Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with SAP Cloud Identity Services
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In this article, you'll learn how to integrate SAP Cloud Identity Services with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate SAP Cloud Identity Services with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:
Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to SAP Cloud Identity Services.
Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to SAP Cloud Identity Services and downstream SAP applications with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
A user account in SAP Cloud Identity Services with Admin permissions.
If you do not yet have users in Microsoft Entra ID, then start with the article plan deploying Microsoft Entra for user provisioning with SAP source and target apps. That article illustrates how to connect Microsoft Entra with authoritative sources for the list of workers in an organization, such as SAP SuccessFactors. It also shows you how to use Microsoft Entra to set up identities for those workers, so they can sign in to one or more SAP applications, such as SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA.
Before you dive into the technical details, it's vital to understand the concepts you're going to look at. SAP Cloud Identity Services enable you to implement SSO across SAP applications and services, with the same SSO experience as non-SAP applications integrated directly with Microsoft Entra ID as an Identity Provider.
SAP Cloud Identity Services acts as a Proxy Identity Provider to other SAP applications as target systems. Microsoft Entra ID in turn acts as the leading Identity Provider in this setup.
The following diagram illustrates the trust relationship:
With this setup, your SAP Cloud Identity Services is configured as one or more applications in Microsoft Entra ID. Microsoft Entra is configured as a Corporate Identity Provider in your SAP Cloud Identity Services.
All SAP applications and services that you want to provide single sign-in for this way are subsequently configured as applications in SAP Cloud Identity Services.
User assignment to an SAP Cloud Identity Services application role in Microsoft Entra controls Microsoft Entra token issuance to SAP Cloud Identity Services. The authorization for granting access to specific SAP applications and services, and role assignments for those SAP applications, takes place in SAP Cloud Identity Services and the applications themselves. This authorization can be based on user and groups provisioned from Microsoft Entra ID.
Note
Currently only Web SSO has been tested by both parties. The flows that are necessary for App-to-API or API-to-API communication should work but have not been tested yet. They will be tested during subsequent activities.
Adding SAP Cloud Identity Services from the gallery
To configure the integration of SAP Cloud Identity Services into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add SAP Cloud Identity Services from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.
Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO for SAP Cloud Identity Services
Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with SAP Cloud Identity Services 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 SAP Cloud Identity Services.
To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with SAP Cloud Identity Services, perform the following steps:
Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.
Obtain the SAP Cloud Identity Services federation metadata
Sign in to the SAP Cloud Identity Services administration console. The URL has the following pattern: https://<tenant-id>.accounts.ondemand.com/admin or https://<tenant-id>.trial-accounts.ondemand.com/admin.
Under Applications and Resources, select Tenant Settings.
In the Single Sign-On tab, select SAML 2.0 Configuration. Then select Download Metadata File to download the federation metadata of SAP Cloud Identity Services.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications. Type the name of your application, such as SAP Cloud Identity Services. Select the application, then select Single sign-on.
On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.
On the Basic SAML Configuration section, if you have Service Provider metadata file from SAP Cloud Identity Services, perform the following steps:
a. Click Upload metadata file.
b. Click on folder logo to select the metadata file which you have downloaded from SAP and click Upload.
c. After the metadata file is successfully uploaded, the Identifier and Reply URL values get auto populated in Basic SAML Configuration section.
Note
If the Identifier and Reply URL values do not get auto populated, then fill in the values manually according to your requirement.
If you wish to make further configurations, then on the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.
In the Sign on URL (Optional) text box, type your specific business application Sign-on URL.
SAP Cloud Identity Services application expects the SAML assertions in a specific format, which requires you to add custom attribute mappings to your SAML token attributes configuration. The following screenshot shows the list of default attributes.
In addition to above, SAP Cloud Identity Services application expects few more attributes to be passed back in SAML response, which are shown below. These attributes are also pre populated but you can review them as per your requirements.
Name
Source Attribute
firstName
user.givenname
On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Metadata XML from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.
On the Set up SAP Cloud Identity Services section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.
Create a Microsoft Entra test user
In this section, you'll create a test user called B.Simon.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > SAP Cloud Identity Services.
In the app's overview page, find the Manage section and select Users and groups.
Select Add user, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
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.
In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.
Configure SAP Cloud Identity Services SSO
In this section, you will create a Corporate Identity Provider in the SAP Cloud Identity Services administration console. For more information, see Create Corporate IdP in Administration Console.
Sign in to the SAP Cloud Identity Services administration console. The URL has the following pattern: https://<tenant-id>.accounts.ondemand.com/admin or https://<tenant-id>.trial-accounts.ondemand.com/admin.
Under Identity Providers, choose the Corporate Identity Providers tile.
Click + Create to create an identity provider.
Perform the following steps on Create Identity Provider dialog box.
a. Give a valid name in Display Name.
b. Select Microsoft ADFS/Entra ID (SAML 2.0) from the dropdown.
c. Click Create.
Go to Trust -> SAML 2.0 Configuration. On the field for Metadata File, click on Browse to upload the Metadata XML file which you have downloaded from the Microsoft Entra SSO configuration.
Click Save.
Continue with the following only if you want to add and enable SSO for another SAP application. Repeat the steps under the section Adding SAP Cloud Identity Services from the gallery.
In the Entra side, on the SAP Cloud Identity Services application integration page, select Linked Sign-on.
The new application leverages the single sign-on configuration of the previous SAP application. Make sure you use the same Corporate Identity Providers in the SAP Cloud Identity Services administration console.
Create SAP Cloud Identity Services test user
You don't need to create a user in SAP Cloud Identity Services. Users who are in the Microsoft Entra user store can use the SSO functionality.
SAP Cloud Identity Services supports the Identity Federation option. This option allows the application to check whether users who are authenticated by the corporate identity provider exist in the user store of SAP Cloud Identity Services.
The Identity Federation option is disabled by default. If Identity Federation is enabled, only the users that are imported in SAP Cloud Identity Services can access the application.
Click on Test this application, this will redirect to SAP Cloud Identity Services Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.
Go to SAP Cloud Identity Services 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 SAP Cloud Identity Services 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 SAP Cloud Identity Services 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 SAP Cloud Identity Services for which you set up the SSO. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.
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