Virtualization - Cloud

Month: December 2020

Windows 10 volume activation methods

Extracted from MS Tech community

While volume activation is a process that many have utilized over the years, today’s post offers guidance to help you ensure that all your devices have been properly activated regardless of their connection to your organization’s network.

First, a refresher. Volume activation enables a wide range of Windows devices to receive a volume license and be activated automatically and en masse versus tediously entering an activation key on each Windows device manually.

The most common methods of volume activation require that devices to be connected to an organization’s network or connected via virtual private network (VPN) to “check in” from time to time with the organization’s activation service to maintain their licenses. When people work from home and off the corporate or school network; however, their devices’ ability to receive or maintain activation is limited.

Volume activation methods

There are several methods to activate devices via volume licensing. For detailed information, see Plan for volume activation. Here, however, is a summary for easy reference.

Key Management Service

Key Management Service (KMS) activation requires TCP/IP connectivity to, and accessibility from, an organization’s private network so that licenses are not accessible to anyone outside of the organization. By default, KMS hosts and clients use DNS to publish and find the KMS key. Default settings can be used, which require little or no administrative action, or KMS hosts and client computers can be manually configured based on network configuration and security requirements.

KMS activations are valid for 180 days (the activation validity interval). KMS client computers must renew their activation by connecting to the KMS host at least once every 180 days. By default, KMS client computers attempt to renew their activation every 7 days. If KMS activation fails, the client computer retries to reach the host every two hours. After a client computer’s activation is renewed, the activation validity interval begins again.

Multiple Activation Key

Multiple Activation Key (MAK) is used for one-time activation with Microsoft’s hosted activation services. Each MAK has a predetermined number of activations allowed. This number is based on volume licensing agreements, and it might not match the organization’s exact license count. Each activation that uses a MAK with the Microsoft-hosted activation service counts toward the activation limit.

You can use a MAK for individual computers or with an image that can be duplicated or installed using Microsoft deployment solutions. You can also use a MAK on a computer that was originally configured to use KMS activation, which is useful for moving a computer off the core network to a disconnected environment.

Active Directory-based activation

Active Directory-based activation is similar to KMS activation but uses Active Directory instead of a separate service. Active Directory-based activation is implemented as a role service that relies on Active Directory Domain Services to store activation objects. Active Directory-based activation requires that the forest schema be updated using adprep.exe on a supported server operating system, but after the schema is updated, older domain controllers can still activate clients.

Devices activated via Active Directory maintain their activated state for up to 180 days after the last contact with the domain. Devices periodically attempt to reactivate (every seven days by default) before the end of that period and, again, at the end of the 180 days.

Windows 10 Subscription Activation

Starting with Windows 10, version 1703 Windows 10 Pro supports the Subscription Activation feature, enabling users to “step-up” from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 10 Enterprise automatically if they are subscribed to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5.

With Windows 10, version 1903 the Subscription Activation feature also supports the ability to step-up from Windows 10 Pro Education to the Enterprise grade edition for educational institutions – Windows 10 Education.

The Subscription Activation feature eliminates the need to manually deploy Windows 10 Enterprise or Education images on each target device, then later standing up on-prem key management services such as KMS or MAK based activation, entering GVLKs, and subsequently rebooting client devices.

To step a device up to Windows 10 Education via Subscription Activation the device must meet the following requirements:

  • Windows 10 Pro Education, version 1903 or later installed on the devices to be upgraded.
  • A device with a Windows 10 Pro Education digital license. You can confirm this information in Settings > Update & Security > Activation.
  • The Education tenant must have an active subscription to Microsoft 365 with a Windows 10 Enterprise license or a Windows 10 Enterprise or Education subscription.
  • Devices must be Azure AD-joined or Hybrid Azure AD joined. Workgroup-joined or Azure AD registered devices are not supported.
Note: If Windows 10 Pro is converted to Windows 10 Pro Education using benefits available in Store for Education, then the feature will not work. You will need to re-image the device using a Windows 10 Pro Education edition.

