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What are GCP Workload Identity Federation and AWS IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA)?

Practical answer and configuration guide for What are GCP Workload Identity Federation and AWS IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA)?.

R
Rajesh Sharma 👑 Tier 3 Elite
Aug 9, 2026 · 1 min read

To federate AWS IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) with Okta or Azure AD, follow this setup:

1. SAML 2.0 Federation 1. In AWS IAM Identity Center Console, go to SettingsIdentity sourceChange identity source and select External identity provider. 2. Download the AWS SAML Metadata file and copy the ACS URL. 3. In Okta or Azure AD, create a new Enterprise Application for AWS IAM Identity Center, upload the AWS metadata XML, and map `user.email` as `Subject NameID`.

2. Automatic SCIM 2.0 Provisioning Enable automatic provisioning in AWS IAM Identity Center to generate a SCIM endpoint and Access Token. Enter these into Okta so users and groups sync automatically.

You can verify SCIM connectivity with curl:
```bash
curl -X GET "https://scim.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/v2/Users" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SCIM_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
-H "Accept: application/scim+json"
```

3. Permission Set Mapping In IAM Identity Center, map Okta groups to AWS account permission sets: - `DevOps-Lead` → Production Account → `AdministratorAccess` - `Backend-Engineers` → Staging Account → `PowerUserAccess`

Developers can then log in securely via CLI:
```bash
aws configure sso
aws sso login --profile staging-backend
```

Gotcha to watch for: Set CLI session limits to 4-8 hours so developers don't have to re-authenticate constantly, while preventing unexpiring access tokens.

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Add context, not noise (1)

Corrections, lived experience, useful examples, and better sources belong here.

G
1 day ago
👍 0 Upvotes

Audit your permission set policies regularly using AWS IAM Access Analyzer to catch any wildcard `*` permissions that creep in over time.

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