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Tutorial: Azure Active Directory integration with ArcGIS Online

  • Article
  • 7 minutes to read

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

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

Note

This integration is also available to use from Azure AD US Government Cloud environment. You can find this application in the Azure AD 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 Azure AD single sign-on in a test environment.

  • ArcGIS Online supports SP initiated SSO.

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

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with ArcGIS Online 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 ArcGIS Online.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with ArcGIS Online, 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 ArcGIS Online SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create ArcGIS Online test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in ArcGIS Online 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 ArcGIS Online 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. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

    a. In the Sign on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<companyname>.maps.arcgis.com

    b. In the Identifier (Entity ID) text box, type a URL using the following pattern: <companyname>.maps.arcgis.com

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Sign on URL and Identifier. Contact ArcGIS Online 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.

  5. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Federation Metadata XML from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  6. To automate the configuration within ArcGIS Online, you need to install My Apps Secure Sign-in browser extension by clicking Install the extension.

    image

  7. After adding extension to the browser, click on setup ArcGIS Online will direct you to the ArcGIS Online application. From there, provide the admin credentials to sign into ArcGIS Online. The browser extension will automatically configure the application for you and automate steps in section Configure ArcGIS Online Single Sign-On.

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 ArcGIS Online.

  1. In the Azure portal, select Enterprise Applications, and then select All applications.
  2. In the applications list, select ArcGIS Online.
  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 ArcGIS Online SSO

  1. To automate the configuration within ArcGIS Online, you need to install My Apps Secure Sign-in browser extension by clicking Install the extension.

    My apps extension

  2. After adding extension to the browser, click on Set up ArcGIS Online will direct you to the ArcGIS Online application. From there, provide the admin credentials to sign in to ArcGIS Online. The browser extension will automatically configure the application for you and automate steps 3-7.

    Setup configuration

  3. If you want to setup ArcGIS Online manually, open a new web browser window and log into your ArcGIS Online company site as an administrator and perform the following steps:

  4. Go to the Organization -> Settings.

    Edit Settings

  5. In the left menu, click Security and select New SAML login in the Logins tab.

    screenshot for Security

  6. In the Set SAML login window, choose the configuration as One identity provider and click Next.

    Enterprise Logins

  7. On the Specify properties tab, perform the following steps:

    Set Identity Provider

    a. In the Name textbox, type your organization’s name.

    b. For Metadata source for Enterprise Identity Provider, select File.

    c. Click on Choose File to upload the Federation Metadata XML file, which you have downloaded from Azure portal.

    d. Click Save.

Create ArcGIS Online test user

In order to enable Azure AD users to log into ArcGIS Online, they must be provisioned into ArcGIS Online.
In the case of ArcGIS Online, provisioning is a manual task.

To provision a user account, perform the following steps:

  1. Log in to your ArcGIS tenant.

  2. Go to the Organization -> Members and click Invite members.

    Invite Members

  3. Select Add members without sending invitations method, and then click Next.

    Add Members Automatically

  4. In the Compile member list, select New member and click Next.

  5. Fill the required fields in the following page and click Next.

    Add and review

  6. In the next page, select the member you want to add and click Next.

  7. Set the required member properties in the next page and click Next.

  8. In the Confirm and complete tab, click Add members .

    Add member

    Note

    The Azure Active Directory account holder will receive an email and follow a link to confirm their account before it becomes active.

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 ArcGIS Online Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

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

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

Next steps

Once you configure ArcGIS Online 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.