RHEL 8.5 - Integrating RHEL Systems Directly With Windows Active Directory

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Integrating RHEL systems directly with

Windows Active Directory
Understanding and configuring RHEL systems to connect directly with Active

Directory
Last Updated: 2021-12-03

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Integrating RHEL systems directly with
Windows Active Directory
Understanding and configuring RHEL systems to connect directly with Active Directory
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Abstract
This documentation collection provides instructions on how to integrate RHEL systems directly with
Windows Active Directory using SSSD.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
. . . . . . . . . .OPEN
MAKING . . . . . . SOURCE
. . . . . . . . . .MORE
. . . . . . .INCLUSIVE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . FEEDBACK
PROVIDING . . . . . . . . . . . . ON
. . . .RED
. . . . .HAT
. . . . .DOCUMENTATION
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4. . . . . . . . . . . . .
.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . 1.. .CONNECTING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RHEL
. . . . . . SYSTEMS
. . . . . . . . . . .DIRECTLY
. . . . . . . . . . . TO
. . . .AD
. . . USING
. . . . . . . .SSSD
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1. OVERVIEW OF DIRECT INTEGRATION USING SSSD 5
1.2. SUPPORTED WINDOWS PLATFORMS FOR DIRECT INTEGRATION 6
1.3. ENSURING SUPPORT FOR COMMON ENCRYPTION TYPES IN AD AND RHEL 6
1.4. CONNECTING DIRECTLY TO AD 7
1.4.1. Discovering and joining an AD Domain using SSSD 7
1.4.2. Options for integrating with AD: using ID mapping or POSIX attributes 9
1.4.2.1. Automatically generate new UIDs and GIDs for AD users 9
1.4.2.2. Use POSIX attributes defined in AD 10
1.4.3. Connecting to AD using POSIX attributes defined in Active Directory 10
1.4.4. Connecting to multiple domains in different AD forests with SSSD 12
1.5. HOW THE AD PROVIDER HANDLES DYNAMIC DNS UPDATES 12
1.6. MODIFYING DYNAMIC DNS SETTINGS FOR THE AD PROVIDER 12
1.7. HOW THE AD PROVIDER HANDLES TRUSTED DOMAINS 13
1.8. REALM COMMANDS 14
.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . 2.
. . CONNECTING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .RHEL
. . . . . .SYSTEMS
. . . . . . . . . . DIRECTLY
. . . . . . . . . . . .TO
. . . AD
. . . .USING
. . . . . . .SAMBA
. . . . . . . . WINBIND
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
..............
2.1. OVERVIEW OF DIRECT INTEGRATION USING SAMBA WINBIND 15
2.2. SUPPORTED WINDOWS PLATFORMS FOR DIRECT INTEGRATION 15
2.3. ENSURING SUPPORT FOR COMMON ENCRYPTION TYPES IN AD AND RHEL 16
2.4. JOINING A RHEL SYSTEM TO AN AD DOMAIN 17
2.5. REALM COMMANDS 19
. . . . . . . . . . . 3.
CHAPTER . . MANAGING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . DIRECT
. . . . . . . . CONNECTIONS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .TO
. . . .AD
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
..............
3.1. MODIFYING THE DEFAULT KERBEROS HOST KEYTAB RENEWAL INTERVAL 21
3.2. REMOVING A RHEL SYSTEM FROM AN AD DOMAIN 21
3.3. SETTING THE DOMAIN RESOLUTION ORDER IN SSSD TO RESOLVE SHORT AD USER NAMES 22
3.4. MANAGING LOGIN PERMISSIONS FOR DOMAIN USERS 23
3.4.1. Enabling access to users within a domain 23
3.4.2. Denying access to users within a domain 25
3.5. APPLYING GROUP POLICY OBJECT ACCESS CONTROL IN RHEL 26
3.5.1. How SSSD interprets GPO access control rules 26
3.5.1.1. Limitations on filtering by hosts 26
3.5.1.2. Limitations on filtering by groups 27
3.5.2. List of GPO settings that SSSD supports 27
3.5.3. List of SSSD options to control GPO enforcement 27
3.5.3.1. The ad_gpo_access_control option 27
3.5.3.2. The ad_gpo_implicit_deny option 28
3.5.4. Changing the GPO access control mode 29
3.5.5. Creating and configuring a GPO for a RHEL host in the AD GUI 30
3.5.6. Additional resources 31
.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . 4.
. . .ACCESSING
. . . . . . . . . . . . .AD
. . . WITH
. . . . . .A
. . MANAGED
. . . . . . . . . . . .SERVICE
. . . . . . . . . ACCOUNT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
..............
4.1. THE BENEFITS OF A MANAGED SERVICE ACCOUNT 32
4.2. CONFIGURING A MANAGED SERVICE ACCOUNT FOR A RHEL HOST 32
4.3. UPDATING THE PASSWORD FOR A MANAGED SERVICE ACCOUNT 35
4.4. MANAGED SERVICE ACCOUNT SPECIFICATIONS 35
4.5. OPTIONS FOR THE ADCLI CREATE-MSA COMMAND 36
1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Integrating RHEL systems directly with Windows Active Directory
2
MAKING OPEN SOURCE MORE INCLUSIVE
MAKING OPEN SOURCE MORE INCLUSIVE

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web
properties. We are beginning with these four terms: master, slave, blacklist, and whitelist. Because of the
enormity of this endeavor, these changes will be implemented gradually over several upcoming releases.
For more details, see our CTO Chris Wright’s message .
In Identity Management, planned terminology replacements include:
block list replaces blacklist
allow list replaces whitelist
secondary replaces slave
The word master is being replaced with more precise language, depending on the context:
IdM server replaces IdM master
CA renewal server replaces CA renewal master
CRL publisher server replaces CRL master
multi-supplier replaces multi-master
3
PROVIDING FEEDBACK ON RED HAT DOCUMENTATION

We appreciate your input on our documentation. Please let us know how we could make it better. To do
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4
CHAPTER 1. CONNECTING RHEL SYSTEMS DIRECTLY TO AD USING SSSD
CHAPTER 1. CONNECTING RHEL SYSTEMS DIRECTLY TO AD

USING SSSD
This section describes using the System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) to connect a RHEL system
to Active Directory (AD). You need two components to connect a RHEL system to Active Directory
(AD). One component, SSSD, interacts with the central identity and authentication source, and the
other component, realmd, detects available domains and configures the underlying RHEL system
services, in this case SSSD, to connect to the domain.
Overview of direct integration using SSSD
Supported Windows platforms for direct integration
Ensuring support for common encryption types in AD and RHEL
Connecting directly to AD
How the AD provider handles dynamic DNS updates
Modifying dynamic DNS settings for the AD provider
How the AD provider handles trusted domains
realm commands
1.1. OVERVIEW OF DIRECT INTEGRATION USING SSSD

