Configure LDAP authentication

As a platform administrator, you can configure LDAP as the source for account authentication information for Ansible Automation Platform users.

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Note

If the LDAP server you want to connect to has a certificate that is self-signed or signed by an internal certificate authority (CA), the CA certificate must be added to the system’s trusted CAs. Otherwise, connection to the LDAP server will result in an error that the certificate issuer is not recognized.

If you are upgrading Ansible Automation Platform and your LDAP authentication relies on a certificate added to the system's truststore, the LDAP certificate configuration is not automatically migrated to platform gateway. You must manually configure the LDAP certificate after upgrading.

Procedure
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  1. From the navigation panel, select Access Management > Authentication Methods.
  2. Click Create authentication.
  3. Enter a Name for this authentication configuration.
  4. Select LDAP from the Authentication type list. The Authentication details section automatically updates to show the fields relevant to the selected authentication type.
  5. In the LDAP Server URI field, enter or modify the list of LDAP servers to which you want to connect. This field supports multiple addresses.
  6. In the LDAP Bind DN text field, enter the Distinguished Name (DN) to specify the user that the Ansible Automation Platform uses to connect to the LDAP server as shown in the following example: 
    cn=josie,cn=users,dc=website,dc=com
  7. In the LDAP Bind Password text field, enter the password to use for the binding user.
  8. Select a group type from the LDAP Group Type list.

    The group type defines the class name of the group, which manages the groups associated with users in your LDAP directory and is returned by the search specified in Step 14 of this procedure. The group type, along with group parameters and the group search, is used to find and assign groups to users during log in, and can also be evaluated during the mapping process. The following table lists the available group types, along with their descriptions and the necessary parameters for each. By default, LDAP groups will be mapped to Django groups by taking the first value of the cn attribute. You can specify a different attribute with name_attr. For example, name_attr='cn'.

    Expand
    Table 1. Available LDAP group types
    LDAP Group Type Description Initializer method (init)

    PosixGroupType

    Handles the posixGroup object class. This checks for both primary group and group membership.

    name_attr='cn'

    MemberDNGroupType

    Handles the grouping mechanisms wherein the group object contains a list of its member DNs.

    member_attr, name_attr='cn'

    GroupOfNamesType

    Handles the groupOfNames object class. Equivalent to MemberDNGroupType('member').

    name_attr='cn'

    GroupOfUniqueNamesType

    Handles the groupOfUniqueNames object class. Equivalent to MemberDNGroupType('uniqueMember').

    name_attr='cn'

    ActiveDirectoryGroupType

    Handles the Active Directory groups. Equivalent to MemberDNGroupType('member').

    name_attr='cn'

    OrganizationalRoleGroupType

    Handles the organizationalRole object class. Equivalent to MemberDNGroupType('roleOccupant').

    name_attr='cn'

    NestedGroupOfNamesType

    Handles the groupOfNames object class. Equivalent to NestedMemberDNGroupType('member').

    member_attr, name_attr='cn'

    NestedGroupOfUniqueNamesType

    Handles the groupOfUniqueNames object class. Equivalent to NestedMemberDNGroupType('uniqueMember').

    name_attr='cn'

    NestedActiveDirectoryGroupType

    Handles the Active Directory groups. Equivalent to NestedMemberDNGroupType('member').

    name_attr='cn'

    NestedOrganizationalRoleGroupType

    Handles the organizationalRole object class. Equivalent to NestedMemberDNGroupType('roleOccupant').

    name_attr='cn'

    Note

    The group types that are supported by Ansible Automation Platform use the underlying django-auth-ldap library. To specify the parameters for the selected group type, see Step 14 of this procedure.
  9. You can use LDAP User DN Template as an alternative to user search. This approach is more efficient for user lookups than searching if it is usable in your organizational environment. Enter the name of the template as shown in the following example: 
    uid=%(user)s,cn=users,cn=accounts,dc=example,dc=com

    where: uid is the user identifier, cn is the common name and dc is the domain component.

