Discover solutions precisely and shortly utilizing Amazon Q Enterprise with the SharePoint On-line connector
Amazon Q Business is a completely managed, generative synthetic intelligence (AI)-powered assistant that helps enterprises unlock the worth of their information and information. With Amazon Q, you possibly can shortly discover solutions to questions, generate summaries and content material, and full duties through the use of the knowledge and experience saved throughout your organization’s varied information sources and enterprise techniques. On the core of this functionality are native information supply connectors that seamlessly combine and index content material from a number of repositories right into a unified index. This allows the Amazon Q massive language mannequin (LLM) to supply correct, well-written solutions by drawing from the consolidated information and knowledge. The info supply connectors act as a bridge, synchronizing content material from disparate techniques like Salesforce, Jira, and SharePoint right into a centralized index that powers the pure language understanding and generative skills of Amazon Q.
To make this integration course of as seamless as attainable, Amazon Q Enterprise gives a number of pre-built connectors to a variety of information sources, together with Atlassian Jira, Atlassian Confluence, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Microsoft SharePoint, Salesforce, and plenty of extra. This lets you create your generative AI resolution with minimal configuration. For a full record of Amazon Q supported information supply connectors, see Supported connectors.
One of many key integrations for Amazon Q is with Microsoft SharePoint On-line. SharePoint is a extensively used collaborative platform that enables organizations to handle and share content material, information, and functions to enhance productiveness and decision-making. By integrating Amazon Q with SharePoint, companies can empower their workers to entry info and insights from SharePoint extra effectively and successfully.
With the Amazon Q and SharePoint On-line integration, enterprise customers can do the next:
- Get on the spot solutions – Customers can ask pure language questions and Amazon Q will present correct, up-to-date solutions by looking and synthesizing info from throughout the group’s SharePoint websites and content material.
- Speed up analysis and evaluation – As a substitute of manually looking by SharePoint paperwork, customers can use Amazon Q to shortly discover related info, summaries, and insights to help their analysis and decision-making.
- Streamline content material creation – Amazon Q can help in producing drafts, outlines, and even full content material items (equivalent to reviews, articles, or displays) by drawing on the information and information saved in SharePoint.
- Automate workflows and duties – Amazon Q could be configured to finish routine duties and queries (equivalent to producing standing reviews, answering FAQs, or requesting info) by interacting with the related SharePoint information and functions.
- Improve collaboration – By making SharePoint content material extra accessible and actionable by Amazon Q, the combination facilitates higher information sharing, problem-solving, and collaboration throughout the group.
On this submit, we information you thru the method of organising the SharePoint On-line connector in Amazon Q Enterprise. It will allow your group to make use of the facility of generative AI to unlock the total worth of your SharePoint funding and empower your workforce to work smarter and extra effectively.
Discover correct solutions from content material in Microsoft SharePoint utilizing Amazon Q Enterprise
After you combine Amazon Q Enterprise with Microsoft SharePoint, customers can ask questions from the physique of the doc. For this submit, we use a SharePoint On-line web site named HR Insurance policies that has details about the journey coverage, state incapacity insurance coverage coverage, payroll taxes, and paid household depart program for California saved in doc libraries. A few of the questions you possibly can ask Amazon Q Enterprise may embrace the next:
- Is there a depart plan in California for brand new mother and father?
- Can I declare incapacity insurance coverage throughout this time?
- Earlier than making use of for depart, I need to submit my submit expense report, how can I do it?
- Is there any restrict on spending on a enterprise journey?
- How can I calculate UI and ETT?
Overview of the info supply
SharePoint is a website-based collaboration system that’s used as a safe place to retailer, manage, share, and entry info from any system. SharePoint empowers teamwork with dynamic and productive group websites for each mission group, division, and division.
