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Tutorial: Azure Active Directory single sign-on (SSO) integration with Ally.io

  • Article
  • 6 minutes to read

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Ally.io with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). When you integrate Ally.io with Azure AD, you can:

  • Control in Azure AD who has access to Ally.io.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Ally.io with their Azure AD accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location - the Azure portal.

Prerequisites

To get started, you need the following items:

  • An Azure AD subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
  • Ally.io single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Azure AD SSO in a test environment.

  • Ally.io supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.
  • Ally.io supports Just In Time user provisioning.

To configure the integration of Ally.io into Azure AD, you need to add Ally.io from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal using either a work or school account, or a personal Microsoft account.
  2. On the left navigation pane, select the Azure Active Directory service.
  3. Go to Enterprise Applications and then select All Applications.
  4. To add new application, select New application.
  5. In the Add from the gallery section, type Ally.io in the search box.
  6. Select Ally.io 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 Azure AD SSO for Ally.io

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with Ally.io using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between an Azure AD user and the related user in Ally.io.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with Ally.io, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Azure AD SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create an Azure AD test user - to test Azure AD single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Azure AD test user - to enable B.Simon to use Azure AD single sign-on.
  2. Configure Ally.io SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Azure AD SSO

Follow these steps to enable Azure AD SSO in the Azure portal.

  1. In the Azure portal, on the Ally.io application integration page, find the Manage section and select single sign-on.

  2. On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.

  3. 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

  4. In the Basic SAML Configuration section, if you wish to configure the application in IDP initiated mode, enter the values for the following fields:

    a. In the Identifier text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://app.ally.io/saml/consume/<CUSTOM_GUID>

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://app.ally.io/saml/consume/<CUSTOM_GUID>

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

    In the Sign-on URL text box, type the URL: https://app.ally.io/

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier and Reply URL. Contact Ally.io Client support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section in the Azure portal.

  6. Ally.io 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.

    Screenshot that shows the list of default attributes.

  7. In addition to above, Ally.io application expects few more attributes to be passed back in SAML response which are shown below. These attributes are also pre populated but you can review them as per your requirements.

    Name Source Attribute
    email user.userprincipalname
    firstName user.givenname
    lastName user.surname

  8. 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

  9. In the Set up Ally.io section, copy the appropriate URL(s) based on your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

Create an Azure AD test user

In this section, you'll create a test user in the Azure portal called B.Simon.

  1. From the left pane in the Azure portal, select Azure Active Directory, select Users, and then select All users.
  2. Select New user at the top of the screen.
  3. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User 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. Click Create.

Assign the Azure AD test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use Azure single sign-on by granting access to Ally.io.

  1. In the Azure portal, select Enterprise Applications, and then select All applications.
  2. In the applications list, select Ally.io.
  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.

Configure Ally.io SSO

To configure single sign-on on Ally.io side, you need to copy the Certificate (Base64) and appropriate URLs from Azure portal and add them in Ally.io.

  1. Sign in to Ally.io using an Admin account.

  2. Using the navigation bar on the left of the screen, select Admin > Integrations.

  3. Scroll to the Authentication section and select Single Sign-On. Then, select Enable.

    Screenshot that shows the Enable button in Ally I O.

    The SSO Configuration page opens, and you can configure the certificate and the copied URLs from the Azure portal.

    Screenshot that shows the S S O configuration pane in Ally I O.

  4. In SSO Configuration, enter or select the following settings:

    • Ally: Azure AD
    • SAML 2.0 Endpoint URL: Login URL
    • Identity Provider Issuer URL: Azure AD Identifier
    • Public(X.509) Certificate: Certificate (base 64)

Test SSO

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

SP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application in Azure portal. This will redirect to Ally.io Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

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

IDP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application in Azure portal and you should be automatically signed in to the Ally.io 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 Ally.io 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 Ally.io 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 Ally.io 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.