Step-By-Step: Enabling A Primary AD FS Server in Azure for Office365 Single Sign-On

 

This Step-By-Step will provide instruction to setup a primary AD FS 3.0 server on a Windows Server 2012 R2 virtual machine in Azure. This post will accomplish the following:

• Create the Azure Cloud Service

• Build the Azure virtual machine

• Install the AD FS 3.0 role

• Configure AD FS 3.0

• Federate with Office365

  Microsoft Virtual Academy provides a great precursor to this Step-By-Step entitled: Managing Office 365 Identities and Services

Assumptions:QA

• Azure account is setup
• Directory Sync is activated, setup and running
• Valid SSL certificate is available (with private key)
• VPN connection setup from Azure to your on premise network

Step 1: Create a New Cloud Service

Because we are going to load balance one or more virtual machines, we need to create a Cloud Service to put them in. Think of it as a bucket to hold your virtual machines. You will require one for the AD FS Servers and one for the Web Application Proxies (AD FS Proxy Servers)

1. Click New

2. Select Compute -> Cloud Service -> Custom Create

   

3. Enter a URL or Name for the Cloud Service. This name must be unique across the .cloudapp.net name space.

4. Select your Region or Affinity Group

5. Click OK
    

6. 

Step 2: Create the Virtual Machine in Azure

1. Click New

2. Select Compute -> Virtual Machine -> From Gallery

   

3. Choose Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter

4. Click Next
   
   
    

5. Enter Virtual Machine Name

6. Select Server Tier

7. Select Server Size

8. Click Next
   
   

9. Select the AD FS Cloud Service that was created earlier. This is very important.

Step 3: Verify Subnet

1. Drop down to Create an availability set

2. Enter name for the availability set

   NOTE: This does not load balance the servers, it will just place the VM accordingly so that if a rack of servers goes down, all the members of the set will be placed in different fault domains. This ensures that an outage isn’t extended to all the servers in the set.

3. Click Next
   
   
    

4. Click Next

5. Once the VM is provisioned go to the next step

   
    

Step 4: Add the Server to the Domain

Since the AD FS server needs to authenticate against Active Directory, they need to be added to the local domain. Add the server to the local domain

Step 5: Install the Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell

Use this BLOG post to install the Azure Active Directory Module for PowerShell and the required Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant 7.0

Connecting to Office365 with PowerShell

Step 6: Install the AD FS Role

1. Open Server Manager

2. Click Add roles and features

   
    

3. Click Next
   
   

4. Select Role-based or feature-based installation

5. Click Next
   
   
    

6. Make sure that the AD FS Server is listed as the server to install to

7. Click Next
   
   
    

8. Select Active Directory Federation Services

9. Click Next
   
   
    

10. Leave defaults

11. Click Next
    
    
     

12. Click Next
    
    
     

13. Click Install
    
    
     

14. Wait for the install to complete

    

Step 7: Import the SSL Certificate

AD FS uses certificate to secure the connection from AD FS to Office365. For this reason, we need a valid SSL certificate. I choose to use GoDaddy, as I find they are a one stop shop for all my domain needs. It’s a personal choice, so use whoever you feel comfortable with. For the purposes of this BLOG post, I will use a multi-name certificate; I DON’T recommend this for a production environment. A couple reasons are that I like to keep things simple and if we have multiple names on the certificate, it starts to get complicated (not technically, but management of the certificate). Secondly, I don’t like to share certificates across services. This cuts down on the cross contamination from the support teams at larger companies. If you lump the AD FS services with the Exchange certificate, AD FS usually gets left in the dust and forgot about when it comes time to renew.

1. Open the Start Screen
   
   
    

2. Type MMC

3. Click the MMC app

   
    

4. MMC opens

   
    

5. Click File

6. Click Add/Remove Snap-in

7. Select Certificates

8. Click Add>
   
   
    

9. Select Computer Account

10. Click Next
    
    
     

11. Select Local Computer

12. Click Finish
    
    
     

13. Click OK
    
    
     

14. Expand Certificates

15. Expand Personal

16. Right Click Certificates

17. Select Import
    
    
     

18. Select Local Machine

19. Click Next
    
    

20. Browse to the Exported Certificate

21. Click Next
    
    
     

22. Enter Password

23. Mark the key as exportable

24. Click Next
    
    
     

25. Place in the Personal certificate store

26. Click Next
    
    
     

27. Click Finish
    
    
     

28. Click OK
     
    
     

Step 8: Setup and Configure AD FS 3.0

1. Open Server Manger

2. Select AD FS

3. Click More… where it says Configuration required for Active Directory Federation Servers at…

   
    

4. Click Configure the federation service… action on the Post-Deployment Configuration

   
    

5. Select Create the first federation server in a federation server farm

6. Click Next
   
   

7. Enter credentials for a user that has domain administrator permissions. This is used to complete the install, it’s not used as the AD FS service account

8. Click Next
   
   

9. Select the SSL certificate that you imported

10. Select the Federation Service Name

11. Enter the Federation Service Display Name

    NOTE: Since I am using a multi-name certificate these three values don’t match for me. In production I always recommend that you use a single name certificate to keep things simple. If that’s the case then the three values below should all match e.g. sts.domain.com
     

12. Click Next
    
    
     

13. Enter the AD FS Service Account Name and Password

    NOTE: This can be a managed service account or a domain user account designated for AD FS. If you use a domain user account, it does not need any special permissions. The install will give it the permissions required.
     

14. Click Next
    
    
     

15. Select Windows Internal Database or the location of a SQL Server Database. The choice is yours, but for most companies the Windows Internal Database works just fine

16. Click Next
    
    
     

17. Click Next
    
    
     

18. Wait for the Pre-requisite checks to be completed
     

19. Click Configure
    
    
     

20. Click Close

Step 9: Federate with Office365

1. Open the Desktop on the AD FS server

2. Find Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell

   
    

3. Right Click and Run As Administrator

4. Set the credential variable

   $cred=Get-Credential
    

5. Enter a Global Administrator account from Office 365

6. Connect to Microsoft Online Services with the credential variable set previously

   - Connect-MsolService –Credential $cred
    

7. Set the MSOL ADFS Context server, to the ADFS server (optional if you are on the AD FS server)

   - Set-MsolADFSContext –Computer adfs_servername.domain_name.com
    

8. Convert the domain to a federated domain

   - Convert-MsolDomainToFederated –DomainName domain_name.com
    

9. Successful Federation

   - Successfully updated ‘ domain_name.com ‘ domain
    

10. Verify federation

    - Get-MsolFederationProperty –DomainName domain_name.com
    

This concludes the setup of the first AD FS server and federation with Office365.

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 10, 2014
  Excellent article! Thanks for the reference!