Configuring an External IdP for authenticating Microsoft Azure using SAML

Question

Hi Team, I am looking to configure a third party External Identity provider to authenticate Microsoft Entra ID using SAML. The configuration would basically to have Microsoft Entra ID as the Service provider and have another IdP (Like Okta) Authenticate it using SAML. Is this possible ? And if so, can you please direct me to a documentation on how to do this

Answer 1

Hi @mohamed assem

Thank you for post!

As per your query you have third party External Identity provider (Okta) and you have configured a Service in Entra ID, now you want the users who use third party External Identity provider access this Service which is configured in Entra ID.

To achieve this ask you can make use of Azure AD B2B collaboration, so that users who are external to Entra ID can also access the application.

With this method, authentication is still be done by Okta, but user will be able to access the application or services as their identity will get provisioned in Entra ID as guest.

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) B2B collaboration is a feature within External Identities that lets you invite guest users to collaborate with your organization. With B2B collaboration, you can securely share your organization applications and services with external users.

With Azure AD B2B, the partner uses their own identity management solution, so there is no external administrative overhead for your organization. Guest users sign in to your apps and services with their own work, school, or social identities.

• The partner uses their own identities and credentials, whether or not they have an Azure AD account.
• You don't need to manage external accounts or passwords.
• You don't need to sync accounts or manage account lifecycles.

You can refer the articles to know about B2B collaboration and how you can configure it in Azure AD

As per your query the users using OKTA as identity provider, you will have to configure “Federation with SAML/WS-Fed identity providers for guest users”. You can refer below article to configure this,

Federation with SAML/WS-Fed identity providers for guest user

Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/permissions-management/how-to-configure-okta-as-an-identity-provider

I hope this answer helps! If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.

Thanks,
Akhilesh.

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