Edit

Share via

Tutorial: Microsoft Entra SSO integration with Skills Manager

  • Article

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

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Skills Manager.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Skills Manager 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.
  • Skills Manager single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

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

  • Skills Manager supports IDP initiated SSO.

To configure the integration of Skills Manager into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Skills Manager 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 Skills Manager in the search box.
  4. Select Skills Manager 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 Skills Manager

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Skills Manager 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 Skills Manager.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Skills Manager, 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 Skills Manager SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Skills Manager test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Skills Manager that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
  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 > Skills Manager > 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.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

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

    a. In the Identifier text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<SUBDOMAIN>.skills-manager.com/kennametal

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<SUBDOMAIN>.skills-manager.com/public/SamlLogin2.aspx

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier and Reply URL. Contact Skills Manager Client support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  6. 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

  7. On the Set up Skills Manager section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

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 Skills Manager.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Skills Manager.
  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 Skills Manager SSO

To configure single sign-on on Skills Manager side, you need to send the downloaded Certificate (Base64) and appropriate copied URLs from the application configuration to Skills Manager support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create Skills Manager test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in Skills Manager. Work with Skills Manager support team to add the users in the Skills Manager platform. Users must be created and activated before you use single sign-on.

Test SSO

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

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

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Skills Manager tile in the My Apps, you should be automatically signed in to the Skills Manager for which you set up the SSO. For more information, see Microsoft Entra My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure Skills Manager 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.