SharePoint is on the market in two choices: SharePoint Server and SharePoint On-line. SharePoint Server is a domestically hosted platform that your organization owns and operates. You’re chargeable for all the things from server structure, lively listing, to file storage. SharePoint Server 2016, SharePoint Server 2019, and SharePoint Server Subscription Version are the lively SharePoint Server releases. SharePoint On-line is a cloud-based service offered instantly from Microsoft. They care for id administration structure, and web site administration. SharePoint Sever and SharePoint On-line comprise pages, recordsdata, attachments, hyperlinks, occasions, and feedback that may be crawled by Amazon Q SharePoint connectors for SharePoint Server and SharePoint On-line.
SharePoint On-line and SharePoint Server provide a web site content material area the place web site house owners can view an inventory of all pages, libraries, and lists for his or her web site. The positioning content material area additionally supplies entry so as to add lists, pages, doc libraries, and extra.
Pages are the contents saved on webpages; these are supposed to show info to the end-user.
A doc library supplies a safe place to retailer recordsdata the place you and your coworkers can discover them simply. You possibly can work on them collectively and entry them from any system at any time.
An inventory is likely one of the information storage mechanisms inside SharePoint. It supplies the UI to view the gadgets in an inventory. You possibly can add, edit, and delete gadgets or view particular person gadgets.
Overview of the SharePoint On-line connector for Amazon Q Enterprise
To crawl and index contents from SharePoint On-line, you possibly can configure the Amazon Q Enterprise SharePoint On-line connector as a knowledge supply in your Amazon Q enterprise software. If you join Amazon Q Enterprise to an information supply and provoke the sync course of, Amazon Q Enterprise crawls and indexes paperwork from the info supply into its index.
Let’s have a look at what are thought-about as documents within the context of Amazon Q enterprise SharePoint On-line connector. A doc is a group of data that consists of a title, the content material (or the physique), metadata (information in regards to the doc), and entry management record (ACL) info to verify solutions are offered from paperwork that the consumer has entry to.
The next entities in SharePoint are crawled and listed as paperwork together with their metadata and entry management info:
- Recordsdata
- Occasions
- Pages
- Hyperlinks
- Attachments
- Feedback
Amazon Q Enterprise crawls information supply doc attributes or metadata and maps them to fields in your Amazon Q index. Discuss with Amazon Q Business SharePoint Online data source connector field mappings for extra particulars.
Configure and put together the Amazon Q connector
Earlier than you index the content material from Microsoft SharePoint on-line, your have to first set up a safe connection between the Amazon Q Enterprise connector for SharePoint On-line along with your SharePoint On-line occasion. To ascertain a safe connection, you’ll want to authenticate with the info supply.
The next are the supported authentication mechanisms for the SharePoint connector:
- Fundamental Authentication
- OAuth 2.0 with Useful resource Proprietor Password Credentials Circulate
- Azure AD App-Solely (OAuth 2.0 Certificates)
- SharePoint App-Solely with Shopper Credentials Circulate
- OAuth 2.0 with Refresh Token Circulate
Safe querying with ACL crawling, id crawling, and consumer retailer
Safe querying is when a consumer runs a question and is returned solutions from paperwork that the consumer has entry to and never from paperwork that the consumer doesn’t have entry to. To allow customers to do safe querying, Amazon Q Enterprise honors ACLs of the paperwork. Amazon Q Enterprise does this by first supporting the indexing of ACLs. Indexing paperwork with ACLs is essential for sustaining information safety, as a result of paperwork with out ACLs are thought-about public. At question time, the consumer’s credentials (e mail tackle) are handed together with the question in order that solutions from paperwork which can be related to the question and which the consumer is permitted to entry are displayed.
A doc’s ACL comprises info such because the consumer’s e mail tackle and the native teams or federated teams (if Microsoft SharePoint is built-in with an id supplier (IdP) equivalent to Azure Energetic Listing/Entra ID) which have entry to the doc. The SharePoint on-line information supply could be optionally related to an IdP equivalent to Okta or Microsoft Entra ID. On this case, the paperwork in SharePoint On-line can have the federated group info.
