Tutorial: Microsoft Entra SSO integration with Twilio Sendgrid

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

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Twilio Sendgrid.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Twilio Sendgrid 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.
  • Twilio Sendgrid single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.
  • Along with Cloud Application Administrator, Application Administrator can also add or manage applications in Microsoft Entra ID. For more information, see Azure built-in roles.

Scenario description

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

  • Twilio Sendgrid supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.
  • Twilio Sendgrid supports Just In Time user provisioning.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Twilio Sendgrid 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 Twilio Sendgrid.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Twilio Sendgrid, 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 Twilio Sendgrid SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Twilio Sendgrid test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Twilio Sendgrid 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 > Twilio Sendgrid > 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 textbox, type a URL using the following pattern: https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/public/sso/saml/response/id/<uuid>

    b. In the Reply URL textbox, type a URL using the following pattern: https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/public/sso/saml/response/id/<uuid>

  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 the URL: https://app.sendgrid.com/ssologin

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Identifier and Reply URL. Contact Twilio Sendgrid Client support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  7. Click Save.

  8. Twilio Sendgrid 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

  9. In addition to above, Twilio Sendgrid 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
    FirstName user.givenname
    LastName user.surname
  10. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, find Certificate (Base64) and select Download to download the certificate and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  11. On the Set up Twilio Sendgrid section, copy the appropriate URL(s) based on 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 Twilio Sendgrid.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Twilio Sendgrid.
  3. In the app's overview page, find the Manage section and select Users and groups.
  4. Select Add user, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
  5. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
  6. If you're expecting any role value in the SAML assertion, in the Select Role dialog, select the appropriate role for the user from the list and then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
  7. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure Twilio Sendgrid SSO

To configure single sign-on on Twilio Sendgrid side, you need to send the Certificate (Base64) to Twilio Sendgrid support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create Twilio Sendgrid test user

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

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 Twilio Sendgrid Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Twilio Sendgrid 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 Twilio Sendgrid 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 Twilio Sendgrid 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 Twilio Sendgrid 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 Twilio Sendgrid 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.