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Configuring authentication and provisioning for your enterprise using Azure AD

In this article

You can use a tenant in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) as an identity provider (IdP) to centrally manage authentication and user provisioning for your enterprise.

Who can use this feature

Enterprise owners can configure authentication and provisioning for an enterprise on GitHub AE.

About authentication and user provisioning with Azure AD

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a service from Microsoft that allows you to centrally manage user accounts and access to web applications. For more information, see What is Azure Active Directory? in the Microsoft Docs.

When you use an IdP for IAM on GitHub AE, SAML SSO controls and secures access to enterprise resources like repositories, issues, and pull requests. SCIM automatically creates user accounts and manages access to your enterprise when you make changes on the IdP. You can also synchronize teams on GitHub AE with groups on your IdP. For more information, see the following articles.

After you enable SAML SSO and SCIM for GitHub AE using Azure AD, you can accomplish the following from your Azure AD tenant.

  • Assign the GitHub AE application on Azure AD to a user account to automatically create and grant access to a corresponding user account on GitHub AE.
  • Unassign the GitHub AE application to a user account on Azure AD to deactivate the corresponding user account on GitHub AE.
  • Assign the GitHub AE application to an IdP group on Azure AD to automatically create and grant access to user accounts on GitHub AE for all members of the IdP group. In addition, the IdP group is available on GitHub AE for connection to a team and its parent organization.
  • Unassign the GitHub AE application from an IdP group to deactivate the GitHub AE user accounts of all IdP users who had access only through that IdP group and remove the users from the parent organization. The IdP group will be disconnected from any teams on GitHub AE.

For more information about managing identity and access for your enterprise on your enterprise, see "Using SAML for enterprise IAM."

Prerequisites

Configuring authentication and user provisioning with Azure AD

In your Azure AD tenant, add the application for GitHub AE, then configure provisioning.

  1. In Azure AD, add the GitHub AE application to your tenant and configure single sign-on. For more information, see Tutorial: Azure Active Directory single sign-on (SSO) integration with GitHub AE in the Microsoft Docs.

  2. In GitHub AE, enter the details for your Azure AD tenant.

    • You'll configure identity and access management for GitHub AE by entering the details for your SAML IdP during initialization. For more information, see "Initializing GitHub AE."

    • If you've already configured SAML SSO for your enterprise using another IdP and you want to use Azure AD instead, you can edit your configuration. For more information, see "Configuring SAML single sign-on for your enterprise."

  3. Enable user provisioning in GitHub AE and configure user provisioning in Azure AD. For more information, see "Configuring user provisioning with SCIM for your enterprise."

Managing enterprise owners

The steps to make a person an enterprise owner depend on whether you only use SAML or also use SCIM. For more information about enterprise owners, see "Roles in an enterprise."

If you configured provisioning, to grant the user enterprise ownership in GitHub AE, assign the enterprise owner role to the user in Azure AD.

If you did not configure provisioning, to grant the user enterprise ownership in GitHub AE, include the administrator attribute in the SAML assertion for the user account on the IdP, with the value of true. For more information about including the administrator attribute in the SAML claim from Azure AD, see How to: customize claims issued in the SAML token for enterprise applications in the Microsoft Docs.