Configuring the Report Server for .NET Single Sign-On Functionality using Microsoft Entra ID for Linux/Container

Microsoft Entra ID is a cloud-based identity and access management service that can be used for authentication in the Telerik Report Server for .NET.

In this article, we will explain how to set up and enable the Microsoft Entra ID authentication for the users of the Telerik Report Server for .NET. Besides the enhanced authentication security, this approach also improves the user experience, because the users who are already registered in Microsoft Entra will be able to log into Report Server Manager UI without entering their login credentials each time.

Prerequisites

• Telerik Report Server installation with at least one administrator account.
• An Azure account with Microsoft Entra ID support.

In case you are unfamiliar with the process of using Microsoft Entra ID, we recommend checking out the Set up Microsoft Entra ID article.

Steps

1. Create a Microsoft Entra ID Tenant

1. Navigate to the Microsoft Azure Home page.
2. From the menu in the top left corner of the page, select Microsoft Entra ID.

3. In the displayed Overview page, click Manage Tenants:

   

4. Click the Create button on the Manage Tenants page:

   

5. On the Create a tenant page, choose Microsoft Entra ID as the tenant type (it should be selected by default):

   

6. Click Next: Configuration > and type Organization name (for example, Report Server Tenant) and Initial Domain Name (e.g. ReportServerNetDomain):

   

7. Click Next: Review + create > and if the configuration is correct, a green message notifying that the validation has passed will be displayed:

   

8. Click Create and then fill in the Captcha (it will take a minute or two to complete the process once it has been submitted).

2. Registering the Telerik Report Server for .NET Application

1. If the steps from the previous section were completed successfully, the following green message should appear above the Captcha:

   Tenant creation was successful. Click here to navigate to your new tenant: Report Server Tenant.

   The text Report Server Tenant is your organization name and there will be a link to the Report Server Tenant Overview page.

   If you are not on the Report Server Tenant Overview page, go to the top left Menu >> Microsoft Entra ID >> click Add >> App Registration.

2. Register the application by choosing Add > App registration.

   Add Report Server Application, for example, as a name, leave the rest options to be the default, and click Register.

   

3. Expand the Manage dropdown in the menu on the left and choose Authentication.

4. Click Add Platform >> Web >> Tick the ID Tokens checkbox, then click Configure.

   

5. Add a Redirect URL, for example, http://localhost:82/signin-oidc.

   

6. Click Certificates & secrets in the expanded Manage dropdown in the menu on the left.

7. On the Certificates & secrets page, Click the New client secret button.

   

   Once the secret is created, copy and save the secret value as it will be used in the Report Server later. Note that you can do this only at this step. The failure would require another secret to be created, saved, and used.

3. EntraID Setup on a local Telerik Report Server for .NET installation on Linux

1. Download the archive Telerik_ReportServer_Net_NonWindows_{Report Server version}.zip from your Telerik account.
2. Unzip the archive. The content gets deployed in two folders ReportServer and ReportServiceAgent.
3. Open the Powershell and navigate to the subfolder ReportServer.
4. Run the command docker build -t telerik-report-server:local . in Powershell to build the Report Server Manager image. Mind the dot . at the end of the command.
5. Navigate to the subfolder ReportServiceAgent.
6. Run the command docker build -t telerik-report-server-agent:local . in Powershell to build the Report Server ServiceAgent image. Mind the dot . at the end of the command.
7. Navigate to the subfolder ReportServer\docker-configs.

8. (optional, recommended) Change the password P1@ceStr0ngP@ssw0rdH3r3 for the SA database user with your own strong password in the files docker-compose.yml and mssql_storage.env:

   • Open the file docker-compose.yml in a text editor like Notepad++ and change the password on line 31. The tabulation is essential and should be preserved:

   - SA_PASSWORD=P1@ceStr0ngP@ssw0rdH3r3

   • Open the file mssql_storage.env in a text editor like Notepad++ and change the password with your own password you used above:

   reportServer__storage__parameters__0__value=Data Source=storage;Initial Catalog=reportserver;Password=P1@ceStr0ngP@ssw0rdH3r3;User Id=sa;Encrypt=false

9. (optional, recommended) Set the client secret via an environment variable:

   • Open the file docker-compose.yml in a text editor like Notepad++ and after line 7, inside the environment element, add the following line:

   - ExternalLogin__EntraId__ClientSecret=yoursecretvalue

10. Run the command docker image pull mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest.

11. (optional, use it only if it was not used before) Initialize a swarm to make the Docker Engine hosting the RS.NET a manager in the newly created single-node swarm by running the command docker swarm init.
12. Run the command docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml report-server.
13. Navigate to localhost:82 in the browser to open the Report Server Manager for .NET to begin configuring the application.
14. After setting up the storage configuration and creating an administrator user, the Configure Encryption page will be displayed. Download the Main and Backup encryption keys as we will need to use them soon.
15. Navigate to the \ReportServer\docker-configs subfolder again and open the docker-compose.yml file in a text editor of choice. Note that the text editor application may require administrator privileges to save the file after edit.