Volume activation while working from home

If you activate devices in your organization using MAK, the activation process is straightforward and the devices are permanently activated. If you are using KMS or Active Directory-based Activation, each device must connect to the organization’s local network at least once every 180 days to “check in” with either the KMS host or the Active Directory domain controller. Otherwise, the user will be warned to activate Windows again.

With many users working or taking classes from home, a connection to the organization’s network may not exist, which would ultimately leave their devices in a deactivated state. There are a few options to avoid this:

  1. Use a VPN. By having the device connect to your organization’s network via a VPN, it will be able to contact a KMS host or Active Directory domain controller and will be able to maintain its activation status. If you manage your devices through a wholly on-premises solution to deploy policies, collect inventory, and deploy updates and other software, there is a good chance you are already using a VPN. Depending on the VPN configuration, some manual configuration of the client device may be required to ensure the KMS service is accessible through the VPN. For more details on these settings, which can be implemented via script, see Slmgr.vbs options for obtaining volume activation information.
  2. Convert the devices from KMS to MAK activation. By converting from KMS to MAK activation, you replace the license that requires reactivation every 180 days with a permanent one, which requires no additional check-in process. There are some cases—in educational organizations, for example—where each device is re-imaged at the end of the school year to get ready for the next class. In this case, the license must be “reclaimed” by contacting your Microsoft licensing rep or a Microsoft Licensing Activation Center.

    One way of converting a device from KMS to MAK activation is to use the Windows Configuration Designer app (available from the Microsoft Store) to create a provisioning package, which includes the MAK, and deploy the package through email or a management solution such as Microsoft Intune.

    You can also deploy a MAK directly within Intune without creating a provisioning package by creating a simple PowerShell script with the following commands and deploying the script to a user group:

    slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX slmgr.vbs /ato​
    (In the example above, XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX is your MAK key.)

    It is important to monitor the success of these activations and remove users from the target group once their devices have been activated so that their other devices do not receive a new license.

    Note: Windows Configuration Designer is also available as part of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 10.
  3. Use Subscription Activation. This requires the devices to be joined to your Azure AD domain, enabling activation in the cloud. This is possible if you have one of the following subscriptions:
    • Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5
    • Windows 10 Education A3/A5
    • Windows 10 Enterprise with Software Assurance
    • Microsoft 365 E3/E5
    • Microsoft 365 E3/A5
    • Microsoft 365 F1/F3
    • Microsoft 365 Business Premium

If you need assistance and have one of the preceding subscriptions with at least 150 licenses, you may be eligible for assistance through FastTrack. Contact your Microsoft representative or request assistance from FastTrack and a Microsoft FastTrack representative will contact you directly.

Conclusion

Windows volume activation has been around for a long time, but the increased number of users working from home may require your organization to re-evaluate how to best keep your devices activated if they cannot reach your on-premises activation service if you are using KMS or Active Directory-based Activation. It is important to consider the options available to you to ensure your devices stay activated. As always, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach, so consider the pros and cons of each option as you plan on how to best support your remote workers and students.

To learn more about activation, check Activate clients running Windows 10.

