SSO not working when connecting over SSL/HTTPS

If users are occasionally being prompted to login, this article could help you find out why and fix the problem.

Applies To

  • UniversitySite Cloud Sites

Intended Audience

  • System administrators

Symptoms

  • users are reporting that they are occasionally prompted to login to UniversitySite
  • single-sign-on works sometimes but not always
  • single-sign-on works for some users but not others

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Launch UniversitySite, write down the URL for later (for example, http://yourdomain.universitysite.com)
  2. Logout of UniversitySite
  3. Close all of your browser windows
  4. Open a browser and type https://yourdomain.universitysite.com (be sure to use https instead of http)

If single-sign-on failed it could be because you don't have SSL/https enabled on your single-sign-on server.  

Resolution

You might try to track down the users who are getting stuck at the login screen to see if they are using a link on your intranet or a bookmark that includes https instead of http.
You don't have to setup https on your single-sign-on server, but if you don't it is important to be careful to distribute links to UniversitySite using http instead of https.  This is the easiest and recommended solution since all communication between the SSO server and UniversitySite Cloud is encrypted with 256 bit AES encryption.
If you prefer to use SSL, you can use https://yourdomain.universitysite.com, but only after you install a security certificate on your internal SSO server.  After doing so you should be able to connect to https://your-sso-server/UniversitySiteSSO/Default.aspx, which should in turn allow you to connect to https://yourdomain.universitysite.com with successful single-sign-on.

Still need help? Contact Us Contact Us