Tutorial: Microsoft Entra SSO integration with Buttonwood Central SSO

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Buttonwood Central SSO with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate Buttonwood Central SSO with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

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

Scenario description

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

  • Buttonwood Central SSO supports SP initiated SSO.

Note

Identifier of this application is a fixed string value so only one instance can be configured in one tenant.

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Buttonwood Central SSO 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 Buttonwood Central SSO.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Buttonwood Central SSO, 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 Buttonwood Central SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Buttonwood Central SSO test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Buttonwood Central SSO 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 > Buttonwood Central SSO > 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 the URL: http://adfs.bcx.buttonwood.net/adfs/services/trust

    b. In the Reply URL text box, type the URL: https://adfs.bcx.buttonwood.net/adfs/ls/

    c. In the Sign on URL text box, type the URL: https://exchange.bcx.buttonwood.net/User/FederatedLogin

  6. 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 Buttonwood Central SSO.

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

To configure single sign-on on Buttonwood Central SSO side, you need to send the App Federation Metadata Url to Buttonwood Central SSO support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create Buttonwood Central SSO test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in Buttonwood Central SSO. Work with Buttonwood Central SSO support team to add the users in the Buttonwood Central SSO platform. Users must be created and activated before you use single sign-on.

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 Buttonwood Central SSO Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

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

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Buttonwood Central SSO tile in the My Apps, this will redirect to Buttonwood Central SSO Sign-on URL. For more information, see Microsoft Entra My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure Buttonwood Central SSO 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 Cloud App Security.