Single Sign-On with OneLogin

This guide explains how to enable single sign-on (SSO) for applications being proxied by F5 NGINX Plus. The solution uses OpenID Connect as the authentication mechanism, with OneLogin as the Identity Provider (IdP) and NGINX Plus as the Relying Party (RP), or OIDC client application that verifies user identity.

This guide applies to NGINX Plus Release 34 and later. In earlier versions, NGINX Plus relied on an njs-based solution, which required NGINX JavaScript files, key-value stores, and advanced OpenID Connect logic. In the latest NGINX Plus version, the new OpenID Connect module simplifies this process to just a few directives.

Prerequisites

• An OneLogin account with administrator privileges.

• An NGINX Plus subscription and NGINX Plus Release 34 or later. For installation instructions, see Installing NGINX Plus.

• A domain name pointing to your NGINX Plus instance, for example, demo.example.com.

Configure OneLogin

Create a OneLogin OIDC Application

1. Log in to your OneLogin admin console, for example, https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com.

2. In the navigation bar, select Applications.

3. Click the Add App button.

   • On the Find Applications page, search for OpenID Connect (OIDC) and then select it.

   • Enter a Display Name, for example, NGINX Demo App.

   • Select Save.

4. In the app navigation, select Configuration.

   • In Redirect URIs, add the callback URI for your NGINX Plus instance, for example, https://demo.example.com/oidc_callback.

   • Select Save.

5. In the app navigation, select SSO.

   • Copy the Client ID. You will need it later when configuring NGINX Plus.

   • Select Show client secret and copy the Client Secret. You will need it later when configuring NGINX Plus.

   • Copy the Issuer URL, or OpenID Connect Discovery URL. You will need it later when configuring NGINX Plus. For OneLogin, the Issuer ID generally structured as:

     https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2

     See Provider Configuration for details.

You will need the values of Client ID, Client Secret, and Issuer in the next steps.

Assign Users and Groups

1. In the app navigation, select Users > Roles.

2. Add users and groups who should have access to this application.

Set up NGINX Plus

With Onelogin configured, you can enable OIDC on NGINX Plus. NGINX Plus serves as the Rely Party (RP) application — a client service that verifies user identity.

1. Ensure that you are using the latest version of NGINX Plus by running the nginx -v command in a terminal:

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   nginx -v

   nginx -v

   The output should match NGINX Plus Release 34 or later:

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   nginx version: nginx/1.27.4 (nginx-plus-r34)

   nginx version: nginx/1.27.4 (nginx-plus-r34)

2. Ensure that you have the values of the Client ID, Client Secret, and Issuer obtained during Onelogin Configuration.

3. In your preferred text editor, open the NGINX configuration file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf for Linux or /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf for FreeBSD).

4. In the http {} context, make sure your public DNS resolver is specified with the resolver directive: By default, NGINX Plus re‑resolves DNS records at the frequency specified by time‑to‑live (TTL) in the record, but you can override the TTL value with the valid parameter:

   nginx

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   http {
       resolver 10.0.0.1 ipv4=on valid=300s;
   
       # ...
   }

   http {
       resolver 10.0.0.1 ipv4=on valid=300s;
   
       # ...
   }

5. In the http {} context, define the OneLogin provider named onelogin by specifying the oidc_provider {} context:

   nginx

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   http {
       resolver 10.0.0.1 ipv4=on valid=300s;
   
       oidc_provider onelogin {
   
           # ...
   
       }
       # ...
   }

   http {
       resolver 10.0.0.1 ipv4=on valid=300s;
   
       oidc_provider onelogin {
   
           # ...
   
       }
       # ...
   }

6. In the oidc_provider {} context, specify:

   • your actual OneLogin Client ID obtained in OneLogin Configuration with the client_id directive

   • your Client Secret obtained in OneLogin Configuration with the client_secret directive

   • the Issuer URL obtained in OneLogin Configuration with the issuer directive

     The issuer is typically your OneLogin OIDC URL:

     https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2.

   • Important: All interaction with the IdP is secured exclusively over SSL/TLS, so NGINX must trust the certificate presented by the IdP. By default, this trust is validated against your system’s CA bundle (the default CA store for your Linux or FreeBSD distribution). If the IdP’s certificate is not included in the system CA bundle, you can explicitly specify a trusted certificate or chain with the ssl_trusted_certificate directive so that NGINX can validate and trust the IdP’s certificate.

   nginx

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   http {
       resolver 10.0.0.1 ipv4=on valid=300s;
   
       oidc_provider onelogin {
           issuer        https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2;
           client_id     <client_id>;
           client_secret <client_secret>;
       }
   
       # ...
   }

   http {
       resolver 10.0.0.1 ipv4=on valid=300s;
   
       oidc_provider onelogin {
           issuer        https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2;
           client_id     <client_id>;
           client_secret <client_secret>;
       }
   
       # ...
   }

7. Make sure you have configured a server that corresponds to demo.example.com, and there is a location that points to your application (see Step 10) at http://127.0.0.1:8080 that is going to be OIDC-protected:

   nginx

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   http {
       # ...
   
       server {
           listen      443 ssl;
           server_name demo.example.com;
   
           ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/certs/fullchain.pem;
           ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/key.pem;
   
           location / {
               # ...
   
               proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
           }
       }
       # ...
   }

   http {
       # ...
   
       server {
           listen      443 ssl;
           server_name demo.example.com;
   
           ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/certs/fullchain.pem;
           ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/key.pem;
   
           location / {
               # ...
   
               proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
           }
       }
       # ...
   }

8. Protect this location with OneLogin OIDC by specifying the auth_oidc directive that will point to the onelogin configuration specified in the oidc_provider {} context in Step 5:

   nginx

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   # ...
   location / {
        auth_oidc onelogin;
   
        # ...
   
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
   }
   # ...

