Aruba ClearPass Integration with Microsoft Entra ID for Device Onboarding
Integrated Aruba ClearPass with Microsoft Entra ID so users can onboard their devices with their Microsoft account and connect to Wi-Fi securely using certificates.
Overview
This project connected Aruba ClearPass with Microsoft Entra ID to make device onboarding simple and secure. Users sign in with their Microsoft account through SSO, then ClearPass Onboard issues a certificate to their device. The project also included a full Aruba wireless system using controller architecture.
The challenge
The organization uses Microsoft Entra ID for user accounts, but the Wi-Fi login was not linked to it. Password based Wi-Fi login was less secure and caused problems when users changed their passwords. IT also needed an easy way for users to set up their own devices without manual help.
The approach
First, we integrated Microsoft Entra ID with ClearPass using SSO, so users sign in to the onboarding portal with their Microsoft account. After login, ClearPass Onboard checks the user and issues a device certificate. The device then connects to the secure Wi-Fi using certificate based authentication (EAP-TLS), with no password needed. For wireless, we deployed Aruba controllers to manage all access points from one place. We set up an onboarding SSID for first time setup and a secure SSID for daily use. Access rights were assigned by user role from Entra ID. The full process was tested on different device types before go-live.
Results
- Users onboard their own devices with their Microsoft account - Secure certificate based Wi-Fi with no passwords - No Wi-Fi issues when users change their passwords - Central wireless management through Aruba controllers - Less workload for IT and a better user experience