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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra SSO integration with BenSelect

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

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to BenSelect.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to BenSelect 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.
  • BenSelect single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO in a test environment.

  • BenSelect supports IDP initiated SSO.

Note

Identifier of this application is a fixed string value so only one instance can be configured in one tenant.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with BenSelect 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 BenSelect.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with BenSelect, 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 BenSelect SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create BenSelect test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in BenSelect 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 > BenSelect > 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 pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following step:

    In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://www.benselect.com/enroll/login.aspx?Path=<tenant name>

    Note

    The value is not real. Update the value with the actual Reply URL. Contact BenSelect Client support team to get the value. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  6. BenSelect 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 shows User Attributes with default attributes such as givenname user.givenname and emailaddress user.mail.

  7. Click on the Edit icon to edit the Name identifier value.

    Screenshot shows the User Attributes & Claims pane with the Edit icon called out.

  8. On the Manage user claims section, perform the following steps:

    Screenshot shows Manage user claims where you can enter the values described in this step.

    a. Select Transformation as a Source.

    b. In the Transformation dropdown list, select ExtractMailPrefix().

    c. In the Parameter 1 dropdown list, select user.userprincipalname.

    d. Click Save.

  9. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, find Certificate (Raw) and select Download to download the certificate and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  10. On the Set up BenSelect section, copy the appropriate URL(s) based on your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

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 BenSelect.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > BenSelect.
  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're expecting any role value in the SAML assertion, in the Select Role dialog, select the appropriate role for the user from the list and then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
  7. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure BenSelect SSO

To configure single sign-on on BenSelect side, you need to send the downloaded Certificate (Raw) and appropriate copied URLs from the application configuration to BenSelect support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Note

You need to mention that this integration requires the SHA256 algorithm (SHA1 is not supported) to set the SSO on the appropriate server like app2101, and so on.

Create BenSelect test user

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

Test SSO

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

  • Click on Test this application, and you should be automatically signed in to the BenSelect for which you set up the SSO.

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the BenSelect tile in the My Apps, you should be automatically signed in to the BenSelect for which you set up the SSO. For more information, see Microsoft Entra My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure BenSelect 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.