Tutorial: Configure SolarWinds Service Desk (previously Samanage) for automatic user provisioning

This tutorial describes the steps you need to perform in both SolarWinds Service Desk (previously Samanage) and Microsoft Entra ID to configure automatic user provisioning. When configured, Microsoft Entra ID automatically provisions and de-provisions users and groups to SolarWinds Service Desk using the Microsoft Entra provisioning service. For important details on what this service does, how it works, and frequently asked questions, see Automate user provisioning and deprovisioning to SaaS applications with Microsoft Entra ID.

Migrate to the new SolarWinds Service Desk application

If you have an existing integration with SolarWinds Service Desk, see the following section about upcoming changes. If you're setting up SolarWinds Service Desk for the first time, you can skip this section and move to Capabilities supported.

What's changing?

• Changes on the Microsoft Entra ID side: The authorization method to provision users in Samange has historically been Basic auth. Soon you will see the authorization method changed to Long lived secret token.

What do I need to do to migrate my existing custom integration to the new application?

If you have an existing SolarWinds Service Desk integration with valid admin credentials, no action is required. We automatically migrate customers to the new application. This process is done completely behind the scenes. If the existing credentials expire, or if you need to authorize access to the application again, you need to generate a long-lived secret token. To generate a new token, refer to Step 2 of this article.

How can I tell if my application has been migrated?

When your application is migrated, in the Admin Credentials section, the Admin Username and Admin Password fields will be replaced with a single Secret Token field.

Capabilities supported

• Create users in SolarWinds Service Desk
• Remove users in SolarWinds Service Desk when they do not require access anymore
• Keep user attributes synchronized between Microsoft Entra ID and SolarWinds Service Desk
• Provision groups and group memberships in SolarWinds Service Desk
• Single sign-on to SolarWinds Service Desk (recommended)

Prerequisites

The scenario outlined in this tutorial assumes that you already have the following prerequisites:

• A Microsoft Entra tenant
• A user account in Microsoft Entra ID with permission to configure provisioning (for example, Application Administrator, Cloud Application administrator, Application Owner, or Global Administrator).
• A SolarWinds Service Desk tenant with the Professional package.
• A user account in SolarWinds Service Desk with admin permissions.

Note

Roles should not be manually edited in Microsoft Entra ID when doing role imports.

Step 1: Plan your provisioning deployment

1. Learn about how the provisioning service works.
2. Determine who will be in scope for provisioning.
3. Determine what data to map between Microsoft Entra ID and SolarWinds Service Desk.

Step 2: Configure SolarWinds Service Desk to support provisioning with Microsoft Entra ID

To generate a secret token for authentication, see Tutorial tokens authentication for API integration.

Step 3: Add SolarWinds Service Desk from the Microsoft Entra application gallery

Add SolarWinds Service Desk from the Microsoft Entra application gallery to start managing provisioning to SolarWinds Service Desk. If you previously set up SolarWinds Service Desk for SSO, you can use the same application. However it is recommended that you create a separate app when testing out the integration initially. Learn more about adding an application from the gallery here.

Step 4: Define who will be in scope for provisioning

The Microsoft Entra provisioning service allows you to scope who will be provisioned based on assignment to the application and or based on attributes of the user / group. If you choose to scope who will be provisioned to your app based on assignment, you can use the following steps to assign users and groups to the application. If you choose to scope who will be provisioned based solely on attributes of the user or group, you can use a scoping filter as described here.

• Start small. Test with a small set of users and groups before rolling out to everyone. When scope for provisioning is set to assigned users and groups, you can control this by assigning one or two users or groups to the app. When scope is set to all users and groups, you can specify an attribute based scoping filter.

• If you need additional roles, you can update the application manifest to add new roles.

Step 5: Configure automatic user provisioning to SolarWinds Service Desk

This section guides you through the steps to configure the Microsoft Entra provisioning service to create, update, and disable users and/or groups in TestApp based on user and/or group assignments in Microsoft Entra ID.

To configure automatic user provisioning for SolarWinds Service Desk in Microsoft Entra ID:

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

2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications

   

3. In the applications list, select SolarWinds Service Desk.

4. Select the Provisioning tab.

   

5. Set the Provisioning Mode to Automatic.

   

6. Under the Admin Credentials section, input https://api.samanage.com in Tenant URL. Input the secret token value retrieved earlier in Secret Token. Select Test Connection to ensure Microsoft Entra ID can connect to SolarWinds Service Desk. If the connection fails, ensure your SolarWinds Service Desk account has Admin permissions and try again.

   

7. In the Notification Email field, enter the email address of a person or group who should receive the provisioning error notifications and select the Send an email notification when a failure occurs check box.

   

8. Select Save.

9. Under the Mappings section, select Synchronize Microsoft Entra users to SolarWinds Service Desk.

10. Review the user attributes that are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID to SolarWinds Service Desk in the Attribute-Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the user accounts in SolarWinds Service Desk for update operations. If you choose to change the matching target attribute, you will need to ensure that the SolarWinds Service Desk API supports filtering users based on that attribute. Select the Save button to commit any changes.

    

11. Under the Mappings section, select Synchronize Microsoft Entra groups to SolarWinds Service Desk.

12. Review the group attributes that are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID to SolarWinds Service Desk in the Attribute-Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the groups in SolarWinds Service Desk for update operations. Select the Save button to commit any changes.

    

13. To configure scoping filters, refer to the following instructions provided in the Scoping filter tutorial.

14. To enable the Microsoft Entra provisioning service for SolarWinds Service Desk, change the Provisioning Status to On in the Settings section.

    

15. Define the users and/or groups that you would like to provision to SolarWinds Service Desk by choosing the desired values in Scope in the Settings section.

    

16. When you are ready to provision, select Save.

    

This operation starts the initial synchronization cycle of all users and groups defined in Scope in the Settings section. The initial cycle takes longer to perform than subsequent cycles, which occur approximately every 40 minutes as long as the Microsoft Entra provisioning service is running.

Step 6: Monitor your deployment

Once you've configured provisioning, use the following resources to monitor your deployment:

1. Use the provisioning logs to determine which users have been provisioned successfully or unsuccessfully
2. Check the progress bar to see the status of the provisioning cycle and how close it is to completion
3. If the provisioning configuration seems to be in an unhealthy state, the application will go into quarantine. Learn more about quarantine states here.

Connector limitations

If you select the Sync all users and groups option and configure a value for the SolarWinds Service Desk roles attribute, the value under the Default value if null (is optional) box must be expressed in the following format:

• {"displayName":"role"}, where role is the default value you want.

Change log

• 09/14/2020 - Changed the company name in two SaaS tutorials from Samanage to SolarWinds Service Desk (previously Samanage) per https://github.com/ravitmorales.
• 04/22/2020 - Updated authorization method from basic auth to long lived secret token.

Additional resources

• Managing user account provisioning for Enterprise Apps

Next steps

• Learn how to review logs and get reports on provisioning activity