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Ingress to apps secured by Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID) in Kubernetes

TL;DR

To use the ngrok Kubernetes Operator with Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID):

  1. Create a cluster and deploy an example app
  2. Add the ngrok Kubernetes Operator
  3. Update your ngrok Edge to enable SAML
  4. Create an enterprise app in Microsoft Entra ID
  5. Finish adding Microsoft Entra ID authorization to your ngrok Edge
  6. Test authorization to your app using Microsoft Entra ID

The ngrok Kubernetes Operator is ngrok's official controller for adding secure public ingress and middleware execution to your Kubernetes apps with ngrok's Cloud Edge. With ngrok, you can manage and secure traffic to your apps at every stage of the development lifecycle while also benefitting from simpler configurations, security, and edge acceleration.

Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD)—now known as Microsoft Entra ID (see the tip below)—is an identity and access management platform that helps administrators and DevOps engineers safeguard their organization's multicloud environment with strong authentication and unified identity management, whether they operate in Azure cloud or on-premises.

note

In October 2023, Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD) was renamed Microsoft Entra ID to "communicate the multicloud, multiplatform functionality" and "alleviate confusion with Windows Server Active Directory." This name change changes nothing about the product or its capabilities. We have used Azure AD up to this point due to the recency of the change, but will use Entra ID for the remainder.

The ngrok Kubernetes Operator and Entra ID integrate by letting you not only route public traffic to an app deployed on a Kubernetes cluster, but also restrict access only to users who you have authorized through Entra ID.

With this guide, you'll (optionally) create a new Kubernetes cluster and example deployment and install the ngrok Kubernetes Operator to securely route traffic through the ngrok Cloud Edge. You'll then use the ngrok dashboard to enable Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), using Entra ID as your identity provider, to authorize specific users with a single sign-on experience.

This tutorial requires:
  1. An ngrok account at the pay-as-you-go or custom tiers.
  2. A Microsoft Azure account with access to an existing Entra ID tenant or the ability to create a new tenant with an Entra ID P1 or P2 license.
  3. A Kubernetes cluster, either locally or in a public cloud, with an app you'd like to be publicly accessible to specific users.

Step 1: Create a cluster and deploy an example app​

This guide requires you to deploy some app on any Kubernetes cluster, either locally or in a public cloud, to provide an endpoint for ngrok's secure tunnel. You can use any cluster and any app, but for demonstration, we'll create a local Kubernetes cluster with minikube and deploy the Online Boutique example.

If you already have a cluster and app, skip to Step 2: Add the ngrok Kubernetes Operator.

  1. Download the GoogleCloudPlatform/microservices-demo project to your local workstation and navigate into the new directory.

    git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/microservices-demo
    cd microservices-demo

  2. Create a new minikube cluster.

    minikube start -p online-boutique

  3. Apply the manifests for the Online Boutique.

    kubectl apply -f ./release/kubernetes-manifests.yaml

Step 2: Add the ngrok Kubernetes Operator​

Next, you'll configure and deploy the ngrok Kubernetes Operator to expose your app to the public internet through the ngrok Cloud Edge.

  1. Add the ngrok Helm repository if you haven't already.

    helm repo add ngrok https://charts.ngrok.com

  2. Create a ngrok static subdomain for ingress if you don't have one already. Navigate to the Domains section of the ngrok dashboard and click Create Domain or New Domain. This static subdomain will be your NGROK_DOMAIN for the remainder of this guide.

    Creating a subdomain on the ngrok network provides a public route to accept HTTP, HTTPS, and TLS traffic.

  3. Set up the AUTHTOKEN and API_KEY exports, which allows Helm to install the Operator using your ngrok credentials. Find your AUTHTOKEN under Your Authtoken in the ngrok dashboard.

    To create a new API key, navigate to the API section of the ngrok dashboard, click the New API Key button, change the description or owner, and click the Add API Key button. Copy the API key token shown in the modal window before closing it, as the ngrok dashboard will not show you the token again.

    export NGROK_AUTHTOKEN=[YOUR-AUTHTOKEN]
    export NGROK_API_KEY=[YOUR-API-KEY]

  4. Install the ngrok Kubernetes Operator with Helm.

    helm install ngrok-ingress-controller ngrok/kubernetes-ingress-controller \
      --namespace ngrok-ingress-controller \
      --create-namespace \
      --set credentials.apiKey=$NGROK_API_KEY \
      --set credentials.authtoken=$NGROK_AUTHTOKEN

  5. Verify the health of your new Operator pod.

    kubectl get pods -l 'app.kubernetes.io/name=kubernetes-ingress-controller'

    NAME                                                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    ngrok-ingress-controller-kubernetes-ingress-controller-man2fg5p   1/1     Running   0          2m23s

  6. Create a new boutique-ingress.yml file, which defines how the ngrok Kubernetes Operator should route traffic on your NGROK_DOMAIN to your Online Boutique app.

    tip

    Make sure you edit line 9 of the manifest below, which contains the NGROK_DOMAIN variable, with the ngrok subdomain you already created. It should look something like one-two-three.ngrok.app.

    If you are adding the ngrok Kubernetes Operator to a different deployment, you will need also change the metadata.name, service.name, and service.port.number values to match your app's configuration. See the controller docs for additional details on spec settings and common overrides.

