nodejs + azure active directory + daemon application

Question

I want to create a simple backend application in node that can query AAD to get a list of OUs or Groups. My application needs this type of information to create groups of users in our system. I'm having trouble getting started here. I found this example which is in DotNet which does a Daemon server flow. I've found these informative links:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/active-directory-authentication-scenarios/#daemon-or-server-application-to-web-api

Basically I want to be able to make a backend request using certificate based authentication without any user involvement. I'm assuming an adminsitrator will need to allow my application to make this request through some authorization flow. I'm looking for a simple step-by-step guide to get this going along with some sample NodeJS code. Something similar to this example: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/active-directory-dotnet-daemon-certificate-credential

Assuming I don't have a windows machine will I need to somehow run Powershell commandsfrom some sort of mono emulator on my Linux servers?

Answer 1

I figured out how to get the basic certificate flow working. It's not well documented, however if you look at the tests/client-credentials.js in the source code for adal-node, you will see some examples.

Answer 2

If you're using Azure App Service web apps, you can follow this guide to integrate AAD with your application: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/app-service-mobile-how-to-configure-active-directory-authentication/

Once you have that, auth will be enabled for your app and you can configure the AAD app in the portal. See this blog post for more details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/ad/archive/2014/12/18/azure-active-directory-now-with-group-claims-and-application-roles.aspx

To integrate with node.js, see this example for details: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/active-directory-node-webapi

Once you have that, switch to using cert auth similar to the example you provided. Also you shouldn't need powershell. For more information on how AAD works see: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/active-directory-authentication-scenarios/