WVD Common Implementation issues

Below are the common WVD build issues which I encountered during implementations

Issue 1 -Unable to create any Host Pool

Error

{“code”:”DeploymentFailed”,”message”:”At least one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. Please see https://aka.ms/DeployOperations for usage details.”,”details”:[{“code”:”Conflict”,”message”:”{\r\n \”status\”: \”Failed\”,\r\n \”error\”: {\r\n \”code\”: \”ResourceDeploymentFailure\”,\r\n \”message\”: \”The resource operation completed with terminal provisioning state ‘Failed’.\”,\r\n \”details\”: [\r\n {\r\n \”code\”: \”DeploymentFailed\”,\r\n \”message\”: \”At least one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. Please see https://aka.ms/DeployOperations for usage details.\”,\r\n \”details\”: [\r\n {\r\n \”code\”: \”Conflict\”,\r\n \”message\”: \”{\r\n \\”status\\”: \\”Failed\\”,\r\n \\”error\\”: {\r\n \\”code\\”: \\”ResourceDeploymentFailure\\”,\r\n \\”message\\”: \\”The resource operation completed with terminal provisioning state ‘Failed’.\\”,\r\n \\”details\\”: [\r\n {\r\n \\”code\\”: \\”VMExtensionProvisioningError\\”,\r\n \\”message\\”: \\”VM has reported a failure when processing extension ‘dscextension’. Error message: \\\\”The DSC Extension failed to execute: Error downloading https://wvdportalstorageblob.blob.core.windows.net/galleryartifacts/Configuration_9-11-2020.zip after 29 attempts: Unable to connect to the remote server.\\r\\nMore information about the failure can be found in the logs located under ‘C:\\\\WindowsAzure\\\\Logs\\\\Plugins\\\\Microsoft.Powershell.DSC\\\\2.80.1.0’ on the VM.\\\\”\\r\\n\\r\\nMore information on troubleshooting is available at https://aka.ms/VMExtensionDSCWindowsTroubleshoot \\”\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n}\”\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \”code\”: \”Conflict\”,\r\n \”message\”: \”{\r\n \\”status\\”: \\”Failed\\”,\r\n \\”error\\”: {\r\n \\”code\\”: \\”ResourceDeploymentFailure\\”,\r\n \\”message\\”: \\”The resource operation completed with terminal provisioning state ‘Failed’.\\”,\r\n \\”details\\”: [\r\n {\r\n \\”code\\”: \\”VMExtensionProvisioningError\\”,\r\n \\”message\\”: \\”VM has reported a failure when processing extension ‘dscextension’. Error message: \\\\”The DSC Extension failed to execute: Error downloading https://wvdportalstorageblob.blob.core.windows.net/galleryartifacts/Configuration_9-11-2020.zip after 29 attempts: Unable to connect to the remote server.\\r\\nMore information about the failure can be found in the logs located under ‘C:\\\\WindowsAzure\\\\Logs\\\\Plugins\\\\Microsoft.Powershell.DSC\\\\2.80.1.0’ on the VM.\\\\”\\r\\n\\r\\nMore information on troubleshooting is available at https://aka.ms/VMExtensionDSCWindowsTroubleshoot \\”\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n}\”\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n}”}]}

Root Cause:

There was no internet access for the subnet used for host pool creation

Resolution:

Internet connectivity required for WVD VNET as DSC extension need to download from Azure Websites. The DSC extension for Windows requires that the target virtual machine is able to communicate with Azure and the location of the configuration package (.zip file) if it is stored in a location outside of Azure.

Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/extensions/dsc-windows

Issue 2: Unable to create Host pool from Custom Image

Error

{“code”:”DeploymentFailed”,”message”:”At least one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. Please see https://aka.ms/DeployOperations for usage details.”,”details”:[{“code”:”Conflict”,”message”:”{\r\n \”status\”: \”Failed\”,\r\n \”error\”: {\r\n \”code\”: \”ResourceDeploymentFailure\”,\r\n \”message\”: \”The resource operation completed with terminal provisioning state ‘Failed’.\”,\r\n \”details\”: [\r\n {\r\n \”code\”: \”DeploymentFailed\”,\r\n \”message\”: \”At least one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. Please see https://aka.ms/DeployOperations for usage details.\”,\r\n \”details\”: [\r\n {\r\n \”code\”: \”Conflict\”,\r\n \”message\”: \”{\r\n \\”status\\”: \\”Failed\\”,\r\n \\”error\\”: {\r\n \\”code\\”: \\”ResourceDeploymentFailure\\”,\r\n \\”message\\”: \\”The resource operation completed with terminal provisioning state ‘Failed’.\\”,\r\n \\”details\\”: [\r\n {\r\n \\”code\\”: \\”VMExtensionProvisioningTimeout\\”,\r\n \\”message\\”: \\”Provisioning of VM extension dscextension has timed out. Extension provisioning has taken too long to complete. The extension did not report a message. More information on troubleshooting is available at https://aka.ms/VMExtensionDSCWindowsTroubleshoot\\”\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n}\”\r\n },\r\n {\r\n \”code\”: \”Conflict\”,\r\n \”message\”: \”{\r\n \\”status\\”: \\”Failed\\”,\r\n \\”error\\”: {\r\n \\”code\\”: \\”ResourceDeploymentFailure\\”,\r\n \\”message\\”: \\”The resource operation completed with terminal provisioning state ‘Failed’.\\”,\r\n \\”details\\”: [\r\n {\r\n \\”code\\”: \\”VMExtensionProvisioningTimeout\\”,\r\n \\”message\\”: \\”Provisioning of VM extension dscextension has timed out. Extension provisioning has taken too long to complete. The extension did not report a message. More information on troubleshooting is available at https://aka.ms/VMExtensionDSCWindowsTroubleshoot\\”\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n}\”\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n}”}]

Root Cause

Issue with Image which is captured from existing Host Pool

Resolution

Do not capture image from Hostpool Sessions as this breaks sometimes , always
Take new image from Market Place ->convert to Image ->Create Host pools -> For Host update , again use previous captured image

Issue 3: Host pools are able to create with fresh images but not  with applications installed on Image (custom)

Error

{“code”:”DeploymentFailed”,”message”:”At least one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. Please see https://aka.ms/DeployOperations for usage details.”,”details”:[{“code”:”VMExtensionProvisioningTimeout”,”message”:”Provisioning of VM extension joindomain has timed out. Extension provisioning has taken too long to complete. The extension did not report a message. More information on troubleshooting is available at https://aka.ms/vmextensionwindowstroubleshoot”}]}

Root Cause

Visual studio 2015 & 2017 , customer 3rd part application are blocking to create Host pool – Issue experienced with 2 customers

Resolution

Able to create Hostpools after uninstallation of Visual studio

Windows Virtual Desktop Environment structure

Windows Virtual Desktop is a service that gives users easy and secure access to their virtualized desktops and RemoteApps. This topic will tell you a bit more about the general structure of the Windows Virtual Desktop environment.

Host pools

A host pool is a collection of Azure virtual machines that register to Windows Virtual Desktop as session hosts when you run the Windows Virtual Desktop agent. All session host virtual machines in a host pool should be sourced from the same image for a consistent user experience.

A host pool can be one of two types:

  • Personal, where each session host is assigned to individual users.
  • Pooled, where session hosts can accept connections from any user authorized to an app group within the host pool.

You can set additional properties on the host pool to change its load-balancing behavior, how many sessions each session host can take, and what the user can do to session hosts in the host pool while signed in to their Windows Virtual Desktop sessions. You control the resources published to users through app groups.

App groups

An app group is a logical grouping of applications installed on session hosts in the host pool. An app group can be one of two types:

  • RemoteApp, where users access the RemoteApps you individually select and publish to the app group
  • Desktop, where users access the full desktop

By default, a desktop app group (named “Desktop Application Group”) is automatically created whenever you create a host pool. You can remove this app group at any time. However, you can’t create another desktop app group in the host pool while a desktop app group exists. To publish RemoteApps, you must create a RemoteApp app group. You can create multiple RemoteApp app groups to accommodate different worker scenarios. Different RemoteApp app groups can also contain overlapping RemoteApps.

To publish resources to users, you must assign them to app groups. When assigning users to app groups, consider the following things:

  • A user can be assigned to both a desktop app group and a RemoteApp app group in the same host pool. However, users can only launch one type of app group per session. Users can’t launch both types of app groups at the same time in a single session.
  • A user can be assigned to multiple app groups within the same host pool, and their feed will be an accumulation of both app groups.

