Microsoft Entra External ID offers a customer identity access management (CIAM) solution that lets you create
secure, customized sign-in experiences for your customer-facing apps and services. You'll need to create a tenant with customer configurations in the Microsoft Entra
admin center to get started. Once the tenant with
customer configurations is created, you can access it in both the Microsoft Entra admin center and the Azure
portal.
To create a tenant, sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center
and browse to Identity > Overview . Then, select Manage tenants.
On the Manage tenants, select Create.
Select External, and then select Continue.
On the Basics tab, in the Create a tenant for customers page, enter the following
information:
Type your desired Tenant Name (for example Woodgrove live demo).
Type your desired Domain Name (for example woodgrovelive).
Select your desired Location. This selection can't be changed later.
Then, select Next: Add a subscription.
On the Add a subscription tab, enter the following information:
Next to Subscription, select your subscription from the menu.
Next to Resource group, select a resource group from the menu. If there are no available
resource groups, select Create new, add a name, and then select OK.
If Resource group location appears, select the geographic location of the resource group
from
the menu. Then, select Review + Create.
If the information that you entered is correct, select Create.
The tenant creation process can take up to 30 minutes.
You can monitor the progress of the tenant creation process in the Notifications pane.
Once
the
tenant is created, you can access it in both the Microsoft Entra admin center and the Azure
portal.
Use the Settings icon in the top menu to Switch to your customer tenant you
created
from the Directories + subscriptions menu.
If the tenant you created doesn't appear in the list, refresh the page (using the web browser
refresh button).
Browse to Home > Tenant overview to start configure your tenant.
Well done!
At this point, the Microsoft Entra External ID tenant is ready to use.
Now it's time to add your colleagues and grant them access to mange your tenant.
Before you start, please notice that for creating a tenant you use Azure REST API and not Microsoft Graph.
Check out the links to the relevant documentation. The document allows you to run the REST API directly from
your browser without the need to develop and register and application.
The following screenshot shows how to run a particular API.
{tenan-name} with the name of the tenant you want to check. For example, woodgorve.
POST https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/providers/Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/checkNameAvailability?api-version=2023-05-17-preview
The following example checks a tenant name woodgrove using a subscription ID
12345678-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.
POST https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/12345678-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/providers/Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/checkNameAvailability?api-version=2023-05-17-preview
{
"name": "woodgrove",
"countryCode": "US"
}
1.1 Check the response
Check the nameAvailable and the message. The following example shows unavailable tenant name:
{
"nameAvailable": false,
"reason": "AlreadyExists",
"message": "The given domain name is not available."
}
The following example shows an available tenant name:
To create a new Microsoft Entra external ID tenant, you need to have a resource group where the tenant will
be created.
You can choose an existing one, or create a Resource Groups.
In the following Azure REST API, replace the:
{subscriptionId} with your Azure subscription ID.
{resourceGroupName} with the name of the resource group to create.
{azure-location} with the location of the resource group. It cannot be changed after the resource
group has been created. It must be one of the supported Azure locations.
PUT https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourcegroups/{resourceGroupName}?api-version=2021-04-01
The following example creates a resource group name my-resource-group in eastus.
PUT https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/12345678-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourcegroups/my-resource-group?api-version=2021-04-01
{
"location": "eastus"
}
3. Create Microsoft Entra external ID
tenant
Initiates an async request to create Microsoft Entra external ID tenant linked to
your subscription and within the resource group you created.
In the following Azure REST API, replace the:
{subscriptionId} with your Azure subscription ID.
{resourceGroupName} with the name of the resource group you created earlier.
{resourceName} with The initial sub domain of the tenant. For example, contoso, or woodgrove.
{location} with the location in which the resource is hosted and data resides. Can be one of
'United States', 'Europe', 'Asia Pacific', or 'Australia'.
{displayName} with a display name of your tenant.
PUT https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/ciamDirectories/{resourceName}?api-version=2023-05-17-preview
The following example creates a tenant name contoso within in a resource group
my-resource-group linked to the 12345678-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 subscription.
PUT https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/12345678-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/my-resource-group/providers/Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/ciamDirectories/contoso?api-version=2023-05-17-preview
Microsoft Entra External ID offers solutions that let you quickly add
intuitive, user-friendly sign-up and sign-up experiences for your customer apps.
The Woodgrove Groceries live demo illustrates several of the most common
authentication experiences that can be configured for your consumer-facing apps.
From the above dropdown list, select a use-case and start the
demo.