You use SSSD to access a user directory for authentication and authorization through a common
framework with user caching to permit offline logins. SSSD is highly configurable; it provides Pluggable
Authentication Modules (PAM) and Name Switch Service (NSS) integration and a database to store
local users as well as extended user data retrieved from a central server. SSSD is the recommended
component to connect a RHEL system with one of the following types of identity server:
Active Directory
Identity Management (IdM) in RHEL
Any generic LDAP or Kerberos server
NOTE
Direct integration with SSSD works only within a single AD forest by default.
The most convenient way to configure SSSD to directly integrate a Linux system with AD is to use the
realmd service. It allows callers to configure network authentication and domain membership in a
standard way. The realmd service automatically discovers information about accessible domains and
realms and does not require advanced configuration to join a domain or realm.
You can use SSSD for both direct and indirect integration with AD and it allows you to switch from one
integration approach to another. Direct integration is a simple way to introduce RHEL systems to an AD
environment. However, as the share of RHEL systems grows, your deployments usually need a better
centralized management of the identity-related policies such as host-based access control, sudo, or
SELinux user mappings. Initially, you can maintain the configuration of these aspects of the RHEL
systems in local configuration files. However, with a growing number of systems, distribution and
management of the configuration files is easier with a provisioning system such as Red Hat Satellite.
5
When direct integration does not scale anymore, you should consider indirect integration. For more
information on moving from direct integration (RHEL clients are in the AD domain) to indirect
integration (IdM with trust to AD), see Moving RHEL clients from AD domain to IdM Server.
For more information on which type of integration fits your use case, see Deciding between indirect and
direct integration.
Additional resources
The realm(8) man page.
The sssd-ad(5) man page.
The sssd(8) man page.
1.2. SUPPORTED WINDOWS PLATFORMS FOR DIRECT INTEGRATION

You can directly integrate your RHEL system with Active Directory forests that use the following forest
and domain functional levels:
Forest functional level range: Windows Server 2008 - Windows Server 2016
Domain functional level range: Windows Server 2008 - Windows Server 2016
Direct integration has been tested on the following supported operating systems:
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
NOTE
Windows Server 2019 does not introduce a new functional level. The highest functional
level Windows Server 2019 uses is Windows Server 2016.
1.3. ENSURING SUPPORT FOR COMMON ENCRYPTION TYPES IN AD

AND RHEL
By default, SSSD supports RC4, AES-128, and AES-256 Kerberos encryption types.
RC4 encryption has been deprecated and disabled by default, as it is considered less secure than the
newer AES-128 and AES-256 encryption types. In contrast, Active Directory (AD) user credentials and
trusts between AD domains support RC4 encryption and they might not support AES encryption types.
Without any common encryption types, communication between RHEL hosts and AD domains might not
work, or some AD accounts might not be able to authenticate. To remedy this situation, modify one of
the following configurations:
Enable AES encryption support in Active Directory (recommended option): To ensure trusts
between AD domains in an AD forest support strong AES encryption types, see the following
Microsoft article: AD DS: Security: Kerberos "Unsupported etype" error when accessing a
resource in a trusted domain
6
Enable RC4 support in RHEL: On every RHEL host where authentication against AD Domain
Controllers takes place:
1. Use the update-crypto-policies command to enable the AD-SUPPORT cryptographic

subpolicy in addition to the DEFAULT cryptographic policy.
[root@host ~]# update-crypto-policies --set DEFAULT:AD-SUPPORT

Setting system policy to DEFAULT:AD-SUPPORT
Note: System-wide crypto policies are applied on application start-up.
It is recommended to restart the system for the change of policies
to fully take place.
2. Restart the host.
IMPORTANT
The AD-SUPPORT cryptographic subpolicy is only available on RHEL 8.3 and newer.
To enable support for RC4 in RHEL 8.2, create and enable a custom
cryptographic module policy with cipher = RC4-128+. For more details, see
Customizing system-wide cryptographic policies with policy modifiers .
To enable support for RC4 in RHEL 8.0 and RHEL 8.1, add +rc4 to the
permitted_enctypes option in the /etc/crypto-policies/back-ends/krb5.config
file:
[libdefaults]
permitted_enctypes = aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 aes256-cts-hmac-sha384-
192 camellia256-cts-cmac aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96 aes128-cts-hmac-
sha256-128 camellia128-cts-cmac +rc4
For more information on working with RHEL cryptographic policies, see Using system-wide
cryptographic policies in the Security Hardening guide.
1.4. CONNECTING DIRECTLY TO AD

This section describes how to integrate directly with AD using either ID mapping or POSIX attributes.
Discovering and joining an AD domain using SSSD
Options for integrating with AD: using ID mapping or POSIX attributes
Connecting to AD using POSIX attributes defined in Active Directory
Connecting to multiple domains in different AD forests with SSSD
1.4.1. Discovering and joining an AD Domain using SSSD

This procedure describes how to discover an AD domain and connect a RHEL system to that domain
using SSSD.
Prerequisites
Ensure that the following ports on the RHEL host are open and accessible to the AD domain
7
controllers.
Table 1.1. Ports Required for Direct Integration of Linux Systems into AD Using SSSD
Service Port Protocol Notes
DNS 53 UDP and TCP
LDAP 389 UDP and TCP
Kerberos 88 UDP and TCP
Kerberos 464 UDP and TCP Used by kadmin for

setting and changing
a password
LDAP Global Catalog 3268 TCP If the id_provider =

ad option is being
used
NTP 123 UDP Optional
Ensure that you are using the AD domain controller server for DNS.
Verify that the system time on both systems is synchronized. This ensures that Kerberos is able
to work correctly.
Procedure
1. Install the following packages:
# yum install samba-common-tools realmd oddjob oddjob-mkhomedir sssd adcli krb5-

workstation
2. To display information for a specific domain, run realm discover and add the name of the
domain you want to discover:
# realm discover ad.example.com

ad.example.com
type: kerberos
realm-name: AD.EXAMPLE.COM
domain-name: ad.example.com
configured: no
server-software: active-directory
client-software: sssd
required-package: oddjob
required-package: oddjob-mkhomedir
required-package: sssd
required-package: adcli
required-package: samba-common
The realmd system uses DNS SRV lookups to find the domain controllers in this domain
8
The realmd system uses DNS SRV lookups to find the domain controllers in this domain
automatically.
NOTE
The realmd system can discover both Active Directory and Identity Management
domains. If both domains exist in your environment, you can limit the discovery
results to a specific type of server using the --server-software=active-directory
option.
3. Configure the local RHEL system with the realm join command. The realmd suite edits all
required configuration files automatically. For example, for a domain named ad.example.com:
# realm join ad.example.com
Verification steps
Display an AD user details, such as the administrator user:
# getent passwd administrator@ad.example.com

