Tutorial: Configure SmartFile for automatic user provisioning

Article
10/23/2023

The objective of this tutorial is to demonstrate the steps to be performed in SmartFile and Microsoft Entra ID to configure Microsoft Entra ID to automatically provision and de-provision users and/or groups to SmartFile.

Note

This tutorial describes a connector built on top of the Microsoft Entra user 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.

Prerequisites

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

A Microsoft Entra tenant.
A SmartFile tenant.
A user account in SmartFile with Admin permissions.

Note

This integration is also available to use from Microsoft Entra US Government Cloud environment. You can find this application in the Microsoft Entra US Government Cloud Application Gallery and configure it in the same way as you do from public cloud.

Assigning users to SmartFile

Microsoft Entra ID uses a concept called assignments to determine which users should receive access to selected apps. In the context of automatic user provisioning, only the users and/or groups that have been assigned to an application in Microsoft Entra ID are synchronized.

Before configuring and enabling automatic user provisioning, you should decide which users and/or groups in Microsoft Entra ID need access to SmartFile. Once decided, you can assign these users and/or groups to SmartFile by following the instructions here:

Assign a user or group to an enterprise app

Important tips for assigning users to SmartFile

It is recommended that a single Microsoft Entra user is assigned to SmartFile to test the automatic user provisioning configuration. Additional users and/or groups may be assigned later.
When assigning a user to SmartFile, you must select any valid application-specific role (if available) in the assignment dialog. Users with the Default Access role are excluded from provisioning.

Setup SmartFile for provisioning

Before configuring SmartFile for automatic user provisioning with Microsoft Entra ID, you will need to enable SCIM provisioning on SmartFile and collect additional details needed.

Sign into your SmartFile Admin Console. Navigate to the top-right hand corner of the SmartFile Admin Console. Select Product Key.
To generate a bearer token, copy the Product Key and Product Password. Paste them in a notepad with a colon in between them.

Add SmartFile from the gallery

To configure SmartFile for automatic user provisioning with Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add SmartFile from the Microsoft Entra application gallery to your list of managed SaaS applications.

To add SmartFile from the Microsoft Entra application gallery, perform the following steps:

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.
In the Add from the gallery section, type SmartFile, select SmartFile in the search box.
Select SmartFile from results panel and then add the app. Wait a few seconds while the app is added to your tenant.

Configuring automatic user provisioning to SmartFile

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

Tip

You may also choose to enable SAML-based single sign-on for SmartFile, following the instructions provided in the SmartFile Single sign-on tutorial. Single sign-on can be configured independently of automatic user provisioning, though these two features compliment each other

To configure automatic user provisioning for SmartFile in Microsoft Entra ID:

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications
In the applications list, select SmartFile.
Select the Provisioning tab.
Set the Provisioning Mode to Automatic.
Under the Admin Credentials section, input https://<SmartFile sitename>.smartfile.com/ftp/scim in Tenant URL. An example would look like https://demo1test.smartfile.com/ftp/scim. Enter the Bearer token value (ProductKey:ProductPassword) that you retrieved earlier in Secret Token. Click Test Connection to ensure Microsoft Entra ID can connect to SmartFile. If the connection fails, ensure your SmartFile account has Admin permissions and try again.
In the Notification Email field, enter the email address of a person or group who should receive the provisioning error notifications and check the checkbox - Send an email notification when a failure occurs.
Click Save.
Under the Mappings section, select Synchronize Microsoft Entra users to SmartFile.
Review the user attributes that are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID to SmartFile in the Attribute Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the user accounts in SmartFile for update operations. Select the Save button to commit any changes.
Under the Mappings section, select Synchronize Microsoft Entra groups to SmartFile.
Review the group attributes that are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID to SmartFile in the Attribute Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the groups in SmartFile for update operations. Select the Save button to commit any changes.
To configure scoping filters, refer to the following instructions provided in the Scoping filter tutorial.
To enable the Microsoft Entra provisioning service for SmartFile, change the Provisioning Status to On in the Settings section.
Define the users and/or groups that you would like to provision to SmartFile by choosing the desired values in Scope in the Settings section.
When you are ready to provision, click Save.

This operation starts the initial synchronization of all users and/or groups defined in Scope in the Settings section. The initial sync takes longer to perform than subsequent syncs, which occur approximately every 40 minutes as long as the Microsoft Entra provisioning service is running. You can use the Synchronization Details section to monitor progress and follow links to provisioning activity report, which describes all actions performed by the Microsoft Entra provisioning service on SmartFile.

For more information on how to read the Microsoft Entra provisioning logs, see Reporting on automatic user account provisioning