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

Стаття
10/23/2023

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

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

Scenario description

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

PurelyHR supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.
PurelyHR 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.

Add PurelyHR from the gallery

To configure the integration of PurelyHR into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add PurelyHR from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

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 PurelyHR in the search box.
Select PurelyHR 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 PurelyHR

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with PurelyHR 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 PurelyHR.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with PurelyHR, perform the following steps:

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.
Configure PurelyHR SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
1. Create PurelyHR test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in PurelyHR that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO.

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > PurelyHR > Single sign-on.
On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.
On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.
On the Basic SAML Configuration section, if you wish to configure the application in IDP initiated mode, perform the following step:

In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<COMPANY_ID>.purelyhr.com/sso-consume
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://<COMPANY_ID>.purelyhr.com/sso-initiate

Note

These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Reply URL and Sign-On URL. Contact PurelyHR Client support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.
On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, find Certificate (Base64) and select Download to download the certificate and save it on your computer.
On the Set up PurelyHR section, copy the appropriate URL(s) based on your requirement.

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll create a test user called B.Simon.

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
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.
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 PurelyHR.

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > PurelyHR.
In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.
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 PurelyHR SSO

In a different web browser window, sign in to your up PurelyHR company site as an administrator
Open the Dashboard from the options in the toolbar and click SSO Settings.
Paste the values in the boxes as described below-

a. Open the Certificate(Bas64) downloaded in notepad and copy the certificate value. Paste the copied value into the X.509 Certificate box.

b. In the Idp Issuer URL box, paste the Microsoft Entra Identifier copied.

c. In the Idp Endpoint URL box, paste the Login URL copied.

d. Check the Auto-Create Users checkbox to enable automatic user provisioning in PurelyHR.

e. Click Save Changes to save the settings.

Create PurelyHR test user

This step is usually not required as the application supports just in time user provisioning. If the automatic user provisioning is not enabled then manual user creation can be done as described below.

Sign into your Velpic SAML company site as an administrator and perform following steps:

Click on Manage tab and go to Users section, then click on New button to add users.
On the “Create New User” dialog page, perform the following steps.

a. In the First Name textbox, type the first name of B.

b. In the Last Name textbox, type the last name of Simon.

c. In the User Name textbox, type the user name of B.Simon.

d. In the Email textbox, type the email address of B.Simon@contoso.com account.

e. Rest of the information is optional, you can fill it if needed.

f. Click SAVE.

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 PurelyHR Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.
Go to PurelyHR 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 PurelyHR 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 PurelyHR 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 PurelyHR 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 PurelyHR 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.