administrator@ad.example.com:*:1450400500:1450400513:Administrator:/home/administrator
@ad.example.com:/bin/bash
See the realm(8) man page.
See the nmcli(1) man page.
1.4.2. Options for integrating with AD: using ID mapping or POSIX attributes
Linux and Windows systems use different identifiers for users and groups:
Linux uses user IDs (UID) and group IDs (GID). See Introduction to managing user and group
accounts in Configuring Basic System Settings . Linux UIDs and GIDs are compliant with the
POSIX standard.
Windows use security IDs (SID).
IMPORTANT
After connecting a RHEL system to AD, you can authenticate with your AD username and
password. Do not create a Linux user with the same name as a Windows user, as duplicate
names might cause a conflict and interrupt the authentication process.
To authenticate to a RHEL system as an AD user, you must have a UID and GID assigned. SSSD provides
the option to integrate with AD either using ID mapping or POSIX attributes. The default is to use ID
mapping.
1.4.2.1. Automatically generate new UIDs and GIDs for AD users
SSSD can use the SID of an AD user to algorithmically generate POSIX IDs in a process called ID
mapping. ID mapping creates a map between SIDs in AD and IDs on Linux.
9
When SSSD detects a new AD domain, it assigns a range of available IDs to the new domain.
When an AD user logs in to an SSSD client machine for the first time, SSSD creates an entry for
the user in the SSSD cache, including a UID based on the user’s SID and the ID range for that
domain.
Because the IDs for an AD user are generated in a consistent way from the same SID, the user
has the same UID and GID when logging in to any Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.
See Discovering and joining an AD domain using SSSD .
NOTE
When all client systems use SSSD to map SIDs to Linux IDs, the mapping is consistent. If
some clients use different software, choose one of the following:
Ensure that the same mapping algorithm is used on all clients.
Use explicit POSIX attributes defined in AD.
1.4.2.2. Use POSIX attributes defined in AD
AD can create and store POSIX attributes, such as uidNumber, gidNumber, unixHomeDirectory, or
loginShell.
When using ID mapping described above, SSSD creates new UIDs and GIDs, which overrides the values
defined in AD. To keep the AD-defined values, you must disable ID mapping in SSSD.
See Connecting to AD using POSIX attributes defined in Active Directory .
1.4.3. Connecting to AD using POSIX attributes defined in Active Directory

For best performance, publish the POSIX attributes to the AD global catalog. If POSIX attributes are not
present in the global catalog, SSSD connects to the individual domain controllers directly on the LDAP
port.
Prerequisites
controllers.
Table 1.2. Ports Required for Direct Integration of Linux Systems into AD Using SSSD
DNS 53 UDP and TCP
LDAP 389 UDP and TCP
Kerberos 88 UDP and TCP
10
Kerberos 464 UDP and TCP Used by kadmin for

setting and changing
a password
LDAP Global Catalog 3268 TCP If the id_provider =

ad option is being
used
NTP 123 UDP Optional
Ensure that you are using the AD domain controller server for DNS.
Verify that the system time on both systems is synchronized. This ensures that Kerberos is able
to work correctly.
Procedure
# yum install realmd oddjob oddjob-mkhomedir sssd adcli krb5-workstation
2. Configure the local RHEL system with ID mapping disabled using the realm join command with
the --automatic-id-mapping=no option. The realmd suite edits all required configuration files
automatically. For example, for a domain named ad.example.com:
# realm join --automatic-id-mapping=no ad.example.com
3. If you already joined a domain, you can manually disable ID Mapping in SSSD:
a. Open the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file.
b. In the AD domain section, add the ldap_id_mapping = false setting.
c. Remove the SSSD caches:
rm -f /var/lib/sss/db/*
d. Restart SSSD:
systemctl restart sssd
SSSD now uses POSIX attributes from AD, instead of creating them locally.
NOTE
You must have the relevant POSIX attributes (uidNumber, gidNumber,

unixHomeDirectory, and loginShell) configured for the users in AD.
11
Verification steps
Display an AD user details, such as the administrator user:
# getent passwd administrator@ad.example.com

administrator@ad.example.com:*:10000:10000:Administrator:/home/Administrator:/bin/bash
For further details about ID mapping and the ldap_id_mapping parameter, see the sssd-
ldap(8) man page.
1.4.4. Connecting to multiple domains in different AD forests with SSSD

You can use an Active Directory (AD) Managed Service Account (MSA) to access AD domains from
different forests where there is no trust between them.
See Accessing AD with a Managed Service Account .
1.5. HOW THE AD PROVIDER HANDLES DYNAMIC DNS UPDATES

Active Directory (AD) actively maintains its DNS records by timing out (aging) and removing
(scavenging) inactive records.
By default, the SSSD service refreshes a RHEL client’s DNS record at the following intervals:
Every time the identity provider comes online.
Every time the RHEL system reboots.
At the interval specified by the dyndns_refresh_interval option in the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf

configuration file. The default value is 86400 seconds (24 hours).
NOTE
If you set the dyndns_refresh_interval option to the same interval as the DHCP
lease, you can update the DNS record after the IP lease is renewed.
SSSD sends dynamic DNS updates to the AD server using Kerberos/GSSAPI for DNS (GSS-TSIG). This
means that you only need to enable secure connections to AD.
The sssd-ad(5) man page.
1.6. MODIFYING DYNAMIC DNS SETTINGS FOR THE AD PROVIDER

The following procedure adjusts settings within the SSSD service to affect how it automatically updates
the DNS record for a RHEL host joined to an Active Directory environment.
Prerequisites
You have joined a RHEL host to an Active Directory environment with the SSSD service.
12
You need root permissions to edit the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file.
Procedure
1. Open the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file in a text editor.
2. Add the following options to the [domain] section for your AD domain to set the DNS record
refresh interval to 12 hours, disable updating PTR records, and set the DNS record Time To Live
(TTL) to 1 hour.
[domain/ad.example.com]
id_provider = ad
...
dyndns_refresh_interval = 43200
dyndns_update_ptr = false
dyndns_ttl = 3600
3. Save and close the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file.
4. Restart the SSSD service to load the configuration changes.
[root@client ~]# systemctl restart sssd
NOTE
You can disable dynamic DNS updates by setting the dyndns_update option in the
sssd.conf file to false:
[domain/ad.example.com]
id_provider = ad
...
dyndns_update = false
sssd-ad(5) man page
1.7. HOW THE AD PROVIDER HANDLES TRUSTED DOMAINS

This section describes how SSSD handles trusted domains if you set the id_provider = ad option in the
/etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file.
SSSD only supports domains in a single AD forest. If SSSD requires access to multiple domains
from multiple forests, consider using IPA with trusts (preferred) or the winbindd service instead
of SSSD.
By default, SSSD discovers all domains in the forest and, if a request for an object in a trusted
domain arrives, SSSD tries to resolve it.
If the trusted domains are not reachable or geographically distant, which makes them slow, you
can set the ad_enabled_domains parameter in /etc/sssd/sssd.conf to limit from which trusted
domains SSSD resolves objects.
13
By default, you must use fully-qualified user names to resolve users from trusted domains.
The sssd.conf(5) man page.
1.8. REALM COMMANDS

The realmd system has two major task areas:
Managing system enrollment in a domain.
Controlling which domain users are allowed to access local system resources.
In realmd use the command line tool realm to run commands. Most realm commands require the user
to specify the action that the utility should perform, and the entity, such as a domain or user account,
for which to perform the action.
Table 1.3. realmd Commands
Command Description
Realm Commands
discover Run a discovery scan for domains on the network.
join Add the system to the specified domain.
leave Remove the system from the specified domain.
list List all configured domains for the system or all

discovered and configured domains.
Login Commands
permit Enable access for specific users or for all users within
a configured domain to access the local system.
deny Restrict access for specific users or for all users

within a configured domain to access the local
system.
For more information about the realm commands, see the realm(8) man page.
14
CHAPTER 2. CONNECTING RHEL SYSTEMS DIRECTLY TO AD USING SAMBA WINBIND
CHAPTER 2. CONNECTING RHEL SYSTEMS DIRECTLY TO AD

