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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with edX for Business SAML Integration

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In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate edX for Business SAML Integration with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate edX for Business SAML Integration with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

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

Scenario description

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

  • edX for Business SAML Integration supports SP initiated SSO.
  • edX for Business SAML Integration 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.

To configure the integration of edX for Business SAML Integration into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add edX for Business SAML Integration 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 edX for Business SAML Integration in the search box.
  4. Select edX for Business SAML Integration 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 edX for Business SAML Integration

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with edX for Business SAML Integration 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 edX for Business SAML Integration.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with edX for Business SAML Integration, 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 edX for Business SAML Integration SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create edX for Business SAML Integration test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in edX for Business SAML Integration 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 > edX for Business SAML Integration > 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 step:

    In the Sign-on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://courses.edx.org/dashboard?tpa_hint=<INSTANCE_NAME>

    Note

    The value is not real. Update the value with the actual Sign-On URL. Contact edX for Business SAML Integration Client support team to get the value. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  6. edX for Business SAML Integration 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, edX for Business SAML Integration 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
    country user.country

  8. 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 edX for Business SAML Integration.

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

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

Create edX for Business SAML Integration test user

In this section, a user called Britta Simon is created in edX for Business SAML Integration. edX for Business SAML Integration 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 edX for Business SAML Integration, a new one is created after authentication.

Test SSO

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration with following options.

  • Click on Test this application, this will redirect to edX for Business SAML Integration Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to edX for Business SAML Integration Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the edX for Business SAML Integration tile in the My Apps, this will redirect to edX for Business SAML Integration Sign-on URL. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure edX for Business SAML Integration 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.