Configure Microsoft Entra ID for Coveo SSO

This is for:

System Administrator

Azure is a set of cloud services provided by Microsoft. You can use it to build single sign-on (SSO) applications, among other things.

As a Coveo administrator, you can implement Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 SSO when your company uses Microsoft Entra ID. Users can then log in to Coveo without having to provide their authentication credentials since their identity has previously been validated when logging in to their Microsoft Entra session.

To let users log in via SAML SSO, Coveo must be able to trust and rely on Microsoft Entra ID to authenticate users wanting to log in. To establish this trust relationship, you must configure Microsoft Entra ID and Coveo so that both parties can exchange authentication information. This page explains how to proceed.

To configure SSO in more than one Coveo organization, for example in a production organization and a sandbox organization, configure one of these organizations, and then follow the instructions at the end of this page.

Configure your Microsoft Entra Portal

Both Microsoft Entra ID and Coveo must be configured to work together and provide a SAML SSO service to your Coveo users. First configure Microsoft Entra ID so that it can provide Coveo with user authentication data.

  1. Log in to your Microsoft Azure Portal.

  2. At the upper-left corner, click the menu icon, and then click Microsoft Entra ID in the menu.

  3. In the navigation bar on the left, under Manage, click Enterprise applications.

  4. Click New application.

  5. On the Browse Microsoft Entra ID Gallery subpage, click Create your own application.

  6. In the Create your own application blade, enter Coveo as a display name for your application, select Integrate any other application you don’t find in the gallery (Non-gallery), and then click Create.

  7. In the navigation bar on the left, under Manage, click Single sign-on.

  8. Select the SAML method.

  9. Under Set up Single Sign-On with SAML, click Edit in the Basic SAML Configuration box.

  10. In the Basic SAML Configuration blade:

    1. Under Identifier (Entity ID), click Add identifier, and then enter one of the following:

      • For a regular (non-HIPAA) organization or an organization with data residency outside the US: https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/saml/metadata.

      • For a HIPAA organization: https://platformhipaa.cloud.coveo.com/saml/metadata.

    2. Under Reply URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL), click Add reply URL, and then enter one of the following:

      • For a regular (non-HIPAA) organization: https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/saml/SSO.

      • For a HIPAA organization: https://platformhipaa.cloud.coveo.com/saml/SSO.

      • For an organization with data residency outside the US: https://platform-<REGION_ABBREVIATION>.cloud.coveo.com/saml/SSO.

    3. Under Sign on URL, enter one of the following:

      • For a regular (non-HIPAA) organization: https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/login.

      • For a HIPAA organization: https://platformhipaa.cloud.coveo.com/login.

      • For an organization with data residency outside the US: https://platform-<REGION_ABBREVIATION>.cloud.coveo.com/login.

    4. Click Save and close the blade.

  11. Back under Set up Single Sign-On with SAML, click Edit in the Attributes & Claims box.

  12. On the Attributes & Claims page:

    1. Click Add new claim.

    2. On the Manage claim page, under Name, enter user.email.

    3. Under Source, select Attribute.

    4. Under Source attribute, select user.mail.

    5. Click Save.

  13. Back on the Attributes & Claims page:

    1. Click Add a group claim.

    2. In the Group Claims blade, select Groups assigned to the application.

    3. Under Source attribute, select sAMAccountName.

    4. Expand the Advanced options section, and then check the Customize the name of the group claim box.

    5. Under Name, enter user.groups.

    6. Click Save.

  14. Back on the Attributes & Claims page, click Unique User Identifier (Name ID) under Required claim:

    1. On the Manage claim page, under Source attribute, select user.mail.

    2. Click Save.

  15. In the page breadcrumb, click SAML-based Sign-on to return to the previous page.

  16. Back under Set up Single Sign-On with SAML, in the SAML Signing Certificate box, ensure that your certificate is active.

Prepare to configure Coveo

In the previous section, you configured Microsoft Entra ID so that it passes the right information about user authentication to Coveo.

You must now configure Coveo to enable federation between Coveo and Microsoft Entra ID. To do so, you’ll assign your Microsoft Entra ID users to the application you created, and then retrieve data to later import into Coveo.

Assign application to users

Assign your application to the users you want to allow to log in to Coveo using Microsoft Entra SSO, including yourself.

Ensure that, in their profile, all users have their email address under Contact info. They’ll use this address to log in to Coveo.

Retrieve data to import

On your enterprise application Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, the Set up Coveo box shows the URLs required to configure Coveo. The Login URL is your single sign-on URL, while the Microsoft Entra Identifier is your identity provider issuer URI.

Similarly, the SAML Certificates box lets you download the required Base64 certificate.

Configure Coveo

Once you’ve configured your identity provider to provide Coveo with user authentication data, you must configure Coveo to trust your identity provider and accept to rely on it for user authentication.

