Set up a Blackline connector

C1 provides identity governance for Blackline. Integrate your Blackline instance with C1 to run user access reviews (UARs) and automatically create and deprovision Blackline accounts.

This connector is in beta. This means it’s undergoing ongoing testing and development while we gather feedback, validate functionality, and improve stability. Beta connectors are generally stable, but they may have limited feature support, incomplete error handling, or occasional issues.

We recommend closely monitoring workflows that use this connector and contacting our Support team with any issues or feedback.

Capabilities

Resource	Sync	Provision
Account
Role
Team

Additional functionality:

The Blackline connector supports automatic account provisioning for user accounts. Team membership and role assignment remain read-only.

• Create Blackline accounts without a password. The connector requires a username, first name, last name, email, and time zone ID. The username is sent as Blackline’s loginId string (for example, sample.user); it is not the numeric user id. The time zone ID is Blackline’s numeric timeZoneId, which Blackline requires to create a user. Valid values are listed by Blackline’s Time Zone API; the time_zone_id profile field of any synced Blackline account holds a value your tenant accepts.
• Start Blackline’s asynchronous account deprovision process. Blackline disables the account and removes its access assignments instead of hard-deleting it. C1 evaluates Blackline’s immediate response, but it does not track a failure that happens later while Blackline finishes the process in the background.

Gather Blackline configuration information

Configuring the connector requires you to pass in information from Blackline. Gather these configuration details before you move on.

Here’s the information you’ll need:

• Client ID
• Client Secret
• Username
• Password (API key)
• Scope
• Environment Subdomain

Sync requires a Blackline administrator role. Creating or deprovisioning accounts requires a Blackline System Administrator role.

Environment Subdomain is the BlackLine region used to build the API host https://{environment}.api.blackline.com (for example us, eu, or sbeu). This is the BlackLine region, not your company or instance name.

Scope must contain the API scope name(s) plus your instance identifier, entered as instance_<GUID> and separated by spaces — for example:

bl.users instance_00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

The exact scope names and your instance GUID are unique to your instance and are provided by the BlackLine support team — enter the values BlackLine gives you rather than the placeholder above, and include a scope for each resource the connector syncs (users, teams, and roles). If the instance_<GUID> token is omitted, authentication fails with invalid_grant: Invalid instance GUID.

The connector uses the following endpoints:

• User management API
  • GET /v1/users
  • POST /v1/users
  • POST /v1/users/{id}/deprovision
  • GET /v1/users/{id}/teams
• Team management API
  • GET /v1/teams
  • GET /v1/teams/{teamId}/users
• Role Management API
  • GET /v1/roles

For more information, see Blackline’s create user and deprovision user API documentation.

View the Blackline developer documentation

Configure the Blackline connector

To complete this task, you’ll need:

• The Connector Administrator or Super Administrator role in C1
• Access to the set of Blackline configuration information gathered by following the instructions above

Cloud-hosted

Follow these instructions to use a built-in, no-code connector hosted by C1.

1. In C1, navigate to Apps > Connectors and click Add connector.

2. Search for Blackline and click Add.

3. Choose where to add the connector: Create a new app, or Add to an existing app (then select the app).

   If you’re creating a new app, choose whether to link it to an application discovered from your identity provider: select Yes and pick the IdP application, or No to continue with just the connector.

4. Set the connector’s Name and, optionally, a Description.

5. Click the pencil icon next to Owners to choose who can configure and manage this connector.

6. Click Add. The connector is created and its configuration page opens.

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

8. Enter the configuration information from the previous section.

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.

Done. Your Blackline connector is now pulling access data into C1.

Self-hosted

Follow these instructions to use the Blackline connector, hosted and run in your own environment.

When running in service mode on Kubernetes, a self-hosted connector maintains an ongoing connection with C1, automatically syncing and uploading data at regular intervals. This data is immediately available in the C1 UI for access reviews and access requests.

Resources

• Download the latest Blackline connector
• View the connector source code

Step 1: Set up a new Blackline connector

1. In C1, navigate to Apps > Connectors > Add connector.

2. Search for Baton and click Add.

3. Choose where to add the connector: Create a new app, or Add to an existing app (then select the app).

   If you’re creating a new app, choose whether to link it to an application discovered from your identity provider: select Yes and pick the IdP application, or No to continue with just the connector.

4. Set the connector’s Name and, optionally, a Description.

5. Click the pencil icon next to Owners to choose who can configure and manage this connector.

6. Click Add. The connector is created and its configuration page opens.

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

8. 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 Blackline connector deployment:

Secrets configuration

# baton-blackline-secrets.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: baton-blackline-secrets
type: Opaque
stringData:
  # C1 credentials
  BATON_CLIENT_ID: <C1 client ID>
  BATON_CLIENT_SECRET: <C1 client secret>

  # Blackline config
  BATON_BLACKLINE_CLIENT_ID: <Client ID for your Blackline instance>
  BATON_BLACKLINE_CLIENT_SECRET: <Client Secret for your Blackline instance>
  BATON_BLACKLINE_ENVIRONMENT: <Regional environment subdomain (e.g. 'us', 'eu', 'sbeu'). Do not include an instance number — use 'sbeu', not 'sbeu3'.>
  BATON_BLACKLINE_USERNAME: <BlackLine user account>
  BATON_BLACKLINE_PASSWORD: <BlackLine user account API key, retrieved from FCS user details page>
  BATON_BLACKLINE_SCOPE: <API scope name(s) plus instance ID as 'instance_<GUID>', space-separated (e.g. 'bl.users instance_<GUID>'). Provided per-instance by BlackLine support.>

  # Optional: include if you want C1 to create and deprovision accounts using this connector
  BATON_PROVISIONING: true

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

Deployment configuration

# baton-blackline.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: baton-blackline
  labels:
    app: baton-blackline
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: baton-blackline
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: baton-blackline
        baton: true
        baton-app: blackline
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: baton-blackline
        image: public.ecr.aws/conductorone/baton-blackline:latest
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        env:
        - name: BATON_HOST_ID
          value: baton-blackline
        envFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: baton-blackline-secrets

Step 3: Deploy the connector

1. Create a namespace in which to run C1 connectors (if desired), then apply the secret config and deployment config files.

2. Check that the connector data uploaded correctly. In C1, click Apps. On the Managed apps tab, locate and click the name of the application you added the Blackline connector to. Blackline data should be found on the Entitlements and Accounts tabs.

Done. Your Blackline connector is now pulling access data into C1.