Watch this video to learn more about the Woodgrove live demo.
Online retail demo
The online retail use case is an end-to-end demonstration that illustrates
several of the most common authentication
experiences that can be configured for your customer-facing apps.
To run the use case, follow these steps:
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
From the sign-in page select No account? Create one.
Enter your email address, which will be verified and becomes your login ID.
Open your mailbox and copy the verification code sent to you. Then, on the sign-in
page enter the verification code and select next.
After the email was verified, enter a password, and re-enter the password,
and enter your account details.
You can create a custom look and feel for users signing in to your apps.
With these settings, you can add your own background images, colors, company logos, and text to
customize the sign-in experiences across your apps.
So that the sign-in page blends seamlessly into woodgrove applications’ look and feel.
For more information, learn how
to customize the neutral branding in your customer tenant.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
On the sign-in page take a look on the header, the header logo, the banner logo, the title,
buttons, and the background image which are all customized.
The sign-in text appears with some guidance for the users
The footer contains links to the term of use and privacy policies. Both the links and the text
can be customized
The custom
URL domain provides a more seamless user experience. From the user's perspective, they
remain
in
your domain during
the sign in process rather than redirecting to the Microsoft Entra external ID default domain
{tenant-name}.ciamlogin.com. Note, this feature is currently in private preview and also
limited
to sign-in with local accounts.
Social accounts such as Google or Facebook are not yet supported.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Take a look on the URL in the web browser address bar. It should be
login.woodgrovedemo.com
You can sign-up or sign-in with local account. Do NOT use the Facebook or Google options.
You can create a personalized sign-in experience for users who sign in using a specific browser
language by customizing the branding elements for that browser language. This customization
overrides any configurations made to the default branding.
For more information, learn how
to customize the language of the authentication experience.
Make sure your browser is configure to any language other than German
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Duing the sign-up or sign-in flow, the user's language is dictated by their browser's settings.
Application can pass the ui_locales and mkt parameters with a specific language.
Self-service password reset (SSPR) gives users the ability to change or reset their
password, with no administrator or help desk involvement. If a user's account is locked
or they forget their password, they can follow prompts to unblock themselves and get
back to work. For more information, learn
how to enable self-service password reset.
Users can sign in with their existing social accounts, without having to create a
new account. For more information, learn how to add Google
and Facebook
identity providers.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
From the sign-in page, select Google. Then you will be redirected to Google
sign-in page.
If asked, consent to grant the permissions that Microsoft Entra external ID is requesting.
Upon first sign-in, complete the registration by entering your account details.
During a sign-in an application may target a specific user. When targeting a user, an application
can specify, in the authorization request, the
'login_hint' query parameter with the user sign-in name. Microsoft Entra external ID automatically
populates the
sign-in name, while the user only needs to provide the password.
Enter a username:
Make sure you enter an account that exists in the directory.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
From the sign-in page, notice that the username aleardy entered.
Email with one-time passcode is an option in your local account identity provider
settings.
With this option, the customer signs in with a temporary passcode instead of a stored
password
each time they sign in.
Create a new Woodgrove account
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
From the sign-in page select No account? Create one.
Enter your email address, which will be verified and becomes your login ID.
Open your mailbox and copy the verification code sent to you. Then, on the sign-in
page enter the verification code and select next.
After the email was verified, enter your account details.
Select next to complete the registration.
Sign-in with your email
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
On the sign-in page, enter your email, and select next.
Open your mailbox and copy the verification code sent to you. Then, on the sign-in
page enter the verification code and select next.
Conditional Access and Multifactor authentication (MFA)
Microsoft Entra Conditional Access brings signals together, to make decisions, and enforce security
policies.
Multifactor authentication (MFA) protects customers identity by prompting
them for a second verification method. For more information,
learn
how to add MFA.
In this demo a Conditional Access policy that's targeted to all users when the sign-in risk level is
medium or high, prompts for MFA.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
As a secdond factor authenticate, Microsoft Entra ID will send you a verification code to your
email or phone that you need to complete.
Applications registered in a Microsoft Entra tenant are, by default, available to all users of the
tenant who
authenticate successfully. You can configure your application to be restricted to a certain set of users or
apps.
In this demo only selected users (Woodgrove partners) can sign-in to the Woodgrove partners
portal. Other users
are not allowed to sign-in.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
After you completed the sign-in, you will get an error message that you can't sign-in to the
Woodgrove partners portal
Note, in this demo you can't assing youself to the Woodgrove partners portal app. If you are
intrested in app assignment, check out the
Role based access controll demo
Microsoft Entra Conditional Access brings signals together, to make decisions, and enforce security
policies.
