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Tutorial: Azure Active Directory integration with Front

  • Article
  • 5 minutes to read

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

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

Scenario description

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

  • Front supports IDP initiated SSO.

To configure the integration of Front into Azure AD, you need to add Front 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 Front in the search box.
  6. Select Front 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 Front

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with Front 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 Front.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with Front, 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 Front SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Front test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Front 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 Front 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 Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, perform the following steps:

    a. In the Identifier text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<companyname>.frontapp.com

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<companyname>.frontapp.com/sso/saml/callback

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier and Reply URL. Contact Front 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.

  5. 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.

    The Certificate download link

  6. On the Set up Front section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per 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 Front.

  1. In the Azure portal, select Enterprise Applications, and then select All applications.
  2. In the applications list, select Front.
  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 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, click the Assign button.

Configure Front SSO

  1. Log in to your Front website as an administrator.

  2. Go to the settings and select thePreferences.

  3. Perform the following steps in the Company preferences page.

    Screenshot that shows the "Company preferences" section with the "Single Sign On" link selected.

    a. Click Single Sign On on the left side navigation.

    b. Select SAML in the drop-down list of Single Sign On.

    c. In the Entry Point textbox enter the value of Login URL which you have copied from the Azure portal.

    d. Select the Requested authentication context type as Disabled.

    e. Open your downloaded Certificate(Base64) file in notepad, copy the content of it into your clipboard, and then paste it to the Signing certificate textbox.

  4. On the Service provider settings section, perform the following steps:

    Configure Single Sign-On On App side

    a. Copy the value of Entity ID and paste it into the Identifier textbox in Front Domain and URLs section in Azure portal.

    b. Copy the value of ACS URL and paste it into the Reply URL textbox in Front Domain and URLs section in Azure portal.

  5. Click Save button.

Create Front test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in Front. Work with Front Client support team to add the users in the Front 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 and you should be automatically signed in to the Front for which you set up the SSO

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Front tile in the My Apps, you should be automatically signed in to the Front 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 Front 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 Defender for Cloud Apps.