Tutorial: Configure Contentstack for automatic user provisioning
This tutorial describes the steps you need to perform in both Contentstack and Microsoft Entra ID to configure automatic user provisioning. When configured, Microsoft Entra ID automatically provisions and deprovisions users to Contentstack using the Microsoft Entra provisioning service. For important details on what this service does, how it works, and frequently asked questions, see Automate user provisioning and deprovisioning to SaaS applications with Microsoft Entra ID.
Supported capabilities
- Create users in Contentstack.
- Remove users in Contentstack when they do not require access anymore.
- Keep user attributes synchronized between Microsoft Entra ID and Contentstack.
- Single sign-on to Contentstack (recommended).
Prerequisites
The scenario outlined in this tutorial assumes that you already have the following prerequisites:
- A Microsoft Entra tenant
- One of the following roles: Application Administrator, Cloud Application Administrator, or Application Owner.
- A user account in Contentstack with at least User Admin permissions.
Plan your provisioning deployment
- Learn about how the provisioning service works.
- Determine who will be in scope for provisioning.
- Determine what data to map between Microsoft Entra ID and Contentstack.
Configure Contentstack to support provisioning with Microsoft Entra ID
Contact Contentstack support to open a service request to enable Contentstack to support provisioning with Microsoft Entra ID. Ensure to provide the Contentstack network domain (such as acme.Contentstack.com) you want to enable user provisioning for. You will then get provided with the Tenant URL and Secret Token for authorization.
Contentstack from the Microsoft Entra application gallery
Add Contentstack from the Microsoft Entra application gallery to start managing provisioning to Contentstack. If you have previously setup Contentstack for SSO, you can use the same application. However it's recommended that you create a separate app when testing out the integration initially. Learn more about adding an application from the gallery here.
Define who will be in scope for provisioning
The Microsoft Entra provisioning service allows you to scope who will be provisioned based on assignment to the application and or based on attributes of the user. If you choose to scope who will be provisioned to your app based on assignment, you can use the following steps to assign users to the application. If you choose to scope who will be provisioned based solely on attributes of the user, you can use a scoping filter as described here.
Start small. Test with a small set of users before rolling out to everyone. When scope for provisioning is set to assigned users, you can control this by assigning one or two users to the app. When scope is set to all users, you can specify an attribute based scoping filter.
If you need more roles, you can update the application manifest to add new roles.
Configure automatic user provisioning to Contentstack
This section guides you through the steps to configure the Microsoft Entra provisioning service to create, update, and disable users in Contentstack based on user assignments in Microsoft Entra ID.
To configure automatic user provisioning for Contentstack in Microsoft Entra ID:
Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications
In the applications list, select Contentstack.
Select the Provisioning tab.
Set the Provisioning Mode to Automatic.
Under the Admin Credentials section, input your Contentstack Tenant URL, Token Endpoint, Client Identifier and Client Secret. Click Test Connection to ensure Microsoft Entra ID can connect to M-Files. If the connection fails, ensure your M-Files account has Admin permissions and try again.
In the Notification Email field, enter the email address of a person who should receive the provisioning error notifications and select the Send an email notification when a failure occurs check box.
Select Save.
Under the Mappings section, select Synchronize Microsoft Entra users to Contentstack.
Review the user attributes that are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID to Contentstack in the Attribute-Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the user accounts in Contentstack for update operations. If you choose to change the matching target attribute, you need to ensure that the Contentstack API supports filtering users based on that attribute. Select the Save button to commit any changes.
Attribute Type Supported for filtering Required by Contentstack userName String ✓ ✓ name.givenName String name.familyName String active Boolean Under the Mappings section, select Synchronize Microsoft Entra groups to Contentstack.
Review the group attributes that are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID to Contentstack in the Attribute-Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the groups in Contentstack for update operations. Select the Save button to commit any changes.
Attribute Type Supported for filtering Required by Contentstack displayName String ✓ ✓ members Reference To configure scoping filters, refer to the following instructions provided in the Scoping filter tutorial.
To enable the Microsoft Entra provisioning service for Contentstack, change the Provisioning Status to On in the Settings section.
Define the users that you would like to provision to Contentstack by choosing the desired values in Scope in the Settings section.
When you're ready to provision, click Save.
This operation starts the initial synchronization cycle of all users defined in Scope in the Settings section. The initial cycle takes longer to perform than subsequent cycles, which occur approximately every 40 minutes as long as the Microsoft Entra provisioning service is running.
Monitor your deployment
Once you've configured provisioning, use the following resources to monitor your deployment:
- Use the provisioning logs to determine which users have been provisioned successfully or unsuccessfully
- Check the progress bar to see the status of the provisioning cycle and how close it's to completion
- If the provisioning configuration seems to be in an unhealthy state, the application goes into quarantine. Learn more about quarantine states here.
More resources
- Managing user account provisioning for Enterprise Apps
- What is application access and single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID?