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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra SSO integration with Birst Agile Business Analytics

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In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Birst Agile Business Analytics with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate Birst Agile Business Analytics with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Birst Agile Business Analytics.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Birst Agile Business Analytics 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.
  • Birst Agile Business Analytics single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.
  • Along with Cloud Application Administrator, Application Administrator can also add or manage applications in Microsoft Entra ID. For more information, see Azure built-in roles.

Scenario description

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

  • Birst Agile Business Analytics supports SP 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 Birst Agile Business Analytics into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Birst Agile Business Analytics 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 Birst Agile Business Analytics in the search box.
  4. Select Birst Agile Business Analytics 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 Birst Agile Business Analytics

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Birst Agile Business Analytics 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 Birst Agile Business Analytics.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Birst Agile Business Analytics, 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 Birst Agile Business Analytics SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Birst Agile Business Analytics test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Birst Agile Business Analytics 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 > Birst Agile Business Analytics > 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.

    Screenshot shows to edit Basic S A M L Configuration.

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

    In the Sign-on URL textbox, type a URL using the following pattern: https://login.bws.birst.com/SAMLSSO/Services.aspx?birst.idpid=<TENANTIDPID>

    The URL depends on the datacenter that your Birst account is located:

    • For US datacenter use following the pattern: https://login.bws.birst.com/SAMLSSO/Services.aspx?birst.idpid=<TENANTIDPID>

    • For Europe datacenter use the following pattern: https://login.eu1.birst.com/SAMLSSO/Services.aspx?birst.idpid=<TENANTIDPID>

      Note

      This value is not real. Update the value with the actual Sign-On URL. Contact Birst Agile Business Analytics Client support team to get the value.

  6. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Certificate (Base64) from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

    Screenshot shows the Certificate download link.

  7. On the Set up Birst Agile Business Analytics section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

    Screenshot shows to copy configuration appropriate U R L.

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 Birst Agile Business Analytics.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Birst Agile Business Analytics.
  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 Birst Agile Business Analytics SSO

To configure single sign-on on Birst Agile Business Analytics side, you need to send the downloaded Certificate (Base64) and appropriate copied URLs from the application configuration to Birst Agile Business Analytics support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Note

Mention to Birst team that this integration needs SHA256 Algorithm (SHA1 will not be supported) so that they can set the SSO on the appropriate server like app2101 , and so on.

Create Birst Agile Business Analytics test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in Birst Agile Business Analytics. Work with Birst Agile Business Analytics support team to add the users in the Birst Agile Business Analytics 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, this will redirect to Birst Agile Business Analytics Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Birst Agile Business Analytics Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Birst Agile Business Analytics tile in the My Apps, this will redirect to Birst Agile Business Analytics Sign-on URL. For more information, see Microsoft Entra My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure Birst Agile Business Analytics 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 Cloud App Security.