Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with Freshservice

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

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Freshservice.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Freshservice 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.
  • Freshservice 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 SSO in a test environment.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Freshservice 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 Freshservice.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Freshservice, complete the following building blocks:

  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 Freshservice SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Freshservice test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Freshservice 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 > Freshservice > 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, enter the values for the following fields:

    a. In the Sign-on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<company-name>.freshservice.com

    b. In the Identifier (Entity ID) text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<company-name>.freshservice.com

    c. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<company-name>.freshservice.com/login/saml

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Sign on URL, Identifier and Reply URL. Contact Freshservice Client support team to get 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, find Certificate (Base64) and select Download to download the certificate and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  7. On the Set up Freshservice section on the Azure portal, copy the appropriate URL(s) based on 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 Freshservice.

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

  1. In a different web browser window, sign in to your Freshservice company site as an administrator

  2. In the menu on the left, click Admin and select Helpdesk Security in the General Settings.

    Admin

  3. In the Security, click on Go to Freshservice 360 Security.

    Security

  4. In the Security section, perform the following steps:

    Single Sign On

    a. For Single Sign On, select On.

    b. In the Login Method, select SAML SSO.

    c. In the Entity ID provided by the IdP textbox, paste Entity ID value, which you copied previously.

    d. In the SAML SSO URL textbox, paste Login URL value, which you copied previously.

    e. In the Signing Options, select Only Signed Assertions from the dropdown.

    f. In the Logout URL textbox, paste Logout URL value, which you copied previously.

    g. In the Security Certificate textbox, paste Certificate (Base64) value, which you have obtained earlier.

    h. Click Save.

Create Freshservice test user

To enable Microsoft Entra users to sign in to FreshService, they must be provisioned into FreshService. In the case of FreshService, provisioning is a manual task.

To provision a user account, perform the following steps:

  1. Sign in to your FreshService company site as an administrator.

  2. In the menu on the left, click Admin.

  3. In the User Management section, click Requesters.

    Requesters

  4. Click New Requester.

    New Requesters

  5. In the New Requester section, enter the required fields and click on Save. New Requester

    Note

    The Microsoft Entra account holder gets an email including a link to confirm the account before it becomes active

    Note

    You can use any other FreshService user account creation tools or APIs provided by FreshService to provision Microsoft Entra user accounts.

Note

Freshservice 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.

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

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

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Freshservice tile in the My Apps, you should be automatically signed in to the Freshservice 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 Freshservice 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.