USING SAMBA WINBIND
This section describes using Samba Winbind to connect a RHEL system to Active Directory (AD). You
need two components to connect a RHEL system to AD. One component, Samba Winbind, interacts
with the AD identity and authentication source, and the other component, realmd, detects available
domains and configures the underlying RHEL system services, in this case Samba Winbind, to connect
to the AD domain.
Overview of direct integration using Samba Winbind
Supported Windows platforms for direct integration
Ensuring support for common encryption types in AD and RHEL
Joining a RHEL system to an AD domain
realm commands
2.1. OVERVIEW OF DIRECT INTEGRATION USING SAMBA WINBIND

Samba Winbind emulates a Windows client on a Linux system and communicates with AD servers.
You can use the realmd service to configure Samba Winbind by:
Configuring network authentication and domain membership in a standard way.
Automatically discovering information about accessible domains and realms.
Not requiring advanced configuration to join a domain or realm.
Note that:
Direct integration with Winbind in a multi-forest AD setup requires bidirectional trusts.
Remote forests must trust the local forest to ensure that the idmap_ad plug-in handles remote
forest users correctly.
Samba’s winbindd service provides an interface for the Name Service Switch (NSS) and enables
domain users to authenticate to AD when logging into the local system.
Using winbindd provides the benefit that you can enhance the configuration to share directories and
printers without installing additional software. For further detail, see the section about Using Samba as a
server in the Deploying Different Types of Servers Guide .
See the realmd man page.
See the winbindd man page.
2.2. SUPPORTED WINDOWS PLATFORMS FOR DIRECT INTEGRATION

You can directly integrate your RHEL system with Active Directory forests that use the following forest
and domain functional levels:
15
Forest functional level range: Windows Server 2008 - Windows Server 2016
Domain functional level range: Windows Server 2008 - Windows Server 2016
Direct integration has been tested on the following supported operating systems:
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
NOTE
Windows Server 2019 does not introduce a new functional level. The highest functional
level Windows Server 2019 uses is Windows Server 2016.
2.3. ENSURING SUPPORT FOR COMMON ENCRYPTION TYPES IN AD

AND RHEL
By default, Samba Winbind supports RC4, AES-128, and AES-256 Kerberos encryption types.
RC4 encryption has been deprecated and disabled by default, as it is considered less secure than the
newer AES-128 and AES-256 encryption types. In contrast, Active Directory (AD) user credentials and
trusts between AD domains support RC4 encryption and they might not support AES encryption types.
Without any common encryption types, communication between RHEL hosts and AD domains might not
work, or some AD accounts might not be able to authenticate. To remedy this situation, modify one of
the following configurations:
Enable AES encryption support in Active Directory (recommended option): To ensure trusts
between AD domains in an AD forest support strong AES encryption types, see the following
Microsoft article: AD DS: Security: Kerberos "Unsupported etype" error when accessing a
resource in a trusted domain
Enable RC4 support in RHEL: On every RHEL host where authentication against AD Domain
Controllers takes place:
1. Use the update-crypto-policies command to enable the AD-SUPPORT cryptographic

subpolicy in addition to the DEFAULT cryptographic policy.
[root@host ~]# update-crypto-policies --set DEFAULT:AD-SUPPORT

Setting system policy to DEFAULT:AD-SUPPORT
Note: System-wide crypto policies are applied on application start-up.
It is recommended to restart the system for the change of policies
to fully take place.
2. Restart the host.
IMPORTANT
16
IMPORTANT
The AD-SUPPORT cryptographic subpolicy is only available on RHEL 8.3 and newer.
To enable support for RC4 in RHEL 8.2, create and enable a custom
cryptographic module policy with cipher = RC4-128+. For more details, see
Customizing system-wide cryptographic policies with policy modifiers .
To enable support for RC4 in RHEL 8.0 and RHEL 8.1, add +rc4 to the
permitted_enctypes option in the /etc/crypto-policies/back-ends/krb5.config
file:
[libdefaults]
permitted_enctypes = aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 aes256-cts-hmac-sha384-
192 camellia256-cts-cmac aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96 aes128-cts-hmac-
sha256-128 camellia128-cts-cmac +rc4
For more information on working with RHEL cryptographic policies, see Using system-wide
cryptographic policies in the Security Hardening guide.
2.4. JOINING A RHEL SYSTEM TO AN AD DOMAIN

This section describes how to join a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system to an AD domain by using realmd
to configure Samba Winbind.
Procedure
1. If your AD requires the deprecated RC4 encryption type for Kerberos authentication, enable
support for these ciphers in RHEL:
# update-crypto-policies --set DEFAULT:AD-SUPPORT
# yum install realmd oddjob-mkhomedir oddjob samba-winbind-clients \ samba-

winbind samba-common-tools samba-winbind-krb5-locator
3. To share directories or printers on the domain member, install the samba package:
# yum install samba
4. Backup the existing /etc/samba/smb.conf Samba configuration file:
# mv /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak
5. Join the domain. For example, to join a domain named ad.example.com:
# realm join --membership-software=samba --client-software=winbind ad.example.com
Using the previous command, the realm utility automatically:
17
Creates a /etc/samba/smb.conf file for a membership in the ad.example.com domain
Adds the winbind module for user and group lookups to the /etc/nsswitch.conf file
Updates the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) configuration files in the /etc/pam.d/
directory
Starts the winbind service and enables the service to start when the system boots
6. Optionally, set an alternative ID mapping back end or customized ID mapping settings in the
/etc/samba/smb.conf file. For details, see the Understanding and configuring Samba ID
mapping section in the Deploying different types of servers documentation.
7. Edit the /etc/krb5.conf file and add the following section:
[plugins]
localauth = {
module = winbind:/usr/lib64/samba/krb5/winbind_krb5_localauth.so
enable_only = winbind
}
8. Verify that the winbind service is running:
# systemctl status winbind

...
Active: active (running) since Tue 2018-11-06 19:10:40 CET; 15s ago
IMPORTANT
To enable Samba to query domain user and group information, the winbind
service must be running before you start smb.
9. If you installed the samba package to share directories and printers, enable and start the smb
service:
# systemctl enable --now smb
Verification steps
1. Display an AD user’s details, such as the AD administrator account in the AD domain:
# getent passwd "AD\administrator"

AD\administrator:*:10000:10000::/home/administrator@AD:/bin/bash
2. Query the members of the domain users group in the AD domain:
# getent group "AD\Domain Users"

