Single Sign On with Azure SAML

Description

This article outlines the steps needed to enable Single Sign On (SSO) between Share911 and Azure via SAML 2.0.  SSO integration means that staff will be able to use their existing company password and authenticate with your organization's existing Azure roster to gain access to Share911.

Staff will still be required to create a Share911-specific password when enrolling so that they will have access when outside the corporate network.

 

Pre-requisites

You will need to have one user already created in Share911 with Manage Channel permissions on your organization's top-level channel.

 

Outline

1. Access your top-level channel Integrations page in Share911

2. Create a Share911 application in Azure

3. Grant access to the Share911 SAML app

4. Enter Azure-specific information into Share911

5. Ensure Registration email domain is set properly in Share911

6. Test SSO login to Share911

 

Walkthrough

1. Access your top-level channel Integrations page in Share911

First, let's log in to Share911 with our administrator account.  We should see multiple channels, including our organization's top-level channel.  For example, if our normal channel is found at:

https://share911.com/acme/hq

...then our top-level channel will be found at

https://share911.com/acme

If you do not see your organization's top-level channel, please contact support@share911.com and we will help you gain access.

Next, we can navigate to the "Channel Integrations" page, by clicking on our name in the top right, then Manage Channels, and Integrations.

Then, type "https://share911.com" in the Issuer field. (We will get the Metadata Url value later from Azure.)

Last, copy the value of the Share911 Assertion Consumer Service Url field.  For example, "https://share911.com/saml/sharevilledemo/consume".  We will need this information when we create the Share911 application in Step 2.

Screen Shot 2023-12-06 at 10.34.21 AM

2. Create a Share911 application in Azure

Create a new Enterprise Application and enter the Share911 Metadata Url and Share911 Assertion Consumer Service Url in the appropriate fields in sections 1 and 2.

Copy the App Federation Metadata Url value for use later in Step 4.

See  Microsoft Federation Metadata

3. Grant access to the Share911 SAML app

Now that we've created our Share911 application, let's give people permission to use it.  Do this through the "Users and groups" menu item on the left.  If you would like to start testing Share911 with a few staff first, you can assign individual people.  Otherwise, you can assign whichever Groups make sense for your organizational structure.

4. Enter Azure-specific information into Share911

Now we use the App Federation Metadata URL that we copied in the end of Step 2.  Share911 uses this to make the SAML requests.

Once we have the URL copied, we can switch back to our Share911 browser tab and paste that into the Metadata Url field.  Now our set up is complete in both Azure and Share911 so we can check the Enable integration? switch to turn on SSO.

Screen Shot 2023-12-06 at 11.05.41 AMSee Configuring SSO for Azure

5. Ensure Registration email domain is set properly in Share911

At this point our SAML integration is completed but we also need to ensure that Share911 knows to attempt a SAML login for our users.  To do this we need to ensure that the email domains set in the Share911 Registration page are correct for your organization.  Only domains included here will be eligible to use SAML SSO.

Let's check by first clicking "< Channel Integrations" to go back to the main Manage Channel page, then selecting "Registration" to open the "User Registration" page.

Ensure that the Email Domains field has the correct email domain(s) for your organization.  Since we do not want staff to be able to join this top-level channel when Self-Registering, let's also check the "Require administrator approval..." check box. (This is just a precaution and does not usually happen).

Screen Shot 2023-12-06 at 10.27.32 AM

6. Test SSO login to Share911

Now we can test our SAML integration.  To do so, let's log out of our Share911 account and re-enter our email address into the Share911 login page.  We should now see the option to "Log in with SAML"

Clicking that link will initiate a SSO SAML request to Azure and should grant access to our Share911 account.  If not, please contact support@share911.com so that we can help troubleshoot what went wrong.

Share911 will remember our last login method so the next time that we visits the Share911 login screen, we will see this form instead:

 

And we're done!