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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with Zoho

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

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Zoho.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Zoho with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location.

Prerequisites

To configure Microsoft Entra integration with Zoho One, you need the following items:

  • A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a Microsoft Entra environment, you can get a free account.
  • Zoho single sign-on enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on in a test environment.

  • Zoho supports SP initiated SSO

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

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Zoho 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 Zoho.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Zoho, 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 Zoho SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Zoho test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Zoho 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 > Zoho > 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:

    In the Sign-on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<company name>.zohomail.com

    Note

    The value is not real. Update the value with the actual Sign-On URL. Contact Zoho Client support team to get the value. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  6. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Certificate (Base64) from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  7. On the Set up Zoho section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per 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 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 Zoho.

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

  1. In a different web browser window, log into your Zoho Mail company site as an administrator.

  2. Go to the Control panel.

    Control Panel

  3. Click the SAML Authentication tab.

    SAML Authentication

  4. In the SAML Authentication Details section, perform the following steps:

    SAML Authentication Details

    a. In the Login URL textbox, paste Login URL..

    b. In the Logout URL textbox, paste Logout URL..

    c. In the Change Password URL textbox, paste Change Password URL..

    d. Open your base-64 encoded certificate downloaded from Azure portal in notepad, copy the content of it into your clipboard, and then paste it to the PublicKey textbox.

    e. As Algorithm, select RSA.

    f. Click OK.

Create Zoho test user

In order to enable Microsoft Entra users to log into Zoho Mail, they must be provisioned into Zoho Mail. In the case of Zoho Mail, provisioning is a manual task.

Note

You can use any other Zoho Mail user account creation tools or APIs provided by Zoho Mail to provision Microsoft Entra user accounts.

To provision a user account, perform the following steps:

  1. Log in to your Zoho Mail company site as an administrator.

  2. Go to Control Panel > Mail & Docs.

  3. Go to User Details > Add User.

    Screenshot shows the Zoho Mail site with User Details and Add User selected.

  4. On the Add users dialog, perform the following steps:

    Screenshot shows the Add users dialog box where you can enter the values described.

    a. In the First Name textbox, type the first name of user like Britta.

    b. In the Last Name textbox, type the last name of user like Simon.

    c. In the Email ID textbox, type the email ID of user like brittasimon@contoso.com.

    d. In the Password textbox, enter password of user.

    e. Click OK.

    Note

    The Microsoft Entra account holder will receive an email with a link to confirm the account before it becomes active.

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 Zoho Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

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

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Zoho tile in the My Apps, you should be automatically signed in to the Zoho 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 Zoho 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.