SAML Setup | JumpCloud University Tutorial (2021)

Check out JumpCloud’s knowledge base article(s) for more information: https://jumpcloud.com/university

In this tutorial, we’re covering JumpCloud’s SAML Connectors and how JumpCloud can help consolidate users’ access to their accounts in an easy-to-use and secure manner.

SAML is one of the most widely used protocols of Single-Sign-On which allows users to use the same credentials as their JumpCloud account to access a wide array of SSO Applications they might need access to. Salesforce, AWS, Slack, Zoom, GitHub, and a whole bunch more are just some examples of popular SSO Applications JumpCloud can integrate with.

In this relationship, JumpCloud becomes the IdP or the Identity Provider for the SSO Application. Meaning that all authentication of your SSO Application Accounts will look to JumpCloud for Authentication and Authorization. This makes the experience for the end-user seamless as they will only have one secure password that they’ll use to access all of their assigned SSO Applications.

Let’s get started and take a look at how you can integrate your company’s SSO Web Applications with JumpCloud.

In your JumpCloud Administrator account, navigate to “SSO” under “User Authentication” from the left-hand navigation. If you’ve already configured any SSO connectors, you’ll see them here. If this is your first time setting up an application, you can add your SSO Application by hitting the green + button in the top-left and scroll through the list of applications that appear in the slide-out pane on the right-hand side.

JumpCloud has hundreds of pre-configured applications to make setup quick and easy. To configure an Application, click on “configure” next to your app in the list.

Be aware, each application might need specific attributes for both JumpCloud and the application in order to create the chain-of-trust. If you don’t see your application in the list, you may configure a custom connection using the “Custom SAML App” button located at the bottom of the slide-out pane on the right-hand side when selecting a new app. Note, if you’d like to add an application to the user portal without SSO, you can create bookmarks in just a few steps.

Because you’re building a custom SAML app, a wide range of confirmation values are available for configuration. When users access the application from their user portal, this is the information they will see, so we recommend adding a name, description, or logo to help users quickly identify the app.

NOTE: SAML is an all-or-nothing protocol for a majority of applications, meaning that all users who need access to the application must have valid JumpCloud User Accounts before they can access the Application. Once JumpCloud is set as the IdP for that Application, all logins are re-routed to JumpCloud.

Once the application is configured, within the admin console you will navigate to “User Groups” under “User Management”, and select or create a User Group that you’d like to grant access to the new SSO Application. Once this is complete, all users within that User Group will see the SSO applications within their User Portal.

Taking a look through a JumpCloud User’s eyes, we’ll use our example user, Bob Fay. Bob’s a part of the Sales User Group which has access to SalesForce. If we log into Bob’s JumpCloud User Portal, we’ll see SalesForce as one of his available Applications because he belongs to the Sales User Group.

By clicking on the SalesForce icon, he’ll be automatically logged in and directed to the landing page of that web application.

Now the opposite is also true. If Bob were to directly navigate to SalesForce and type in his email address and credentials, Salesforce would reroute him to JumpCloud asking him to verify his JumpCloud credentials. Once verified, it will reroute him automatically back to Salesforce’s account home page.

That’s it!

Check out JumpCloud’s knowledge base article(s) for more information about SAML and SSO Applications you can integrate with your JumpCloud Organization!


Check out JumpCloud’s knowledge base article(s) for more information: https://jumpcloud.com/university

Sign up for a free JumpCloud account! https://console.jumpcloud.com/signup