Elentra Login Options

Article Content

This article covers the following topics. Click on the topic to go to that section of the article.

• Introduction
• SSO Setup
• Local Authentication

Introduction

Elentra offers two sign-in methods for your users:

• Single Sign-On (SSO): Is an authentication process that allows a user to access multiple applications or systems with one set of login credentials (i.e., a single username and password). Integrate with your institution's SSO provider to login to Elentra via your SSO credentials. This is called Institutional Login in Elentra.
• Local Authentication: Login directly to Elentra using a username and password, which are stored and managed solely in Elentra.

Elentra can support both options simultaneously, which allows for the most flexibility.  Typically, institutions choose to enforce SSO login for all staff, faculty, and students, but allow the Elentra System Administrator to login via a locally set username & password that is managed inside of Elentra solely. Your institution's IT security policies may inform or dictate how you must proceed.  

Your production and staging instances of Elentra can be configured differently, if desired.  Typically, if an institution requires SSO sign-in for all users, this is only enforced in the production environment. Staging data is scrubbed of identifying user details, and is typically only accessed by the Elentra implementation/support team and your institution's Elentra implementation/support team members. As such, most institutions allow for local authentication in the staging environment.

SSO Setup

Setting up SSO for your institution is a straightforward, one-time process.  To begin, the Elentra implementation/support team will need the following pieces of information:

1. Your institution's enforcement rules for production and staging environments. 
   1. Will Elentra be configured with SSO only which will enforce that all users must use SSO to access your Elentra instance? Or will you allow for both SSO and local authentication?
   2. Will your enforcement rules be the same on production and staging, or will they differ?  Your institution may require SSO only on production but allow for local authentication to be set up on your staging environment.
2. The SSO identifier that will be used to connect users from the SSO to Elentra.
   1. This is a data point that is the same in Elentra as it is in your SSO application. It is unique to each user. 
   2. Typically, institutions will use the "Staff/Student Number", "Username", or "Email" field as the SSO identifier.  The "SSO Identifier" field can optionally be used if another existing data field is not appropriate.

Provide these details to your Elentra implementation support team to get started.  We will configure your Elentra instance according to your specifications and return a Federation Metadata XML file to your institution.  Your IT team will need this file to configure your SSO application for Elentra.  Once your team has completed that work, they must provide us with the SSO metadata file, which includes the following details:

• Metadata URL
• AD Identifier
• Login/Logout URL
• Member-Elentra Certificate

Elentra will advise when the setup has been completed and can be tested by a member of your team.  To test, login to your Elentra production instance by clicking on Login with SSO.  Follow the prompts on the SSO login portal screen, logging in using your SSO login credentials.

• If you are signed into Elentra successfully, the setup is complete and your Elentra users can begin logging in via SSO. 
• If any errors appear, take a screenshot of the error message screen, including the URL, and send to your implementation team for troubleshooting. 

Local Authentication

Local authentication requires each Elentra user to have a username & password that is stored and managed solely inside of Elentra to login. When creating new users, you must provide a username in order to save the user(s).  If no password is specified, a randomly generated password will be applied upon creation. The user who is creating new accounts also has the option to send an email to the new user(s), prompting them to reset their password to a secure one that they can remember.

For more information on creating users in Elentra, see the Create and Manage Users article.