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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra SSO integration with Tableau Cloud

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

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

Note

This integration is also available to use from Microsoft Entra US Government Cloud environment. You can find this application in the Microsoft Entra US Government Cloud Application Gallery and configure it in the same way as you do from public cloud.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on in a test environment.

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

In this section, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with Tableau Cloud based on a test user called Britta Simon. For single sign-on to work, a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in Tableau Cloud needs to be established.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Tableau Cloud, 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 Tableau Cloud SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Tableau Cloud test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Tableau Cloud 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 > Tableau Cloud > 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 (Entity ID) text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://sso.online.tableau.com/public/sp/metadata?alias=<entityid>

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://sso.online.tableau.com/public/sp/<CUSTOM_URL>

    c. In the Sign on URL text box, type the URL: https://sso.online.tableau.com

    Note

    You will get the <entityid> value from the Set up Tableau Cloud section in this tutorial. The entity ID value will be Microsoft Entra identifier value in Set up Tableau Cloud section.

  6. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Federation Metadata XML from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  7. On the Set up Tableau Cloud section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

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 Tableau Cloud.

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

  1. In a different web browser window, sign in to your up Tableau Cloud company site as an administrator

  2. Go to Settings and then Authentication.

    Screenshot shows Authentication selected from the Settings menu.

  3. To enable SAML, Under Authentication types section. Check Enable an additional authentication method and then check SAML checkbox.

    Screenshot shows the Authentication types section where you can select the values.

  4. Scroll down up to Import metadata file into Tableau Cloud section. Click Browse and import the metadata file, which you have downloaded from Microsoft Entra ID. Then, click Apply.

    Screenshot shows the section where you can import the metadata file.

  5. In the Match assertions section, insert the corresponding Identity Provider assertion name for email address, first name, and last name. To get this information from Microsoft Entra ID:

    a. In the Azure portal, go on the Tableau Cloud application integration page.

    b. In the User Attributes & Claims section, click on the edit icon, perform the following steps to add SAML token attribute as shown in the below table:

    Screenshot shows the User Attributes & Claims section where you can select the edit icon.

    Name Source Attribute
    DisplayName user.displayname

    c. Copy the namespace value for these attributes: givenname, email and surname by using the following steps:

    Screenshot shows the Givenname, Surname, and Emailaddress attributes.

    d. Click user.givenname value

    e. Copy the value from the Namespace and Claim name textbox.

    Screenshot shows the Manage user claims section where you can enter the Namespace.

    f. To copy the namespace values for the email and surname repeat the above steps.

    g. Switch to the Tableau Cloud application, then set the User Attributes & Claims section as follows:

    • Email: mail or userprincipalname

    • Full name: displayname

    Screenshot shows the Match attributes section where you can enter the values.

Create Tableau Cloud test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in Tableau Cloud.

  1. On Tableau Cloud, click Settings and then Authentication section. Scroll down to Manage Users section. Click Add Users and then click Enter Email Addresses.

    Screenshot shows the Manage users section where you can select Add users.

  2. Select Add users for (SAML) authentication. In the Enter email addresses textbox add [email protected]

    Screenshot shows the Add Users page where you can enter an email address.

  3. Click Add Users.

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 Tableau Cloud Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Tableau Cloud Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.

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

Next steps

Once you configure Tableau Cloud 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.