When a consumer logs in to an online software to conduct a search, the consumer’s credentials (equivalent to an e mail tackle) have to match that’s within the ACL of the doc to return outcomes from that doc. The online software that the consumer makes use of to retrieve solutions can be related to an IdP or AWS IAM Identity Center. The consumer’s credentials from the IdP or IAM Id Middle are referred to right here because the federated consumer credentials. The federated consumer credentials equivalent to the e-mail tackle are handed together with the question in order that Amazon Q can return the solutions from the paperwork that this consumer has entry to. Nonetheless, typically this consumer’s federated credentials will not be current within the SharePoint On-line information supply or the SharePoint doc’s ACLs. As a substitute, the consumer’s native consumer alias, native teams that this native consumer alias is part of, or the federated teams that the federated consumer is part of can be found within the doc’s ACL. Subsequently, there’s a have to map the federated consumer credential to the native consumer alias, native teams, or federated teams within the doc ACL.
To map this federated consumer’s e mail tackle to the native consumer aliases, native teams, or federated teams, sure Amazon Q Enterprise connectors, together with the SharePoint On-line connector, present an id crawler to load the id info (native consumer alias, native teams, federated teams, and their mappings, together with another mappings to a federated consumer) from the related information sources right into a consumer retailer. At question time, Amazon Q Enterprise retrieves the related native consumer aliases, native teams, and any federated teams from the consumer retailer and makes use of that together with the question for securely retrieving passages from paperwork that the consumer has entry to.
If you’ll want to index paperwork with out ACLs, you should be certain they’re explicitly marked as public in your information supply.
Discuss with How Amazon Q Business connector crawls SharePoint (Online) ACLs for extra particulars.
Amazon Q indexes the paperwork with ACLs and units the consumer’s e mail tackle or consumer principal identify for the consumer and the group identify [site URL hash value | group name] for the native group within the ACL. If the SharePoint On-line information supply is related to an IdP equivalent to Azure AD/Entra ID or Okta, the AD group identify seen within the SharePoint web site is about because the federated group ACL. The id crawler units these the identical because the principals together with the accessible mappings within the consumer retailer. Any further mappings have to be set within the consumer retailer utilizing the consumer retailer APIs.
Overview of resolution
This submit presents the steps to create a certificates and personal key, configure Azure AD (both utilizing the Azure AD console or a PowerShell script), and configure Amazon Q Enterprise.
For this submit, we use a SharePoint On-line web site named HR Insurance policies that hosts coverage paperwork in a Paperwork library and payroll tax paperwork in a Payroll Taxes library to stroll you thru the answer.
In one of many situations that we validate, a SharePoint consumer (Carlos Salazar) is a part of the SharePoint web site members group, and he has entry solely to coverage paperwork within the Paperwork library.
Carlos Salazar can obtain responses for queries associated to HR insurance policies, as proven within the following instance.
Nonetheless, for questions associated to payroll tax, he didn’t obtain any response.
One other SharePoint consumer (John Doe) is a part of the SharePoint web site house owners group and has entry to each the Paperwork and Payroll Taxes libraries.
John Doe receives responses for queries associated to payroll taxes, as proven within the following instance.
Stipulations
It’s best to meet the next conditions:
- The consumer performing these steps must be a worldwide administrator on Azure AD/Entra ID.
- Configure Microsoft Entra ID and IAM Identity Center integration.
- You want a Microsoft Home windows occasion to run PowerShell scripts and instructions with PowerShell 7.4.1+. Particulars of the required PowerShell modules are described later on this submit.
- The consumer ought to have administrator permissions on the Home windows occasion.
- Guarantee that the consumer working these PowerShell instructions has the correct M365 license (for instance, M365 E3).
Create the certificates and personal key
In Azure AD, when configuring App-Solely authentication, you sometimes use a certificates to request entry. Anybody with the certificates’s non-public key can use the app and the permissions granted to the app. We create and configure a self-signed X.509 certificates that will probably be used to authenticate Amazon Q towards Azure AD, whereas requesting the App-Solely entry token. The next steps stroll you thru the setup of this mannequin.
For this submit, we use Home windows PowerShell to run just a few PowerShell instructions. You should use an present Home windows occasion or spin up a Home windows EC2 occasion or Home windows workstation to run the PowerShell instructions.
