What is SAML SSO?

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Single Sign-On (SSO) is a way for a user to access multiple applications with just one set of login credentials. SAML provides the following benefits:

• SAML improves the user experience, making it more convenient for users to access multiple sites and applications.
• SAML provides a higher level of security than traditional username and password authentication. The identity provider handles the authentication, which helps to prevent phishing attacks and password theft.
• SAML eliminates the need for users to maintain multiple sets of login credentials, which can reduce the burden on IT administrators who are responsible for managing user accounts.
• IT administrators can centrally manage access to applications, providing greater control and visibility into user activity across the organisation.

Using SAML SSO on your site

If you want to use SAML SSO, please contact us or your Totara Cloud Partner and we will assist in configuring your identity provider.

If you have Site Administrator access on a Totara Cloud site, you can also configure SAML SSO yourself.

Troubleshooting

In the event that you are unable to log in to your Totara site using the credentials from your identity provider, please contact your Customer Admin. Some potential reasons for this could be:

• The Totara user account is suspended 
• Multiple Totara user accounts were identified using the same unique identifier, so a match could not be made
• An existing Totara user matches the details provided by the identity provider, but their user profile does not have the SAML authentication method enabled

Next steps

• Configure SAML SSO