Setting Up Active Directory
6 minute read.
Last Modified 2022-05-18 14:44 EDTThe Active Directory (AD) service shares resources in a Windows network. AD provides authentication and authorization services for the users in a network, eliminating the need to recreate the user accounts on TrueNAS.
Once joined to an AD domain, you can use domain users and groups in local ACLs on files and directories. You can also set up shares to act as a file server.
Joining an AD domain also configures the Privileged Access Manager (PAM) to let domain users log on via SSH or authenticate to local services.
Users can configure AD services on Windows or Unix-like operating systems running Samba version 4.
To configure a connection, you need to know the Active Directory domain controller domain and the account credentials for that system.
Users can take a few steps before configuring Active Directory to ensure the connection process goes smoothly.
To connect to Active Directory, go to Directory Services > Active Directory and enter the AD Domain Name and account credentials. Set Enable to attempt to join the AD domain immediately after saving the configuration.
Advanced options are available for fine-tuning the AD configuration, but the preconfigured defaults are generally suitable.
When the import completes, AD users and groups become available while configuring basic dataset permissions or an Access Control List (ACL) with TrueNAS cache enabled (which is the default setting).
Joining AD also adds default Kerberos realms and generates a default AD_MACHINE_ACCOUNT
keytab.
TrueNAS automatically begins using this default keytab and removes any administrator credentials stored in the TrueNAS configuration file.
While SFTP is recommended over FTP, joined systems do allow FTP access. Keep these caveats in mind:
- Authentication uses DOMAIN\username as the user name by default.
- A user home directory needs to exist before joining.
- An AD user cannot be added to the FTP group. Enable local user auth for FTP instead.
- An existing samba homes share created in the GUI is set as the template homedir for AD users. This means that AD user home directories are set inside that path. Proper permissions are vital.
- There are no guarantees about how
proftpd
handles ACLs. - The admin (or
pam_mkhomedir
) must ensure that paths exist when AD users have populated homedir information in their LDAP schema. - When the admin is pulling home directories from their LDAP schema, take extra caution to insure that users aren’t writing files to the boot device.
If the cache becomes out of sync or fewer users than expected are available in the permissions editors, resync it using Directory Service > Active Directory > REBUILD DIRECTORY SERVICE CACHE.
If you are using Windows Server with 2008 R2 or older, try creating a Computer entry on the Windows server Organizational Unit (OU). When creating this entry, enter the TrueNAS hostname in the name field. Make sure it is the same name as the one set in the Hostname field in Network > Global Configuration, and the NetBIOS alias from Directory Service > Active Directory > Advanced Options.