AD\domain users:x:10000:user1,user2
3. Optionally, verify that you can use domain users and groups when you set permissions on files
and directories. For example, to set the owner of the /srv/samba/example.txt file to
AD\administrator and the group to AD\Domain Users:
18
# chown "AD\administrator":"AD\Domain Users" /srv/samba/example.txt
4. Verify that Kerberos authentication works as expected:
a. On the AD domain member, obtain a ticket for the administrator@AD.EXAMPLE.COM

principal:
# kinit administrator@AD.EXAMPLE.COM
b. Display the cached Kerberos ticket:
# klist
Ticket cache: KCM:0
Default principal: administrator@AD.EXAMPLE.COM
Valid starting Expires Service principal

01.11.2018 10:00:00 01.11.2018 20:00:00
krbtgt/AD.EXAMPLE.COM@AD.EXAMPLE.COM
renew until 08.11.2018 05:00:00
5. Display the available domains:
# wbinfo --all-domains
BUILTIN
SAMBA-SERVER
AD
If you do not want to use the deprecated RC4 ciphers, you can enable the AES encryption type
in AD. See Enabling the AES encryption type in Active Directory using a GPO in the Deploying
different types of servers documentation.
For further details about the realm utility, see the realm(8) man page.
2.5. REALM COMMANDS

The realmd system has two major task areas:
Managing system enrollment in a domain.
Controlling which domain users are allowed to access local system resources.
In realmd use the command line tool realm to run commands. Most realm commands require the user
to specify the action that the utility should perform, and the entity, such as a domain or user account,
for which to perform the action.
Table 2.1. realmd Commands
Command Description
Realm Commands
19
Command Description
discover Run a discovery scan for domains on the network.
join Add the system to the specified domain.
leave Remove the system from the specified domain.
list List all configured domains for the system or all

discovered and configured domains.
Login Commands
permit Enable access for specific users or for all users within
a configured domain to access the local system.
deny Restrict access for specific users or for all users

within a configured domain to access the local
system.
For more information about the realm commands, see the realm(8) man page.
20
CHAPTER 3. MANAGING DIRECT CONNECTIONS TO AD

This section describes how to modify and manage your connection to Active Directory.
Prerequisites
You have connected your RHEL system to the Active Directory domain.
3.1. MODIFYING THE DEFAULT KERBEROS HOST KEYTAB RENEWAL

INTERVAL
SSSD automatically renews the Kerberos host keytab file in an AD environment if the adcli package is
installed. The daemon checks daily if the machine account password is older than the configured value
and renews it if necessary.
The default renewal interval is 30 days. To change the default, follow the steps in this procedure.
Procedure
1. Add the following parameter to the AD provider in your /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file:
ad_maximum_machine_account_password_age = value_in_days
2. Restart SSSD:
# systemctl restart sssd
3. To disable the automatic Kerberos host keytab renewal, set

ad_maximum_machine_account_password_age = 0.
The adcli(8) man page.
The sssd.conf(5) man page.
3.2. REMOVING A RHEL SYSTEM FROM AN AD DOMAIN

This procedure describes how to remove a RHEL system from an Active Directory (AD) domain.
Procedure
1. Remove a system from an identity domain using the realm leave command. The command
removes the domain configuration from SSSD and the local system.
# realm leave ad.example.com
NOTE
21
NOTE
When a client leaves a domain, the account is not deleted from AD; the local client
configuration is only removed. If you want to delete the AD account, run the
command with the --remove option. You are prompted for your user password
and you must have the rights to remove an account from Active Directory.
2. Use the -U option with the realm leave command to specify a different user to remove a
system from an identity domain.
By default, the realm leave command is executed as the default administrator. For AD, the
administrator account is called Administrator. If a different user was used to join to the domain,
it might be required to perform the removal as that user.
# realm leave [ad.example.com] -U [AD.EXAMPLE.COM\user]'
The command first attempts to connect without credentials, but it prompts for a password if required.
Verification steps
Verify the domain is no longer configured:
# realm discover [ad.example.com]

ad.example.com
type: kerberos
realm-name: EXAMPLE.COM
domain-name: example.com
configured: no
required-package: samba-common-tools
See the realm(8)` man page.
3.3. SETTING THE DOMAIN RESOLUTION ORDER IN SSSD TO

RESOLVE SHORT AD USER NAMES
By default, you must specify fully qualified usernames, like ad_username@ad.example.com and
group@ad.example.com, to resolve Active Directory (AD) users and groups on a RHEL host connected
to AD with the SSSD service.
This procedure sets the domain resolution order in the SSSD configuration so you can resolve AD users
and groups using short names, like ad_username. This example configuration searches for users and
groups in the following order:
1. Active Directory (AD) child domain subdomain2.ad.example.com
2. AD child domain subdomain1.ad.example.com
22
3. AD root domain ad.example.com
Prerequisites
You have used the SSSD service to connect the RHEL host directly to AD.
Procedure
1. Open the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file in a text editor.
2. Set the domain_resolution_order option in the [sssd] section of the file.
domain_resolution_order = subdomain2.ad.example.com, subdomain1.ad.example.com,

ad.example.com
3. Save and close the file.
4. Restart the SSSD service to load the new configuration settings.
[root@ad-client ~]# systemctl restart sssd
Verification Steps
Verify you can retrieve user information for a user from the first domain using only a short name.
[root@ad-client ~]# id <user_from_subdomain2>

uid=1916901142(user_from_subdomain2) gid=1916900513(domain users)
groups=1916900513(domain users)
3.4. MANAGING LOGIN PERMISSIONS FOR DOMAIN USERS

By default, domain-side access control is applied, which means that login policies for Active Directory
(AD) users are defined in the AD domain itself. This default behavior can be overridden so that client-
side access control is used. With client-side access control, login permission is defined by local policies
only.
If a domain applies client-side access control, you can use the realmd to configure basic allow or deny
access rules for users from that domain.
NOTE
Access rules either allow or deny access to all services on the system. More specific
access rules must be set on a specific system resource or in the domain.
3.4.1. Enabling access to users within a domain

This section describes how to enable access to users within a domain.
IMPORTANT
23
IMPORTANT
It is safer to only allow access to specific users or groups than to deny access to some,
while enabling it to everyone else. Therefore, it is not recommended to allow access to all
by default while only denying it to specific users with realm permit -x. Instead, Red Hat
recommends maintaining a default no access policy for all users and only grant access to
selected users using realm permit.
Prerequisites
Your RHEL system is a member of the Active Directory domain.
Procedure
1. Grant access to all users:
# realm permit --all
2. Grant access to specific users:
$ realm permit aduser01@example.com

$ realm permit 'AD.EXAMPLE.COM\aduser01'
Currently, you can only allow access to users in primary domains and not to users in trusted domains.
This is due to the fact that user login must contain the domain name and SSSD cannot currently provide
realmd with information about available child domains.
Verification steps
1. Use SSH to log in to the server as the aduser01@example.com user:
$ ssh aduser01@example.com@server_name
[aduser01@example.com@server_name ~]$
2. Use the ssh command a second time to access the same server, this time as the
aduser02@example.com user:
$ ssh aduser02@example.com@server_name
Authentication failed.
Notice how the aduser02@example.com is denied access to the system. You have granted the
permission to log in to the system to the aduser01@example.com user only. All other users from that
Active Directory domain are rejected because of the specified login policy.
NOTE
If you set use_fully_qualified_names to true in the sssd.conf file, all requests must use
the fully qualified domain name. However, if you set use_fully_qualified_names to false,
it is possible to use the fully-qualified name in the requests, but only the simplified
version is displayed in the output.
24
3.4.2. Denying access to users within a domain

