Tutorial: Azure Active Directory single sign-on (SSO) integration with Syxsense

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Syxsense with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). When you integrate Syxsense with Azure AD, you can:

  • Control in Azure AD who has access to Syxsense.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Syxsense with their Azure AD accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location - the Azure portal.

Prerequisites

To get started, you need the following items:

  • An Azure AD subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
  • Syxsense single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Azure AD SSO in a test environment.

  • Syxsense supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.

To configure the integration of Syxsense into Azure AD, you need to add Syxsense from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal using either a work or school account, or a personal Microsoft account.
  2. On the left navigation pane, select the Azure Active Directory service.
  3. Navigate to Enterprise Applications and then select All Applications.
  4. To add new application, select New application.
  5. In the Add from the gallery section, type Syxsense in the search box.
  6. Select Syxsense from results panel and then add the app. Wait a few seconds while the app is added to your tenant.

Configure and test Azure AD SSO for Syxsense

Configure and test Azure AD SSO with Syxsense using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between an Azure AD user and the related user in Syxsense.

To configure and test Azure AD SSO with Syxsense, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Azure AD SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create an Azure AD test user - to test Azure AD single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Azure AD test user - to enable B.Simon to use Azure AD single sign-on.
  2. Configure Syxsense SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Syxsense test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Syxsense that is linked to the Azure AD representation of user.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Azure AD SSO

Follow these steps to enable Azure AD SSO in the Azure portal.

  1. In the Azure portal, on the Syxsense application integration page, find the Manage section and select single sign-on.

  2. On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.

  3. 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

  4. 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://<SUBDOMAIN>.cloudmanagementsuite.com/Saml2

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<SUBDOMAIN>.cloudmanagementsuite.com/Saml2/Acs

    Note

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

  5. Syxsense 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

  6. In addition to above, Syxsense 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
    Email user.email
  7. 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 an Azure AD test user

In this section, you'll create a test user in the Azure portal called B.Simon.

  1. From the left pane in the Azure portal, select Azure Active Directory, select Users, and then select All users.
  2. Select New user at the top of the screen.
  3. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
    3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
    4. Click Create.

Assign the Azure AD test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use Azure single sign-on by granting access to Syxsense.

  1. In the Azure portal, select Enterprise Applications, and then select All applications.
  2. In the applications list, select Syxsense.
  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 Syxsense SSO

  1. In a different browser window, sign in to Syxsense website as an administrator.

  2. Click on the Settings Icon.

    Screenshot shows the Settings icon.

  3. Click on the External Authentication and provide the App Federation Metadata Url value into the SAML2.0 Metadata textbox and click on Save.

    Screenshot shows External Authentication page where you can enter the App Federation Metadata U R L value.

Create Syxsense test user

  1. In a different browser window, sign in to Syxsense website as an administrator.

  2. Click on User Accounts from the left navigation panel.

    Screenshot shows User Accounts selected from the navigation panel.

  3. Click Add.

    Screenshot shows the User Accounts pane where you can select Add.

  4. Provide the user details according to your organization requirements and click Save.

    Screenshot shows page where you can enter your information.

Test SSO

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

SP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application in Azure portal. This will redirect to Syxsense Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

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

IDP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application in Azure portal and you should be automatically signed in to the Syxsense 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 Syxsense 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 Syxsense 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 Syxsense 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.