Multifactor authentication (MFA) protects customers identity by prompting
them for a second verification method. For more information,
learn
how to add MFA.
In this demo a Conditional Access policy that's targeted to all users when the sign-in risk level is
medium or high, prompts for MFA.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page. Sign-up or sign-in with
your account.
After you signed-in, proceed to the next step.
For this demo, download and run the Tor
Browse. It's an open-source web browser that helps people use the internet anonymously.
Therefore, Microsoft Entra ID may consider your sign-in request as suspicious.
In the Tor browser Navigate to https://woodgrovedemo.com
Use the Microsoft Entra Conditional Access engine's authentication
context to trigger a demand for step-up authentication from within your application.
This demo allows customer to access the app and purchase items. However, upon risky action, for
example
When a Woodgrove customer finishes shopping and proceeds to the checkout.
If the sum of the items in the shopping cart is higher than usual it requires the customer to
sign-in with a strong factor authentication.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page. Sign-in with
your account. Note, if you create a new account, you fulfill the MFA requirement since the email
is already verified. Therefore, make sure you sign-in with an existing account.
Custom security attribute based conditional access
Application filters for Conditional Access allow you to tag your application with custom
attributes. These custom attributes are then added to their Conditional Access policies. Filters for
applications are evaluated at token issuance runtime.
In this demo a conditional access block access to all applications tagged as
BlockGuestsUsers.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
Upon successful sign-in you will get an error message that you don't have access to the app.
When users authenticate to your application with Microsoft Entra External ID, a security
token is return to your application. The security token contains claims that are
statements about the user, such as name, unique identifier, or application roles.
Beyond the default set of claims that are contained in the security token you can add
more claims.
This demo shows how to add addtinal attributes to the access and ID tokens.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up your email, or a social account.
After you validate your email, or sign-in with your social account, complete the
registration by providing your details.
The special diet is a custom attribute you can provide. For the demo enter,
Egg allergy This attribute will be included in the security token that return
to the Woodgrove application.
From the Woodgrove header, select your name, which will take you to the security
token page. The security token page contains the claims that return by Microsoft Entra
External ID. Look for the special diet claim
When users authenticate to your application with Microsoft Entra External ID, a security
token is return to your application. The security token contains claims that are
statements about the user, such as name, unique identifier, or application roles.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
From the Woodgrove header, select your name, which will take you to the security
token page.
The security token page contains the claims that return by Microsoft Entra External ID.
Locate the loyaltyNumber, loyaltySince, and loyaltyTier
claims and check their value. These claims were returned by a custom authentication
extension REST API with some random values.
The on-behalf-of (OBO) flow describes the scenario of a web API using an identity other than its own
to call another downstream web API. For the middle-tier web API to make authenticated requests to
the
downstream web API it needs a different audience and another set of scopes (permissions). For more
information,
Microsoft identity platform and OAuth 2.0 On-Behalf-Of flow
This demo shows how the Account web
API makes authenticated requests to a downstream Payment web API.
To call the Payment web API, the Account web API acquires an access
token for the Payment web API (audience or aud claim) and another set of scopes (permissions) that
require by the Payment web API.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
After you sign-in you will be redirected to the token page. You can also select your name
from the header.
Then, select the Access token to call a web API button.
It shows you two links to the https://jwt.ms app with the corresponding access tokens. The first
access
token is the one returned to the Woodgrove demo application and used to call the first web API
(Account).
The second one shows the access token the Account web API acquires to call the Payment web
API.
Compare the access tokens to understand the on-behalf-of flow.
The custom authentication extension supports the on
attribute collection start event. This
event occurs at the beginning of the attribute collection step, before the attribute collection page
renders.
You can add actions such as prefilling values and displaying a blocking error.
This demo shows how to prepopulate some of the values, including pre selecting the country attribute
with spain and generating and set the value of the promo code attribute.
To start the demo:
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
After you validate your email, or sign-in first time with your social account, you will be taken
to the sign-up page.
On the sign-up page notice that the Spain country was selected for you. Also at the
bottom of
the page you can see that the promo code was generated and entered for you. Both values
were provided by a custom authentication extension.
The custom authentication extension supports the on
attribute collection submit event. This
event allows you to
perform validation on attributes collected from the user during sign-up.
This demo validates the
city name against a list of cities and countries compiled in the Woodgrove custom authentication
extension REST API.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up with your email, or a social account. If you already have an account,
delete it.