You should use the next PowerShell script to create a self-signed certificates. You too can generate the self-signed certificates by the New-PnPAzureCertificate command.
- Run the next command:
You may be requested to present a password to encrypt your non-public key, and each the .PFX file and the .CER file will probably be exported to the present folder (the place you ran the PowerShell script from). Confirm that you simply now have a .cer and .pfx file.
- Add this .cer file to an S3 location that your Amazon Q IAM role has GetObject permissions for. You possibly can let Amazon Q create this function for you in future steps outlined later on this submit, and the right permissions will probably be added for you when you select.
Now you extract the non-public key contents from the .pfx file and reserve it for Amazon Q connector configuration. This .pfx file will probably be current within the folder the place you could have saved the certificates.
- Run the next command to extract the non-public key:
You may be prompted for the import password. Enter the password that you simply used to guard your key pair while you created the .pfx file (shopper ID, in our case). You may be prompted once more to supply a brand new password to guard the .key file that you’re creating. Retailer the password to your key file in a safe place to keep away from misuse. (If you enter a password, the window reveals nothing when you’re utilizing the Home windows CMD window. Enter your password and select Enter.)
- Run the next command to decrypt the non-public key:
- Run the next command to extract the certificates:
This decrypted key and certificates will probably be utilized by the connector for authentication functions.
- Add the X.509 certificates (ending with .crt) to an S3 bucket. This will probably be used when configuring the SharePoint On-line connector for Amazon Q.
- Confirm the contents of the file
amazonqbusinessdemo-decrypted.key
begins with the usualBEGIN PRIVATE KEY
header. - Copy and paste the contents of the
amazonqbusinessdemo-decrypted.key
to be used later in our Amazon Q setup.
- Confirm the contents of the file
Configure Azure AD
You possibly can configure Azure AD utilizing both of the next strategies:
- Utilizing the Azure AD console GUI. This can be a guide step-by-step course of.
- Utilizing the offered PowerShell script. That is an automatic course of that takes within the inputs and configures the required permissions.
Comply with the steps for both choice to finish the Azure AD configuration.
Configure Azure AD utilizing the Azure AD console
To configure Azure AD utilizing the GUI, you first register an Azure AD software within the Azure AD tenant that’s linked to the SharePoint On-line/O365 tenant. For extra particulars, see Granting access via Azure AD App-Only.
- Open the Office 365 Admin Center utilizing the account of a consumer member of the Tenant International Admins group.
- Navigate to Microsoft Azure Portal.
- Seek for and select App registrations.
- Select New registration.
- Enter a reputation in your software, choose who can use this software, and select Register.
An software will probably be created. You will note a web page like the next screenshot.
- Word the appliance (shopper) ID and the listing (tenant) ID.
These IDs will probably be totally different than what’s proven within the screenshot.
Now you possibly can configure the newly registered software for SharePoint permissions.
- Select API permissions within the navigation pane.
- Select Add a permission so as to add the permissions to your software.
- Select SharePoint from the record of functions.
- Configure permissions.
There are two alternative ways to configure SharePoint permissions.
To configure permissions to entry a number of SharePoint Website collections (utilizing Azure AD App-Solely permissions), choose Website.FullControl.All to permit full management permissions to all of the SharePoint web site collections and to learn the ACLs from these web site collections.
This permission requires admin consent in a tenant earlier than it may be used. To take action, select Grant admin consent for <group identify> and select Sure to substantiate.
Alternatively, to configure permissions to entry particular SharePoint web site collections, choose Websites.Chosen to permit entry to a subset of web site collections with no signed-in consumer. The precise web site collections and the permissions granted will probably be configured in SharePoint On-line.
This permission requires admin consent in a tenant earlier than it may be used. To take action, select Grant admin consent for <group identify> and select Sure to substantiate.
Subsequent, you grant Azure AD app permissions to a number of SharePoint web site collections. Be certain the next conditions are in place:
- You need to have Home windows Server/Workstation with PowerShell 7.4.1+.
