Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with Terraform Cloud

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

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

Scenario description

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

  • Terraform Cloud supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.
  • Terraform Cloud supports Just In Time user provisioning.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Terraform Cloud 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 Terraform Cloud.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Terraform 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 Terraform Cloud SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Terraform Cloud test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Terraform 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 > Terraform 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, 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://app.terraform.io/sso/saml/samlconf-<ID>/metadata

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://app.terraform.io/sso/saml/samlconf-<ID>/acs

  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.terraform.io/session

    Note

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

  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 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 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. 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 Terraform Cloud.

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

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

  2. Go to the Settings > SSO > Edit Settings.

    Terraform Cloud settings

  3. In Edit SSO page, perform the following steps.

    Terraform Cloud edit sso

    a. In the Sign-On URL textbox, paste the Login URL value which you copied previously.

    b. In the Entity ID or Identifier textbox, paste the Microsoft Entra Identifier value which you copied previously.

    c. Open the downloaded Certificate into Notepad and paste the content into the Public Certificate textbox.

    d. Click on Save settings.

Create Terraform Cloud test user

In this section, a user called Britta Simon is created in Terraform Cloud. Terraform Cloud 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 Terraform Cloud, 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 Terraform Cloud Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Terraform Cloud 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 Terraform Cloud 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 Terraform Cloud 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 Terraform Cloud 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 Terraform 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.