Add Google sync to your federated directory

You can add Google Sync to any directory in the Adobe Admin Console to automate its user management process. Google Sync uses SCIM-protocol for user management and offers you control over user information shared with Adobe. Specified users in the Google Admin Console synchronized with the Adobe Admin Console can be assigned to one or more product profiles.

After you've set up Google Sync, Google starts to send data to the Adobe Admin Console as per the Google Admin Console directory's user provisioning configuration. You can see the directory's details in the Settings section of the Adobe Admin Console.

Benefits of Google Sync

The key advantages of the Google Sync with your directory in the Adobe Admin Console are:

Prerequisites

To integrate Adobe Admin Console user management with Google Admin Console, you need the following:

• A Google Admin Console account with admin access to user data
• A federated directory in the Adobe Admin Console with verified domains

Supported integration scenarios

Notes before sync configuration

Follow the points below to see the best practices and Adobe Recommendations before you set up Google Sync:

• Export the list of existing users before adding Google Sync to keep a record of all user accounts and provisioned licenses when you set up.
• If you integrate Google Sync to a directory having Federated ID users, verify that their username in Adobe Admin Console matches the username in user provisioning mappings in Google Admin Console. If these values do not match, Adobe Admin Console perceives this as a new user account and creates duplicate records for a single user. You can update the attribute mapping to ensure that the values passed by sync match the values in the user profiles in the Adobe Admin Console, which will automatically update the accounts upon the next sync.
• Your admin console must have at least one federated directory for you to be able to establish Google Sync. If the Adobe Admin Console with Google Sync (owning Console) is in a trust relationship with another Adobe Admin Consoles (trustee Consoles), the trustees must use another form of user management, such as User Sync Tool, User Management API, or bulk CSV upload to manage Federated ID users.
• To add users to a trustee Console for license provisioning, you must add the user to the owning Console.
• If your organization uses the User Sync Tool or a UMAPI integration, you must pause the integration. Then, add Google Sync to automate user management from Google Admin Console. Once Google Sync is configured and running, remove the User Sync Tool or UMAPI integration.
• To move a domain to or from a directory established with Google Sync, you must remove Google Sync from the chosen directory. Then, move the desired domain to or from the chosen directory and reestablish sync to the target directory.

Add Google Sync to a federated directory

Follow the steps below to sync users from the Google Admin Console:

Sync Google Organizational Units

You can sync Google Organizational units (OUs) to your Google sync-enabled directory in the Admin Console. Each OU (including the root OU) in the Google Admin console is synced as a separate group along with the associated users.

For example, you've three users in the Google Admin console (User A, User B, and User C) in separate OUs. The following table shows how these users will be added to corresponding groups in the Adobe Admin Console (User B and User C are added to more than groups):

You must set up your Google OUs based on your licensing requirements before syncing them to the Adobe Admin Console.

Then, sign in to your Google Admin console and go to Apps > Web and mobile apps > select Adobe SAML app > go to Autoprovisioning > select Edit Attribute mapping.

In the Attributes window, select the Organizational unit path from the dropdown against the app attribute urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:Adobe:2.0:User.organizationalUnit.

Edit Sync settings

A System Administrator can update settings for the Sync Source once the setup is complete by choosing Go to Settings from the Directory settings > Sync tab. Setting options include:

Remove sync

Administrators can choose to remove sync from a federated directory within the Admin Console. Removing sync leaves the directory and its associated domains, user groups, and users intact and removes read-only mode from the directory and its users and groups.

To remove sync from a directory, choose Go to Settings from the Directory settings> Sync tab, then Remove Sync. Please also turn off autoprovisioning for the Adobe SAML app from Google Admin Console to prevent being quarantined. This action will permanently remove the sync setup from the Adobe Admin Console. If needed, you can reestablish sync with the same or different directory.

Disable users

Implementing Google Sync creates new federated user accounts and syncs users to the Adobe Admin Console. Administrators can also deprovision users added through Google Sync via the below three methods (in the Google Admin Console):

• Delete or suspend the users from Google Workspace.
  
• Remove all groups associated with the users from Provisioning Scope.
• Turn off the Adobe SAML app for the associated organizational Units in Google Workspace.

These three operations disable users in the Adobe Admin Console. A disabled user can no longer log in and shows as Disabled in the Directory Users list. Google Sync continues to manage a user deprovisioned by one of these methods. Neither the user’s account nor cloud-stored assets are removed from the organization. 

Remove a user and associated data from the Admin Console: Choose Go to Settings from the Directory settings > Sync tab and click Enable editing. Then navigate to Users > Directory Users and choose the user from the list to permanently delete the account.

Once editing is enabled, it allows edits in the synced data for one hour before getting automatically disabled. We recommend you to click Disable editing immediately after user removal to ensure that the Admin Console reflects Google Admin Console changes.

Quarantine policy

Adobe has a quarantine policy to handle numerous error calls during sync operations. 

Adobe’s service independently monitors sync health to verify when the error rate surpasses a certain threshold in a set amount of time. A minimum number of requests resulting in an error that meets the threshold will enact temporary quarantine, resulting in rejecting all calls and update requests from the Google Admin Console for a time period, after which calls will be accepted again for sync retry. If error calls persist, the sync will be placed on temporary probation for an extended time period in quarantine. If Adobe initiates the quarantine, it may also lead to a subsequent quarantine with Google due to the rejected calls, which will count toward error rates in Google. Note that Adobe reserves the right to update the quarantine parameters based on ongoing data analytics.

Common error messages

A set of common error messages is displayed to be aware of when managing Google Sync from the Google Admin Console. Understanding the cause of the various error messages will aid in troubleshooting when errors occur.

You can find sync logs and error logs under the Auto-provisioning section of the Adobe SAML app within the Google Admin Console. Learn more about monitoring your deployment within the Google Admin Console.

Google OU sync errors

You might face syncing errors while syncing Google Organizational Units to Adobe Admin Console. Google logs display the following errors:

• Failed because OU depth is greater than 10: max depth limit reached
  
• Failed because OU attribute would yield groups that are too long: group name shouldn't be longer than 256 characters
• Failed because OU attribute contains disallowed chars for group names: OU name contains disallowed characters
  

Troubleshooting

As the Adobe Admin Console uses the Google sync service, all sync issues are troubleshot within the Google Admin Console. You can refer to Google's configuration instructions to solve some common issues. If you are unable to find a solution, we recommend you to contact Google customer support for further assistance.

Follow the instructions below to diagnose a sync issue: