Published at October 27th, 2025
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      Last updated 8 days ago
    
    How to perform a SAML-trace
When investigating why a SAML configuration isn't working as expected it is often very helpful to track what is being sent in the SAML requests. For this purpose please install the "SAML-Tracer" plugin in your browser. It is available for Chrome and Firefox.
After installing the extension click the SAML-Tracer icon in the menu bar to open it.
 
This will open the following window:

The upper half of this window displays the real-time method entries (GET, POST, etc.).
The lower half (preview pane) shows details of the selected entry.
Please proceed with these steps to complete the SAML trace:
- Start a screen recording.
 - Preparation:
- Ensure that the SAML Tracer extension is configured to allow use in InPrivate (also known as "incognito") tabs/windows.
 - Open a new InPrivate browser window (later referred to as the "normal browser window")
 - Close all other browser windows of the current browser (to only record requests specific to your problem).
 - Open SAML Tracer for the current browser (later referred to as the "SAML Tracer window").
 - (You should now only have two open windows in the current browser; the normal browser window and the newly opened SAML Tracer window.)
 - Click the Clear button in the SAML Tracer window.
 - Ensure that SAML Tracer is not paused.
 
 - Perform the full navigation flow:
- Access the URL to your Pure admin instance and reproduce the part of the authentication flow that isn't working as expected by navigating to 'https://<host-name-of-your-pure-instance>/admin'. You may need to navigate to 'https://<host-name-of-your-pure-instance>:<some-non-standard-port>/admin' if your Pure instance uses a non-standard port.
 - You should now be faced with a SAML2 log in flow where you are asked for credentials relevant for the IdP.
 - Complete the SAML2 log in flow.
 - You should now be logged into Pure and be presented with a Pure overview page.
 - Click the profile picture in the top-right corner (the "Profile menu") and then click the Log out link in the pop-up menu that appears.
 - (You should now be logged out of Pure - and the IdP in general due to SAML2 SLO - and be presented with a Pure page saying "You have successfully logged out of Pure".)
 - Navigate to URL defined in 3a. by means of the location input field at the top of the normal browser window.
 - You should now be faced with a SAML2 log in flow where you are asked for credentials relevant for the IdP.
 
 - Finalize the SAML Tracer trace:
- Click the Pause button in the SAML Tracer window. You’ll see a list of GET and POST entries. Some entries are highlighted in orange with a SAML tag, indicating a SAML event.
 - Click the Export button in the SAML Tracer window to save the recorded trace. Keep the "Mask values" option and export. This will store a file (sample name: SAML-tracer-export-2023-03-01T14_45_52.447Z.json) in your downloads folder, please supply this file directly in the Case where you are getting help
 
 - Stop the screen recording.
- Share the file with your Pure support as well.