For user import operations in which the imported user’s password remains on the external directory (and is not imported into PingOne), the import action uses the password.external.gateway configuration to designate that the user’s authoritative password is managed by an external service.

Note: For passwords with password.external.gateway configured, the user’s password status state is set to EXTERNAL.

The POST /environments/{{envID}}/users operation imports a new user resource to the specified environment. This operation uses the application/vnd.pingidentity.user.import+json custom content type in the request header.

New users must be assigned to a population resource identified by its ID, and the request must set a value for the username attribute. The username attribute must be unique to an environment (spanning populations). Access to populations is determined by roles. It’s possible that username conflicts may arise, if you or your worker application attempt to create a user that exists in a population to which you have no access.

The password property sets the attributes needed to specify an external directory as the password manager. For this use case, the password property configures the following sub-properties:

Property	Type	Required?	Mutable?	Description
`password.external`	Object	Required	Mutable	An object that maps the information relevant to the user’s password, and its association to external directories.
`password.external.` `gateway`	Object	Required	Mutable	An object containing the gateway properties. When this is value is specified, the user’s password is managed in an external directory. You can set the user password using Create User (Import) or Update Password (Set).
`password.external.` `gateway.id`	UUID	Required	Mutable	The UUID of the linked gateway that references the remote directory.
`password.external.` `gateway.type`	String	Optional	Mutable	An enum indicating one of the supported gateway types. For the supported types, see `type` in the Gateway base data model.
`password.external.` `gateway.userType`	Reference	Required	Mutable	A reference to a `userType` in the list of `userTypes` values for an LDAP gateway.
`password.external.` `gateway.userType.id`	UUID	Required	Mutable	The UUID of a user type in the list of `userTypes` for the LDAP gateway.
`password.external.` `gateway.` `correlationAttributes`	Object	Required	Mutable	An object that maps the LDAP directory attributes used by PingOne to link a user with the corresponding on-premise LDAP directory user.

For more information about gateways LDAP data model and gateway user types, see Gateway Management.