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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with Skills Base

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

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Skills Base.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Skills Base 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.
  • A Skills Base license that supports single sign-on (SSO).

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.

  • Skills Base supports SP initiated SSO.
  • Skills Base supports Just In Time user provisioning.

Note

Skills Base does not support IdP initiated SSO.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Skills Base 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 Skills Base.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Skills Base, 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 Skills Base SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Skills Base test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Skills Base 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 > Skills Base Enterprise Application Overview page, under Getting Started section select Get started under 2. Set up 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 Upload metadata file button at the top of the page.

  5. Click the Select a file icon and select the metadata file that you downloaded from Skills Base.

  6. Click Add

    Screenshot of showing Upload SP metadata.

  7. On the Basic SAML Configuration page, in the Sign on URL text box, enter your Skills Base shortcut link, which should be in the format: https://app.skills-base.com/o/<customer-unique-key>

    Note

    You can get the Sign on URL from the Skills Base application. Please log in as an Administrator and to go to [Administration > Settings > Instance details > Shortcut link]. Copy the shortcut link and paste it into the Sign on URL textbox in Microsoft Entra ID.

  8. Click Save

  9. Close the Basic SAML Configuration dialog.

  10. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, next to Federation Metadata XML, click Download to download the Federation Metadata XML and save it on your computer.

    Screenshot of showing The Certificate download link.

Configure Skills Base SSO

  1. Log in to Skills Base as an Administrator.

  2. From the left side of menu, select Administration -> Authentication.

    Screenshot of showing The Authentication menu.

  3. On the Authentication page in the Identity Providers section, select Add identity provider.

    Screenshot shows the "Add identity provider" button.

  4. Click Add to use the default settings.

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

  5. In the Application Details panel, next to SAML SP Metadata, select Download XML File and save the resulting file on your computer.

    Screenshot shows the Application Details panel where you can download the SP Metadata file.

  6. In the Identity Providers section, select the edit button (denoted by a pencil icon) for the Identity Provider record you added.

    Screenshot of showing Edit Identity Providers button.

  7. In the Edit identity provider panel, for SAML IdP Metadata select Upload an XML file

  8. Click Browse to choose a file. Select the Federation Metadata XML file that you downloaded from Microsoft Entra ID and click Save.

    Screenshot of showing Upload certificate type.

  9. In the Authentication panel, for Single Sign-On select the Identity Provider you added.

    Screenshot for Authentication panel for S S O.

  10. Make sure the option to bypass the Skills Base login screen is deselected for now. You can enable this option later, once the integration is proved to be working.

  11. If you would like to enable Just In Time user provisioning, enable the Automatic user account provisioning option.

  12. click Save changes.

    Screenshot for Just in Time provisioning.

Note

The Identity Provider you added in the Identity Providers panel should now have a green Enabled badge in the Status column.

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 Skills Base.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Skills Base.
  3. In the app's overview page, find the Manage section and select Users and groups.
  4. Select Add user, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
  5. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
  6. 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.
  7. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Create Skills Base test user

Skills Base 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 Skills Base, a new one is created after authentication.

Note

If you need to create a user manually, follow the instructions here.

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 Skills Base Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

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

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

Next steps

Once you configure Skills Base 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.