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: Ingress
    metadata:
      name: boutique-ingress
      namespace: default
    spec:
      ingressClassName: ngrok
      rules:
        - host: NGROK_DOMAIN
          http:
            paths:
              - path: /
                pathType: Prefix
                backend:
                  service:
                    name: frontend
                    port:
                      number: 80

  7. Apply the boutique-ingress.yaml manifest you just created.

    kubectl apply -f boutique-ingress.yaml

    Give your cluster a few moments to launch the necessary resources and for ngrok's Cloud Edge to pick up the new tunnel.

    tip

    If you see an error when applying the manifest, double-check that you've updated the NGROK_DOMAIN value and re-apply.

  8. Access your app, with ingress now handled by ngrok, by navigating to your ngrok domain, e.g. https://one-two-three.ngrok.app, in your browser.

Step 3: Update your ngrok Edge to enable SAML​

Your Kubernetes-based app is now publicly accessible through the ngrok Cloud Edge—to restrict access to only authorized users with proper Entra ID credentials, you first need to enable SAML on your Edge.

  1. Navigate to the Edges section of the ngrok dashboard and click on the Edge created by the ngrok Kubernetes Operator. The domain name should match your NGROK_DOMAIN, and you should see Created by kubernetes-ingress-controller in the edge's description.

    Finding your edge in the ngrok dashboard

  2. From the Overview, click Add SAML, then Begin setup.

  3. In the IdP Metadata textbox, add the following:

    <EntityDescriptor xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:metadata"></EntityDescriptor>

  4. Click Save, at which point ngrok will update your SAML configuration with SP Metadata, Entity ID, and ACS URL values—you'll need these in the next step.

An ngrok Edge with SAML enabled

Step 4: Create an enterprise app in Microsoft Entra ID​

With SAML configured on your ngrok Edge, you can now configure Microsoft Entra ID to operate as your identity provider, often called IdP.

  1. Access your Entra ID tenant in the Azure console.

  2. Click Enterprise applications in the left-hand sidebar, then + New application, and finally + Create your own application. Give your app a name—for our example, online-boutique will work nicely, and make sure you've selected the Integrate any other application you don't find in the gallery (Non-gallery) option.

    Create an application on Amazon Entra ID

  3. Click Create to build your enterprise app, which will take you to its Overview dashboard.

  4. To provide specific users or groups access to your app, click Assign users and groups and follow the steps before heading back to the Overview.

  5. Click Set up single sign on to allow users to sign in to your app using their Microsoft Entra credentials, then choose SAML as your single sign-on protocol.

    Choose SAML as your app&#39;s single sign-on protocol

  6. Click Edit in the Basic SAML Configuration box. Copy the Entity ID from ngrok into the Identifier (Entity ID) field, and the ACS URL from ngrok into the Reply URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL) field. Click Save before you close the modal.

    Configuring SAML in Microsoft Entra ID

  7. In the SAML Certificates box, download the Federation Metadata XML.

Step 5: Finish adding Entra ID authorization to your ngrok Edge​

Time to head back to your ngrok dashboard to finish the SAML configuration.

  1. Update the IdP Metadata field by clicking Upload XML and choosing the .xml file you just downloaded.

    Updating the existing SAML configuration

  2. Click Save.

Step 6: Test authorization to your app using Microsoft Entra ID​

You've finished integrating the ngrok Kubernetes Operator and Microsoft Entra ID! Your app, whether the Online Boutique used throughout this guide or a custom deployment, is now publicly accessible only to those authorized with their Entra ID credentials. Time to test how it works:

  1. Open an incognito/private window in your browser, or a different browser than you've used so far, and navigate again to your NGROK_DOMAIN. You should see a single sign-on screen from Microsoft.

    The single sign-on screen from Microsoft

  2. Enter credentials for a Microsoft account you assigned, either as an individual user or a group, to your enterprise application in Entra ID during step 4.

    Behind the scenes, ngrok requests your identity provider, Microsoft Entra ID, for authentication. Once you sign in, or are already logged in, Entra ID then returns a SAML assertion to ngrok, telling ngrok your authentication is confirmed and you have authorization to access the app.

    Entra ID will then redirect you back to your app!

What's next?​

You've now integrated the ngrok Kubernetes Operator with Microsoft Entra ID to restrict access to your app to only authenticated users. With ngrok operating as middleware, handling both ingress to your Kubernetes cluster and the handshake with an Entra ID as an identity provider, you can deploy and secure new apps in a multi-cloud environment using your existing Microsoft/Azure identity and access management settings.

From an end user perspective, they only need to sign in once, using their Microsoft credentials, to authenticate themselves and access any number of applications you manage using Entra ID.

From here, you have a few options:

Clean up​

If you created a local cluster with Minikube to launch the Online Boutique demo app, you can delete the cluster entirely:

minikube delete -p online-boutique

ngrok will delete your Edge automatically. To restore your previous authorization settings, head back to Microsoft Entra ID to delete your enterprise application.

Extend your ngrok Kubernetes Operator and Microsoft Entra ID integration​

ngrok can manage multiple routes on a single Edge, allowing you to configure name-based virtual hosting or route modules to secure multiple apps with a single sign-on experience.

Custom domains and a circuit breaker are also good next steps to make your integration production-ready.

Learn more about the ngrok Kubernetes Operator, or contribute, by checking out the GitHub repository and the project-specific documentation.