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

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

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

Scenario description

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

• Salesforce Sandbox supports SP and IDP initiated SSO
• Salesforce Sandbox supports Just In Time user provisioning
• Salesforce Sandbox supports Automated user provisioning

Adding Salesforce Sandbox from the gallery

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

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with Salesforce Sandbox 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 Salesforce Sandbox.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with Salesforce Sandbox, 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 Salesforce Sandbox SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
   1. Create Salesforce Sandbox test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Salesforce Sandbox 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 Salesforce Sandbox 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.

   

4. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, if you have Service Provider metadata file and wish to configure in IDP initiated mode perform the following steps:

   a. Click Upload metadata file.

   

   b. Click on folder logo to select the metadata file and click Upload.

   

   Note

   You will get the service provider metadata file from the Salesforce Sandbox admin portal which is explained later in the tutorial.

   c. After the metadata file is successfully uploaded, the Reply URL value will get auto populated in Reply URL textbox.

   

   Note

   If the Reply URL value do not get auto polulated, then fill in the value manually according to your requirement.

5. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Metadata XML from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

   

6. On the Set up Salesforce Sandbox section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

   

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 Salesforce Sandbox.

1. In the Azure portal, select Enterprise Applications, and then select All applications.
2. In the applications list, select Salesforce Sandbox.
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 Salesforce Sandbox SSO

1. Open a new tab in your browser and sign in to your Salesforce Sandbox administrator account.

2. Click on the Setup under settings icon on the top right corner of the page.

   

3. Scroll down to the SETTINGS in the left navigation pane, click Identity to expand the related section. Then click Single Sign-On Settings.

   

4. On the Single Sign-On Settings page, click the Edit button.

   

5. Select SAML Enabled, and then click Save.

   

6. To configure your SAML single sign-on settings, click New from Metadata File.

   

7. Click Choose File to upload the metadata XML file which you have downloaded from the Azure portal and click Create.

   

8. On the SAML Single Sign-On Settings page, fields populate automatically and click save.

   

9. On the Single Sign-On Settings page, click the Download Metadata button to download the service provider metadata file. Use this file in the Basic SAML Configuration section in the Azure portal for configuring the necessary URLs as explained above.

   

10. If you wish to configure the application in SP initiated mode, following are the prerequisites for that:

    a. You should have a verified domain.

    b. You need to configure and enable your domain on Salesforce Sandbox, steps for this are explained later in this tutorial.

    c. In the Azure portal, on the Basic SAML Configuration section, click Set additional URLs and perform the following step:

    

    In the Sign-on URL textbox, type the value using the following pattern: https://<instancename>--Sandbox.<entityid>.my.salesforce.com

    Note

    This value should be copied from the Salesforce Sandbox portal once you have enabled the domain.

11. On the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Federation Metadata XML and then save the xml file on your computer.

    

12. Open a new tab in your browser and sign in to your Salesforce Sandbox administrator account.

13. Click on the Setup under settings icon on the top right corner of the page.

    

14. Scroll down to the SETTINGS in the left navigation pane, click Identity to expand the related section. Then click Single Sign-On Settings.

    

15. On the Single Sign-On Settings page, click the Edit button.

    

16. Select SAML Enabled, and then click Save.

    

17. To configure your SAML single sign-on settings, click New from Metadata File.

    

18. Click Choose File to upload the metadata XML file and click Create.

    

19. On the SAML Single Sign-On Settings page, fields populate automatically, type the name of the configuration (for example: SPSSOWAAD_Test), in the Name textbox and click save.

    

20. To enable your domain on Salesforce Sandbox, perform the following steps:

    Note

    Before enabling the domain you need to create the same on Salesforce Sandbox. For more information, see Defining Your Domain Name. Once the domain is created, please make sure that it's configured correctly.

21. On the left navigation pane in Salesforce Sandbox, click Company Settings to expand the related section, and then click My Domain.

    

22. In the Authentication Configuration section, click Edit.

    

23. In the Authentication Configuration section, as Authentication Service, select the name of the SAML Single Sign-On Setting which you have set during SSO configuration in Salesforce Sandbox and click Save.

    

Create Salesforce Sandbox test user

In this section, a user called Britta Simon is created in Salesforce Sandbox. Salesforce Sandbox supports just-in-time provisioning, which is enabled by default. There is no action item for you in this section. If a user doesn't already exist in Salesforce Sandbox, a new one is created when you attempt to access Salesforce Sandbox. Salesforce Sandbox also supports automatic user provisioning, you can find more details here on how to configure automatic user provisioning.

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 Salesforce Sandbox Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

• Go to Salesforce Sandbox 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 Salesforce Sandbox 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 Salesforce Sandbox 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 Salesforce Sandbox 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 the Salesforce Sandbox you can enforce session controls, which protects exfiltration and infiltration of your organization’s sensitive data in real time. Session controls extends from Conditional Access. Learn how to enforce session control with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.