Okta Zendesk Provisioning Fails With a 401 Unauthorized Authentication Error

The Zendesk provisioning flow fails when the Zendesk credentials used for creating the API connection are invalid. Update the Zendesk credentials in the Okta Admin Console to resolve the issue. When this occurs, the following error appears in the Okta dashboard:

Automatic provisioning of user <user> to app Zendesk failed: Error while verifying if user <user> exists: 401 Unauthorized: "{"error":"Couldn't authenticate you"}"

• Okta Identity Engine (OIE)
• Okta Classic Engine
• Application Programming Interface (API)
• Zendesk
• Provisioning

The Zendesk credentials used for creating the API connection are invalid.

How is the Zendesk 401 unauthorized error resolved?

Update the Zendesk API credentials in the Okta Admin Console and retry the failed provisioning tasks as detailed in either the video demonstration or the written instructions.

1. Navigate to Applications > Applications > Zendesk > Provisioning > Integration in the Okta Admin Console, and click Edit.
2. Enter the correct Zendesk credentials based on one of the following scenarios:
   • Scenario 1: Enter the Zendesk agent email address and password in the Username and Password fields, respectively. Click Test API Credentials, verify that the connection is successful, and click Save.
   • Scenario 2: If using an API token instead of a password, append /token to the end of the agent email address in the Username field, and paste an active API token into the Password field. Click Test API Credentials, verify the connection is successful, and click Save.

3. Navigate to Dashboard > Tasks to view the failed assignments.
4. Select the failed task for the user and click Retry Selected.