Workspaces

A workspace is a logical grouping of application groups in Windows Virtual Desktop. Each Windows Virtual Desktop application group must be associated with a workspace for users to see the remote apps and desktops published to them.

End users

After you’ve assigned users to their app groups, they can connect to a Windows Virtual Desktop deployment with any of the Windows Virtual Desktop clients.

WVD Control Plane and User Connection Flow

Microsoft manages the following Windows Virtual Desktop services as part of Azure:


Web Access

The Web Access service within Window Virtual Desktop lets user’s access virtual desktops and remote apps through an HTML5-compatible web browser as they would with a local PC, from anywhere on any device. Web Access is secured for Diageo users using OKTA multifactor authentication.

Gateway

The Remote Connection Gateway service connects remote users to Windows Virtual Desktop apps and desktops from any internet-connected device that can run a Windows Virtual Desktop client. The client connects to a gateway, which then orchestrates a connection from a VM back to the same gateway.

Connection Broker

The Connection Broker service manages WVD user connections to virtual desktops and remote apps. The Connection Broker provides load balancing and reconnection to existing sessions.

Diagnostics

Remote Desktop Diagnostics is an event-based aggregator that marks each user and administrator action on the Windows Virtual Desktop deployment as a success or failure. WVD Administrators can query the event aggregation to identify failing components as per requirements.

Extensibility components

Windows Virtual Desktop includes several extensibility components. Windows Virtual Desktop can be managed using Windows PowerShell or with the provided REST APIs, which also enable support from third-party tools. WVD team is using Azure ARM/GUI for WVD management for this deployment.

WVD User Connection Traffic flow

WVD uses Reverse Connect, which means that no inbound ports need to be opened on the VM to setup the RDP connection. Once the connection flow proceeds, bidirectional communication between session hosts/host pools will go over port https (443).


Windows Virtual Desktop is a global load balanced service via Azure front-door. This means that the traffic flow always goes via the nearest management control-plane/service location.

User Connection Flow

  1. User launches RD client which connects to Azure AD, Azure MFA, user signs in, and Azure AD returns token
  2. RD client presents token to Web Access, Broker queries DB to determine resources authorized for user
  3. User selects resource, RD client connects to Gateway
  4. Broker orchestrates connection from host agent to Gateway
    RDP traffic now flows between RD client and session host VM over connections 3 and 4

Architecture of Azure Private DNS and name lookup in Azure

Guest Post – Thanks to Marius Sandbu for great information

Azure provides internal name resolution for VMs and role instances (including app services) for all services that reside within a virtual network. When setting up a virtual network it will by default use the internal Azure DNS service.

When you setup a virtual machine within this VNET it will automatically get assigned IP by a DHCP service and DNS lookup services by an internal IP address 168.63.129.16. This IP address is an internal VIP address by Microsoft (Which is only available internally from within Azure) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/what-is-ip-address-168-63-129-16 (Traffic should not be blocked to this IP address, this address is static and will not change)

You can also change the DNS Server scope on a virtual network, but this will not affect other virtual networks that are peered or otherwise connected to the virtual network using VPN or ExpressRoute.

When it comes to providing DNS Servces in Azure, there are a couple of options.

  • Azure built-in DNS (Does not provide any ability to change or update record)
  • DNS Server running IaaS (Provides full flexibility, but requires that you have virtual machines that running to deliver DNS services)
  • DNS Proxy (Having a virtual machine or service which can provide DNS services for services in Azure but authoritative DNS servers are outside of Azure)
  • Azure DNS Private Zones (An internal DNS Service in Azure which can provide DNS lookup within a virtual network, allows you to manage records in Azure)

For more architecture ,download below guide

Difference between NTLM, Kerberos & LDAP authentication

NTLM: Authentication is the well-known and loved challenge-response authentication mechanism, using NTLM means that you really have no special configuration issues. As Microsoft likes to say, “It just works.”