This section describes how to deny access to all users within a domain.
IMPORTANT
It is safer to only allow access to specific users or groups than to deny access to some,
while enabling it to everyone else. Therefore, it is not recommended to allow access to all
by default while only denying it to specific users with realm permit -x. Instead, Red Hat
recommends maintaining a default no access policy for all users and only grant access to
selected users using realm permit.
Prerequisites
Your RHEL system is a member of the Active Directory domain.
Procedure
1. Deny access to all users within the domain:
# realm deny --all
This command prevents realm accounts from logging into the local machine. Use realm permit
to restrict login to specific accounts.
2. Verify that the domain user’s login-policy is set to deny-any-login:
[root@replica1 ~]# realm list

example.net
type: kerberos
realm-name: EXAMPLE.NET
domain-name: example.net
configured: kerberos-member
required-package: samba-common-tools
login-formats: %U@example.net
login-policy: deny-any-login
3. Deny access to specific users by using the -x option:
$ realm permit -x 'AD.EXAMPLE.COM\aduser02'
Verification steps
Use SSH to log in to the server as the aduser01@example.net user.
25
$ ssh aduser01@example.net@server_name
Authentication failed.
NOTE
If you set use_fully_qualified_names to true in the sssd.conf file, all requests must use
the fully qualified domain name. However, if you set use_fully_qualified_names to false,
it is possible to use the fully-qualified name in the requests, but only the simplified
version is displayed in the output.
3.5. APPLYING GROUP POLICY OBJECT ACCESS CONTROL IN RHEL

A Group Policy Object (GPO) is a collection of access control settings stored in Microsoft Active
Directory (AD) that can apply to computers and users in an AD environment. By specifying GPOs in AD,
administrators can define login policies honored by both Windows clients and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
(RHEL) hosts joined to AD.
The following sections describe how you can manage GPOs in your environment:
Section 3.5.1, “How SSSD interprets GPO access control rules”
Section 3.5.2, “List of GPO settings that SSSD supports”
Section 3.5.3, “List of SSSD options to control GPO enforcement”
Section 3.5.4, “Changing the GPO access control mode”
Section 3.5.5, “Creating and configuring a GPO for a RHEL host in the AD GUI”
3.5.1. How SSSD interprets GPO access control rules

By default, SSSD retrieves Group Policy Objects (GPOs) from Active Directory (AD) domain controllers
and evaluates them to determine if a user is allowed to log in to a particular RHEL host joined to AD.
SSSD maps AD Windows Logon Rights to Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) service names to
enforce those permissions in a GNU/Linux environment.
As an AD Administrator, you can limit the scope of GPO rules to specific users, groups, or hosts by listing
them in a security filter.
3.5.1.1. Limitations on filtering by hosts
Older versions of SSSD do not evaluate hosts in AD GPO security filters.
RHEL 8.3.0 and newer: SSSD supports users, groups, and hosts in security filters.
RHEL versions older than 8.3.0: SSSD ignores host entries and only supports users and groups
in security filters.
To ensure that SSSD applies GPO-based access control to a specific host, create a new
26
Organizational Unit (OU) in the AD domain, move the system to the new OU, and then link the
GPO to this OU.
3.5.1.2. Limitations on filtering by groups
SSSD currently does not support Active Directory’s built-in groups, such as Administrators with
Security Identifier (SID) S-1-5-32-544. Red Hat recommends against using AD built-in groups in AD
GPOs targeting RHEL hosts.
For a list of Windows GPO options and their corresponding SSSD options, see List of GPO
settings that SSSD supports.
3.5.2. List of GPO settings that SSSD supports

The following table shows the SSSD options that correspond to Active Directory GPO options as
specified in the Group Policy Management Editor on Windows.
Table 3.1. GPO access control options retrieved by SSSD
GPO option Corresponding sssd.conf option
Allow log on locally ad_gpo_map_interactive

Deny log on locally
Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services ad_gpo_map_remote_interactive

Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services
Access this computer from the network ad_gpo_map_network

Deny access to this computer from the network
Allow log on as a batch job ad_gpo_map_batch

Deny log on as a batch job
Allow log on as a service ad_gpo_map_service

Deny log on as a service
For more information on these sssd.conf settings, such as the Pluggable Authentication
Module (PAM) services that map to GPO options, see the sssd-ad(5) Manual page entry.
3.5.3. List of SSSD options to control GPO enforcement
3.5.3.1. The ad_gpo_access_control option
You can set the ad_gpo_access_control option in the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file to choose between
three different modes in which GPO-based access control operates.
Table 3.2. Table of ad_gpo_access_control values
27
Value of Behavior
ad_gpo_access_control
enforcing GPO-based access control rules are evaluated and enforced.

This is the default setting in RHEL 8.
permissive GPO-based access control rules are evaluated but not enforced; a
syslog message is recorded every time access would be denied.
This is the default setting in RHEL 7.
This mode is ideal for testing policy adjustments while allowing
users to continue logging in.
disabled GPO-based access control rules are neither evaluated nor

enforced.
3.5.3.2. The ad_gpo_implicit_deny option
The ad_gpo_implicit_deny option is set to False by default. In this default state, users are allowed
access if applicable GPOs are not found. If you set this option to True, you must explicitly allow users
access with a GPO rule.
You can use this feature to harden security, but be careful not to deny access unintentionally. Red Hat
recommends testing this feature while ad_gpo_access_control is set to permissive.
The following two tables illustrate when a user is allowed or rejected access based on the allow and deny
login rights defined on the AD server-side and the value of ad_gpo_implicit_deny.
Table 3.3. Login behavior with ad_gpo_implicit_deny set to False (default)
allow-rules deny-rules result
missing missing all users are allowed
missing present only users not in deny-rules are allowed
present missing only users in allow-rules are allowed
present present only users in allow-rules and not in deny-rules are

allowed
Table 3.4. Login behavior with ad_gpo_implicit_deny set to True
missing missing no users are allowed
missing present no users are allowed
present missing only users in allow-rules are allowed
28
present present only users in allow-rules and not in deny-rules are

allowed
For the procedure to change the GPO enforcement mode in SSSD, see Changing the GPO
access control mode.
For more details on each of the different GPO modes of operation, see the
ad_gpo_access_control entry in the sssd-ad(5) Manual page.
3.5.4. Changing the GPO access control mode

This procedure changes how GPO-based access control rules are evaluated and enforced on a RHEL
host joined to an Active Directory (AD) environment.
In this example, you will change the GPO operation mode from enforcing (the default) to permissive
for testing purposes.
IMPORTANT
If you see the following errors, Active Directory users are unable to log in due to GPO-
based access controls:
In /var/log/secure:
Oct 31 03:00:13 client1 sshd[124914]: pam_sss(sshd:account): Access

denied for user aduser1: 6 (Permission denied)
Oct 31 03:00:13 client1 sshd[124914]: Failed password for aduser1 from
127.0.0.1 port 60509 ssh2
Oct 31 03:00:13 client1 sshd[124914]: fatal: Access denied for user aduser1
by PAM account configuration [preauth]
In /var/log/sssd/sssd__example.com_.log:
(Sat Oct 31 03:00:13 2020) [sssd[be[example.com]]]

