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Join a Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machine to a Microsoft Entra Domain Services managed domain

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To let users sign in to virtual machines (VMs) in Azure using a single set of credentials, you can join VMs to a Microsoft Entra Domain Services managed domain. When you join a VM to a Domain Services managed domain, user accounts and credentials from the domain can be used to sign in and manage servers. Group memberships from the managed domain are also applied to let you control access to files or services on the VM.

This article shows you how to join a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) VM to a managed domain.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you need the following resources and privileges:

Create and connect to a RHEL Linux VM

If you have an existing RHEL Linux VM in Azure, connect to it using SSH, then continue on to the next step to start configuring the VM.

If you need to create a RHEL Linux VM, or want to create a test VM for use with this article, you can use one of the following methods:

When you create the VM, pay attention to the virtual network settings to make sure that the VM can communicate with the managed domain:

  • Deploy the VM into the same, or a peered, virtual network in which you have enabled Microsoft Entra Domain Services.
  • Deploy the VM into a different subnet than your Microsoft Entra Domain Services managed domain.

Once the VM is deployed, follow the steps to connect to the VM using SSH.

Configure the hosts file

To make sure that the VM host name is correctly configured for the managed domain, edit the /etc/hosts file and set the hostname:

Bash 
sudo vi /etc/hosts

In the hosts file, update the localhost address. In the following example:

  • aaddscontoso.com is the DNS domain name of your managed domain.
  • rhel is the hostname of your RHEL VM that you're joining to the managed domain.

Update these names with your own values:

config 
127.0.0.1 rhel rhel.aaddscontoso.com

When done, save and exit the hosts file using the :wq command of the editor.

Important

Keep in consideration Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.X and Oracle Linux 6.x is already EOL. RHEL 6.10 has available ELS support, which ended on 06/2024.

Install required packages

The VM needs some additional packages to join the VM to the managed domain. To install and configure these packages, update and install the domain-join tools using yum.

Bash 
sudo yum install adcli sssd authconfig krb5-workstation

Join VM to the managed domain

Now that the required packages are installed on the VM, join the VM to the managed domain.

  1. Use the adcli info command to discover the managed domain. The following example discovers the realm ADDDSCONTOSO.COM. Specify your own managed domain name in ALL UPPERCASE:

    Bash 
    sudo adcli info aaddscontoso.com

    If the adcli info command can't find your managed domain, review the following troubleshooting steps:

    • Make sure that the domain is reachable from the VM. Try ping aaddscontoso.com to see if a positive reply is returned.
    • Check that the VM is deployed to the same, or a peered, virtual network in which the managed domain is available.
    • Confirm that the DNS server settings for the virtual network are updated to point to the domain controllers of the managed domain.

  2. First, join the domain using the adcli join command. This command also creates the keytab to authenticate the machine. Use a user account that's a part of the managed domain.

    Bash 
    sudo adcli join aaddscontoso.com -U contosoadmin

  3. Now configure the /ect/krb5.conf and create the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf files to use the aaddscontoso.com Active Directory domain. Make sure that AADDSCONTOSO.COM is replaced by your own domain name:

    Open the /etc/krb5.conf file with an editor:

    Bash 
    sudo vi /etc/krb5.conf

    Update the krb5.conf file to match the following sample:

    config 
    [logging]
 default = FILE:/var/log/krb5libs.log
 kdc = FILE:/var/log/krb5kdc.log
 admin_server = FILE:/var/log/kadmind.log

[libdefaults]
 default_realm = AADDSCONTOSO.COM
 dns_lookup_realm = true
 dns_lookup_kdc = true
 ticket_lifetime = 24h
 renew_lifetime = 7d
 forwardable = true

[realms]
 AADDSCONTOSO.COM = {
 kdc = AADDSCONTOSO.COM
 admin_server = AADDSCONTOSO.COM
 }

[domain_realm]
 .AADDSCONTOSO.COM = AADDSCONTOSO.COM
 AADDSCONTOSO.COM = AADDSCONTOSO.COM

    Create the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file:

    Bash 
    sudo vi /etc/sssd/sssd.conf

    Update the sssd.conf file to match the following sample:

    config 
    [sssd]
 services = nss, pam, ssh, autofs
 config_file_version = 2
 domains = AADDSCONTOSO.COM

[domain/AADDSCONTOSO.COM]

 id_provider = ad

  4. Make sure /etc/sssd/sssd.conf permissions are 600 and is owned by root user:

    Bash 
    sudo chmod 600 /etc/sssd/sssd.conf
sudo chown root:root /etc/sssd/sssd.conf

  5. Use authconfig to instruct the VM about the AD Linux integration:

    Bash 
    sudo authconfig --enablesssd --enablesssd auth --update

  6. Start and enable the sssd service:

    Bash 
    sudo service sssd start
sudo chkconfig sssd on

If your VM can't successfully complete the domain-join process, make sure that the VM's network security group allows outbound Kerberos traffic on TCP + UDP port 464 to the virtual network subnet for your managed domain.

Now check if you can query user AD information using getent

Bash 
sudo getent passwd contosoadmin

Allow password authentication for SSH

By default, users can only sign in to a VM using SSH public key-based authentication. Password-based authentication fails. When you join the VM to a managed domain, those domain accounts need to use password-based authentication. Update the SSH configuration to allow password-based authentication as follows.

  1. Open the sshd_conf file with an editor:

    Bash 
    sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

  2. Update the line for PasswordAuthentication to yes:

    config 
    PasswordAuthentication yes

    When done, save and exit the sshd_conf file using the :wq command of the editor.

  3. To apply the changes and let users sign in using a password, restart the SSH service for your RHEL distro version:

    Bash 
    sudo service sshd restart

Grant the 'AAD DC Administrators' group sudo privileges

To grant members of the AAD DC Administrators group administrative privileges on the RHEL VM, you add an entry to the /etc/sudoers. Once added, members of the AAD DC Administrators group can use the sudo command on the RHEL VM.

  1. Open the sudoers file for editing:

    Bash 
    sudo visudo

  2. Add the following entry to the end of /etc/sudoers file. The AAD DC Administrators group contains whitespace in the name, so include the backslash escape character in the group name. Add your own domain name, such as aaddscontoso.com:

    config 
    # Add 'AAD DC Administrators' group members as admins.
%AAD\ DC\ Administrators@aaddscontoso.com ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

    When done, save and exit the editor using the :wq command of the editor.

Sign in to the VM using a domain account

To verify that the VM successfully joined to the managed domain, start a new SSH connection using a domain user account. Confirm that a home directory is created, and that group membership from the domain is applied.

  1. Create a new SSH connection from your console. Use a domain account that belongs to the managed domain using the ssh -l command, such as contosoadmin@aaddscontoso.com and then enter the address of your VM, such as rhel.aaddscontoso.com. If you use the Azure Cloud Shell, use the public IP address of the VM rather than the internal DNS name.

    Bash 
    ssh -l contosoadmin@AADDSCONTOSO.com rhel.aaddscontoso.com

  2. When you've successfully connected to the VM, verify that the home directory was initialized correctly:

    Bash 
    pwd

    You should be in the /home directory with your own directory that matches the user account.

  3. Now check that the group memberships are being resolved correctly:

    Bash 
    id

    You should see your group memberships from the managed domain.

  4. If you signed in to the VM as a member of the AAD DC Administrators group, check that you can correctly use the sudo command:

    Bash 
    sudo yum update

Next steps

If you have problems connecting the VM to the managed domain or signing in with a domain account, see Troubleshooting domain join issues.