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Authenticate with on-premises Active Directory in your Azure app | Microsoft Docs |
Learn about the different options for line-of-business apps in Azure App Service to authenticate with on-premises Active Directory |
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This article shows you how to authenticate with on-premises Active Directory (AD) in Azure App Service. An Azure app is hosted in the cloud, but there are ways to authenticate on-premises AD users securely.
An Azure Active Directory tenant can be directory-synced with an on-premises AD. This approach enables AD users to access your App from the internet and authenticate using their on-premises credentials. Furthermore, Azure App Service provides a turn-key solution for this method. With a few clicks of a button, you can enable authentication with a directory-synced tenant for your Azure app. This approach has the following advantages:
- Does not require any authentication code in your app. Let App Service do the authentication for you and spend your time on providing functionality in your app.
- Azure AD Graph API enables access to directory data from your Azure app.
- Provides SSO to all applications supported by Azure Active Directory, including Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Intune, and thousands of non-Microsoft cloud applications.
- Azure Active Directory supports role-based access control. You can use the [Authorize(Roles="X")] pattern with minimal changes to your code.
To see how to write a line-of-business Azure app that authenticates with Azure Active Directory, see Create a line-of-business Azure app with Azure Active Directory authentication.
If you have an on-premises secure token service (STS) like Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), you can use that to federate authentication for your Azure app. This approach is best when company policy prohibits AD data from being stored in Azure. However, note the following:
- STS topology must be deployed on-premises, with cost and management overhead.
- Only AD FS administrators can configure relying party trusts and claim rules, which may limit the developer's options. On the other hand, it is possible to manage and customize claims on a per-application basis.
- Access to on-premises AD data requires a separate solution through the corporate firewall.
To see how to write a line-of-business Azure app that authenticates with an on-premises STS, see Create a line-of-business Azure app with AD FS authentication.