[ad_gpo_perform_hbac_processing] (0x0040): GPO access check failed:
[1432158236](Host Access Denied)
(Sat Oct 31 03:00:13 2020) [sssd[be[example.com]]] [ad_gpo_cse_done]
(0x0040): HBAC processing failed: [1432158236](Host Access Denied}
(Sat Oct 31 03:00:13 2020) [sssd[be[example.com]]] [ad_gpo_access_done]
(0x0040): GPO-based access control failed.
If this is undesired behavior, you can temporarily set ad_gpo_access_control to

permissive as described in this procedure while you troubleshoot proper GPO settings in
AD.
Prerequisites
You have joined a RHEL host to an AD environment using SSSD.
29
Editing the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file requires root permissions.
Procedure
1. Stop the SSSD service.
[root@server ~]# systemctl stop sssd
2. Open the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file in a text editor.
3. Set ad_gpo_access_control to permissive in the domain section for the AD domain.
[domain/example.com]
ad_gpo_access_control=permissive
...
4. Save the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file.
5. Restart the SSSD service to load configuration changes.
[root@server ~]# systemctl restart sssd
For the list of different GPO access control modes, see List of SSSD options to control GPO
enforcement.
3.5.5. Creating and configuring a GPO for a RHEL host in the AD GUI
The following procedure creates a Group Policy Object (GPO) in the Active Directory (AD) graphical
user interface (GUI) to control logon access to a RHEL host.
Prerequisites
You have joined a RHEL host to an AD environment using SSSD.
You have AD Administrator privileges to make changes in AD using the GUI.
Procedure
1. Within Active Directory Users and Computers, create an Organizational Unit (OU) to
associate with the new GPO:
a. Right-click on the domain.
b. Choose New.
c. Choose Organizational Unit.
2. Click on the name of the Computer Object that represents the RHEL host (created when it
joined Active Directory) and drag it into the new OU. By having the RHEL host in its own OU,
the GPO targets this host.
3. Within the Group Policy Management Editor, create a new GPO for the OU you created:
a. Expand Forest.
30
a. Expand Forest.
b. Expand Domains.
c. Expand your domain.
d. Right-click on the new OU.
e. Choose Create a GPO in this domain.
4. Specify a name for the new GPO, such as Allow SSH access or Allow Console/GUI access
and click OK.
5. Edit the new GPO:
a. Select the OU within the Group Policy Management editor.
b. Right-click and choose Edit.
c. Select User Rights Assignment.
d. Select Computer Configuration
e. Select Policies.
f. Select Windows Settings.
g. Select Security Settings.
h. Select Local Policies.
i. Select User Rights Assignment.
6. Assign login permissions:
a. Double-Click on Allow log on locally to grant local console/GUI access.
b. Double-click on Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services to grant SSH access.
7. Add the user(s) you would like to access either of these policies to the policies themselves:
a. Click Add User or Group.
b. Enter the username within the blank field.
c. Click OK.
For more details on Group Policy Objects, see Group Policy Objects in Microsoft
documentation.
3.5.6. Additional resources

For more information on joining a RHEL host to an Active Directory environment, see
Connecting RHEL systems directly to AD using SSSD
31
CHAPTER 4. ACCESSING AD WITH A MANAGED SERVICE

ACCOUNT
Active Directory (AD) Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) allow you to create an account in AD that
corresponds to a specific computer. You can use an MSA to connect to AD resources as a specific user
principal, without joining the RHEL host to the AD domain.
This section discusses the following topics:
The benefits of a Managed Service Account
Configuring a Managed Service Account for a RHEL host
Updating the password for a Managed Service Account
Managed Service Account specifications
Options for the adcli create-msa command
4.1. THE BENEFITS OF A MANAGED SERVICE ACCOUNT

If you want to allow a RHEL host to access an Active Directory (AD) domain without joining it, you can
use a Managed Service Account (MSA) to access that domain. An MSA is an account in AD that
corresponds to a specific computer, which you can use to connect to AD resources as a specific user
principal.
For example, if the AD domain production.example.com has a one-way trust relationship with the
lab.example.com AD domain, the following conditions apply:
The lab domain trusts users and hosts from the production domain.
The production domain does not trust users and hosts from the lab domain.
This means that a host joined to the lab domain, such as client.lab.example.com, cannot access
resources from the production domain through the trust.
If you want to create an exception for the client.lab.example.com host, you can use the adcli utility to
create a MSA for the client host in the production.example.com domain. By authenticating with the
Kerberos principal of the MSA, you can perform secure LDAP searches in the production domain from
the client host.
4.2. CONFIGURING A MANAGED SERVICE ACCOUNT FOR A RHEL

HOST
This procedure creates a Managed Service Account (MSA) for a host from the lab.example.com Active
Directory (AD) domain, and configures SSSD so you can access and authenticate to the
production.example.com AD domain.
NOTE
32
CHAPTER 4. ACCESSING AD WITH A MANAGED SERVICE ACCOUNT
NOTE
If you need to access AD resources from a RHEL host, Red Hat recommends that you join
the RHEL host to the AD domain with the realm command. See Connecting RHEL
systems directly to AD using SSSD.
Only perform this procedure if one of the following conditions applies:
You cannot join the RHEL host to the AD domain, and you want to create an
account for that host in AD.
You have joined the RHEL host to an AD domain, and you need to access another
AD domain where the host credentials from the domain you have joined are not
valid, such as with a one-way trust.
Prerequisites
controllers.
Service Port Protocols
DNS 53 TCP, UDP
LDAP 389 TCP, UDP
LDAPS (optional) 636 TCP, UDP
Kerberos 88 TCP, UDP
You have the password for an AD Administrator that has rights to create MSAs in the
production.example.com domain.
You have root permissions that are required to run the adcli command, and to modify the
/etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file..
(Optional) You have the krb5-workstation package installed, which includes the klist diagnostic
utility.
Procedure
1. Create an MSA for the host in the production.example.com AD domain.
[root@client ~]# adcli create-msa --domain=production.example.com
2. Display information about the MSA from the Kerberos keytab that was created. Make note of
the MSA name:
[root@client ~]# klist -k /etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com

