Google API user creation with service account - google-cloud-platform

Question

I'm trying to create a user using Googles Directory API and a service account. However I'm getting the error
googleapiclient.errors.HttpError: <HttpError 403 when requesting https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/users?alt=json returned "Not Authorized to access this resource/api". Details: "Not Authorized to access this resource/api">
I've created a service account on the Google Console and allowed Domain wide delegation. It also says the Admin SDK API is enabled for my project. However I can't seem to create a user. The documentation is confusing me slightly. Here is my implementation
def create_googleuser(content, randpass):
''' This function creates a Google Apps account for a user passing webhook contents and password as arguments '''
# Get User info from Webhook and store them in variables
firstname = get_firstname(content)
secondname = get_secondname(content)
emailaddress = firstname + "." + secondname + "#example.com"
# Connect to google API
userscope = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user']
service_account_credentials = ('serviceaccountcredentials.json')
credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(service_account_credentials, scopes=userscope)
userservice = googleapiclient.discovery.build('admin', 'directory_v1', credentials=credentials)
# Create a user dictionary with user details
userinfo = {"primaryEmail": emailaddress,"name":{"givenName":firstname,"familyName":secondname},"password":randpass}
print (emailaddress)
# Create user through googleAPI
userservice.users().insert(body = userinfo).execute()
I'm thinking that my implementation is wrong rather than the permissions as the serviceaccountcredentials.json should have the correct permissions. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

There are two possibilities for getting this error.
If the API method requires an impersonated user to be used.
If the impersonated user has not the relevant service enabled.
Solution for case 1:
Follow the documentation to impersonate a user account.
Solution for case 2:
In the Admin console, open user information and check that the user is not suspended.
Open the "Apps" panel and check that the relevant service is "On".
May be caused by a user not having a license which allows access to the service (Cloud Identity instead of Google Workspace), or a user being in an organizational unit which has the service disabled.
Also this link might be helpful.

Answer 2

Thanks for the input. You were both correct to a point. Basically there were two issues. The service account user needs to be delegated domain administrator privileges that require domain admin actions, domain wide delegation isn't enough. Also the domain scope needed to be broader in the Admin console and the scope definition within the code. There is github issue open which helped here:
https://github.com/googleapis/google-api-nodejs-client/issues/1884
My working code looks like this
def create_googleuser(content, randpass):
''' This function creates a Google Apps account for a user passing webhook contents and password as arguments '''
# Get User info from Webhook and store them in variables
username = get_username(content)
firstname = get_firstname(content)
secondname = get_secondname(content)
emailaddress = firstname + "." + secondname + "#example.com"
# Connect to google API
userscope = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user', 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user.security']
service_account_credentials = ('serviceaccountcredentials.json')
credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(service_account_credentials, scopes=userscope)
delegated_credentials = credentials.with_subject('domain.admin#example.com')
userservice = googleapiclient.discovery.build('admin', 'directory_v1', credentials=delegated_credentials)
# Create a user dictionary with user details
userinfo = {"primaryEmail": emailaddress,"name":{"givenName":firstname,"familyName":secondname},"password":randpass}
# Create user through googleAPI
userservice.users().insert(body = userinfo).execute()