DNN SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) with ADFS As IDP

DNN SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication provider gives the ability to enable SAML Single Sign-On for your DotNetNuke applications. Using Single Sign-On you can use only one password to access your DotNetNuke application and services. Our authentication provider is compatible with all the SAML-compliant identity providers. Here we will go through a step-by-step guide to configure Single Sign-On (SSO) between DotNetNuke and ADFS considering ADFS as IdP.

Download and Install the authentication provider in DotNetNuke

• Download the package for DNN SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) authnetication provider.
• Upload the installation package dnn-saml-single-sign-on_xxx_Install by going in Settings > Extension > Install Extension.

Steps to configure ADFS Single Sign-On (SSO) Login into DotNetNuke

1. Add authentication provider on DNN page

• Now under the Installed extensions tab select Authentication Systems.Here you can see the miniOrange DNN SAML Authentication Plugin.

• Just Click on the pencil icon as mentioned in the image below to configure the DNN SAML Authentication Provider.

• Now go to the site settings tab. Here you can see the DNN SAML Authentication Provider Dashboard.

• You have finished with the Installation of the authentication provider on your DNN site.

2. Configure ADFS as Identity Provider

• First, search for ADFS Management application on your ADFS server.

• In ADFS Management, select Relying Party Trust and click on Add Relying Party Trust.

• Select Claims aware from the Relying Party Trust Wizard and click on Start button.

 Select Data Source

• In Select Data Source, select the data source for adding a relying party trust.

• Metadata URL
• Metadata XML file
• Manual Configuration

• Navigate to Service Provider Metadata section from the ASP.NET SAML module and copy the Metadata URL.
• Select Import data about the relying party published online or on the local network option and add the metadata URL in Federation metadata address.
• Click on Next.


Note: In the next step enter the desired Display Name and click Next.

• Navigate to Service Provider Metadata section from the ASP.NET SAML module and click on the Download XML metadata button to download the plugin metadata file.
• Select Import data about the relying party from a file option and upload the downloaded metadata file.
• Click on Next.


Note: In the next step enter the desired Display Name and click Next.

• Navigate to Service Provider Metadata section of the ASP.NET SAML module to get the endpoints to configure Service Provider manually.
• In Add Relying Party Trust Wizard select option Enter data about the relying party manually and click on Next.

 Specify Display Name

• Enter Display Name and Click Next.

 Configure Certificate (Premium feature)

• Download the certificate from Service Provider Metadata Tab.
• Upload the certificate and click on Next.

 Configure URL

• Select Enable support for the SAML 2.0 WebSSO protocol option and enter ACS URLfrom the plugin's Service Provider Metadata Tab.
• Click on Next.

 Configure Identifiers

• In the Relying party trust identifier, add the SP-EntityID / Issuer from the plugin's Service Provider Metadata tab.

 Choose Access Control Policy

• Select Permit everyone as an Access Control Policy and click on Next.

 Ready to Add Trust

• In Ready to Add Trust click on Next and then Close.

 Edit Claim Issuance Policy

• In the list of Relying Party Trust, select the application you created and click on Edit Claim Issuance Policy.

• In Issuance Transform Rule tab click on Add Rule button.

 Choose Rule Type

• Select Send LDAP Attributes as Claims and click on Next.

 Configure Claim Rule

• Add a Claim Rule Name and select the Attribute Store as required from the dropdown.
• Under Mapping of LDAP Attributes to outgoing claim types, Select LDAP Attribute as E-Mail-Addresses and Outgoing Claim Type as Name ID.

• Once you have configured the attributes, click on Finish.
• After configuring ADFS as IDP, you will need the Federation Metadata to configure your Service Provider.
• To get the ADFS Federation Metadata, you can use this URL
  https://< ADFS_Server_Name >/federationmetadata/2007-06/federationmetadata.xml
• You have successfully configured ADFS as SAML IdP (Identity Provider) for achieving ADFS Single Sign-On (SSO) Login

Windows SSO (Optional)

Follow the steps below to configure Windows SSO

 Steps to configure ADFS for Windows Authentication

• Open elevated Command Prompt on the ADFS Server and execute the following command on it:
• setspn -a HTTP/##ADFS Server FQDN## ##Domain Service Account##
• FQDN is Fully Qualified Domain Name (Example : adfs4.example.com)
• Domain Service Account is the username of the account in AD.
• Example : setspn -a HTTP/adfs.example.com username/domain
• Open AD FS Management Console, click on Services and go to the Authentication Methods section. On the right, click on Edit Primary Authentication Methods. Check Windows Authentication in Intranet zone.

• Open Internet Explorer. Navigate to Security tab in Internet Options.
• Add the FQDN of AD FS to the list of sites in Local Intranet and restart the browser.
• Select Custom Level for the Security Zone. In the list of options, select Automatic Logon only in Intranet Zone.

• Open the powershell and execute following two commands to enable windows authentication in Chrome browser.

Set-AdfsProperties -WIASupportedUserAgents ((Get-ADFSProperties | Select -ExpandProperty WIASupportedUserAgents) + "Chrome")

Get-AdfsProperties | Select -ExpandProperty WIASupportedUserAgents;

• You have successfully configured ADFS for Windows Authentication.

3. Configure DotNetNuke SAML Authentication Provider as Service Provider

• For configuring application in the authentication provider, click on the Add new IdP button in the Identity Provider Settings tab.


A] Select your Identity Provider

• Select ADFS from the list. You can also search for your Identity Provider using the search box.


B] Configure your Identity Provider

• Under the Service Provider Settings tab, you can download SP metadata as a XML document or copy the metadata url.
• Alternatively, copy and paste the SP Entity ID and ACS Url from the SP metadata Table to your ADFS configuration page.


C] Configure your Service Provider

• To upload IdP's metadata, you can use the Upload IdP metadata button under the Identity Provider Settings tab, if you have the IdP metadata URL or the IdP metadata .xml file.
• Alternatively, you can copy the IDP Entity ID and Single Sign-On Url values from the IdP and fill them up under the Identity Provider Settings tab.

4. Testing SAML SSO

• Click the Test Configuration button to verify if you have configured the plugin correctly.
• On successful configuration, you will get Attribute Name and Attribute Values in the Test Configuration window.

5. Attribute Mapping

• For attribute mapping select the Edit Configuration from the select actions dropdown.
• Map email and username with Attribute Name you can see in Test Configuration window and save the settings.

6. Get the Single Sign-On (SSO) link for your application

• You can find the SSO Link in the Action dropdown in Applications List of the authentication provider.

You can even configure the ASP.NET SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) module with any identity provider such as ADFS, Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), Bitium, centrify, G Suite, JBoss Keycloak, Okta, OneLogin, Salesforce, AWS Cognito, OpenAM, Oracle, PingFederate, PingOne, RSA SecureID, Shibboleth-2, Shibboleth-3, SimpleSAML, WSO2 or even with your own custom identity provider. To check other identity providers, click here.

Additional Resources

• DNN SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)
• DNN OAuth Single Sign-On (SSO)
• ASP.NET SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)
• nopCommerce SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Umbraco SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)