Edit

Tutorial: Azure AD SSO integration with Braze

  • Article
  • 6 minutes to read

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

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

Scenario description

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

  • Braze supports SP and 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 Braze into Azure AD, you need to add Braze 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 Braze in the search box.
  6. Select Braze 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 Braze

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with Braze 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 Braze.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with Braze, 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 Braze SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Braze test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Braze 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 Braze 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, if you wish to configure the application in IDP initiated mode, perform the following step:

    In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<SUBDOMAIN>.braze.com/auth/saml/callback

  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 a URL using the following pattern: https://<SUBDOMAIN>.braze.com/sign_in

    Note

    For the subdomain, use the coordinating subdomain listed in your Braze instance URL. For example, if your instance is US-01, your URL is https://dashboard-01.braze.com. This means that your subdomain will be dashboard-01.

  6. Braze 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.

    image

  7. In addition to above, Braze 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
    first_name user.givenname
    last_name 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. On the Set up Braze 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 Braze.

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

To configure single sign-on on Braze side, you will need to ensure that a Braze Account Manager has enabled SAML SSO for your account. Once enabled, you can then go to Company Settings > Security Settings and toggle the SAML SSO section to ON. Within this section, you will need to copy and paste the downloaded Certificate (Base64), along with adding a SAML Name.

Create Braze test user

In this section, you create a user called B.Simon in Braze. Work with Braze support team to add the users in the Braze 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.

SP initiated:

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

  • Go to Braze 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 Braze 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 Braze 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 Braze 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 Braze 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.