Inside DigitalOcean’s SOX Compliance Playbook

ConductorOne docs

Set up an Avalara connector

ConductorOne provides identity governance and just-in-time provisioning for Avalara. Integrate your Avalara instance with ConductorOne to run user access reviews (UARs) and enable just-in-time access requests.

Capabilities

ResourceSyncProvision
Accounts
Roles

Available hosting methods

Choose the hosting method that best suits your needs:

MethodAvailabilityNotes
Cloud hostedA built-in, no-code connector hosted by ConductorOne.
Self-hostedThe Avalara connector, hosted and run in your own environment.

Gather Avalara credentials

Each setup method requires you to pass in credentials generated in Avalara. Gather these credentials before you move on.

  1. The credentials for either your Avalara account, or for a service account you’ve set up in Avalara.

  2. The URL of your Avalara tenant (sandbox and production environments are both accepted).

That’s it! Next, move on to the instructions for your chosen setup method.

Set up an Avalara cloud-hosted connector

To complete this task, you’ll need:

  • The Connector Administrator or Super Administrator role in ConductorOne
  • Access to the set of Avalara credentials generated by following the instructions above
  1. In ConductorOne, click Connectors > Add connector.

  2. Search for Avalara and click Add.

  3. Choose how to set up the new Avalara connector:

    • Add the connector to a currently unmanaged app (select from the list of apps that were discovered in your identity, SSO, or federation provider that aren’t yet managed with ConductorOne)

    • Add the connector to a managed app (select from the list of existing managed apps)

    • Create a new managed app

  4. Set the owner for this connector. You can manage the connector yourself, or choose someone else from the list of ConductorOne users. Setting multiple owners is allowed.

    If you choose someone else, ConductorOne will notify the new connector owner by email that their help is needed to complete the setup process.

  5. Click Next.

  6. Find the Settings area of the page and click Edit.

  7. In the Username and Password fields, enter the credentials for either your Avalara account, or for a service account you’ve set up in Avalara.

  8. In the Environment field, enter the URL of your Avalara tenant (sandbox and production environments are both accepted).

  9. Click Save.

  10. The connector’s label changes to Syncing, followed by Connected. You can view the logs to ensure that information is syncing.

That’s it! Your Avalara connector is now pulling access data into ConductorOne.

Set up an Avalara cloud-hosted connector using Terraform

As an alternative to the cloud-hosted setup process described above, you can use Terraform to configure the integration between Avalara and ConductorOne.

See the ConductorOne Avalara integration resource page in the ConductorOne Terraform registry for example usage and the full list of required and optional parameters.

Set up an Avalara self-hosted connector

To complete this task, you’ll need:

  • The Connector Administrator or Super Administrator role in ConductorOne
  • Access to the set of Avalara credentials generated by following the instructions above

When running in service mode on Kubernetes, a self-hosted connector maintains an ongoing connection with ConductorOne, automatically syncing and uploading data at regular intervals. This data is immediately available in the ConductorOne UI for access reviews and access requests.

Why use Kubernetes? Kubernetes provides automated deployment, scaling, and management of your connectors. It ensures high availability and reliable operation of your connector services.

Step 1: Configure the Avalara connector

  1. In ConductorOne, navigate to Connectors > Add connector.

  2. Search for Baton and click Add.

  3. Choose how to set up the new Avalara connector:

    • Add the connector to a currently unmanaged app (select from the list of apps that were discovered in your identity, SSO, or federation provider that aren’t yet managed with ConductorOne)

    • Add the connector to a managed app (select from the list of existing managed apps)

    • Create a new managed app

  4. Set the owner for this connector. You can manage the connector yourself, or choose someone else from the list of ConductorOne users. Setting multiple owners is allowed.

    If you choose someone else, ConductorOne will notify the new connector owner by email that their help is needed to complete the setup process.

  5. Click Next.

  6. In the Settings area of the page, click Edit.

  7. Click Rotate to generate a new Client ID and Secret.

    Carefully copy and save these credentials. We’ll use them in Step 2.

Step 2: Create Kubernetes configuration files

Create two Kubernetes manifest files for your Avalara connector deployment:

Secrets configuration

# baton-avalara-secrets.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: baton-avalara-secrets
type: Opaque
stringData:
  # ConductorOne credentials
  BATON_CLIENT_ID: <ConductorOne client ID>
  BATON_CLIENT_SECRET: <ConductorOne client secret>
  
  # Avalara credentials
  BATON_ENVIRONMENT: <URL of the Avalara environment to connect to (either production or sandbox)>
  BATON_PASSWORD: <password to the Avalara account>
  BATON_USERNAME: <username for the Avalara account>

See the connector’s README or run --help to see all available configuration flags and environment variables.

Deployment configuration

# baton-avalara.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: baton-avalara
  labels:
    app: baton-avalara
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: baton-avalara
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: baton-avalara
        baton: true
        baton-app: avalara
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: baton-avalara
        image: ghcr.io/conductorone/baton-avalara:latest
        args: ["service"]
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        envFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: baton-avalara-secrets

Step 3: Deploy the connector

  1. Create a namespace in which to run ConductorOne connectors (if desired):

    kubectl create namespace baton-avalara
    
  2. Apply the secret configuration:

    kubectl -n baton-avalara apply -f baton-avalara-secrets.yaml
    
  3. Apply the deployment:

    kubectl -n baton-avalara apply -f baton-avalara.yaml
    

Step 4: Verify the deployment

  1. Check that the deployment is running:

    kubectl -n c1 get pods
    
  2. View the connector logs:

    kubectl -n c1 logs -l app=baton-${baton-avalara}
    
  3. Check that the connector data uploaded correctly. In ConductorOne, click Applications. On the Managed apps tab, locate and click the name of the application you added the Avalara connector to. Avalara data should be found on the Entitlements and Accounts tabs.

That’s it! Your Avalara connector is now pulling access data into ConductorOne.