- The consumer working these PowerShell instructions should have the correct M365 license (for instance, M365 E3).
- Set up the PowerShell modules utilizing
Set up-Module -Identify PnP.PowerShell -AllPreRelease
. - If that is your first-time working PowerShell instructions, run the
Join-PnPOnline -Url <web site assortment url> -PnPManagementShell
PowerShell command and full the consent course of to make use of PnP cmdlets. Alternatively, run theRegister-PnPManagementShellAccess
cmdlet, which grants entry to the tenant for the PnP administration shell multi-tenant Azure AD software.
- Open PowerShell and hook up with SharePoint On-line utilizing the Connect-PnPOnline command:
- Add the Azure AD app to a number of particular web site assortment permissions utilizing Grant-PnPAzureADAppSitePermission:
If you wish to configure permissions to multiple SharePoint On-line web site assortment, then you should repeat the previous PowerShell instructions for each assortment.
Now you’re prepared to attach the certificates.
- Select Certificates & secrets and techniques within the navigation pane.
- On the Certificates tab, select Add certificates.
- Select the .cer file you generated earlier and select Add to add it.
This completes the configuration on the Azure AD facet.
Configure Azure AD utilizing the offered PowerShell script
The consumer working this PowerShell script must be an Azure AD tenant admin or have tenant admin permissions. Moreover, as a prerequisite, install the MS Graph PowerShell SDK.
Full the next steps to run the PowerShell script:
- Run the PowerShell script and observe the directions.
This script will do the next:
- Register a brand new software in Azure AD/Entra ID
- Configure the required SharePoint permissions
- Present admin consent for the permissions
The output from the PowerShell script will seem like the next screenshot.
- In the event you selected Chosen because the permission to focus on a particular SharePoint Website assortment, proceed with the steps to configure a particular SharePoint Website assortment as mentioned earlier.
- You probably have multiple SharePoint web site assortment to be crawled, repeat the earlier step to configure every assortment.
Configure Amazon Q
Ensure you have set up Amazon Q Business with Entra ID as IdP as talked about within the conditions. Additionally, be certain the e-mail ID is in lowercase letters whereas creating the customers in Entra ID.
Comply with the directions in Connecting Amazon Q Business to SharePoint (Online) using the console.
For Step 9 (Authentication), we select Azure AD App-Solely authentication and configure it as follows:
- For Tenant ID, enter the tenant ID of your SharePoint account. This will probably be listing (tenant) ID in your registered Azure software, within the Azure Portal, as proven within the following screenshot (the IDs will probably be totally different in your setup).
- For Certificates path, enter the full S3 path to your certificates (for instance,
s3://certBucket/azuread.crt
). That is the Azure AD self-signed X.509 certificates to authenticate the connector for Azure AD. This certificates was created earlier. - For AWS Secrets and techniques Supervisor secret, create a secret in AWS Secrets Manager to retailer your SharePoint authentication credentials:
- For Secret identify, enter a reputation in your secret.
- For Shopper ID, enter the Azure AD shopper ID generated while you registered SharePoint in Azure AD. That is the appliance (shopper) ID created within the Azure Portal when registering the SharePoint software in Azure, as described earlier.
- For Non-public key, enter a personal key to authenticate the connector for Azure AD. That is the contents of the .pfx file you created when registering your Azure SharePoint software, as described earlier. Enter the decrypted contents of that .pfx file in its entirety. Select Present non-public key to confirm it matches the contents in your .pfx file.
Proceed with the remainder of the steps in Connecting Amazon Q Business to SharePoint (Online) using the console.
Entry the online expertise on Amazon Q
To entry the online expertise, full the next steps:
- On the Amazon Q Enterprise console, select Functions within the navigation pane.
- Select the appliance you created.
- Select the hyperlink below Net expertise URL to browse Amazon Q.
- When prompted, authenticate with Entra ID/Azure AD.
After you’re authenticated, you possibly can entry Amazon Q. You possibly can ask Amazon Q a query and get a response primarily based on the permissions of the logged-in consumer.
