low code, simplistic Azure Website security using windows live provider?

Question

I have this webpage I need to secure on Azure. I want to be the only person who can access it. I don't need a fancy login or error page process. The page/site was formerly running on my home web server and so windows authentication via the web.config authentication tag was "really easy" to implement.

I'm looking at Azure Authentication models with STS, ACS, SAML, Federated... and truthfully am somewhat confused about what I need to do. Also, I'm wondering why MS did not offer a simple control panel interface to secure and maintain access to websites so we don't have to create services and custom web site code to manage all of this.

At a high level, what are the minimum steps I need to perform to accomplish this?

Answer 1

If you are the only one going to use the site, then I'm not sure you need to go through all that trouble.

But, on the other hand, doing what you want is not that complicated:

1. Get an ACS namespace
2. Install WIF in your machine
3. Run "Add STS Reference" in your web project and point to your ACS namespace (look for Federation metadata endpoint)
4. Configure LiveID trust in ACS (or any other of the pre-provisioned IdPs)
5. Configure ACS to issue a token for your app

Since your needs are very simple, the default rules will probably work for you.

Here's an article that explains everything step-by-step.