Microsoft Entra SSO integration with Granite

In this tutorial, you learn how to integrate Granite with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate Granite with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Granite.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Granite with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location.

Prerequisites

To integrate Microsoft Entra ID with Granite, you need:

  • A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
  • Granite single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO in a test environment.

  • Granite supports SP initiated SSO.
  • Granite supports Just In Time user provisioning.

To configure the integration of Granite into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Granite from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.
  3. In the Add from the gallery section, type Granite in the search box.
  4. Select Granite 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, and walk through the SSO configuration as well. Learn more about Microsoft 365 wizards.

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO for Granite

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Granite using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in Granite.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Granite, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Microsoft Entra SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create a Microsoft Entra ID test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Microsoft Entra ID test user - to enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
  2. Configure Granite SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Granite test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Granite that is linked to the Microsoft Entra ID representation of user.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO in the Microsoft Entra admin center.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Granite > 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, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Screenshot shows how to edit Basic SAML Configuration.

  5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

    a. In the Identifier textbox, type a value using the following pattern: <Customer_Name>.granitegrc.com

    b. In the Reply URL textbox, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<Customer_Name>.granitegrc.com/simplesaml/module.php/saml/sp/saml2-acs.php/default

    c. In the Sign on URL textbox, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<Customer_Name>.granitegrc.com

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier, Reply URL and Sign on URL. Contact Granite support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section in the Microsoft Entra admin center.

  6. Granite 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.

    Screenshot shows the image of attributes configuration.

  7. In addition to above, Granite 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
    mail user.mail
    username user.userprincipalname
    groups user.groups
    company user.companyname
    department user.department
    objectid user.objectid
  8. 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.

    Screenshot shows the Certificate download link.

Create a Microsoft Entra ID test user

In this section, you create a test user in the Microsoft Entra admin center called B.Simon.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
  3. Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
  4. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User principal 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. Select Review + create.
  5. Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra ID test user

In this section, you enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on by granting access to Granite.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Granite.
  3. In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.
  4. Select Add user/group, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
    1. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
    2. If you're 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.
    3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure Granite SSO

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

Create Granite test user

In this section, a user called B.Simon is created in Granite. Granite supports just-in-time provisioning, which is enabled by default. There's no action item for you in this section. If a user doesn't already exist in Granite, a new one is created when you attempt to access Granite.

Test SSO

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration with following options.

  • Click on Test this application in Microsoft Entra admin center. This will redirect to Granite Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Granite Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Granite tile in the My Apps, this will redirect to Granite Sign on URL. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next Steps

Once you configure Granite 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.