Older than Kerberos, and is for authentication as well. Can still be used as a backup to Kerberos authentication being down.

Kerberos: It’s complex ticket-based authentication mechanism that authenticates the client to the server and authenticates the server to the client. While Kerberos is more secure, it can be a bit challenging to set up properly. Win 2003 with the latest SP can be configured to use either NTLM or Kerberos. Well, besides being more secure, Kerberos has two key advantages that make it worth consideration.


Authentication for ticket based domain authentication i.e. logging into the domain. Replaced NTLM.

Kerberos is the authentication protocol that is used in Windows 2000 and above where as NTLM was used in Windows Server NT 4 ad below. As for LDAP, it is the protocol that is used with Active Directory, Novell Directory Service, and newer Unix systems.. If you have older workstations you may still need to use NTLM, but if you only have Windows Me clients or below you can disable it using Group Policy. Windows 2000 professional and above used Kerberos

LDAP: It is primarily a directory access protocol. They do different things. LDAP has a primitive authentication mechanism called “simple bind” that applications can use to verify credentials if they can’t handle other authentication protocols. It gets tricky because LDAP also includes an extensible authentication framework called SASL that allows alternate authentication protocols to be added.
Protocol to allow other programs to access the Active Directory Framework, used in VBScript extensively. Think of it as a “hole to allow you to peek inside your Active Directory Domain”.

Advantages of Kerberos: Better Security, Faster authentication, Mutual authentication, Kerberos is an open standard, Support for authentication delegation, Support for the smart card logon feature.

  1. Performance – Kerberos caches information about the client after authentication. This means that it can perform better than NTLM particularly in large farm environments.
  2. Delegation – Kerberos can delegate the client credentials from the front-end web server to other back-end servers like SQL Server.
    Work Flows

In Active Directory (AD), two authentication protocols can be used:


NT LAN Manager (NTLM): This is a challenge-response authentication protocol that was used before Kerberos became available. However, an organization may still have computers that use NTLM, so it’s still supported in Windows Server.
Kerberos: This protocol works on the basis of tickets, and requires the presence of a trusted third party.

The basics of how NTLM works

Here’s a step-by-step description of how NTLM authentication works:


• The user provides their username, password, and domain name at the interactive logon screen of a client.
• The client develops a hash of the user’s password and discards the actual password.
• The client sends the username in plain text to the server it wants to access.
• The server sends a challenge to the client. This challenge is a 16-byte random number.
• The client then sends a response to the server. This response is the challenge encrypted by the hash of the user’s password.
• The server sends the challenge, response, and username to the domain controller (DC).
• The DC retrieves the hash of the user’s password from its database, and then encrypts the challenge using it.
• The DC compares the encrypted challenge it has computed (in the above step) to the response of the client. If these two match, the user is authenticated.

NTLMv2 – A big improvement over NTLMv1

NTLMv2 is a more secure version of NTLM (discussed above). It differs from its predecessor in the following ways:


• It provides a variable length challenge instead of the 16-byte random number challenge used by NTLMv1.
• In NTLMv2, the client adds additional parameters to the server’s challenge such as the client nonce, server nonce, timestamp and username. It then encrypts this with the hash of the user’s password with the HMAC-MD5 algorithm. In contrast, in NTLMv1, the client only adds the client nonce and the server nonce to the server’s challenge. It then encrypts this with the hash of the user’s password with the relatively weak DES algorithm.

NTLMv2 gives a better defense against replay attacks and brute-force attacks. However, Kerberos is an even more secure authentication protocol because of its use of encrypted tickets.

