Federated Authentication in QPR UI

QPR MobileDashboard can be configured to use federated authentication by SAML 2.0 protocol. When using federated authentication, QPR MobileDashboard works as a service provider (SP), and enables to use compatible external identity providers (IdP), such as Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) or Shibboleth. See more information from the links in the bottom of the page.

QPR MobileDashboard as SAML 2.0 Service Provider

When QPR MobileDashboard is configured as SAML 2.0 service provider, users can authenticate to QPR MobileDashboard via the configured SAML 2.0 identity provider by clicking "LOG IN USING SSO" button in the login screen. This redirects users to the identity provider for authentication. When the autentication is done, users are redirected back to QPR MobileDashboard and where user is then logged in. Alternatively, QPR MobileDashboard can be configured automatically to redirect to the identity provider, so that users don't need to see QPR MobileDashboard's login screen.

When using federated authentication, QPR MobileDashboard can also be used to provide authentication to QPR Suite. This requires to configure common authentication. After the federated authentication to QPR MobileDashboard, users can open QPR Suite portal by clicking a link in a QPR MobileDashboard view (the link contains the xsession parameter for the common QPR authentication).

QPR MobileDashboard creates new users automatically, when a user first time logins to QPR MobileDashboard using SAML 2.0. Unlike federated authentication, common QPR authentication doesn't support creating new users, so QPR Suite users need to be created beforehand with QPR User Management Client. Note that user accounts are always matched between the systems using the username.

When working as a SAML 2.0 service provider, QPR MobileDashboard doesn't currently support passing user metadata, such as full name, email or groups.

When QPR MobileDashboard has been linked to an identity provider, QPR MobileDashboard will fully trust information coming from the identity provider.

Configuring QPR MobileDashboard as SAML 2.0 Service Provider

There are two configuration scenarios available for the federated authentication: using metadata or using a public key. The scenarios have their own settings defined in below tables.

The configuration entries listed in the tables below, can be defined either

• using the QPR MobileDashboard installer during the QPR MobileDashboard installation
• after the QPR MobileDashboard installation by adding to the CONFIGURATIONENTITY table in the QPR MobileDashboard database.

Configuration entries when using metadata

Database field name	Installer field name	Description
SAML_METADATA_URL	Federation metadata URL	The metadata URL of the identity provider, e.g. https://your.federated.identity.provider.com/saml/metadata.
SAML_SERVER_ENTITY_IDENTIFIER	Server entity identifier	The identity provider server entity identifier URL, e.g. http://your.federated.identity.provider.com/services/trust. If it’s known that the metadata contains multiple server entries, this field must also be filled.

Configuration entries when using a public key

Database field name	Installer field name	Description
SAML_REDIRECT_URL	Federated authentication provider's redirect URL	The redirect URL of the identity provider. QPR MobileDashdoard redirects user to this url when user needs to be authenticated, e.g. https://your.federated.identity.provider.com/saml/http-post/sso.
SAML_SIGNING_CERTIFICATE	Federated authentication provider's signing certificate	The Federated authentication provider's signing certificate field with <X.509 Certificate> contents. The input item is the actual encoded public key contents.

Common configuration entries

Following settings are defined in both authentication scenarios:

Database field name	Installer field name	Description
SAML_CONSUMER_URL	SAML consumer URL	Url that the identity provider uses when redirecting back to QPR MobileDashboard. Use url with following form: <Location of your QPR MobileDashboard installation>/EnticeServices/rest/authenticate/saml, e.g. http://SERVERNAME:8080/EnticeServices/rest/authenticate/saml.
SAML_USER_ID_ATTRIBUTE	User id attribute	The name of the SAML attribute in the assertion that will be used as the user's login name. If the attribute is not given, the NameID of the SAML subject is used. If the user login name in your QPR Suite is the user's email address, the attribute definition is usually not needed.
SAML_AUTOMATIC_LOGIN	Automatic federated authentication	When set to "1", user is automatically redirected from the QPR MobileDashboard login page to the identity provider without the need to click the LOG IN USING SSO button. When enabled, users might not even see the QPR MobileDashboard login page during authentication.

References

• General information about federated authentication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_identity
• General information about SAML 2.0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAML_2.0
• General information about Shibboleth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth_(Internet2)
• Shibboleth documentation: https://wiki.shibboleth.net/confluence/display/SHIB2/Home
• General information about ADFS: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb897402.aspx
• ADFS documentation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory_Federation_Services