    Note

    If this setting has a value it will be used instead of the LDAP User Search setting.
  10. LDAP Start TLS is disabled by default. StartTLS allows your LDAP connection to be upgraded from an unencrypted connection to a secure connection using Transport Layer Security (TLS). To enable StartTLS when the LDAP connection is not using SSL, set the switch to On.
  11. Optional: Enter any Additional Authenticator Fields that this authenticator can take. These fields are not validated and are passed directly back to the authenticator.
    Note

    Values defined in this field override the dedicated fields provided in the UI. Any values not defined here are not provided to the authenticator.
  12. Enter any LDAP Connection Options to set for the LDAP connection. By default, LDAP referrals are disabled to prevent certain LDAP queries from hanging with Active Directory. Option names should be strings as shown in the following example: 
    OPT_REFERRALS: 0
OPT_NETWORK_TIMEOUT: 30

    See the python-LDAP Reference for possible options and values that can be set.

  13. Depending on the selected LDAP Group Type, different parameters are available in the LDAP Group Type Parameters field to account for this. LDAP_GROUP_TYPE_PARAMS is a dictionary, which is converted to kwargs and passed to the LDAP Group Type class selected. There are two common parameters used by group types: name_attr and member_attr. Where name_attr defaults to cn and member_attr defaults to member: 
    {"name_attr": "cn", "member_attr": "member"}

    To determine the parameters that a specific LDAP Group Type requires, refer to the django_auth_ldap documentation on the classes init parameters.

  14. In the LDAP Group Search field, specify which groups should be searched and how to search them as shown in the following example: 
    [
"dc=example,dc=com",
"SCOPE_SUBTREE",
"(objectClass=group)"
 ]
  15. In the LDAP User Attribute Map field, enter user attributes to map LDAP fields to your Ansible Automation Platform users, for example, email or first_name as shown in the following example: 
    {
"first_name": "givenname",
"last_name": "sn",
"email": "mail"
}
  16. In the LDAP User Search field, enter where to search for users during authentication as shown in the following example: 
    [
"ou=users,dc=website,dc=com",
"SCOPE_SUBTREE",
"(cn=%(user)s)"
]

    If the LDAP User DN Template is not set, the Ansible Automation Platform authenticates to LDAP using the Bind DN Template and LDAP Bind Password. After authentication, an LDAP search is performed to locate the user specified by this field. If the user is found, Ansible Automation Platform validates the provided password against the user found by the LDAP search. Multiple search queries are supported for users with LDAPUnion by entering multiple search terms as shown in the following example:

    [
    [
        "ou=users,dc=example,dc=com",
        "SCOPE_SUBTREE",
        "uid=%(user)s"
    ],
     [
        "ou=employees,dc=subdivision,dc=com",
        "SCOPE_SUBTREE",
        "uid=%(user)s"
     ]
]

    If non-unique users are found during multiple searches, those users will not be able to log in to Ansible Automation Platform. Based on the example provided, if a user with uid=jdoe was found in both the ou=users,dc=example,dc=com and ou=employees,dc=subdivision,dc=com, neither jdoe user would be able to log in. All other unique users that are found in either branch would still be able to log in.

    Note

    If the field LDAP User DN Template is populated, it takes precedence over the LDAP User Search field and only the template will be used to authenticate users.
  17. To automatically create organizations, users, and teams upon successful login, select Create objects.
  18. To enable this authentication method upon creation, select Enabled.
  19. To remove a user for any groups they were previously added to when they authenticate from this source, select Remove users.
  20. Click Create Authentication Method.

What to do next
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To control which users are allowed into the Ansible Automation Platform server, and placed into Ansible Automation Platform organizations or teams based on their attributes (such as username and email address) or to what groups they belong, continue to Mapping.

Import a certificate authority in automation controller for LDAPS integration
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You can authenticate to the automation controller server by using LDAP. However, if you change to using LDAPS (LDAP over SSL/TLS) to authenticate and the TLS certificate is not trusted by platform gateway, it fails with an error such as:

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2025-08-26 16:40:56,141 WARNING   django_auth_ldap Caught LDAPError while authenticating: SERVER_DOWN({'result': -1, 'desc': "Can't contact LDAP server", 'ctrls': [], 'info': 'error:0A000086:SSL routines::certificate verify failed (self-signed certificate)'})

To get Ansible Automation Platform to trust the certificate coming from LDAP, perform the following procedure on all platform gateway instances.

Procedure
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  1. Place a copy of the LDAP servers certificate in the directory, /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/.
  2. Run the command: 
    update-ca-trust