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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with Nature Research

  • Article

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Nature Research with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate Nature Research with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

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

Prerequisites

To get started, you need the following items:

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

Scenario description

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

  • Nature Research supports SP and IDP initiated SSO

To configure the integration of Nature Research into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Nature Research 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 Nature Research in the search box.
  4. Select Nature Research 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 Microsoft Entra SSO for Nature Research

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Nature Research 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 Nature Research.

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

  1. Configure Microsoft Entra SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
  2. Configure Nature Research SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO.

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

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Nature Research > 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 edit/pen icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, if you wish to configure the application in IDP initiated mode, the Identifier and Reply URL values are already pre-populated with Azure but you need to enter the Relay State value.

    In the Relay State text box, type the URL: https://www.nature.com
    click save.

  6. Click Set additional URLs and perform the following steps if you wish to configure the application in SP initiated mode:

    In the Sign-on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://sp.nature.com/saml/login?idp=<IDP_ENTITY_ID>

    Note

    The Sign-On URL value is not real. <IDP_ENTITY_ID> is the Microsoft Entra Identifier copied from the Set up Nature Research section. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  7. Click Save.

  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.

    The Certificate download link

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll create a test user 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 test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use single sign-on by granting access to Nature Research.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Nature Research.
  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 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.
    3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure Nature Research SSO

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

Test SSO

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

SP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application, this will redirect to Nature Research Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

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

IDP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application, and you should be automatically signed in to the Nature Research for which you set up the SSO

You can also use Microsoft Access Panel to test the application in any mode. When you click the Nature Research tile in the Access Panel, 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 Nature Research for which you set up the SSO. For more information about the Access Panel, see Introduction to the Access Panel.

Next steps

Once you configure Nature Research 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.