References
- You possibly can check if the
Grant-PnPAzureADAppSitePermission
cmdlet labored by connecting to the SharePoint web site utilizing the Azure AD app that has the SharePoint.Websites.Chosen permission and run just a few SharePoint API calls:
-
- Make an observation of the certificates thumbprint as proven earlier.
- Set up the certificates for the present consumer within the Home windows Certificates Administration Retailer.
- Run the next PowerShell cmdlet to hook up with the SharePoint web site assortment utilizing
PnPOnline
:
-
- Run
Get-PnPList
to record all of the SharePoint lists within the web site assortment and ensure that the permissions are configured appropriately:
- Run
Troubleshooting
For troubleshooting steerage, discuss with Troubleshooting your SharePoint (Online) connector.
Clear up
Full the next steps to wash up your sources:
- Open the Office 365 Admin Center utilizing the account of a consumer member of the Tenant International Admins group.
- Navigate to the Microsoft Azure Portal.
- Seek for and select App registrations.
- Choose the app you created earlier, then select Delete.
- On the Amazon Q Enterprise console, select Functions within the navigation pane.
- Choose the appliance you created, and on the Actions menu, select Delete.
Conclusion
On this submit, we explored how Amazon Q Enterprise can seamlessly combine with SharePoint On-line to assist enterprises unlock the worth of their information and information. With the SharePoint On-line connector, organizations can empower their workers to search out solutions shortly, speed up analysis and evaluation, streamline content material creation, automate workflows, and improve collaboration.
We walked you thru the method of organising the SharePoint On-line connector, together with configuring the mandatory Azure AD integration and authentication mechanisms. With these foundations in place, you can begin unlocking the total potential of your SharePoint funding and drive larger productiveness, effectivity, and innovation throughout your enterprise.
Now that you simply’ve discovered easy methods to combine Amazon Q Enterprise along with your Microsoft SharePoint On-line content material, it’s time to unlock the total potential of your group’s information and information. To get began, join an Amazon Q Enterprise account and observe the steps on this submit to arrange the SharePoint On-line connector. Then you can begin asking Amazon Q pure language questions and watch because it surfaces essentially the most related info out of your firm’s SharePoint websites and paperwork.
Don’t miss out on the transformative energy of generative AI and the Amazon Q Enterprise platform. Join at present and expertise the distinction that Amazon Q could make in your group’s SharePoint-powered information and content material administration.
Concerning the Authors
Vijai Gandikota is a Principal Product Supervisor on the Amazon Q and Amazon Kendra group of Amazon Net Companies. He’s chargeable for the Amazon Q and Amazon Kendra connectors, ingestion, safety, and different facets of Amazon Q and Amazon Kendra.
Satveer Khurpa is a Senior Options Architect on the GenAI Labs group at Amazon Net Companies. On this function, he makes use of his experience in cloud-based architectures to develop modern generative AI options for purchasers throughout various industries. Satveer’s deep understanding of generative AI applied sciences permits him to design scalable, safe, and accountable functions that unlock new enterprise alternatives and drive tangible worth.
Vijai Anand Ramalingam is a Senior Modernization Architect at Amazon Net Companies, specialised in enabling and accelerating clients’ software modernization, transitioning from legacy monolith functions to microservices.
Ramesh Jatiya is a Senior Options Architect within the Unbiased Software program Vendor (ISV) group at Amazon Net Companies. He’s enthusiastic about working with ISV clients to design, deploy, and scale their functions within the cloud to derive enterprise worth. He’s additionally pursuing an MBA in Machine Studying and Enterprise Analytics from Babson Faculty, Boston. Outdoors of labor, he enjoys working, enjoying tennis, and cooking.
Neelam Rana is a Software program Improvement Engineer on the Amazon Q and Amazon Kendra engineering group. She works on Amazon Q connector design, improvement, integration, and check operations.
Dipti Kulkarni is a Software program Improvement Supervisor on the Amazon Q and Amazon Kendra engineering group of Amazon Net Companies, the place she manages the connector improvement and integration groups.