After you validate your email, or sign-in with your social account, complete the
registration by providing your details.
For the country, leave the Spain selected, and then for the city Berlin (Berlin is
not a city in Spain).
Select next to create a Woodgrove online identity. And you should get an
error message that Woodgrove doesn’t operate in this city. Because Berlin is a city in Germany,
not in Spain.
Corrects the city name. For example, enter Madrid and try to complete the
registration again.
The custom authentication extension supports the on
attribute collection submit event. These event allows you to
modify and override attributes provided by the user.
This example shows how to modify the display name and the name of the city.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up with your email, or a social account. If you already have an account,
delete it.
After you validate your email, or sign-in with your social account, enter a display name
in upper case. For example, DAVID
For the city attribute, enter modify.
Select next to try to create a Woodgrove online identity. At this time the custom
authentication extension
will capitalize the dispaly name (only first leter in upper case). The city will be
modified
to Madrid.
Select your name from the header, it shows the content of the access token.
The custom authentication extension supports the on
attribute collection submit event. These event allows you to
block the user from continuing the sign-up process.
For example, you could use an identity verification service or external identity data source to
verify the user's email address.
This demo validates uses the on attribute collection submit even to check the
value
of the city attribute and block the process.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up with your email, or a social account. If you already have an account,
delete it.
After you validate your email, or sign-in with your social account, complete the
registration by providing your details.
For the city attribute, enter block.
Select next to try to create a Woodgrove online identity. At this time the sign-up
process will be canceled all together.
This is because the custom authentication extension checks the city value. If it contains
block, it returns the show block page action.
Role-based
access control is a popular mechanism to enforce authorization in
applications. It helps you manage who has access to your application and what they can
do in the application. In this demo, you assign yourself to application roles which are
automatically
approved.
To start the demo:
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
From the Woodgrove header, select the profile button.
In profile page add yourself the Products.Contributor and Orders.Manager roles.
To reflect the changes in the security token, sign-in again with the same account (you won't be
asked to enter the credentials).
After you sign-in, the Manage products and Orders buttons appear in the header.
Select your name from the header to show the security token.
It should contain the role claims you assigned to.
Group-based
access control
is a popular mechanism to enforce authorization in
applications. It helps you manage who has access to your application and what they can
do in the application. You can also alter the UI based on the user's membership.
In this demo, you add yourself to the Commercial Accounts security group and you will get
a discount for some of the products.
To start the demo:
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
From the Woodgrove header, select the profile button.
In profile page, add yourself to
the Commercial Accounts security group and update your account.
To reflect the changes in the security token, sign-in again
with the same account (you won't be asked to enter the credentials).
Now that you are a member of the Commercial Accounts security group, you get a discount to some
of
the products.
Note, if you select your name from the header, it shows the content of the access token
issued by Microsoft Entra External ID that was returned to the application.
It should contain the groups claims.
This demo application checks the claim’s value and gives you the discounts.
Collect user attributes during sign-up
User attributes are values collected from the user during self-service sign-up.
In the user flow settings, you can select from a set of built-in user attributes you
want to collect from customers. You can also create custom
user attributes and add them to your sign-up user flow. For more information, learn
how to collect user attributes during sign-up.
On the sign-up page the user enters the information, and it's stored with their
profile in your directory.
This demo shows the use of built-in attribute and custom attribute called special
diet. To start the demo:
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
After you validate your email, or sign-in with your social account, complete the
registration by providing your details.
The special diet is a custom attribute you can provide. For the demo enter,
Egg allergy This attribute will be included in the security token that return
to the Woodgrove application.
Select next to create a Woodgrove online identity.
After you successfully sign-in, in the home page, the Eggs product will show an
allergy warning.
Microsoft Entra external ID allows applications to start the authorization request with sign-up flow (using the 'prompt=create' query parameter).
You can also provide an email address (using the
'login_hint' query parameter). If provided, Microsoft Entra external ID automatically
populates the
sign-up email address, while the user only needs to validate their email address and enter their profile attributes. Make sure there is no such account in the directory.
[Optimally] Enter an email: .
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Notice that the title of the page is "Create account"
If email has been provided, notice that the email address already entered.
Terms of use, also known as terms and conditions or terms of service, are rules, specifications, and
requirements for the use of your app.
Microsoft Entra external ID allows you to add a custom attribute (type of Boolean) to the sign-up
page.
Before completing the sign-up, users should read and accept your policies.
