Connect Azure Active Directory to Citrix Cloud

Citrix Cloud supports using Azure Active Directory (AD) to authenticate Citrix Cloud administrators and workspace subscribers.

By using Azure AD with Citrix Cloud, you can:

• Leverage your own Active Directory, so you can control auditing, password policies, and easily disable accounts when needed.
• Configure multifactor authentication for a higher level of security against the possibility of stolen sign-in credentials.
• Use a branded sign-in page, so your users know they’re signing in at the right place.
• Use federation to an identity provider of your choice including ADFS, Okta, and Ping, among others.

Azure AD app and permissions

Citrix Cloud includes an Azure AD app that allows Citrix Cloud to connect with Azure AD without the need for you to be logged in to an active Azure AD session. Since the introduction of this app, Citrix released updates that improve performance and support new features and permissions.

If you have an existing Azure AD connection to Citrix Cloud and want to use the latest updated app, you need to update your Azure AD connection in Citrix Cloud. For more information, see Reconnect to Azure AD for the updated app in this article. If you choose not to update the app, your existing connection continues to function normally.

For more information about the Azure AD applications and permissions that Citrix Cloud uses to connect with your Azure AD, see Azure Active Directory permissions for Citrix Cloud.

Tip:

Learn more about supported identity providers with the Introduction to Citrix Identity and Authentication education course. The “Planning Citrix Identity and Access Management” module includes short videos that walk you through connecting this identity provider to Citrix Cloud and enabling authentication for Citrix Workspace.

Prepare your Active Directory and Azure AD

Before you can use Azure AD, be sure you meet the following requirements:

• You have a Microsoft Azure account. Every Azure account comes with Azure AD free of charge. If you don’t have an Azure account, sign up at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/?v=17.36.
• You have the Global Admin role in Azure AD. This role is required to give Citrix Cloud your consent to connect with Azure AD.
• Administrator accounts have their “mail” property configured in Azure AD. To do this, you can sync accounts from your on-premises Active Directory into Azure AD using Microsoft’s Azure AD Connect tool. Alternatively, you can configure non-synced Azure AD accounts with Office 365 email.

Sync accounts with Azure AD Connect

1. Ensure that the Active Directory accounts have the Email user property configured:
   1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
   2. In the Users folder, locate the account you want to check, right-click and select Properties. On the General tab, verify the Email field has a valid entry. Citrix Cloud requires that administrators added from Azure AD have different email addresses than administrators who sign in using a Citrix-hosted identity.
2. Install and configure Azure AD Connect. For complete instructions, see Getting started with Azure AD Connect using express settings on the Microsoft Azure website.

Connect Citrix Cloud to Azure AD

When connecting your Citrix Cloud account to your Azure AD, Citrix Cloud needs permission to access your user profile (or the profile of the signed-in user) in addition to the basic profiles of the users in your Azure AD. Citrix requests this permission so it can acquire your name and email address (as the administrator) and enable you to browse for other users and add them as administrators later. For more information about the application permissions that Citrix Cloud requests, see Azure Active Directory permissions for Citrix Cloud.

Important:

You must be a Global Admin in Azure AD to complete this task.

1. Sign in to Citrix Cloud at https://citrix.cloud.com.
2. Click the menu button in the top-left corner of the page and select Identity and Access Management.
3. Locate Azure Active Directory and select Connect from the ellipsis menu.
4. When prompted, enter a short, URL-friendly identifier for your company and click Connect. The identifier you choose must be globally unique within Citrix Cloud.
5. When prompted, sign in to the Azure account with which you want to connect. Azure shows you the permissions that Citrix Cloud needs to access the account and acquire the information required for connection. Most of these permissions are read-only and allow Citrix Cloud to gather basic information from your Microsoft Graph such as groups and user profiles. If you integrated Citrix Endpoint Management or XenMobile Server with Microsoft Intune, you must grant Microsoft Intune-related read-write permissions. For more information, see Azure Active Directory Permissions for Citrix Cloud.
6. Click Accept to accept the permissions request.

