Configure VMWare Cloud Director Single Sign-On SSO
Configure VMWare Cloud Director SSO in a few simple steps using this setup guide. miniOrange Single Sign-On (SSO) helps you to log in to VMWare Cloud Director and other applications using a single set of credentials. Upon enabling SSO for VMWare Cloud Director, a person can securely access VMWare Cloud Director in one click without having to enter their username and password again.
With miniOrange VMWare Cloud Director SSO, you can:
- Enable your users to automatically login to VMWare Cloud Director
- Have centralized and easy access control of the users
- Connect easily with any external identity source like Azure AD, ADFS, Cognito, etc
Get Free Installation Help
miniOrange offers free help through a consultation call with our System Engineers to Install or Setup VMWare Cloud Director SSO solution in your environment with 30-day free trial.
For this, you need to just send us an email at idpsupport@xecurify.com to book a slot and we'll help you in no time.
Get Help
miniOrange VMWare Cloud Director Single Sign-On (SSO) supports the following features:
- SP (Service Provider) Initiated Single Sign-On (SSO):
In this flow, a person tries to login to the service provider (VMWare Cloud Director account) directly. The request is redirected to the identity provider for authentication. On successful authentication from the identity provider, the person is given access to the application (VMWare Cloud Director account).
- IdP (Identity Provider) Initiated Single Sign-On (SSO):
In this flow, a person logs in to the identity provider using his credentials. Now the person can access any of the configured service providers (VMWare Cloud Director account, etc.) through the identity provider dashboard without having to enter the credentials again.
- Just In Time Provisioning:
This will automate user account creation and pass information in your applications through identity provider. So, when a new user tries to log in to an authorized app for the first time, they trigger the flow of information from the identity provider to the app that's needed to create their account.
Connect with External Source of Users
miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, OpenLDAP, AWS etc), Identity Providers (like Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, AWS), and many more. You can configure your existing directory/user store or add users in miniOrange.
Follow the step-by-step guide to setup VMWare Cloud Director Single Sign-On (SSO)
- Go to the Admin console of VMWare, navigate to Administration.
- From the left panel, click in SAML, this will open the SAML configuration page.

- Click on Edit, this will open a pop-up window with all the configuration options.
- Under the Service Provider tab,
- Click on the Retrieve Metadata link to download the SP metadata. This file will be used for configuration at miniOrange in Step 2.
- Enter the metadata URL as Entity ID under the Entity ID field.

1. Configure VMWare Cloud Director in miniOrange
- Login into miniOrange Admin Console.
- Go to Apps and click on Add Application button.

- In Choose Application, select SAML/WS-FED from the application type dropdown.

- Search for VMWare Cloud Director in the list, if you don't find VMWare Cloud Director in the list then, search for custom and you can set up your application in Custom SAML App.

2. Configure SSO in VMWare Cloud Director
- Now, go to VCD Admin dashboard again, and under the SAML configuration, go to Identity Provider tab.

- Toggle the Use SAML Identity Provider toggle button to enable SAML support for VCD.
- Upload the miniOrange IDP metadata file that we downloaded at the end of step 1 and click on Save button.
- From the left panel of the VCD portal, click on Users and then click on Import Users.

- In the popup, enter the username of the user that is present at miniOrange, assign a role and then click on Save. This will import the user to VCD.

- Now, as you try to login into VCD, it will show a SSO button. Click on it to initiate SSO.

- This will redirect the user to miniOrange Login page. Enter the user and password.


- After successful authentication, the user will be logged into VCD.
3. Enabling MFA at miniOrange
- Go to the miniOrange Admin dashboard. At the left panel of the page, click on Policies and then click on App Login Policy.

- Click on Edit under Action of the app that we configured. This will open the policy configuration.

- Toggle Enable 2-Factor Authentication (MFA) to enable MFA for the app and click on the Save button to save the configuration.

- Now, when trying to perform SSO, users will be prompted to verify the default MFA(OTP over email) configured by Admin.

