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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with Meta Networks Connector

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

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Meta Networks Connector.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Meta Networks Connector 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.
  • Meta Networks Connector single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

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

  • Meta Networks Connector supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.

  • Meta Networks Connector supports Just In Time user provisioning.

  • Meta Networks Connector supports Automated user provisioning.

To configure the integration of Meta Networks Connector into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Meta Networks Connector 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 Meta Networks Connector in the search box.
  4. Select Meta Networks Connector 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 Meta Networks Connector

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Meta Networks Connector 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 Meta Networks Connector.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Meta Networks Connector, 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 Meta Networks Connector SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Meta Networks Connector test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Meta Networks Connector 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 > Meta Networks Connector > 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, If you wish to configure the application in IDP initiated mode, perform the following steps:

    a. In the Identifier text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://login.nsof.io/v1/<ORGANIZATION-SHORT-NAME>/saml/metadata

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://login.nsof.io/v1/<ORGANIZATION-SHORT-NAME>/sso/saml

  6. Click Set additional URLs and perform the following step if you wish to configure the application in SP initiated mode:

    a. In the Sign-on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<ORGANIZATION-SHORT-NAME>.metanetworks.com/login

    b. In the Relay State textbox, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<ORGANIZATION-SHORT-NAME>.metanetworks.com/#/

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier, Reply URL, and Sign-On URL are explained later in the tutorial.

  7. Meta Networks Connector application expects the SAML assertions in a specific format, which requires you to add custom attribute mappings to your SAML token attributes configuration. The following screenshot shows the list of default attributes. Click Edit icon to open User Attributes dialog.

    Screenshot shows User Attributes with the Edit icon selected.

  8. In addition to above, Meta Networks Connector application expects few more attributes to be passed back in SAML response. In the User Claims section on the User Attributes dialog, perform the following steps to add SAML token attribute as shown in the below table:

    Name Source attribute Namespace
    firstname user.givenname
    lastname user.surname
    emailaddress user.mail http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims
    name user.userprincipalname http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims
    phone user.telephonenumber

    a. Click Add new claim to open the Manage user claims dialog.

    Screenshot shows User claims with the option to Add new claim.

    Screenshot shows the Manage user claims dialog box where you can enter the values described.

    b. In the Name textbox, type the attribute name shown for that row.

    c. Leave the Namespace blank.

    d. Select Source as Attribute.

    e. From the Source attribute list, type the attribute value shown for that row.

    f. Click Ok

    g. Click Save.

  9. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Certificate (Base64) from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  10. On the Set up Meta Networks Connector section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

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 Meta Networks Connector.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Meta Networks Connector.
  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 Meta Networks Connector SSO

  1. Open a new tab in your browser and log in to your Meta Networks Connector administrator account.

    Note

    Meta Networks Connector is a secure system. So before accessing their portal you need to get your public IP address added to an allow list on their side. To get your public IP address,follow the below link specified here. Send your IP address to the Meta Networks Connector Client support team to get your IP address added to an allow list.

  2. Go to Administrator and select Settings.

    Screenshot shows Settings selected from the Administration menu.

  3. Make sure Log Internet Traffic and Force VPN MFA are set to off.

    Screenshot shows turning off these settings.

  4. Go to Administrator and select SAML.

    Screenshot shows SAML selected from the Administration menu.

  5. Perform the following steps on the DETAILS page:

    Screenshot shows the DETAILS page where you can enter the values described.

    a. Copy SSO URL value and paste it into the Sign-In URL textbox in the Meta Networks Connector Domain and URLs section.

    b. Copy Recipient URL value and paste it into the Reply URL textbox in the Meta Networks Connector Domain and URLs section.

    c. Copy Audience URI (SP Entity ID) value and paste it into the Identifier (Entity ID) textbox in the Meta Networks Connector Domain and URLs section.

    d. Enable the SAML.

  6. On the GENERAL tab and perform the following steps:

    Screenshot shows the GENERAL page where you can enter the values described.

    a. In the Identity Provider Single Sign-On URL, paste the Login URL value which you copied previously.

    b. In the Identity Provider Issuer, paste the Microsoft Entra Identifier value which you copied previously.

    c. Open the downloaded certificate from Azure portal in notepad, paste it into the X.509 Certificate textbox.

    d. Enable the Just-in-Time Provisioning.

Create Meta Networks Connector test user

In this section, a user called Britta Simon is created in Meta Networks Connector. Meta Networks Connector supports just-in-time provisioning, which is enabled by default. There is no action item for you in this section. If a user doesn't already exist in Meta Networks Connector, a new one is created when you attempt to access Meta Networks Connector.

Note

If you need to create a user manually, contact Meta Networks Connector Client support team.

Meta Networks also supports automatic user provisioning, you can find more details here on how to configure automatic user provisioning.

Test SSO

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

SP initiated:

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

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

IDP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application, and you should be automatically signed in to the Meta Networks Connector for which you set up the SSO.

You can also use Microsoft My Apps to test the application in any mode. When you click the Meta Networks Connector tile in the My Apps, if configured in SP mode you would be redirected to the application sign on page for initiating the login flow and if configured in IDP mode, you should be automatically signed in to the Meta Networks Connector for which you set up the SSO. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure Meta Networks Connector 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.