Edit

Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway

  • Article

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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.
  • VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

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

  • VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway supports SP and IDP initiated SSO

Add VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway from the gallery

To configure the integration of VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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 VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway in the search box.
  4. Select VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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 VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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 VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway, 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 VMware Horizon-Unified Access Gateway SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create VMware Horizon-Unified Access Gateway test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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 > VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway > 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, if you wish to configure the application in IDP initiated mode, enter the values for the following fields:

    a. In the Identifier text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<HORIZON_UAG_FQDN>/portal

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<HORIZON_UAG_FQDN>/portal/samlsso

  6. Click Set additional URLs and perform the following step 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://<HORIZON_UAG_FQDN>

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier, Reply URL and Sign-on URL. Contact VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway Client support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  7. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, find Federation Metadata XML and select Download to download the certificate and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  8. On the Set up VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway section, copy the appropriate URL(s) based on 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 VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway.
  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 setup for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
  7. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure VMware Horizon-Unified Access Gateway SSO

To configure single sign-on on VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway side, you need to send the downloaded Federation Metadata XML and appropriate copied URLs from the application configuration to VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create VMware Horizon-Unified Access Gateway test user

In this section, you create a user called B.Simon in VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway. Work with VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway support team to add the users in the VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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.

SP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application, this will redirect to VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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 VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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 VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway tile in the Access Panel, you should be automatically signed in to the VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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 VMware Horizon - Unified Access Gateway 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.