SSO - Azure AD

Published April 5, 2023 | Last modified March 20, 2025

Objective

This document provides instructions on how to configure Azure SSO integration to F5® Distributed Cloud Services. For an overview of F5® Distributed Cloud Console, see About.

SSO setup requires you to be of the tenant owner type user. Navigate to General > IAM > Users. Select on the Show/hide column, select the Type field, and select Apply to display the Type column. For the tenant owner, the Type column displays Tenant Owner and others, it displays User.

Prerequisites

A valid Account is required.

Note: If you do not have an account, see Create an Account.

Azure Account with credentials to configure SSO.

Configuration

Integrating Azure SSO requires you to register your application in the Azure Active Directory (AD), obtain client ID and secret, obtain a redirect URI, and configure the redirect URI in the Azure AD.

Navigate to Azure AD

You can navigate to the Azure AD in one of the following ways:

Microsoft Office 365 AD
Azure cloud portal

Office 365 Steps

Perform the following to navigate to Azure AD from Microsoft Office 365 login.

Step 1: Navigate to Microsoft Office 365 administration settings.

Sign into Office 356 AD.

Figure: Office 365 Admin Centers

Select More Services in Azure services section in top-right menu to open All Services.

Figure: Office 365 Admin Centers

Step 2: Open Azure AD admin center.

Select on Azure Active Directory on the displayed admin centers list.

Figure: All Services > Azure Active Directory

Note: This opens the Azure AD admin center dashboard.

Step 3: Open Azure AD settings.

Select the Azure Active Directory box.

Figure: All Services > Azure Active Directory

Step 4: Navigate to app registrations.

Select App registrations on the Azure AD dashboard.

Figure: Office 365 Azure AD Application Registration

Select New registration to start registration for your application.

Figure: Office 365 Azure AD Application Registration

Azure Portal Steps

Perform the following to navigate to Azure AD from the Azure cloud portal.

Step 1: Log into Azure cloud portal.

Sign into Azure portal.
Select your account in Directory list.
Choose Active Directory tenant where you wish to register your application.

Figure: All Services > Azure Active Directory

Step 2: Open app registration in the Azure AD settings.

In the Azure Active Directory pane > select App registrations.

Figure: Office 365 Azure AD Application Registration

Register Application and Setup SSO

Step 1: Setup Application

Note: The registered application in Azure AD needs to have the homepage URL set.

Select View all applications in the directory.
Select Application Diplay Name > select Branding and Properties in Manage column.
Copy Home Page URL.
Note URL for step 2 form.

Step 2: Enter name and account types for your application.

Select App registrations
Choose + New registration.
Enter Name for application, for example F5-oidc-test in Register an Application page.
Choose Supported account types as required.
Select a platform drop-down menu in Redirect URI section.
Enter URL in e.g. https://example.com/auth box copied from step 1.
Select Register button

Figure: Register Application

Step 3: Save Application ID.

Find the Application ID value, and record it for later.

Note: You will need ID value to configure the SSO section in F5 Distributed Cloud Console.

Figure: Retrieve Application ID

Step 4: Configure Client Secret.

Select Certificates and secrets tab in left-menu to create a Client Secret.
Select + New client secret.
Copy the client secret for configuring the SSO section in the F5® Distributed Cloud Console.

Note: The secret copied for F5 Console SSO config is secret value, not secret ID.

Figure: Create Client Secret

Step 5: Obtain a well-known URL.

Well-known URL describes a metadata document that contains most of the information required for an app to perform sign-in. This includes information such as the URLs to use and the location of the service's public signing keys. The same can be obtained using:


https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant}/.well-known/openid-configuration

Copied!

In App registrations > select Owned Applications > select Endpoints.
Copy the OpenID Connect metadata document URL.

Figure: Homepage

Import into SSO settings in F5 console.

Note: Replace {tenant} with your Azure tenant ID. You can obtain your tenant from the Azure cloud portal by navigating to Azure Active Directory > Overview screen.

Step 6: Log into F5 Distributed Cloud Console, start configuring SSO.

Open F5 Distributed Cloud Console homepage, select Administration box.

Note: Homepage is role based, and your homepage may look different due to your role customization. Select All Services drop-down menu to discover all options. Customize Settings: Administration > Personal Management > My Account > Edit work domain & skills button > Advanced box > check Work Domain boxes > Save changes button.

Figure: Homepage

Note: Confirm Namespace feature is in correct namespace, drop-down selector located in upper-left corner. Not available in all services.

Select Tenant Settings in left column menu > select Tenant Options.

Note: If options are not showing available, select Show link in Advanced nav options visible in bottom left corner. If needed, select Hide to minimize options from Advanced nav options mode.

Select Set up SSO button.

Figure: SSO

Select Azure in Please choose a service Provider in pop-up window.
Select Continue button.

Figure: SSO Setup Page

Step 7: Configure client ID, secret, and default scopes for Azure.

Provide Client ID and Client Secret obtained from previous steps.
Enter Default Scopes.

Note: Multiple scope values are used by creating a space delimited, because it is the OIDC standard specification by IETF although we do handle automatic validation/modification.

Default Scopes: OpenID Connect (OIDC) introduces the concept of "scopes" from OAuth 2.0. A scope is a way to limit the amount of information and access given to an application. When a client application wants to access resources on behalf of a user, it requests specific scopes. These scopes inform the user of the type of access the application is requesting during the authorization process.

F5 Distributed Cloud recommends default scopes of openid profile email NOT openidprofileemail.

Note: Multiple scope values are used by creating a Space Delimited during SSO setup in F5 console.

Figure: Default Scopes

Note: Any entered value will be combined with preset value: openid profile email NOT openidprofileemail. Input spaces between words to include multiple scope values. To avoid additional steps with form Update Account Information, confirm ID Token contains family_name (First Name), given_name (Last Name), email (Email Address) in customers IdP. OIDC standard specification by IETF - automatic validation/modification is supported on console, but not suggested in this form.

Step 8: Generate redirect URL.

Enter the Well-known URL in Import from well-known URL box.
Select Import to populate rest of the fields such as Authorization URL, Token URL, etc.
Select Continue to obtain a Redirect URI.

Figure: Redirect URL

Step 9: Complete SSO setup.

Copy the displayed redirect URI.
Select Done.

Step 10: Add Redirect URI in Azure AD.

In the Azure Active Directory.
Select App registrations in left menu.
Select the registered application in list F5-oidc-test.

Figure: Add Redirect URI Option

Select Add a Redirect URI.

Figure: Configure Redirect URI

Select + Add a platform.

Figure: Configure Redirect URI

Select Web Applications in right pop-up window.

Note: See (Microsoft Docs) [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/quickstart-register-app#register-an-application] to learn more.