Share Files from Azure File Storage with Okta Users using SSO
Share files from Azure File Storage with Okta users using SSO in a simple manner with the aid of NirvaShare, which is a secure file sharing and access management software. Additionally, NirvaShare also supports multiple other identity providers like ActiveDirectory, Google Workspace, Keycloak etc. Using this detailed guide, we can configure Okta identity provider using NirvaShare to share and manage access for Azure files.
Prerequisites
As a prerequisite for Azure storage file sharing with Okta users, you should install NirvaShare and configure its storage. You can follow the below procedure for installation provided in any one of the following documents.
The below document can assist you in configuring the storage.
Login Profile
Follow the below steps to create a new login profile to integrate with the external identity provider.
- Log in to Admin Console as an administrator.
- Click on Login Profiles from the left menu of the Admin Console.
- Click on CREATE button from the top right corner.
- Under the Basic Info tab, provide a name for the title and an optional description.
Access
- Provide an IP Address or IP Addresses in the IP Address Restriction field.
- Choose the language in the Language field. By default it is set to English.
Note – To restrict access to only certain white listed IP address or a range, please refer to Access Restriction with IP Address
Authentication
- Click on the Authentication tab.
- For the Authentication, select External Single Sign On (SSO) and click on CREATE.
ACS and Entity ID
In the future steps, while configuring Okta, you will require ACS and Entity Id URL, hence please make a note of these two URLs. These two URLs can be obtained by editing the newly created login profile.
Okta Configuration
To integrate NirvaShare with Okta, a SAML application has to be created in Okta and the steps mentioned below should be followed
- Sign into Okta console as an administrator.
- Now go to Applications on the left side of the menu and click on Applications in the Okta console.
- Click on Create App Integration.
- In the pop-up page for Sign-In method, select SAML 2.0.
- Click on Next.
Note – For more information, you can also refer to Okta Documentation.
- Give the app a name of your choice.
- Select a logo (optional).
- Click on Next.
- The next screen will ask for ACS and Entity Id URLs of Nirvashare obtained in the previous section.
- Enter ACS URL in the Single Sign On URL field and select the option to ‘Use this for Recipient URL and Destination URL’.
- Enter the Entity Id URL into the Audience URL field, this URL contains the SAML metadata of the NirvaShare login profile.
- Leave the attribute statements (optional) field blank.
- Scroll to Group attribute statements.
- Type in member in the Name field, choose basic in the Name format drop down, Matches regex in the filter drop down and key in “ .* ” in the filter field.
- Click on Next to move onto the feedback section.
- In the feedback section, select the option that says ” I’m a Okta customer adding an internal app ” and also check the option “This is an internal app that we have created”.
- Now click on Finish.
- Click on the Assignment tab in the next screen.
- Assign one or more users to this app by clicking on the Assign drop down.
- In the next step,click on Sign On tab.
- Clicking on Copy, you will get the link of Okta metadata URL.
- Go to a new browser tab and open the Okta metadata URL.
- Save the the XML file locally by right clicking on the URL.
- The downloaded external IDP metadata file will have to be updated in the NirvaShare Login Profile.
Updating Login Profile with Okta SAML Metadata
The SAML metadata file obtained from the above process through Okta should be updated in the login profile in NirvaShare. Here we have listed the steps to do it.
- Login as an administrator into admin console of NirvaShare.
- Go to left menu of admin console and click on Login profiles.
- Edit the Login profile that we created earlier.
- In the Authentication section click on the Choose File button and select the metadata file for the External IDP SAML Metadata section.
- Click on Update.
Shares
After all these steps, we can finally use SSO with Okta. For this let us create a folder share and enable SSO. Refer to the document mentioned below to create a new share from Storage. But remember to select the login profile we created in the above section during the process of sharing. You can create one or more shares as well and assign the same login profile.
Verification
- In the admin console of NirvaShare, click on Login Profiles from left menu.
- Right click on the login profile that we created and select Copy Shareable Link.
- Open the link in a browser and this will redirect to Okta for SSO.
Once you complete the authentication, you can access Shares assigned to the login profile.