Keytab name: FILE:/etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com
KVNO Principal
33
---- ------------------------------------------------------------
2 CLIENT!S3A$@PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.COM (aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96)
3. Open the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file and choose the appropriate SSSD domain configuration to
add:
If the MSA corresponds to an AD domain from a different forest, create a new domain
section named [domain/<name_of_domain>], and enter information about the MSA and
the keytab. The most important options are ldap_sasl_authid, ldap_krb5_keytab, and
krb5_keytab:
[domain/production.example.com]
ldap_sasl_authid = CLIENT!S3A$@PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.COM
ldap_krb5_keytab = /etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com
krb5_keytab = /etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com
ad_domain = production.example.com
krb5_realm = PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.COM
access_provider = ad
...
If the MSA corresponds to an AD domain from the local forest, create a new sub-domain
section in the format [domain/root.example.com/sub-domain.example.com], and enter
information about the MSA and the keytab. The most important options are
ldap_sasl_authid, ldap_krb5_keytab, and krb5_keytab:
[domain/ad.example.com/production.example.com]
ldap_sasl_authid = CLIENT!S3A$@PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.COM
ldap_krb5_keytab = /etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com
krb5_keytab = /etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com
ad_domain = production.example.com
krb5_realm = PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.COM
access_provider = ad
...
Verification steps
Verify you can retrieve a Kerberos ticket-granting ticket (TGT) as the MSA:
[root@client ~]# kinit -k -t /etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com 'CLIENT!S3A$'

[root@client ~]# klist
Ticket cache: KCM:0:54655
Default principal: CLIENT!S3A$@PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.COM
Valid starting Expires Service principal

11/22/2021 15:48:03 11/23/2021 15:48:03
krbtgt/PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.COM@PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.COM
In AD, verify you have an MSA for the host in the Managed Service Accounts Organizational Unit
(OU).
Connecting RHEL systems directly to AD using SSSD
34
4.3. UPDATING THE PASSWORD FOR A MANAGED SERVICE

ACCOUNT
Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) have a complex password that is maintained automatically by Active
Directory (AD). By default, the System Services Security Daemon (SSSD) automatically updates the
MSA password in the Kerberos keytab if it is older than 30 days, which keeps it up to date with the
password in AD. This procedure explains how to manually update the password for your MSA.
Prerequisites
You have previously created an MSA for a host in the production.example.com AD domain.
(Optional) You have the krb5-workstation package installed, which includes the klist diagnostic
utility.
Procedure
1. (Optional) Display the current Key Version Number (KVNO) for the MSA in the Kerberos keytab.
The current KVNO is 2.

KVNO Principal
---- ------------------------------------------------------------
2. Update the password for the MSA in the production.example.com AD domain.
[root@client ~]# adcli update --domain=production.example.com --host-

keytab=/etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com --computer-password-lifetime=0
Verification steps
Verify that you have incremented the KVNO in the Kerberos keytab:

KVNO Principal
---- ------------------------------------------------------------
4.4. MANAGED SERVICE ACCOUNT SPECIFICATIONS

The Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) that the adcli utility creates have the following specifications:
They cannot have additional service principal names (SPNs).
By default, the Kerberos principal for the MSA is stored in a Kerberos keytab named
<default_keytab_location>.<Active_Directory_domain>, like
/etc/krb5.keytab.production.example.com.
MSA names are limited to 20 characters or fewer. The last 4 characters are a suffix of 3 random
35
MSA names are limited to 20 characters or fewer. The last 4 characters are a suffix of 3 random
characters from number and upper- and lowercase ASCII ranges appended to the short host
name you provide, using a ! character as a separator. For example, a host with the short name
myhost receives an MSA with the following specifications:
Specification Value
Common name (CN) attribute myhost!A2c
NetBIOS name myhost!A2c$
sAMAccountName myhost!A2c$
Kerberos principal in the myhost!A2c$@PRODUCTION.EXAMPLE.

production.example.com AD domain COM
4.5. OPTIONS FOR THE ADCLI CREATE-MSA COMMAND

In addition to the global options you can pass to the adcli utility, you can specify the following options to
specifically control how it handles Managed Service Accounts (MSAs).
-N, --computer-name
The short non-dotted name of the MSA that will be created in the Active Directory (AD) domain. If
you do not specify a name, the first portion of the --host-fqdn or its default is used with a random
suffix.
-O, --domain-ou=OU=<path_to_OU>
The full distinguished name of the Organizational Unit (OU) in which to create the MSA. If you do not
specify this value, the MSA is created in the default location OU=CN=Managed Service
Accounts,DC=EXAMPLE,DC=COM.
-H, --host-fqdn=host
Override the local machine’s fully qualified DNS domain name. If you do not specify this option, the
host name of the local machine is used.
-K, --host-keytab=<path_to_keytab>
The path to the host keytab to store MSA credentials. If you do not specify this value, the default
location /etc/krb5.keytab is used with the lower-cased Active Directory domain name added as a
suffix, such as /etc/krb5.keytab.domain.example.com.
--use-ldaps
Create the MSA over a Secure LDAP (LDAPS) channel.
--verbose
Print out detailed information while creating the MSA.
--show-details
Print out information about the MSA after creating it.
--show-password
Print out the MSA password after creating the MSA.
36
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Integrating RHEL systems directly with

Understanding and configuring RHEL systems to connect directly with Active

Last Updated: 2021-12-03

Java ® is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

MAKING OPEN SOURCE MORE INCLUSIVE

In Identity Management, planned terminology replacements include:

block list replaces blacklist

allow list replaces whitelist

secondary replaces slave

IdM server replaces IdM master

CA renewal server replaces CA renewal master

CRL publisher server replaces CRL master

multi-supplier replaces multi-master

PROVIDING FEEDBACK ON RED HAT DOCUMENTATION

For simple comments on specific passages:

4. Follow the displayed instructions.

For submitting more complex feedback, create a Bugzilla ticket:

1. Go to the Bugzilla website.

2. As the Component, use Documentation.

4. Click Submit Bug.

CHAPTER 1. CONNECTING RHEL SYSTEMS DIRECTLY TO AD

Overview of direct integration using SSSD

Supported Windows platforms for direct integration

Ensuring support for common encryption types in AD and RHEL

How the AD provider handles dynamic DNS updates

Modifying dynamic DNS settings for the AD provider

How the AD provider handles trusted domains

1.1. OVERVIEW OF DIRECT INTEGRATION USING SSSD

Identity Management (IdM) in RHEL

Any generic LDAP or Kerberos server

The realm(8) man page.

The sssd-ad(5) man page.

The sssd(8) man page.

1.2. SUPPORTED WINDOWS PLATFORMS FOR DIRECT INTEGRATION

Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2016

Windows Server 2012 R2

1.3. ENSURING SUPPORT FOR COMMON ENCRYPTION TYPES IN AD

1. Use the update-crypto-policies command to enable the AD-SUPPORT cryptographic

[root@host ~]# update-crypto-policies --set DEFAULT:AD-SUPPORT

2. Restart the host.

1.4. CONNECTING DIRECTLY TO AD

Discovering and joining an AD domain using SSSD

Options for integrating with AD: using ID mapping or POSIX attributes

Connecting to AD using POSIX attributes defined in Active Directory

Connecting to multiple domains in different AD forests with SSSD

1.4.1. Discovering and joining an AD Domain using SSSD

Service Port Protocol Notes

DNS 53 UDP and TCP

LDAP 389 UDP and TCP

Kerberos 88 UDP and TCP

Kerberos 464 UDP and TCP Used by kadmin for

LDAP Global Catalog 3268 TCP If the id_provider =

NTP 123 UDP Optional

1. Install the following packages:

# yum install samba-common-tools realmd oddjob oddjob-mkhomedir sssd adcli krb5-

# realm discover ad.example.com