How to set up Windows Authentication?

Visual Guard offers two modes of Windows authentication:
Windows SSO (Single Sign On) and Mix-Mode Authentication (Windows + another type of authentication).

System requirements

• The VG Identity Server needs to be installed on a Windows Server
• The Windows Server needs to be in the domain
• The Windows Server must have IIS

Activate Windows Authentication in the VG Repository

First, you have to check if Windows Authentication is activated in the repository

• Open the VG WinConsole
• Select and open your VG Repository

In the VG Repository settings, check that “Windows Authentication” is enabled in the supported authentication modes section.

Activate Windows Authentication in the VG Identity Server

IIS has to have Windows Authentication activated

• Open IIS
• Select VG Identity Server app
• Go to the authentication module
• Enable Anonymous and Windows authentication

Which Windows authentication mode should be selected?

Visual Guard offers two modes of Windows Authentication:

Mixed Mode Authentication:
The user is authenticated with his Windows account and another type of authentication

Windows SSO (Single Sign-On):
The user is authenticated with his Windows account without any user action.

How to set up Mixed Mode Authentication?

To activate this mode, you need to open the VG Identity Server folder:

• Open appsettings.json file for Visual Guard Identity Server
• Set IsWindowsAuthenticationEnabled = true
• Set IsAutomaticWindowsAuthenticationEnabled = false
• Save the file and restart the VGIdentityServer

Sample

{
  "VGIdentityServerConfiguration": {
    "ServerId": "a31a70b4-9a09-445e-82c9-c6262eaa58f5",
    "WebUserInterfaceId": "03d1acad-61bf-4b62-82f4-3fe5eb0bb554",
    "IsWindowsAuthenticationEnabled": true,
    "IsAutomaticWindowsAuthenticationEnabled": false,
    "TraceLevel": "Verbose",
    "ServerUrl": "http://localhost:5000",
    "UseDefaultIdentityServerWhenServerIdEmpty": false,
    "CheckIfRestartRequiredAtEveryMinutes": "1",
    "AllowAutoRestart": "true"
  }  
}

VG Identity Server Sample login form

How to set up Windows SSO?

To activate this mode, you need to open the VG Identity Server folder:

• Open appsettings.json file for Visual Guard Identity Server
• Set IsWindowsAuthenticationEnabled = true
• Set IsAutomaticWindowsAuthenticationEnabled = true
• Save the file and restart the VG Identity Server.

Sample code

{
  "VGIdentityServerConfiguration": {
    "ServerId": "a31a70b4-9a09-445e-82c9-c6262eaa58f5",
    "WebUserInterfaceId": "03d1acad-61bf-4b62-82f4-3fe5eb0bb554",
    "IsWindowsAuthenticationEnabled": true,
    "IsAutomaticWindowsAuthenticationEnabled": true,
    "TraceLevel": "Verbose",
    "ServerUrl": "http://localhost:5000",
    "UseDefaultIdentityServerWhenServerIdEmpty": false,
    "CheckIfRestartRequiredAtEveryMinutes": "1",
    "AllowAutoRestart": "true"
  }
}

From now on, when a user accesses the page, he will be automatically authenticated with his Windows account, without displaying a login form.