Okta Group Push Fails With an SSL Handshake Exception Error
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Overview
Okta fails to push a group to a downstream application and generates an SSL handshake exception. This issue occurs due to a temporary disconnection at the Transport Layer Security (TLS) network layer during the handshake phase. Resolve this by manually retrying the group push mapping in the Okta Admin Console.
Group push mapping for the group <group_name> could not take effect due to error: An error occurred while verifying the existence of the group <group_name>.：javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host terminated the handshake FAILURE:
Applies To
- Okta Identity Engine (OIE)
- Okta Classic Engine
- Group Push
Cause
A temporary disconnection at the Transport Layer Security (TLS) network layer causes this issue. The disconnection occurs during the TLS handshake phase before Okta sends the HTTP request. Temporary resource constraints or session disconnections at the remote host, edge node, or intermediary devices like load balancers or proxies terminate the handshake. While Okta immediately retries the connection, the job fails if the temporary interruption exceeds the retry window. This failure does not indicate an issue with API tokens, URL paths, or tenant settings.
Solution
What steps resolve the SSL handshake exception for group push?
Clear the error state and resume the group push by manually retrying the mapping in the Okta Admin Console.
- Navigate to the Okta Admin Console, choose Applications, and select the affected application.
- Choose the Push Groups tab.
- Locate the group displaying the red Error status.
- Choose the Retry All Groups option for the affected group push mapping.
NOTE: Okta automatically sets the push mapping to error status during temporary network errors. The mapping remains stopped until an administrator manually retries the operation.