   # ...
   location / {
        auth_oidc onelogin;
   
        # ...
   
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
   }
   # ...

9. Pass the OIDC claims as headers to the application (Step 10) with the proxy_set_header directive. These claims are extracted from the ID token returned by OneLogin:

   • $oidc_claim_sub - a unique Subject identifier assigned for each user by OneLogin

   • $oidc_claim_email the e-mail address of the user

   • $oidc_claim_name - the full name of the user

   • any other OIDC claim using the $oidc_claim_ variable

   nginx

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   # ...
   location / {
        auth_oidc onelogin;
   
        proxy_set_header sub   $oidc_claim_sub;
        proxy_set_header email $oidc_claim_email;
        proxy_set_header name  $oidc_claim_name;
   
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
   }
   # ...

   # ...
   location / {
        auth_oidc onelogin;
   
        proxy_set_header sub   $oidc_claim_sub;
        proxy_set_header email $oidc_claim_email;
        proxy_set_header name  $oidc_claim_name;
   
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
   }
   # ...

10. Create a simple test application referenced by the proxy_pass directive which returns the authenticated user’s full name and email upon successful authentication:

    nginx

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    # ...
    server {
        listen 8080;
    
        location / {
            return 200 "Hello, $http_name!\nEmail: $http_email\nSub: $http_sub\n";
            default_type text/plain;
        }
    }

    # ...
    server {
        listen 8080;
    
        location / {
            return 200 "Hello, $http_name!\nEmail: $http_email\nSub: $http_sub\n";
            default_type text/plain;
        }
    }

11. Save the NGINX configuration file and reload the configuration:

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    nginx -s reload

    nginx -s reload

Complete Example

This configuration example summarizes the steps outlined above. It includes only essential settings such as specifying the DNS resolver, defining the OIDC provider, configuring SSL, and proxying requests to an internal server.

http {
    # Use a public DNS resolver for Issuer discovery, etc.
    resolver 10.0.0.1 ipv4=on valid=300s;

    oidc_provider onelogin {
        # The 'issuer' is typically your OneLogin OIDC base URL
        # e.g. https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2
        issuer https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2;

        # Replace with your actual OneLogin Client ID and Secret
        client_id <client_id>;
        client_secret <client_secret>;
    }

    server {
        listen 443 ssl;
        server_name demo.example.com;

        ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/key.pem;

        location / {
            # Protect this path with OneLogin OIDC
            auth_oidc onelogin;

            # Forward OIDC claims to the upstream as headers if desired
            proxy_set_header sub $oidc_claim_sub;
            proxy_set_header email $oidc_claim_email;
            proxy_set_header name $oidc_claim_name;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        }
    }

    server {
        listen 8080;

        location / {
            return 200 "Hello, $http_name!\nYour email is $http_email\nSub: $http_sub\n";
            default_type text/plain;
        }
    }
}

http {
    # Use a public DNS resolver for Issuer discovery, etc.
    resolver 10.0.0.1 ipv4=on valid=300s;

    oidc_provider onelogin {
        # The 'issuer' is typically your OneLogin OIDC base URL
        # e.g. https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2
        issuer https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2;

        # Replace with your actual OneLogin Client ID and Secret
        client_id <client_id>;
        client_secret <client_secret>;
    }

    server {
        listen 443 ssl;
        server_name demo.example.com;

        ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/key.pem;

        location / {
            # Protect this path with OneLogin OIDC
            auth_oidc onelogin;

            # Forward OIDC claims to the upstream as headers if desired
            proxy_set_header sub $oidc_claim_sub;
            proxy_set_header email $oidc_claim_email;
            proxy_set_header name $oidc_claim_name;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        }
    }

    server {
        listen 8080;

        location / {
            return 200 "Hello, $http_name!\nYour email is $http_email\nSub: $http_sub\n";
            default_type text/plain;
        }
    }
}

Testing

1. Open https://demo.example.com/ in a browser. You will be automatically redirected to the OneLogin sign-in page.

2. Enter valid OneLogin credentials of a user who has access the application. Upon successful sign-in, OneLogin redirects you back to NGINX Plus, and you will see the proxied application content (for example, “Hello, Jane Doe!”).

If you restricted access to a group of users, be sure to select a user who has access to the application.

Legacy njs-based OneLogin Solution

If you are running NGINX Plus R33 and earlier or if you still need the njs-based solution, refer to the Legacy njs-based OneLogin Guide for details. The solution uses the nginx-openid-connect GitHub repository and NGINX JavaScript files.

See Also

• NGINX Plus Native OIDC Module Reference documentation

• Release Notes for NGINX Plus R34

Revision History

• Version 1 (March 2025) – Initial version (NGINX Plus Release 34)