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

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

  • Control in Azure AD who has access to ePlatform.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to ePlatform with their Azure AD accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location - the Azure portal.

To learn more about SaaS app integration with Azure AD, see What is application access and single sign-on with Azure Active Directory.

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.
  • ePlatform single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

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

  • ePlatform 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 ePlatform into Azure AD, you need to add ePlatform 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 ePlatform in the search box.
  6. Select ePlatform 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 single sign-on for ePlatform

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with ePlatform 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 ePlatform.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with ePlatform, complete the following building blocks:

  1. Configure Azure AD SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
  2. Configure ePlatform SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    • Create ePlatform test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in ePlatform 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 ePlatform 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 edit/pen icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  4. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, the application is pre-configured and the necessary URLs are already pre-populated with Azure. The user needs to save the configuration by clicking the Save button.

  5. ePlatform 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

  6. In addition to above, ePlatform 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
    upn user.userprincipalname
  7. In the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Edit button to open SAML Signing Certificate dialog.

    Edit SAML Signing Certificate

  8. In the SAML Signing Certificate section, copy the Thumbprint Value and save it on your computer.

    Copy Thumbprint value

  9. On the Set up ePlatform 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 ePlatform.

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

  2. In the applications list, select ePlatform.

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

    The "Users and groups" link

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

    The Add User link

  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 ePlatform SSO

To configure single sign-on on ePlatform side, you need to send the Thumbprint Value and appropriate copied URLs from Azure portal to ePlatform support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create ePlatform test user

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

When you click the ePlatform tile in the Access Panel, you should be automatically signed in to the ePlatform for which you set up SSO. For more information about the Access Panel, see Introduction to the Access Panel.

Additional resources