Change of the authentication provider from AD to AAD

Applies to version: 2021.1.x and above; author: Paweł Fijał 

WEBCON BPS allows for selecting an authentication provider and sometimes there may be a situation in which it will be necessary to change the already established provider from Active Directory to Azure Active Directory. You can change the provider for both Designer Studio and the Portal, but in the case of Designer Studio it is recommended to leave AD. WEBCON BPS enables to use several authentication providers at the same time. However, this article will describe the change from AD to AAD, leaving AD authentication for Designer Studio according to the recommendations.

Before starting the configuration change in Azure you should create an application dedicated to the authentication described in a different knowledge base article: https://community.webcon.com/posts/post/webcon-bps-integration-with-azure-active-directory/119

Change of the authentication provider in Designer Studio 

In the system configuration, after expanding "Authentication providers", different providers are displayed. Click on "Windows Active Directory" and uncheck "Active in BPS Portal" in the available options.

After clicking "Save", a message will appear with the information that WEBCON BPS Portal needs to be restarted.

After clicking "OK", go to the provider "Azure Active Directory (AAD)" and mark  "Active in BPS Portal"  and, if necessary, "Active in Designer Studio". Fill in the data of the application created in Azure and click "Save". The message that WEBCON BPS Portal needs to be restarted will appear again.

In order to apply the changes, open the IIS manager in the application pools, select "WEBCONBPS" and click "Recycle".

Change of the authentication provider via WEBCON BPS installer 

Changing the authentication provider using the installer is a fallback option in case you accidentally deactivate providers in Designer Studio. The installer does not distinguish authentication for Designer Studio and authentication for the Portal and changes introduced will apply to both.

After starting the WEBCON BPS installer and accepting the conditions, select "System management tools" and then "Authentication providers" from the menu on the left.

Uncheck "Windows Active Directory", select "Azure Active Directory (AAD)" and click "Save".

After saving the change, restart the application pool.