Amazon Q Enterprise is a completely managed, generative synthetic intelligence (AI)-powered assistant that helps enterprises unlock the worth of their information and data. With Amazon Q, you possibly can shortly discover solutions to questions, generate summaries and content material, and full duties by utilizing the data and experience saved throughout your organization’s numerous 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 permits the Amazon Q massive language mannequin (LLM) to offer correct, well-written solutions by drawing from the consolidated information and data. The information 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 talents of Amazon Q.
To make this integration course of as seamless as potential, Amazon Q Enterprise affords a number of pre-built connectors to a variety of knowledge sources, together with Atlassian Jira, Atlassian Confluence, Amazon Easy Storage Service (Amazon S3), Microsoft SharePoint, Salesforce, and lots of extra. This lets you create your generative AI answer with minimal configuration. For a full listing 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 broadly used collaborative platform that enables organizations to handle and share content material, data, and purposes 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 way of 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 (reminiscent of reviews, articles, or displays) by drawing on the data and information saved in SharePoint.
- Automate workflows and duties – Amazon Q could be configured to finish routine duties and queries (reminiscent of producing standing reviews, answering FAQs, or requesting info) by interacting with the related SharePoint information and purposes.
- Improve collaboration – By making SharePoint content material extra accessible and actionable by way of Amazon Q, the mixing facilitates higher data sharing, problem-solving, and collaboration throughout the group.
On this put up, we information you thru the method of establishing 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 complete 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 put up, we use a SharePoint On-line website named HR Insurance policies that has details about the journey coverage, state incapacity insurance coverage coverage, payroll taxes, and paid household go away program for California saved in doc libraries. Among the questions you possibly can ask Amazon Q Enterprise would possibly embrace the next:
- Is there a go away plan in California for brand spanking new mother and father?
- Can I declare incapacity insurance coverage throughout this time?
- Earlier than making use of for go away, 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, arrange, share, and entry info from any machine. SharePoint empowers teamwork with dynamic and productive staff websites for each challenge staff, 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 liable 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 supplied instantly from Microsoft. They handle id administration structure, and website administration. SharePoint Sever and SharePoint On-line comprise pages, information, 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 website content material area the place website homeowners can view an inventory of all pages, libraries, and lists for his or her website. The location content material area additionally gives 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 gives a safe place to retailer information the place you and your coworkers can discover them simply. You possibly can work on them collectively and entry them from any machine at any time.
A listing is without doubt one of the information storage mechanisms inside SharePoint. It gives the UI to view the objects in an inventory. You possibly can add, edit, and delete objects or view particular person objects.
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 an information supply in your Amazon Q enterprise utility. While 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 of as paperwork within the context of Amazon Q enterprise SharePoint On-line connector. A doc is a group of knowledge that consists of a title, the content material (or the physique), metadata (information in regards to the doc), and entry management listing (ACL) info to verify solutions are supplied 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. Confer with Amazon Q Enterprise SharePoint On-line information supply connector discipline 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, it’s essential to authenticate with the info supply.
The next are the supported authentication mechanisms for the SharePoint connector:
- Primary Authentication
- OAuth 2.0 with Useful resource Proprietor Password Credentials Movement
- Azure AD App-Solely (OAuth 2.0 Certificates)
- SharePoint App-Solely with Consumer Credentials Movement
- OAuth 2.0 with Refresh Token Movement
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 of public. At question time, the consumer’s credentials (electronic mail handle) are handed together with the question in order that solutions from paperwork which might 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 electronic mail handle and the native teams or federated teams (if Microsoft SharePoint is built-in with an id supplier (IdP) reminiscent of Azure Lively Listing/Entra ID) which have entry to the doc. The SharePoint on-line information supply could be optionally related to an IdP reminiscent of 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 internet utility to conduct a search, the consumer’s credentials (reminiscent of an electronic mail handle) have to match that’s within the ACL of the doc to return outcomes from that doc. The online utility that the consumer makes use of to retrieve solutions could be related to an IdP or AWS IAM Identification Heart. The consumer’s credentials from the IdP or IAM Identification Heart are referred to right here because the federated consumer credentials. The federated consumer credentials reminiscent of the e-mail handle are handed together with the question in order that Amazon Q can return the solutions from the paperwork that this consumer has entry to. Nevertheless, generally this consumer’s federated credentials might 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. Due to this fact, 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 electronic mail handle 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 it’s essential to index paperwork with out ACLs, you should be sure they’re explicitly marked as public in your information supply.
Confer with How Amazon Q Enterprise connector crawls SharePoint (On-line) ACLs for extra particulars.