For more information, learn how to collect user attributes during sign-up and
configure a single-select checkbox.
This demo shows to add links to terms of use and privacy policies. To start the demo:
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
After you validate your email, or sign-in with your social account, complete the
registration by providing your details.
Select the terms of use and privacy policies links which will be opened in a new browser
tab. Then, close the tabs and go back to the sign-up page,
and select the checkbox.
Select next to create a Woodgrove online identity.
Single sign-on (SSO) adds security and convenience when users sign-in across multiple applications
in Microsoft Entra ID.
With single sign-on, users sign-in once with a single account and get access to multiple
applications.
When the user initially signs-in to an application, Microsoft Entra ID initiates a single sign-on
session.
Upon subsequent authentication requests, Microsoft Entra ID validates the session, and issues a
security token without prompting the user to sign in again.
For tests only! You can specify the lifetime of an access token, ID token, or SAML token
issued by the Microsoft
Entra ID. You can set token lifetimes for all apps in your tenant, or for service principals. You
cannot set token lifetime policies for refresh tokens and session tokens.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
Select your name from the header to show the security token.
Scroll down to check your token expiration.
Single sign-on (SSO) adds security and convenience when users sign-in across multiple applications
in Microsoft Entra ID.
With single sign-on, users sign-in once with a single account and get access to multiple
applications.
When the user initially signs-in to an application, Microsoft Entra ID initiates a single sign-on
session.
Upon subsequent authentication requests, Microsoft Entra ID validates the session, and issues a
security token without prompting the user to sign in again.
You can force the user to enter their credentials on a sign-in request, negating single-sign on
session.
To do so, select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Input-constrained devices are devices that their screen or monitor is limited to
text-only and they don't have a web browser. For example, smart TV, IoT device, robot,
gaming console, printers. Or applications with limited user interface, such as a command
line application.
These devices are connected to the internet, but due to the input constrains, the
authentication should be done on another device. The input constrained device gets a
device code from Microsoft Entra External ID and asks the user to visit a webpage in a browser
on a second
(rich device), such as smartphone, tablets, or PCs.
In this use case, from the Kiosk page select sign-in. Use the second device, such as
smartphone and scan the QR code. On the sign-in page enters the device code, and
completes the sign-in. Once you signed in, the Kiosk (input-constrained device) is able
to get security tokens and authenticate you. Your name should be presented on the
top-right corner of the page.
The Woodgrove Bank demo
application illustrates the sign-up and sign-in authentication experiences for financial scenarios.
It also demonstrates the SAML protocol federation with Microsoft Entra External ID.
If you would like to delete your account and personal information, visit the delete my
account page. You won't be able to reactivate your account. In a couple of minutes you
will be able to sign-up again with the same credentials.
Disabling an account can be a critical step for businesses in managing their security and
operational efficiency. When an account is disabled, it prevents unauthorized access to your
application. This demo allows you to disable your account. Keep in mind that you will not be able to
sign-in and enabled your account. Therefore, use a temporary email for this use case.
Select the start the use case button at the bottom of this page.
Sign-up or sign-in with your email, or a social account.
After you sign-in, you will be taken to the profile page.
Uncheck the Enable checkbox and select Save.
Wait for a couple of seconds and try to sign-in again.
The user insights provides data analytics into user activity and engagement for your registered
applications within your customer tenant.
Use Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft Entra Admin Center to view, query and analyze user activity
data. For more information, learn Gain
insights into your app users’ activity.
This demo uses Microsoft Graph API to query the usage & insights (daily and monthly) to uncover valuable insights that can aid
strategic decisions and drive business growth.
Microsoft Entra ID emits sign-in logs containing activity information. Each sign-in attempt
contains
details associated with those three main components: Who: The identity (User) doing the sign-in. How: The client (Application) used for the
access. And What: The target (Resource) accessed by the identity.
You can use the sign-in logs to answer questions such as: How many users signed into a particular
application this week?
How many failed sign-in attempts occurred in the last 24 hours?
Are users signing in from specific browsers or operating systems?
Microsoft Graph PowerShell is a robust
solution for
automating tasks, executing batch
operations, maintaining and ensuring consistency across different stages such as test,
preproduction, and production
environments.
With GitHub workflow you can automate
process that will run one or
more jobs.
Their benefits in accelerating and stabilizing the deployment process to
Microsoft Entra's external ID. It leads to a significant reduction in integration
issues, faster release cycles, enhance change management, and consistency that are crucial for
maintaining data
integrity and smooth and seamless deployment during updates and modifications.
