G Deshpande ,
HTTP session reuse "On Integration Flow" is not supported when we use OAuth authentication. Should we go ahead and configure "On Exchange" http session reuse for this case.
What is you suggestion on HTTP session reuse?
Regards,
Souvik
Hi Souvik,
You can set session reuse to Exchange Scope.
Regards,
Deepak
Thanks Deepak MP for the response.
Regards,
Souvik
Hi Deepak MP,
we have a large number of integrations that use HTTP Adapter for Upsert Operation. We have to use HTTP Adapter due to the fact that SuccessFactors Adapter does some useless checks that with HTTP Adapter are not done, for example: seqNumber mandatory field (HTTP Adapter doesn't give us an error, SF Adapter yes), AutoNumber fields (HTTP Adpater doesn't give us an error, SF Adapter yes).
We are trying to use OAuth2 SAML Bearer with HTTP Adapter, but we have the error "java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Authorization Header not present for given expression constant{*****}".
Is in plan to fix the HTTP Adapter or we should change all integrations done in all clients?
Thanks in advance
Regards
Marco
Hi Marco,
Oauth SAMLbearer Assertion Authentication is used in 2 different scenarios.
In your case, the second use case is what you are trying to achieve.
unfortunately, this feature is not supported in the HTTP adapter and is only supported in the Successfactors adapter.
Regards,
Deepak
Hey Marco,
I came across a similar situation where I had to use HTTP adapter along wioth SuccessFactors OData API. Turns out, once I had finished following the steps mentioned in this blog to generate OAuth2 credentials and configuring them on SAP Cloud Integration end, I had to configure my HTTP adapter as follows (please see attachment).
http_oauth2
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Gurdev
Did you guys find a solution for this? We are in the same boat. The HTTP POST operation that we need to use to generate the nextPersonID is not in the OData services and we are getting 401 when we use HTTP adapter.
Thanks,
VJ
Hello Deepak MP ,
Can you confirm this is available for SF REST adapter ? (Need to query TimeEvents API of SF Time Tracking).
I am getting an error
If you could give some guidance on this.
"Message processing failed.
Hi Abby,
The error indicates that there was a failure in fetching the Oauth token from the Successfactors system. To figure out the exact reason for the failure you need to check the LJS logs from your tenant.
Go to the Monitoring page and select System logs here filter out the name with the prefix ljs_trace. now download the latest log files and look for more detailed error logs.
Regards,
Deepak
Hi Deepak MP,
Thanks for your article, I am able to complete all the integration flows successfully. Question: when the Certificate expires in 2 years, how do I renew the Cert? Below is my guess. Appreciate your advice. Thx
Hi Nancy,
After the certificate expires you have to choose option 1. we don't have an option to renew the existing certificate.
Regards,
Deepak
Hello Deepak G Deshpande
I have followed your blog and have configured the OATH connection successfully.
However, when I am trying to create the same connection with a new user, then I cannot register a new entry in SF with the same application URL.
What needs to be done in case we want multiple users to be connected using OATH?
Regards,
Subhadeep Ganguly
Subhadeep Ganguly You can't use same url while registering multiple OAUTH setup. I think application url is not mandatory field. You can use alternative urls to do the registrations for new users.
Regards,
Souvik