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Configuring a CentreStack Tenant with Azure AD as a SAML Identity Provider without Azure AD Premium

Jeff Reed
Updated

The article applies to Centrestack release 12.9.9651.52897 or earlier. For new releases, please follow the KB article here.

Background

Some CentreStack tenants may already be using Office 365/Azure AD and wish to use their Azure AD credentials for single sign-on to CentreStack. This article describes how a CentreStack tenant can be federated with an Azure AD tenant such that Azure AD is the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Identity Provider (IdP0 and CentreStack will be the SAML Relying Party (RP). This process is useful if your Azure AD tenant lacks an the Azure AD Premium subscription. If you have Azure AD Premium, then the preferred method of configuring SAML in Azure AD is described in: Configuring a CentreStack Tenant with Azure AD as a SAML Identity Provider with Azure AD Premium

Configuration

  1. Sign into the CentreStack server's management portal as a cluster or tenant administrator.
  2. Click on the CentreStack tenant to be associated with Azure AD.
  3. Click on GROUP POLICY:
  4. Click Account & Login:
  5. Click on Single Sign On:
  6. Enable the check box in the Enable SAML Authentication section. Select the text under the Access service provider meta data using the following link, and copy the URL text to the clipboard:
    mceclip0.png
  7. Paste the URL into a new browser tab and press Enter. This XML data will be displayed:
    mceclip1.png
  8. Locate the " md:EntityDescriptor entityID" URL in the XML data and copy the URL and paste it into a text editor similar to this:
    Application ID URI=https://cstackpub.hadroncloud.com/portal/saml2.aspx/5z0KuVK1
  9. Locate the " md:AssertionConsumerService Location" URL XML data and copy the URL and paste it into a text editor similar to this:
    Redirect URI=https://cstackpub.hadroncloud.com/portal/saml2.aspx?sso=5z0KuVK1
  10. Locate the "md:OrganizationURL" URL XML data and copy the URL and paste it into a text editor with a line similar to this:
    Home page URL=https://cstackpub.hadroncloud.com/portal/LoginPage.aspx?sso=5z0KuVK1
  11. Save the text in the text editor to a file. It will be used later when configuring Azure AD.
  12. Continuing the CentreStack Single Sign On settings, disable the Add SSO link to login page:
  13. You may want to have some descriptive text for the Display text for SSO link:


  14. You may want to enable the Create User when User Doesn't Exist setting:
  15. Leave the CentreStack portal page open as there will be Azure AD settings that will need to be configured in this page.
  16. Start a new browser tab or window and navigate to https://portal.azure.com. Sign in with your Azure AD (Office 365) credentials.
  17. Click Azure Active Directory from the left most blade:
  18. Click the Custom domain names blade.
    A01.png
  19. Then click Add custom domain.
    A02.png
  20. Enter the domain name, then click the Add domain button.
    A03.png
  21. On the following page you will see the domain you setup. From your DNS provider you will need to create a new txt record and enter the following fields so Azure will be able to verify the record. Once you have added the DNS record, back on this page click the Verify button. If it has not yet propagated, it will come back with an error message saying it could take up to 72 hours to verify. 
    A04.png
  22. After it has been successfully verified, go back to Azure Active Directory home.
  23. Click App registrations in the new blade:
  24. Click New registration:
    mceclip2.png
  25. In the Register an application blade enter text appropriate to your deployment:
    Name: <the app name that will be displayed to users in https://myapps.microsoft.com>(for example: CentreStack) 
    Supported account types: Accounts in this organizational directory only (<tenant_name> only - Single tenant)
    Redirect URI: Web  <the Identifier from step 8> (in this example: https://cstackpub.hadroncloud.com/portal/saml2.aspx/5z0KuVK1 )
    NOTE: The Identifier is not the correct URL for the Redirect URI field but it works as a temporary placeholder. Later the manifest will be edited manually to work around the problem where the new Azure app registration UI can't accept a query parameter in the URL. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/reference-breaking-changes#redirect-uris-can-now-contain-query-string-parameters
  26. Click the Register button.
  27. Click the Branding option:
    mceclip8.png
  28. Paste the Home page URL from step 10 into the Home page URL field:
    mceclip9.png
  29. Click the Save button at the top of the Branding blade.
  30. Click the Expose an API option in the middle blade:
  31. mceclip3.png
  32. In the Expose an API blade click the Set link
    mceclip4.png
  33. Paste the Application ID URI (from step 8) in the Application ID URI field. In this
    example: https://cstackpub.hadroncloud.com/portal/saml2.aspx/5z0KuVK1
  34. Click the Save button:
    mceclip5.png
  35. Click on the Manifest node in the middle blade:
    mceclip6.png
  36. Locate the replyUrlsWithType in the manifest. 

    mceclip7.png
  37. Update the "url" entry (as seen selected in the red rectangle above) with the Redirect URI from Step 9 above (in this example: https://cstackpub.hadroncloud.com/portal/saml2.aspx?sso=5z0KuVK1)
    This is the work around the problem where the new Azure app registration UI can't accept a query parameter in the URL. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/reference-breaking-changes#redirect-uris-can-now-contain-query-string-parameters
  38. Click the Save button at the top of the Manifest blade.
  39. Close the App registrations blade.
  40. Click on the Enterprise applications node.
  41. Locate the new app and select it.
  42. Click on Users and groups node in the Enterprise Application.
  43. Add users that should have access to the CentreStack app in Azure AD (groups are only available for assignment in Azure AD Premium).
  44. Click the Assign button.
  45. Close the Enterprise Applications blade.
  46. Click on the Properties node of Azure Active Directory, then copy the Directory ID to the clipboard:
  47. Switch back to the CentreStack portal.
  48. Make sure the SSO Provider drop down is set to Azure AD, then paste the Directory Id text from the clipboard into the Azure Directory ID text box, and finally click the Save icon:

Client Usage

Web Client

  1. There are two methods to sign into CentreStack. The first is Identity Provider (IdP) initiated.
  2. Navigate to https://myapps.microsoft.com. If you are using the same browser, you won't be prompted for sign in again.
  3. Locate the CentreStack application you created and click on the app.
  4. If you watch the address bar you will see some redirects but eventually you should be signed into the correct tenant in the CentreStack portal without being prompted for credentials.
  5. The second method is Relying Party (RP) initiated.
  6. Navigate to the first URL displayed in the CentreStack Single Sign On settings page (the sign-on URL from step 10):
  7. You will see some redirects if you watch the address bar, including 'https://login.microsoftonline.com'. If you are using the same browser, you won't be prompted for credentials because your browser already has the token from the previous sign in to Azure AD. You should see the CentreStack portal page.

Windows Client

Install the Windows client as usual, that is, first sign into the web portal using the SSO relying party URL as described in the previous section, then download the Windows client software. After installation, the Windows client will use the security token from the web browser to sign the user in the first time. If the Windows Client signs out or the token expires, the Windows Client sign on dialog will be displayed. Click on the Azure AD Single Sign On link as seen in this screenshot to initiate the Azure AD sign on process in the browser:

Android Client

When setting up the Android client, type in the CentreStack server end point and user name on the first screen, then in the password screen press AZURE AD SINGLE SIGN ON as seen in this screenshot to start the Azure AD sign on process. 

Troubleshooting

See this article: Troubleshooting SAML single sign on 

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