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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with EasySSO for Jira

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

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

Scenario description

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

  • EasySSO for Jira supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.
  • EasySSO for Jira supports Just In Time user provisioning.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with EasySSO for Jira 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 EasySSO for Jira.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with EasySSO for Jira, 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 EasySSO for Jira SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create EasySSO for Jira test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in EasySSO for Jira 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 > EasySSO for Jira > 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, if you wish to configure the application in IDP initiated mode, perform the following steps:

    a. In the Identifier text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<server-base-url>/plugins/servlet/easysso/saml

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<server-base-url>/plugins/servlet/easysso/saml

  6. 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://<server-base-url>/login.jsp

    Note

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

  7. EasySSO for Jira 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

  8. In addition to above, EasySSO for Jira 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
    urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1 user.userprincipalname
    urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.3 user.mail
    urn:oid:2.16.840.1.113730.3.1.241 user.displayname
    urn:oid:2.5.4.4 user.surname
    urn:oid:2.5.4.42 user.givenname

    In case your Microsoft Entra users have sAMAccountName configured you would have to map urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1 onto sAMAccountName attribute.

  9. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, In the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download links for Certificate (Base64) or Federation Metadata XML options and save either or all to your computer. You will need it later to configure Jira EasySSO.

    The Certificate download link

    If you plan to perform EasySSO for Jira configuration manually with certificate, you also need to copy Login URL and Microsoft Entra Identifier from the section below and save those on your computer.

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 EasySSO for Jira.

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

  1. Sign into your Atlassian Jira instance with Administrator privileges and navigate to the Manage Apps section.

    Manage Apps

  2. On the left side locate EasySSO and click it.

    Easy SSO

  3. Select SAML option. This will take you to SAML configuration section.

    SAML

  4. Select Certificates tab on the top and you will be presented with the following screen:

    Metadata URL

  5. Now, locate Certificate (Base64) or Metadata File you have saved in the earlier steps of Microsoft Entra SSO configuration. You have following options on how to proceed:

    a. Use the App Federation Metadata File you downloaded to local file on your computer. Select Upload radio button and follow the upload file dialog specific to your operating system.

    OR

    b. Open the App Federation Metadata File to see the content (in any plain text editor) of the file and copy it into the clipboard. Select Input option and paste clipboard content into the text field.

    OR

    c. Fully manual configuration. Open the App Federation Certificate (Base64) to see the content (in any plain text editor) of the file and copy it into the clipboard. Paste it into IdP Token Signing Certificates text field. Then navigate to General tab and fill POST Binding URL and Entity ID fields with respective values for Login URL and Microsoft Entra Identifier you saved previously.

  6. Click Save button on the bottom of the page. You will see the content of the Metadata or Certificate files is parsed into the configuration fields. EasySSO for Jira configuration is complete.

  7. For the best testing experience, navigate to Look & Feel tab and check the SAML Login Button option on. This will enable separate button on the Jira login screen specifically to test your Microsoft Entra SAML integration end to end. You can leave this button on and configure its placement, colour and translation for production mode, too.

    Look & Feel

    Note

    Should you have any issues, please contact EasySSO support team.

Create EasySSO for Jira test user

In this section, a user called Britta Simon is created in Jira. EasySSO for Jira supports just-in-time user provisioning, which is disabled by default. To enable user provisioning, you have to explicitly check Create user on successful login option on in the General section of EasySSO plugin configuration. If a user doesn't already exist in Jira, a new one is created after authentication.

However, if you do not wish to enable automatic user provisioning on the user first login, users must exist in backend User Directories the Jira instance make use of, such as LDAP or Atlassian Crowd.

User provisioning

Test SSO

IdP-initiated workflow

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 EasySSO for Jira 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 EasySSO for Jira 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 EasySSO for Jira for which you set up the SSO. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

SP-initiated workflow

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration using Jira SAML Login button.

User SAML login

This scenario presumes you have enabled SAML Login Button in Look & Feel tab in your Jira EasySSO configuration page (see above). Open your Jira login URL in browser incognito mode to avoid any interference with your existing sessions. Click SAML Login button and you will get redirected to Microsoft Entra user authentication flow. Once successfully completed you will be redirected back to your Jira instance as authenticated user via SAML.

There's a possibility you may encounter the following screen after getting redirected back from Microsoft Entra ID.

EasySSO failure screen

In this case you have to follow the instructions on this page to get access to atlassian-jira.log file. Details of the error will be available by the reference ID found on EasySSO error page.

Should you have any issues digesting the log messages, please contact EasySSO support team.

Next steps

Once you configure EasySSO for Jira 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.