Tutorial: Microsoft Entra SSO integration with Hornbill

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Hornbill with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate Hornbill with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Hornbill.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Hornbill with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location.

Prerequisites

To get started, you need the following items:

  • A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
  • Hornbill single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Note

This integration is also available to use from Microsoft Entra US Government Cloud environment. You can find this application in the Microsoft Entra US Government Cloud Application Gallery and configure it in the same way as you do from public cloud.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on in a test environment.

  • Hornbill supports SP initiated SSO.
  • Hornbill supports Just In Time user provisioning.

To configure the integration of Hornbill into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Hornbill from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.
  3. In the Add from the gallery section, type Hornbill in the search box.
  4. Select Hornbill from results panel and then add the app. Wait a few seconds while the app is added to your tenant.

Alternatively, you can also use the Enterprise App Configuration Wizard. In this wizard, you can add an application to your tenant, add users/groups to the app, assign roles, as well as walk through the SSO configuration as well. Learn more about Microsoft 365 wizards.

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO for Hornbill

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Hornbill using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in Hornbill.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Hornbill, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Microsoft Entra SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
  2. Configure Hornbill SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Hornbill test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Hornbill that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Hornbill > Single sign-on.

  3. On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.

  4. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

    a. In the Identifier (Entity ID) text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://sso.hornbill.com/<INSTANCE_NAME>/live

    Note

    If you are deploying the Hornbill Mobile Catalog to your organization, you will need to add an additional identifier URL, as so: https://sso.hornbill.com/hornbill/mcatalog

    b. In the Reply URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL) section, add the following: https://<API_SUBDOMAIN>.hornbill.com/<INSTANCE_NAME>/xmlmc/sso/saml2/authorize/user/live

    Note

    If you are deploying the Hornbill Mobile Catalog to your organization, you will need to add an additional Reply URL, as so: https://<API_SUBDOMAIN>.hornbill.com/hornbill/xmlmc/sso/saml2/authorize/user/mcatalog

    c. In the Sign on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://live.hornbill.com/<INSTANCE_NAME>/

    Note

    These values are not real. Update the <INSTANCE_NAME> and <API_SUBDOMAIN> values with the actual values in the Identifier(s), Reply URL(s) and Sign on URL. These values can be retrieved from the Hornbill Solution Center in your Hornbill instance, under Your usage > Support. Contact Hornbill Support for assistance in getting these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  6. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, In the SAML Signing Certificate section, click copy button to copy App Federation Metadata Url and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll create a test user called B.Simon.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
  3. Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
  4. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User principal name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
    3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
    4. Select Review + create.
  5. Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use single sign-on by granting access to Hornbill.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Hornbill.
  3. In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.
  4. Select Add user/group, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
    1. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
    2. If you are expecting a role to be assigned to the users, you can select it from the Select a role dropdown. If no role has been set up for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
    3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure Hornbill SSO

  1. In a different web browser window, log in to Hornbill as a Security Administrator.

  2. On the Home page, click the Configuration settings icon at the bottom left of the page.

    Screenshot shows the Hornbill system.

  3. Navigate to Platform Configuration.

    Screenshot shows the Hornbill platform configuration.

  4. Click SSO Profiles under Security.

    Screenshot shows the Hornbill single.

  5. On the right side of the page, click on + Create New Profile.

    Screenshot shows to add the logo.

  6. On the Profile Details bar, click on the Import IDP Meta Data button.

    Screenshot shows Hornbill Meta logo.

  7. On the pop-up, in the URL text box, paste the App Federation Metadata Url,. and click Process.

    Screenshot shows Hornbill process.

  8. After clicking process the values get auto populated automatically under Profile Details section.

    Screenshot shows Hornbill profile

  9. Click Save Changes.

Create Hornbill test user

In this section, a user called Britta Simon is created in Hornbill. Hornbill supports just-in-time user provisioning, which is enabled by default. There is no action item for you in this section. If a user doesn't already exist in Hornbill, a new one is created after authentication.

Note

If you need to create a user manually, contact Hornbill Client support team.

Test SSO

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration with following options.

  • Click on Test this application, this will redirect to Hornbill Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Hornbill Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Hornbill tile in the My Apps, this will redirect to Hornbill Sign-on URL. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure Hornbill you can enforce session control, which protects exfiltration and infiltration of your organization’s sensitive data in real time. Session control extends from Conditional Access. Learn how to enforce session control with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.