Amazon Q indexes the paperwork with ACLs and units the consumer’s electronic mail handle or consumer principal title for the consumer and the group title [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 reminiscent of Azure AD/Entra ID or Okta, the AD group title seen within the SharePoint website is about because the federated group ACL. The id crawler units these the identical because the principals together with the obtainable mappings within the consumer retailer. Any further mappings must be set within the consumer retailer utilizing the consumer retailer APIs.
Overview of answer
This put up 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 put up, we use a SharePoint On-line website 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 eventualities that we validate, a SharePoint consumer (Carlos Salazar) is a part of the SharePoint website 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.
Nevertheless, for questions associated to payroll tax, he didn’t obtain any response.
One other SharePoint consumer (John Doe) is a part of the SharePoint website homeowners 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.
Conditions
You must meet the next stipulations:
- The consumer performing these steps ought to be a worldwide administrator on Azure AD/Entra ID.
- Configure Microsoft Entra ID and IAM Identification Heart 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 put up.
- The consumer ought to have administrator permissions on the Home windows occasion.
- Make it possible for the consumer operating these PowerShell instructions has the fitting M365 license (for instance, M365 E3).
Create the certificates and personal key
In Azure AD, when configuring App-Solely authentication, you usually 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 likely 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 put up, we use Home windows PowerShell to run a couple of PowerShell instructions. You need to use an current Home windows occasion or spin up a Home windows EC2 occasion or Home windows workstation to run the PowerShell instructions.
You need to use the next PowerShell script to create a self-signed certificates. You can even generate the self-signed certificates by way of 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 likely 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 position has GetObject permissions for. You possibly can let Amazon Q create this position for you in future steps outlined later on this put up, and the right permissions will likely be added for you if you happen to select.
Now you extract the non-public key contents from the .pfx file and put it aside for Amazon Q connector configuration. This .pfx file will likely be current within the folder the place you have got 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 if you created the .pfx file (shopper ID, in our case). You may be prompted once more to offer 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. (While you enter a password, the window exhibits nothing if you happen to’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 likely be utilized by the connector for authentication functions.
- Add the X.509 certificates (ending with .crt) to an S3 bucket. This will likely 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. It is a handbook step-by-step course of.
- Utilizing the supplied PowerShell script. That is an automatic course of that takes within the inputs and configures the required permissions.
Observe the steps for both possibility 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 utility within the Azure AD tenant that’s linked to the SharePoint On-line/O365 tenant. For extra particulars, see Granting entry by way of Azure AD App-Solely.
- Open the Workplace 365 Admin Heart utilizing the account of a consumer member of the Tenant World Admins group.
- Navigate to Microsoft Azure Portal.
- Seek for and select App registrations.
- Select New registration.
- Enter a reputation on your utility, choose who can use this utility, and select Register.
An utility will likely be created. You will notice a web page like the next screenshot.
- Notice the appliance (shopper) ID and the listing (tenant) ID.
These IDs will likely be completely different than what’s proven within the screenshot.
Now you possibly can configure the newly registered utility for SharePoint permissions.
- Select API permissions within the navigation pane.
- Select Add a permission so as to add the permissions to your utility.
- Select SharePoint from the listing of purposes.
- Configure permissions.
There are two other 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 website collections and to learn the ACLs from these website collections.
This permission requires admin consent in a tenant earlier than it may be used. To take action, select Grant admin consent for <group title> and select Sure to substantiate.
Alternatively, to configure permissions to entry particular SharePoint website collections, choose Websites.Chosen to permit entry to a subset of website collections with out a signed-in consumer. The precise website collections and the permissions granted will likely 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 title> and select Sure to substantiate.
Subsequent, you grant Azure AD app permissions to a number of SharePoint website collections. Ensure the next stipulations are in place:
- You have to have Home windows Server/Workstation with PowerShell 7.4.1+.
- The consumer operating these PowerShell instructions will need to have the fitting 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 operating PowerShell instructions, run the
Join-PnPOnline -Url <website 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 utility.
- Open PowerShell and connect with SharePoint On-line utilizing the Join-PnPOnline command:
- Add the Azure AD app to a number of particular website assortment permissions utilizing Grant-PnPAzureADAppSitePermission:
If you wish to configure permissions to a couple of SharePoint On-line website 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 aspect.
Configure Azure AD utilizing the supplied PowerShell script
The consumer operating this PowerShell script ought to be an Azure AD tenant admin or have tenant admin permissions. Moreover, as a prerequisite, set up 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 utility in Azure AD/Entra ID
- Configure the required SharePoint permissions
- Present admin consent for the permissions
The output from the PowerShell script will appear like the next screenshot.