16. Inside the environment element, add an entry for each encryption key, for example:

    RS_NET_MainPrivateKey - Environment variable holding the main private key for the encryption. RS_NET_BackupPrivateKey - Environment variable holding the main backup key for the encryption.

    services:
      # template configuration of Report Server.
      telerik-report-server:
         environment:
         - Telemetry__IsDisabled=true
         - RS_NET_MainPrivateKey=PASTE_THE_MAIN_ENCRYPTION_KEY_HERE
         - RS_NET_BackupPrivateKey=PASTE_THE_BACKUP_ENCRYPTION_KEY_HERE
    

17. Run the command docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml report-server to re-deploy with the updated docker-compose.yml.

18. Open the Report Server Manager(by default - http://localhost:82), and then open the Configuration page.
19. Click on the SERVER AGENT tab and start the creation of a new Service Agent by pressing the CONFIGURE NEW AGENT button.

20. In the pop-up window with title Configure New Agent, enter the Report Server base URL or http://telerik-report-server. This should automatically route to the Report Server Manager application.

    

21. Press the GENERATE CONFIGURATION pop-up and copy the tokens from the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES tab:

    

22. Open the \ReportServer\docker-configs\docker-compose.yml file in a text editor again, and uncomment the section with the telerik-report-server-agent element. This section should be present by default in the file and it looks as follows:

    telerik-report-server-agent:
      environment:
        - Agent__ServerAddress=http://telerik-report-server
        - Agent__AuthenticationToken=PASTE_THE_AGENT_AUTH_TOKEN_HERE
        - Agent__Id=PASTE_THE_AGENT_ID_HERE
      image: telerik-report-server-agent:local
      restart: always
      command: dockerize -wait tcp://telerik-report-server:80 -timeout 1200s
    

23. Run the command docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml report-server to re-deploy with the updated docker-compose.yml.

24. Open the Configuration page with the Service Agents again, now there should be one agent visible in the Server Agents table in the middle of the page:

    

4. Enabling Microsoft Entra ID Authentication in the Telerik Report Server for .NET

1. Open the Telerik Report Server for .NET in the browser. The default URL is http://localhost:82/.

2. Navigate to the Configuration page and select the Authentication tab.

   

3. Enable the Microsoft Entra ID Provider.

4. In the Instance field, use the URL - https://login.microsoftonline.com/.
5. In the Domain field, use the one from step 5 in the Create a Microsoft Entra ID Tenant section and add it as a URL, for example - https://ReportServerNetDomain.onmicrosoft.com/.

6. Open the Microsoft Azure Portal to get the Tenant ID:

   • From the menu in the top left corner of the page, select Microsoft Entra ID.
   • The Tenant ID can be copied from the Basic Information table in the center of the page.

7. Open the Microsoft Azure Portal to get the Client ID:

   • From the menu in the top left corner of the page, select Microsoft Entra ID.
   • Expand the Manage dropdown >> App Registrations >> All Applications.
   • Click the application name e.g. Report Server Application (defined in the previous section).

   • Copy the Application (client) ID and add it to the Report Server in the Client ID field.

     

   • Click the Save Changes button in the Report Server for .NET's Configuration page (a message that a manual restart of the service is required will appear on the screen).

   • The restart can be performed from the IIS Manager >> Application Pools >> Right-click the Telerik Report Server for .NET site and choose Recycle.

8. Once the service is manually restarted, log in with a user that has an administrator role and go to User Management.

9. Click the Add New User button:

   • Select the Authentication Provider to be EntraId.
   • Add a username.
   • Add the domain name login email e.g. [e-mail].
   • Choose a User Role and save the changes.

   

10. Log out of the Report Server to go to the Login page.

    

11. Click the blue Microsoft Entra ID button. You should be automatically logged in with your EntraID.

See Also

• What is Microsoft Entra ID?
• Set up Microsoft Entra ID
• Microsoft Entra ID Training
• Installing ReportServer.NET on Docker Container