Add administrators to Citrix Cloud from Azure AD

Citrix Cloud supports adding administrators either individually or as Azure AD groups.

To add individual administrators from Azure AD, see Manage administrator access.

To add Azure AD administrator groups to Citrix Cloud, see Manage administrator groups.

Sign in to Citrix Cloud using Azure AD

After the Azure AD user accounts are connected, users can sign in to Citrix Cloud using one of the following methods:

• Navigate to the administrator sign-in URL that you configured when you initially connected the Azure AD identity provider for your company. Example: https://citrix.cloud.com/go/mycompany
• From the Citrix Cloud sign-in page, click Sign in with my company credentials., type the identifier you created when you initially connected Azure AD (for example, “mycompany”), and click Continue.

Enable Azure AD authentication for workspaces

After you connect Azure AD to Citrix Cloud, you can allow your subscribers to authenticate to their workspaces through Azure AD.

Important:

Before enabling Azure AD workspace authentication, review the Azure Active Directory section for considerations for using Azure AD with workspaces.

1. In Citrix Cloud, click the menu button in the top-left corner and select Workspace Configuration.
2. From the Authentication tab, select Azure Active Directory.
3. Click Confirm to accept the workspace experience changes that will occur when Azure AD authentication is enabled.

Enable advanced Azure AD capabilities

Azure AD provides advanced multifactor authentication, world-class security features, federation to 20 different identity providers, and self-service password change and reset, among many other features. Turning these features on for your Azure AD users enables Citrix Cloud to leverage those capabilities automatically.

To compare Azure AD service level capabilities and pricing, see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/active-directory/.

Reconnect to Azure AD for the updated app

Citrix Cloud includes an Azure AD app that allows Citrix Cloud to connect with Azure AD without the need for you to be logged in to an active Azure AD session. Since the introduction of this app, Citrix has updated the app as follows:

• In August 2018, the app was updated to improve performance and allow you to be ready for future releases.
• In May 2019, the app was updated to support adding Azure AD administrator groups to Citrix Cloud.
• In April 2022, the app was updated to use the GroupMember.Read.All permission, which replaces the Group.Read.All permission.

If you connected your Azure AD to Citrix Cloud before these updates were released and you want to use the latest updated app, you need to disconnect your Azure AD from Citrix Cloud and then reconnect it. Using the latest app is optional. If you choose not to update the app, your existing connection still functions normally.

Requirements

Before you reconnect your Azure AD, verify that you meet the following requirements:

• You must be a Global Admin in Azure AD. When reconnecting your Azure AD, you grant application-level permissions to Citrix Cloud through the Global Admin role in Azure AD. This allows Citrix Cloud to reconnect to Azure AD on your behalf. For more information, see Azure Active Directory Permissions for Citrix Cloud.
• You must be an administrator with full access permissions under the default Citrix identity provider. If you are signed in to Citrix Cloud with your Azure AD credentials, the reconnection fails. If you don’t have any administrators using the Citrix identity provider in your account, you can temporarily add one and delete it after reconnecting your Azure AD. For instructions, see Invite individual administrators.
• If you are using Azure AD to authenticate workspace subscribers, select a different identity provider temporarily. Citrix Cloud doesn’t allow you to disconnect your Azure AD if it’s also used as an authentication method for Citrix Workspace. For more information, see Choose or change authentication methods in the Citrix Workspace documentation.

To reconnect Azure AD

1. Sign in to Citrix Cloud as an administrator with full access permissions under the Citrix identity provider.
2. From the Citrix Cloud menu, select Identity and Access Management and then select Authentication.
3. Locate Azure Active Directory and select Disconnect from the ellipsis menu at the far right of the page.
4. From the ellipsis menu, select Connect.
5. When prompted, sign in to your Azure account using your Global Admin credentials. Azure shows you the permissions that Citrix Cloud needs to access the account and acquire the information required for the connection.
6. Select Accept to accept the permissions request.