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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with Apex Portal

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

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

Scenario description

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

  • Apex Portal supports IDP initiated SSO.
  • Apex Portal supports Just In Time user provisioning.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Apex Portal 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 Apex Portal.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Apex Portal, 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 Apex Portal SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Apex Portal test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Apex Portal 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 > Apex Portal > 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 Set up single sign-on with SAML page, enter the values for the following fields:

    a. In the Identifier text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<customer name>.apexanalytix.com/saml/sso.aspx

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<customer name>.apexanalytix.com/saml/sso.aspx

    Note

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

  6. Apex Portal 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.

    image

  7. In addition to above, Apex Portal 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
    LASTNAME user.surname
    MAIL user.mail

  8. 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

  9. On the Set up Apex Portal 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 Apex Portal.

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

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

Create Apex Portal test user

In this section, a user called Britta Simon is created in Apex Portal. Apex Portal 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 Apex Portal, a new one is created after authentication.

Note

If you need to create a user manually, you need to contact the Apex Portal support team.

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 Apex Portal for which you set up the SSO.

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Apex Portal tile in the My Apps, you should be automatically signed in to the Apex Portal 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 Apex Portal 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.