  1. With the data required to fill the Coveo configuration form in hand, access the Settings page:

    1. Log in to Coveo (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) as a member of a group with the required privileges to manage settings in the target Coveo organization.

    2. On the Settings page, select the Organization tab, and then select the Single sign-on (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) subtab.

  2. In the Single sign-on subtab, in the Identity provider name box, enter the identity provider name as you want it to appear on your Coveo organization login page.

  3. In the Single sign-on URL box, enter the URL where Coveo must send an authentication request. In Microsoft Entra, you can find it under Login URL.

  4. In the Identity provider issuer URI box, enter the identity provider issuer unique URI. In Microsoft Entra, you can find it under Microsoft Entra Identifier.

  5. Using one of the following methods, provide Coveo with the identity provider’s Base64 public certificate to validate the identity provider signature:

    • Paste the certificate in the X.509 public certificate box.

    • If you saved the certificate on your computer, click Upload to browse your files and upload the certificate.

  6. Click Add.

Encrypt Microsoft Entra ID assertions

Note

A Microsoft Entra Premium subscription is required to encrypt assertions.

Assertion encryption is optional. To encrypt Microsoft Entra ID assertions, you must retrieve the Coveo public certificate and import it into your Microsoft Entra ID configuration. You must also ensure that at least the response is signed.

  1. In the enterprise application where you configured SSO, click Token encryption in the navigation menu.

  2. On the Token encryption page, click Import Certificate.

  3. Click dots next to your certificate, and then click Activate token encryption.

  4. Click Yes to confirm.

  5. In the navigation menu, click Single sign-on.

  6. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, click Edit in the SAML Signing Certificate box.

  7. Under Signing Option, select either Sign SAML response or Sign SAML response and assertion.

  8. Click Save and close the blade.

Test your configuration

Once you’ve completed the SSO configuration, test the login process to ensure it works as expected. To do so, you’ll need to add your SSO identity as a member of your Coveo organization. You can’t use the account you’ve used to configure SSO, as it’s associated with a different identity provider. See Login options and Multiple accounts for details.

  1. Add your email address as an organization member. In the Add a Member dialog, under Provider, ensure to select Single sign-on.

  2. Log out of the Coveo Administration Console, and then log back in using the SSO option and your identity provider account. By doing so, you ensure Coveo and your identity provider work together properly.

    Important

    We strongly recommend that you don’t delete the account with which you first logged in to the Administration Console and implemented SAML SSO. This original account is a "backdoor" that prevents you from being locked out if the SAML SSO doesn’t work as expected. At any time, you can log in with your original, non-SSO identity provider, and then edit the Coveo configuration. For details on how accounts belonging to the same individual are separated, see Multiple Accounts.

    Alternatively, if you must delete your original account, you can also create another non-SSO administrator account with the required privileges beforehand. Logging in via email is also an alternative.

Invite SSO users or user groups

Once you’ve verified that your SSO configuration works, invite SSO users to join your Coveo organization.

Important

Once your SSO is active, promptly add your users to the organization as SSO users so they can log in successfully. When an organization has an SSO configured, users accessing a hosted search page of this organization are directed by default to the SSO login page. If a user hasn’t been added to Coveo as an SSO user, they can authenticate with their identity provider, but they won’t be able to access the hosted search page because no corresponding Coveo SSO user exists.

Add users to your Coveo organization by using either or both of these methods:

Configure SSO in another organization

If you have multiple Coveo organizations, such as a production organization and a sandbox organization, you must use the same SSO settings for all organizations. Users will then use the same SSO credentials to log in, regardless of the organization they are accessing.

Follow these steps to configure SSO in additional organizations:

  1. Ensure that the user identity you’ll use to configure SSO:

  2. Using this identity, log in to the organization where you want to configure SSO.

  3. In the Single sign-on (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) tab of the Settings page, delete any existing SSO configuration. Save your change. This will also permanently delete the associated SSO members from your Coveo organization.

  4. Copy the SSO settings from the first organization to the other. The SSO settings provided to Coveo must be identical across all organizations, including the identity provider name.

    Tip

    Open the organization where SSO was originally configured in a private browser window. This will let you copy and paste from one organization to the other without logging in and out to switch between them.

  5. Follow the remainder of the deployment process above, starting at the assertion encryption step, for each organization where you copied the SSO settings.

Required privileges

The following table indicates the privileges required to configure SSO on the Single sign-on (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page (see Manage privileges and Privilege reference).

Action Service Domain Required access level

View SSO configuration

Organization

Organization

View

Single sign-on identity provider

View

Edit SSO configuration

Organization

Organization

View

Single sign-on identity provider

Edit
Note

Granting the Edit access level on a domain also implicitly grants View on that domain.