- Note: Email gateway needs to be configured in order to send OTP over email.
4. Configure Your User Directory (Optional)
miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, OpenLDAP, Google, AWS Cognito etc), Identity Providers (like Okta, Shibboleth, Ping, OneLogin, KeyCloak), Databases (like MySQL, Maria DB, PostgreSQL) and many more. You can configure your existing directory/user store or add users in miniOrange.
- Click on External Directories >> Add Directory in the left menu of the dashboard.

- Select Directory type as AD/LDAP.

- STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If active directory is behind a firewall, you will need to open the firewall to allow incoming requests to your AD.
- STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION ON PREMISE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in your premise and only allow access to AD inside premises. You will have to download and install miniOrange gateway in your premise.

- Enter LDAP Display Name and LDAP Identifier name.
- Select Directory Type as Active Directory.
- Enter the LDAP Server URL or IP Address against LDAP Server URL field.
- Click on Test Connection button to verify if you have made a successful connection with your LDAP server.

- In Active Directory, go to the properties of user containers/OU's and search for Distinguished Name attribute.

- Enter the valid Bind account Password.
- Click on Test Bind Account Credentials button to verify your LDAP Bind credentials for LDAP connection.

- Search Base is the location in the directory where the search for a user begins. You will get this from the same place you got your Distinguished name.

- Select a suitable Search filter from the drop-down menu. If you use User in Single Group Filter or User in Multiple Group Filter, replace the <group-dn> in the search filter with the distinguished name of the group in which your users are present. To use custom Search Filter select "Write your Custom Filter" option and customize it accordingly.

- You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Save button to add user store.

Here's the list of the attributes and what it does when we enable it. You can enable/disable accordingly.
Attribute |
Description |
Activate LDAP |
All user authentications will be done with LDAP credentials if you Activate it |
Sync users in miniOrange |
Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP |
Fallback Authentication |
If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange |
Allow users to change password |
This allows your users to change their password. It updates the new credentials in your LDAP server |
Enable administrator login |
On enabling this, your miniOrange Administrator login authenticates using your LDAP server |
Show IdP to users |
If you enable this option, this IdP will be visible to users |
Send Configured Attributes |
If you enable this option, then only the attributes configured below will be sent in attributes at the time of login |
- Click on Save. After this, it will show you the list of User stores. Click on Test Connection to check whether you have enter valid details. For that, it will ask for username and password.

- On Successful connection with LDAP Server, a success message is shown.
- Click on Test Attribute Mapping.

- Enter a valid Username. Then, click on Test. Mapped Attributes corresponding to the user are fetched.

- After successful Attribute Mapping Configuration, go back to the ldap configuration and enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP.
Refer our guide to setup LDAPS on windows server.
User Import and Provisioning from AD
- Go to Settings >> Product Settings in the Customer Admin Account.

- Enable the "Enable User Auto Registration" option and click Save.

- (Optional) To send a welcome email to all the end users that will be imported, enable the "Enable sending Welcome Emails after user registration" option and click Save.

- From the Left-Side menu of the dashboard select Provisioning.

- In Setup Provisioning tab select Active Directory in the Select Application drop-down.
- Toggle the Import Users tab, click on Save button.

- On the same section, switch to Import Users section.
- Select Active Directory from the dropdown and click on the Import Users tab, to import all the users from Active Directory to miniOrange.

- You can view all the Users you have imports by selecting Users >> User List from Left Panel.

- All the imported users will be auto registered.
- These groups will be helpful in adding multiple 2FA policies on the applications.
miniOrange integrates with various external user sources such as directories, identity providers, and etc.
Troubleshooting
How can I trace and export the SAML tracer logs?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is SAML SSO?
SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication process in which a user is provided access to multiple applications and/or websites by using only a single set of login credentials (such as username and password). This prevents the need for the user to login separately into the different applications.
What is pricing of miniOrange SSO solution?
Click here to check the pricing of miniOrange SSO solution.
External References