Provisioning an Active Directory service account

If you want to join Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP SVMs to your on-premises Active Directory domain, you must maintain a valid Active Directory service account throughout the lifetime of the Amazon FSx file system. Amazon FSx must be able to fully manage the file system and perform tasks that require unjoining and rejoining your Active Directory domain, such as replacing a failed file SVM or patching NetApp ONTAP software. Keep your Active Directory configuration, including the service account credentials, updated in Amazon FSx.

This service account must have the following permissions in Active Directory:

• Permissions to join computers to the domain

• In the organizational unit (OU) that you are joining the file system, permissions to:

  • Reset passwords

  • Restrict accounts from reading and writing data

  • Write to the DNS hostname

  • Write to the service principal name

  • Create and delete computer objects

  • Read and write account restrictions

An Active Directory domain administrator can create the service account manually by using the Active Directory User and Computers MMC snap-in. For instructions, see Delegating permissions to your Amazon FSx service account in the FSx for ONTAP documentation. You could also configure this account programmatically. For example, you could use PowerShell, as shown in the following example.

param(
    [string] $DomainName,
    [string] $Username, #Service Account username
    [string] $Firstname, #Service Account Firstname
    [string] $Lastname, #Service Account Lastname
    [string] $saOU, #OU where Service Account is created
    [string] $delegateOrganizationalUnit #OU where Service Account has delegation
)

#Retrieve Active Directory domain credentials of a Domain Admin
$DomainCredential = ...

#Import Active Directory PowerShell module
...

#Create Service Account in specified OU
New-Active DirectoryUser -Credential $DomainCredential -SamAccountName $Username -UserPrincipalName "$Username@$DomainName" -Name "$Firstname $Lastname" -GivenName $Firstname -Surname $Lastname -Enabled $True -ChangePasswordAtLogon $False -DisplayName "$Lastname, $Firstname" -Path $saOU -CannotChangePassword $True -PasswordNotRequired $True
$user = Get-Active Directoryuser -Identity $Username
$userSID = [System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier] $user.SID

#Connect to Active Directory drive
Set-Location Active Directory:

$ACL = Get-Acl -Path $delegateOrganizationalUnit
$Identity = [System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference] $userSID

#GUID of Active Directory Class
$Computers = [GUID]"bf967a86-0de6-11d0-a285-00aa003049e2"
$ResetPassword = [GUID]"00299570-246d-11d0-a768-00aa006e0529"
$ValidatedDNSHostName = [GUID]"72e39547-7b18-11d1-adef-00c04fd8d5cd"
$ValidatedSPN = [GUID]"f3a64788-5306-11d1-a9c5-0000f80367c1"
$AccountRestrictions = [GUID]"4c164200-20c0-11d0-a768-00aa006e0529"

#Delegation list
$rules = @()
$rules += $(New-Object System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectoryAccessRule($Identity, "CreateChild, DeleteChild", "Allow", $Computers, "All"))
$rules += $(New-Object System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectoryAccessRule($Identity, "ExtendedRight", "Allow", $ResetPassword, "Descendents", $Computers))
$rules += $(New-Object System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectoryAccessRule($Identity, "ReadProperty, WriteProperty", "Allow", $AccountRestrictions, "Descendents", $Computers))
$rules += $(New-Object System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectoryAccessRule($userSID, "Self", "Allow", $ValidatedDNSHostName, "Descendents", $Computers))
$rules += $(New-Object System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectoryAccessRule($userSID, "Self", "Allow", $ValidatedSPN, "Descendents", $Computers))

#Set delegation
foreach($rule in $rules) {
    $ACL.AddAccessRule($rule)
}
Set-Acl -Path $delegateOrganizationalUnit -AclObject $ACL