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

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

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

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO in a test environment.

  • Community Spark supports SP initiated SSO.

  • Community Spark supports Just In Time user provisioning.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Community Spark 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 Community Spark.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Community Spark, 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 Community Spark SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Community Spark test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Community Spark 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 > Community Spark > 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://<SUBDOMAIN>.communityspark.co/saml/metadata

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<SUBDOMAIN>.communityspark.co/saml/consume

    c. In the Sign on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<SUBDOMAIN>.communityspark.co/

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier, Reply URL and Sign on URL. Contact Community Spark 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, 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 Community Spark.

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

To configure single sign-on on Community Spark side, you need to send the App Federation Metadata Url to Community Spark support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create Community Spark test user

In this section, a user called B.Simon is created in Community Spark. Community Spark 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 Community Spark, a new one is created after authentication.

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 Community Spark Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

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

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

Next steps

Once you configure Community Spark 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.