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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra SSO integration with Directory Services

  • Article

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

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

Scenario description

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

  • Directory Services supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.
  • Directory Services supports Just In Time user provisioning.
  • Directory Services supports Automated user provisioning.

To configure the integration of Directory Services into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Directory Services 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 Directory Services in the search box.
  4. Select Directory Services 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, and walk through the SSO configuration as well. Learn more about Microsoft 365 wizards.

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO for Directory Services

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Directory 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 Directory Services.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Directory Services, 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 Directory Services SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Directory Services test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Directory Services 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 > Directory Services > 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, perform the following steps:

    a. In the Identifier text box, type a URL using one of the following patterns:

    Identifier
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/otdsws/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/otdsws/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/otdsws/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/login

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using one of the following patterns:

    Reply URL
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/otdsws/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/otdsws/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/otdsws/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/login

  6. 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 one of the following patterns:

    Sign-on URL
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/otdsws/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/otdsws/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/otdsws/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/login
    https://<HOSTNAME.DOMAIN.com>/<OTDS_TENANT>/<TENANTID>/login

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier, Reply URL and Sign-on URL. Contact Directory Services support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  7. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, In the SAML Signing Certificate section, click copy button to copy App Federation Metadata Url and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

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 [email protected]. For example, [email protected].
    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 Directory Services.

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

To configure single sign-on on Directory Services side, you need to send the App Federation Metadata Url to Directory Services support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create Directory Services test user

In this section, a user called B.Simon is created in Directory Services. Directory Services 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 Directory Services, a new one is created after authentication.

Note

Directory Services also supports automatic user provisioning, you can find more details here on how to configure automatic user provisioning.

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 Directory Services Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Directory 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 Directory 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 Directory 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 Directory Services 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 Directory Services 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.