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Tutorial: Azure Active Directory single sign-on (SSO) integration with ekarda

  • Article
  • 7 minutes to read

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

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

Scenario description

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

  • ekarda supports SP-initiated and IDP-initiated SSO.
  • ekarda supports just-in-time user provisioning.

To configure the integration of ekarda into Azure AD, add ekarda from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps:

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal by using a work or school account or a personal Microsoft account.

  2. On the left pane, select the Azure Active Directory service.

  3. Go to Enterprise Applications, and then select All Applications.

  4. To add the new application, select New application.

  5. In the Add from the gallery section, type ekarda in the search box.

  6. Select ekarda 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 ekarda

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with ekarda by using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a linked relationship between an Azure AD user and the related user in ekarda.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with ekarda, 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 ekarda SSO to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.

  3. Test SSO to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Azure AD SSO

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

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

  2. On the ekarda application integration page, find the Manage section and select 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, select the pencil icon to edit the Basic SAML Configuration settings.

    Screenshot of Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, with the pencil icon highlighted.

  5. In the Basic SAML Configuration section, if you see Service Provider metadata file, follow these steps:

    1. Select Upload metadata file.
    2. Select the folder icon to select the metadata file, and then select Upload.
    3. When the metadata file is successfully uploaded, the values for Identifier and Reply URL appear automatically in the ekarda section text box.

    Note

    If the Identifier and Reply URL values don't appear automatically, fill in the values manually according to your requirements.

  6. If you don't see Service Provider metadata file in the Basic SAML Configuration section and you want to configure the application in IDP-initiated mode, enter values for the following fields:

    1. In the Identifier text box, type a URL that follows this pattern: https://my.ekarda.com/users/saml_metadata/<COMPANY_ID>
    2. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL that follows this pattern: https://my.ekarda.com/users/saml_acs/<COMPANY_ID>

  7. If you want to configure the application in SP-initiated mode, select Set additional URLs and do this:

    In the Sign-on URL text box, type a URL that follows this pattern: https://my.ekarda.com/users/saml_sso/<COMPANY_ID>

    Note

    The values in the two preceding steps aren't real. Update them with the actual identifier, reply URL, and sign-on URL values. Contact the ekarda 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.

  8. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, select Download to save Certificate (Base64) on your computer.

    Screenshot of the SAML Signing Certificate section of the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, with download link highlighted for the Base64 certificate.

  9. In the Set up ekarda section, copy the appropriate URLs based on your requirements.

    Screenshot of the Set up ekarda section of the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, with the URL copy links highlighted.

Create an Azure AD test user

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

  1. From the left pane in the Azure portal, select Azure Active Directory > Users > 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, enter B.Simon@contoso.com.
    3. Select the Show password check box, and write down the value that appears in the Password box.
    4. Select 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 ekarda.

  1. In the Azure portal, select Enterprise Applications > All applications.

  2. In the applications list, select ekarda.

  3. In the app's overview page, find the Manage section and select Users and groups.

  4. Select Add user, and then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog box.

  5. In the Users and groups dialog box, select B.Simon from the list of users. Then, choose Select 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 box, select Assign.

Configure ekarda SSO

  1. To automate the configuration within ekarda, 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 ekarda will direct you to the ekarda application. From there, provide the admin credentials to sign into ekarda. The browser extension will automatically configure the application for you and automate steps 3-6.

    Setup configuration

  3. If you want to setup ekarda manually, in a different web browser window, sign in to your ekarda company site as an administrator.

  4. Select Admin > My Account.

    Screenshot of ekarda site UI with My Account highlighted on the Admin menu.

  5. At the bottom of the page, locate the SAML SETTINGS section. This section is where you configure the SAML integration.

  6. In the SAML SETTINGS section, follow these steps:

    Screenshot of ekarda SAML SETTINGS page with SAML configuration fields highlighted.

    1. Select the Service Provider metadata link and save it as file in your computer.
    2. Select the Enable SAML check box.
    3. In the IDP Entity ID text box, paste the Azure AD Identifier value that you copied earlier from the Azure portal.
    4. In the IDP Login URL text box, paste the Login URL value that you copied earlier from the Azure portal.
    5. In the IDP Logout URL text box, paste the Logout URL value that you copied earlier from the Azure portal.
    6. Use Notepad to open the Certificate (Base64) file that you downloaded from the Azure portal. Paste that content into the IDP x509 Certificate text box.
    7. Select the Enable SLO check box in the OPTIONS section.
    8. Select Update.

Create an ekarda test user

In this section, a user called B.Simon is created in ekarda. ekarda supports just-in-time user provisioning, which is enabled by default. You have no action to take in this section. If a user named B.Simon doesn't already exist in ekarda, a new one is created after authentication.

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 ekarda Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to ekarda 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 ekarda 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 ekarda 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 ekarda for which you set up the SSO. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

After you configure ekarda, you can enforce session control. This precaution protects against exfiltration and infiltration of your organization’s sensitive data in real time. Session control extends from Conditional Access App Control. Learn how to enforce session control with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.