Tutorial: Azure AD SSO integration with Buttonwood Central SSO

Article
11/21/2022
5 minutes to read

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

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

Scenario description

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

Buttonwood Central SSO supports SP initiated SSO.

Note

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

Add Buttonwood Central SSO from the gallery

To configure the integration of Buttonwood Central SSO into Azure AD, you need to add Buttonwood Central SSO from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

Sign in to the Azure portal using either a work or school account, or a personal Microsoft account.
On the left navigation pane, select the Azure Active Directory service.
Navigate to Enterprise Applications and then select All Applications.
To add new application, select New application.
In the Add from the gallery section, type Buttonwood Central SSO in the search box.
Select Buttonwood Central SSO 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 Buttonwood Central SSO

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with Buttonwood Central SSO 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 Buttonwood Central SSO.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with Buttonwood Central SSO, perform the following steps:

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.
Configure Buttonwood Central SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
1. Create Buttonwood Central SSO test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Buttonwood Central SSO that is linked to the Azure AD representation of user.
Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Azure AD SSO

Follow these steps to enable Azure AD SSO in the Azure portal.

In the Azure portal, on the Buttonwood Central SSO application integration page, find the Manage section and select single sign-on.
On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.
On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.
On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

a. In the Identifier (Entity ID) text box, type the URL: http://adfs.bcx.buttonwood.net/adfs/services/trust

b. In the Reply URL text box, type the URL: https://adfs.bcx.buttonwood.net/adfs/ls/

c. In the Sign on URL text box, type the URL: https://exchange.bcx.buttonwood.net/User/FederatedLogin
On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, In the SAML Signing Certificate section, click copy button to copy App Federation Metadata Url and save it on your computer.

Create an Azure AD test user

In this section, you'll create a test user in the Azure portal called B.Simon.

From the left pane in the Azure portal, select Azure Active Directory, select Users, and then select All users.
Select New user at the top of the screen.
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 Buttonwood Central SSO.

In the Azure portal, select Enterprise Applications, and then select All applications.
In the applications list, select Buttonwood Central SSO.
In the app's overview page, find the Manage section and select Users and groups.
Select Add user, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
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.
In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure Buttonwood Central SSO

To configure single sign-on on Buttonwood Central SSO side, you need to send the App Federation Metadata Url to Buttonwood Central SSO support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create Buttonwood Central SSO test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in Buttonwood Central SSO. Work with Buttonwood Central SSO support team to add the users in the Buttonwood Central SSO 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 Buttonwood Central SSO Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.
Go to Buttonwood Central SSO Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.
You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Buttonwood Central SSO tile in the My Apps, this will redirect to Buttonwood Central SSO Sign-on URL. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure Buttonwood Central SSO 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.