Why This Matters
Grafana ships with excellent OAuth support, yet many setups struggle due to mismatched redirect URLs and reverse-proxy setups. When combined with Keycloak, the result is a clean, standards-based SSO solution that avoids vendor lock-in.
The One Setting Everyone Misses
If Grafana runs behind a load balancer, OAuth will fail unless you explicitly set:
GF_SERVER_ROOT_URLWithout it, Grafana generates redirect URIs based on its internal service name, which Keycloak correctly rejects.
Minimal Working Setup
- Keycloak client with Authorization Code flow
- One redirect URI:
/login/generic_oauth - Grafana root URL explicitly defined
- Group-based role mapping via OIDC claims
That’s it.
Admin Roles via Keycloak
Grafana intentionally blocks OAuth users from becoming admins unless explicitly allowed. This is a security feature, not a bug.
Enable it consciously:
GF_AUTH_GENERIC_OAUTH_ALLOW_ASSIGN_GRAFANA_ADMIN=trueThen map Keycloak groups to roles.
Final Thoughts
Compared to secret-based systems or policy-heavy tools, this integration is refreshingly simple and robust. With proper URL handling and token claims, Grafana + Keycloak becomes a low-maintenance SSO solution that just works.
If you already run Keycloak, there’s little reason not to enable it.
Wanna see more details about the setup? Head to my wiki.
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