Certification - Understanding Revocation period

Which IIQ version are you inquiring about?

8.4

Share all details about your problem, including any error messages you may have received.

Context:
We were asked to update our certification process with the following requirements:

  1. Reduce the period during which certifications remain active.
  2. Introduce logic to automatically close certifications:
    • Default behavior: Revoke access.
    • Service identities: Allow access.

The custom rule was developed successfully and is working as expected.

Issue

I am currently seeing the following error for some revoked certification items:

“Item is revoked but has not been removed.”

Modification in Configuration

  • Revocation Period Duration: 1 day
  • Time After Certification Expiration: 1 hour

Question

Could these reduced timeframes be contributing to the provisioning failure?

I am also trying to understand when does the provisioning is triggered during the revocation phase.

Thanks for the help

Hi @tmamouros

Please refer the below post:

For troubleshooting purpose, temporarily increase:

Revocation Period Duration to 3-5 days

Keep your automatic closing logic in place, but give the provisioning + aggregation/remediation verification enough time to complete.

Hello Tiago. Manish (@kumarSinghM) is pointing at the right area. I would also check the revocation timing.

The message “Item is revoked but has not been removed” does not necessarily mean provisioning failed. It can mean the revocation was requested, but IIQ has not yet confirmed that the access is actually gone from the account.

When the revocation is sent depends on Process Revokes Immediately. If enabled, it is processed when the Revoke decision is saved. If disabled, it is normally sent when the certification is signed off. An active challenge period can delay it further. (docs)

After that, Scan for completed revocations checks whether the access was actually removed. By default, IIQ scans a certification’s revocations once per day. (docs)

So with Revocation Period Duration = 1 day, there may be very little time for the remediation and completion check to finish before the revocation period ends, especially for disconnected applications where the work item must be completed and the account aggregated back into IIQ. I would test with a longer revocation period.

The Time After Certification Expiration = 1 hour setting is different. It controls when automatic closing occurs and how undecided items are handled. It is not a provisioning timeout. (docs)

I would check whether the access was actually removed on the target and whether Scan for completed revocations is enabled and running. If the access is already gone but IIQ still shows the message, the issue is more likely with aggregation or close-loop verification than provisioning itself.