How Kerberos works

NTLMv2 – A big improvement over NTLMv1 NTLMv2 is a more secure version of NTLM (discussed above). It differs from its predecessor in the following ways:

Here is the step-by-step process of how Kerberos works:

The user attempts to join the network through the client’s interactive logon screen.
• The client constructs a package called an authenticator which has information about the client (username, date, and time). Except for the username, all the other information contained in the authenticator is encrypted with the user’s password.
• The client then sends the encrypted authenticator to the KDC.
• The KDC immediately knows the identity of the client that has sent the authenticator by looking at the username. The KDC will then look into its AD database for the user’s password, which is a shared secret. It then decrypts the authenticator with the password. If the KDC is able to decrypt the authenticator, it means that the identity of the client is verified.
• Once the identity of the client is verified, the KDC creates a ticket granting ticket (TGT), which is encrypted by a key that only the KDC knows.
• The KDC sends the TGT to the client. The client stores the TGT in its Kerberos tray. It can use this ticket whenever it needs to access a resource on a server on the network (within a typical time limit of eight hours).
• When the client needs to access another server, it sends the TGT to the KDC along with a request to access the resource.
• The KDC decrypts the TGT with its key. This step verifies that the client has previously authenticated itself to the KDC.
• The KDC generates a ticket for the client to access the shared resource. This ticket is encrypted by the server’s key. The KDC then sends this ticket to the client.
• The client saves this ticket in its Kerberos tray, and sends a copy of it to the server.
• The server uses its own password to decrypt the ticket
.

If the server successfully decrypts the ticket, it knows that the ticket is legitimate. The server will then open the ticket and decide whether the client has the necessary permission to access the resource by looking through the access control list (ACL).

Azure AD Connect setup

Guest Post -Thanks to cloudsapient blog

Azure AD Connect Authentication (sign-in) Options:
Below are the four different authentication (sign-in) mechanisms provided by Azure AD when you are using Azure AD Connect, based on your feasibility from security and compliance perspective you can choose the one appropriate. During Azure AD Connect installation wizard you will have the ability to choose one of the authentication mechanism.

1. Password Hash Synchronization (PHS):
–When we install Azure AD Connect with “Express Settings” then Password Harsh Synchronization (PHS) authentication mechanism is the default configuration.
–AAD Connect synchronizes a hash, of the hash, of an AD user’s password from an on-premises AD to Azure AD.
–To synchronize user’s password, Azure AD Connect sync extracts user’s password hash from the on-premises Active Directory. Extra security processing is applied to the password hash before it is synchronized to the Azure Active Directory.
–PHS process runs every 2 minutes and we cannot modify the frequency of this process.

2.Pass-through Authentication (PTA):
–Users credentials are validated by on-premises Active Directory Domain Controller via AAD Connect Authentication Agent, On-premises AD user’s passwords are not stored in Azure AD in any form.
–For Pass-through Authentication to work, users need to be provisioned into Azure AD from on-premises Active Directory using Azure AD Connect. Pass-through Authentication does not apply to cloud-only users.
–Communication between Authentication Agent and Azure AD is uses certificate-based authentication. These certificates are automatically renewed every few months by Azure AD.
–Microsoft recommends to have more than one AAD Connect Authentication Agent to provide high availability of authentication requests.
–PTA can also be used in conjunction with PHS for high availability scenarios, As per Microsoft “Enabling Password Hash Synchronization gives you the option to failover authentication if your on-premises infrastructure is disrupted. This failover from Pass-through Authentication to Password Hash Synchronization is not automatic. You’ll need to switch the sign-in method manually using Azure AD Connect. If the server running Azure AD Connect goes down, you’ll require help from Microsoft Support to turn off Pass-through Authentication.”

3. Federation with ADFS:
–In ADFS federation scenario, Azure AD will be redirecting authentication request to ADFS.

4. Federation with PingFederate:
–If you are already using PingFederate in your environment then you may choose this method for authentication. AAD Connect natively supports PingFederate, please refer below official document from PingFederate regarding implementation of this.
https://support.pingidentity.com/s/article/PingFederate-Microsoft-Azure-End-to-End-Integration

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