Integrate with Active Directory

Learning path snapshot

• Duration: 45 minutes
• Format: On-demand
• Audience: Administrators
• Skill Badge: Skill Badge: Integrate with Active Directory
• Certification track: Okta Certified Administrator Performance Exam

Learning path summary

In many cases, Microsoft Active Directory is the source of truth for your users’ identities. When you integrate Active Directory with Okta, users can sign in to Okta using their Active Directory credentials and get single sign-on access to all their apps.

What skills does the learning path cover?

• Configure the Active Directory integration.
• Set up Just-In-Time (JIT) provisioning of users from Active Directory to Okta.
• Import users from Active Directory to Okta.
• Explain how to optimize the Active Directory integration.

Common questions addressed in the path

What is the function of the Okta AD agent, and how does it communicate with Okta?

The Okta Active Directory (AD) agent is a lightweight program installed behind your firewall on a Windows host server. It enables secure communication between on-premises Active Directory and Okta over outbound HTTPS (port 443) without requiring you to open inbound firewall ports.

What options are available for provisioning and sourcing users from Active Directory to Okta?

When Active Directory acts as the profile source, administrators can onboard and sync users through scheduled/manual imports or Just-In-Time (JIT) provisioning. Okta also supports custom user-matching criteria and prevents accidental data loss by automatically halting imports that would trigger mass unassignments.

How can an organization ensure high availability and reliability across its Active Directory integration?

Deploy at least two Okta AD agents on separate Windows host servers for each integrated domain so that polling continues if one server goes offline, and maintain all agents on the latest version to prevent performance degradation.