- If you happen to selected Chosen because the permission to focus on a selected SharePoint Website assortment, proceed with the steps to configure a selected SharePoint Website assortment as talked about earlier.
- You probably have a couple of SharePoint website assortment to be crawled, repeat the earlier step to configure every assortment.
Configure Amazon Q
Be sure to have arrange Amazon Q Enterprise with Entra ID as IdP as talked about within the stipulations. Additionally, be sure the e-mail ID is in lowercase letters whereas creating the customers in Entra ID.
Observe the directions in Connecting Amazon Q Enterprise to SharePoint (On-line) utilizing 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 likely be listing (tenant) ID in your registered Azure utility, within the Azure Portal, as proven within the following screenshot (the IDs will likely be completely different on 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 and techniques Supervisor to retailer your SharePoint authentication credentials:
- For Secret title, enter a reputation on your secret.
- For Consumer ID, enter the Azure AD shopper ID generated if you registered SharePoint in Azure AD. That is the appliance (shopper) ID created within the Azure Portal when registering the SharePoint utility in Azure, as described earlier.
- For Personal key, enter a non-public key to authenticate the connector for Azure AD. That is the contents of the .pfx file you created when registering your Azure SharePoint utility, 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 on your .pfx file.
Proceed with the remainder of the steps in Connecting Amazon Q Enterprise to SharePoint (On-line) utilizing 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 beneath Internet 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 website utilizing the Azure AD app that has the SharePoint.Websites.Chosen permission and run a couple of 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 website assortment utilizing
PnPOnline
:
-
- Run
Get-PnPList
to listing all of the SharePoint lists within the website assortment and make sure that the permissions are configured appropriately:
- Run
Troubleshooting
For troubleshooting steering, confer with Troubleshooting your SharePoint (On-line) connector.
Clear up
Full the next steps to wash up your sources:
- Open the Workplace 365 Admin Heart utilizing the account of a consumer member of the Tenant World 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 put up, we explored how Amazon Q Enterprise can seamlessly combine with SharePoint On-line to assist enterprises unlock the worth of their information and data. With the SharePoint On-line connector, organizations can empower their workers to seek out solutions shortly, speed up analysis and evaluation, streamline content material creation, automate workflows, and improve collaboration.
We walked you thru the method of establishing the SharePoint On-line connector, together with configuring the required Azure AD integration and authentication mechanisms. With these foundations in place, you can begin unlocking the complete potential of your SharePoint funding and drive better productiveness, effectivity, and innovation throughout your corporation.
Now that you simply’ve discovered how one can combine Amazon Q Enterprise along with your Microsoft SharePoint On-line content material, it’s time to unlock the complete potential of your group’s data and information. To get began, join an Amazon Q Enterprise account and observe the steps on this put up to arrange the SharePoint On-line connector. Then you can begin asking Amazon Q pure language questions and watch because it surfaces probably 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 right now and expertise the distinction that Amazon Q could make on your group’s SharePoint-powered data and content material administration.
Concerning the Authors
Vijai Gandikota is a Principal Product Supervisor on the Amazon Q and Amazon Kendra staff of Amazon Internet Companies. He’s liable 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 staff at Amazon Internet Companies. On this position, he makes use of his experience in cloud-based architectures to develop modern generative AI options for shoppers throughout various industries. Satveer’s deep understanding of generative AI applied sciences permits him to design scalable, safe, and accountable purposes that unlock new enterprise alternatives and drive tangible worth.
Vijai Anand Ramalingam is a Senior Modernization Architect at Amazon Internet Companies, specialised in enabling and accelerating prospects’ utility modernization, transitioning from legacy monolith purposes to microservices.
Ramesh Jatiya is a Senior Options Architect within the Impartial Software program Vendor (ISV) staff at Amazon Internet Companies. He’s keen about working with ISV prospects to design, deploy, and scale their purposes within the cloud to derive enterprise worth. He’s additionally pursuing an MBA in Machine Studying and Enterprise Analytics from Babson School, Boston. Exterior of labor, he enjoys operating, taking part in tennis, and cooking.
Neelam Rana is a Software program Improvement Engineer on the Amazon Q and Amazon Kendra engineering staff. She works on Amazon Q connector design, growth, integration, and check operations.
Dipti Kulkarni is a Software program Improvement Supervisor on the Amazon Q and Amazon Kendra engineering staff of Amazon Internet Companies, the place she manages the connector growth and integration groups.