Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with Brightidea

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

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

Scenario description

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

  • Brightidea supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.
  • Brightidea supports Just In Time user provisioning.

Note

Identifier of this application is a fixed string value so only one instance can be configured in one tenant.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Brightidea 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 Brightidea.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Brightidea, 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 Brightidea SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Brightidea test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Brightidea 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 > Brightidea > 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 have Service Provider metadata file and wish to configure in IDP initiated mode perform the following steps:

    a. Click Upload metadata file.

    Upload metadata file

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

    choose metadata file

    c. After the metadata file is successfully uploaded, the Identifier and Reply URL values get auto populated in Brightidea section textbox:

    Note

    If the Identifier and Reply URL values do not get auto populated, then fill in the values manually according to your requirement.

  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://<SUBDOMAIN>.brightidea.com

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

    The Certificate download link

  8. On the Set up Brightidea 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 Brightidea.

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

  1. In a different web browser window, sign in to Brightidea using the administrator credentials.

  2. To get to the SSO feature in your Brightidea system, navigate to Enterprise Setup -> Authentication Tab. There you will see two sub tabs: Auth Selection & SAML Profiles.

    Screenshot shows the Brightidea site with the Authentication tab selected.

  3. Select Auth Selection. By default, it only shows two standard methods: Brightidea Login & Registration. When an SSO method added, it will show up in the list.

    Screenshot shows the Brightidea Authentication tab with Auth Selection selected.

  4. Select SAML Profiles and perform the following steps:

    Screenshot shows the Brightidea Authentication tab with SAML Profiles selected, which provides options to Download Metadata and Add New.

    a. Click on the Download Metadata and upload at the Basic SAML Configuration section.

    b. Click on the Add New button under the Identity Provider Setting and perform the following steps:

    Screenshot shows the Brightidea Identity Provider Setting where you enter information.

    • Enter the SAML Profile Name, such as Microsoft Entra SSO.

    • For Upload Metadata, click choose file and upload the downloaded metadata file.

      Note

      After uploading the metadata file, the remaining fields Single Sign-on Service, Identity Provider Issuer, Upload Public Key will populate automatically.

    • In the Email textbox, enter the value as mail.

    • In the Screen Name textbox, enter the value as givenName.

    • Click Save Changes.

Create Brightidea test user

In this section, a user called Britta Simon is created in Brightidea. Brightidea supports just-in-time user provisioning, which is enabled by default. There is no action item for you in this section. If a user doesn't already exist in Brightidea, a new one is created after authentication.

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 Brightidea Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Brightidea 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 Brightidea 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 Brightidea 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 Brightidea 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 Brightidea 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.