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Tutorial: Azure AD SSO integration with Anaplan

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  • 6 minutes to read

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

  • Control in Azure AD who has access to Anaplan.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Anaplan 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.
  • Anaplan single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Azure AD single sign-on in a test environment.

  • Anaplan supports SP initiated SSO.

To configure the integration of Anaplan into Azure AD, you need to add Anaplan 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. Navigate 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 Anaplan in the search box.
  6. Select Anaplan 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 Anaplan

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with Anaplan 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 Anaplan.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with Anaplan, 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 Anaplan SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Anaplan test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Anaplan that is linked to the Azure AD representation of user.
  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 Anaplan 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, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click the copy icon to copy the App Federation Metadata URL and save this to use in the Anaplan SSO configuration.

    The Certificate download link.

Configure Anaplan SSO

  1. Log in to Anaplan website as an administrator.

  2. In the Administration page, navigate to Security > Single Sign-On.

  3. Click New.

  4. Perform the following steps in the Metadata tab:

    Screenshot for the security page.

    a. Enter a Connection Name, should match the name of your connection in the identity provider interface.

    b. Select Load from XML file and paste the App Federation Metadata URL you copied from Azure portal into the Metadata URL textbox.

    c. Click Save to create the connection.

    d. Enable the connection by setting the Enabled toggle.

  5. From the Config tab, copy the following values to save them back to the Azure portal:

    a. Service Provider URL. b. Assertion Consumer Service URL. c. Entity ID.

Complete the Azure AD SSO Configuration

  1. 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.

  2. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

    a. In the Identifier (Entity ID) text box, paste the Entity ID that you copied from above, in the format: https://sdp.anaplan.com/<optional extension>

    b. In the Sign on URL text box, paste the Service Provider URL that you copied from above, in the format: https://us1a.app.anaplan.com/samlsp/<connection name>

    c. In the Reply URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL) text box, paste the Assertion Consumer Service URL that you copied from above, in the format: https://us1a.app.anaplan.com/samlsp/login/callback?connection=<connection name>

Complete the Anaplan SSO Configuration

  1. Perform the following steps in the Advanced tab:

    Screenshot for the Advanced page.

    a. Select Name ID Format as Email Address from the dropdown and keep the remaining values as default.

    b. Click Save.

  2. In the Workspaces tab, specify the workspaces that will use the identity provider from the dropdown and Click Save.

    Screenshot for the Workspaces page.

    Note

    Workspace connections are unique. If you have another connection already configured with a workspace, you cannot associate that workspace with a new connection. To access the original connection and update it, remove the workspace from the connection and then reassociate it with the new connection.

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 Anaplan.

  1. In the Azure portal, select Enterprise Applications, and then select All applications.
  2. In the applications list, select Anaplan.
  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 Anaplan test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in Anaplan. Work with Anaplan support team to add the users in the Anaplan platform. Users must be created and activated before you use single sign-on.

Test SSO

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

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

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

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

Next steps

Once you configure Anaplan 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.