How to Import Azure AD contacts to AstroContacts Console?

Azure Active Directory(AD) offers a faster, secure, and scalable user database for the corporate environment. It is a convenient way for IT admins to manage a large number of users. AstroContacts allows IT admins to sync the user information and contacts of the users who have an account in an Azure Active Directory domain.

AstroContacts, a centralized contact management tool from 42Gears allows IT admins to sync contacts directly from an Azure AD account. It helps IT admins to import or automatically sync Azure AD contacts to the AstroContacts Web Console and makes it easy for the admin to manage these contacts. 

Prerequisites:

Initially, you would need to integrate the AstroContacts with your Azure AD. For integrating AstroContacts with Azure AD, follow the steps mentioned in this blog.

Now, to import the contacts from your Azure AD account and enable auto-sync, the following two processes must be executed.

Import Contacts in AstroContacts Web Console:

To import contacts from your Azure AD Account, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to AstroContacts Web Console.
2. Click Contacts > Import > AZURE AD CONTACTS.
3. Click Yes to accept the import.
4. In the Azure AD Contacts prompt, select an option for Unique ID from the drop-down menu(This is the unique identifier for AstroContacts which will be considered while importing contacts from the Azure AD server).
5. Select an option from the Azure AD Attribute drop-down to map with Astro Attribute.
6. Select an option from the Astro Attribute drop-down menu.
   Note: Attributes are objects which hold values like first name, last name, etc. It is mandatory to map Astro Attribute First Name with Azure AD Attribute.
7. Click Show/Hide Not Imported Azure AD Attribute to view AD attributes that are not mapped with Astro Attributes.

Auto – Sync Contacts in AstroContacts Web Console:

To Auto-Sync up Azure AD configuration in AstroContacts Web Console, follow these steps:

1. Login into AstroContacts Web Console.
2. Click Account Settings > Contact sync > Azure AD
3. Click on Edit Options to configure how you want to sync the Azure contacts :
   
   a) Auto Sync Enable: Turn-On on this option to periodically copy all the existing contact modifications from the Azure AD server to the AstroContacts Web Console every 6 hours. 
   
   b) Auto Add Azure AD Contacts: Once enabled, the newly added contacts will be automatically synced to the AstroContacts Console based on the number of licenses available for the account. For eg: If an enterprise has an Azure AD account with 1000 contacts and 100 AstroContacts licenses, then you can sync only 100 contacts from the Azure AD server. 
   
   Note: This feature will work only when Azure AD Attribute is mapped with AstroAttribute and has imported at least one contact.

   4. Click Save to save the Azure AD configuration.

   5. Click Test Connection to confirm the authentication.

Once done, your Azure AD contacts will be synced to the AstroContacts Web Console and these contacts will be listed under the Contacts section. IT admins will now be able to access and manage AD contacts like any other contacts using the AstroContacts Web Console which will automatically reflect on the devices.

To know more about AstroContacts, click here.
If you need further assistance, please submit a ticket here.