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Getting Started with Group Managed Service Accounts

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Applies to: Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016

This guide provides step-by-step instructions and background information for enabling and using group Managed Service Accounts in Windows Server 2012 .

In this document

Note

This topic includes sample Windows PowerShell cmdlets that you can use to automate some of the procedures described. For more information, see Using Cmdlets.

Prerequisites

See the section in this topic on Requirements for group Managed Service Accounts.

Introduction

When a client computer connects to a service which is hosted on a server farm using network load balancing (NLB) or some other method where all the servers appear to be the same service to the client, then authentication protocols supporting mutual authentication such as Kerberos cannot be used unless all the instances of the services use the same principal. This means that each service has to use the same passwords/keys to prove their identity.

Note

Failover clusters do not support gMSAs. However, services that run on top of the Cluster service can use a gMSA or a sMSA if they are a Windows service, an App pool, a scheduled task, or natively support gMSA or sMSA.

Services have the following principals from which to choose, and each has certain limitations.

Principals Services supported Password management
Computer Account of Windows system Limited to one domain joined server Computer manages
Computer Account without Windows system Any domain joined server None
Virtual Account Limited to one server Computer manages
Windows 7 standalone Managed Service Account Limited to one domain joined server Computer manages
User Account Any domain joined server None
Group Managed Service Account Any Windows Server 2012 domain-joined server The domain controller manages, and the host retrieves

A Windows computer account, a Windows 7 standalone Managed Service Account (sMSA), or virtual accounts cannot be shared across multiple systems. In the case of virtual accounts, the identity is also local to the machine and not recognized by the domain. If you configure one account for services on server farms to share, you would have to choose a user account or a computer account apart from a Windows system. Either way, these accounts do not have the capability of single-point-of-control password management. This creates problem where each organization needs to create an expensive solution to update keys for the service in Active Directory and then distribute the keys to all instances of those services.

With Windows Server 2012, services or service administrators do not need to manage password synchronization between service instances when using group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA). You provision the gMSA in AD and then configure the service which supports Managed Service Accounts. Use of the gMSA is scoped to any machine that is able to use LDAP to retrieve the gMSA's credentials. You can provision a gMSA using the *-ADServiceAccount cmdlets which are part of the Active Directory module. Service identity configuration on the host is supported by:

  • Same APIs as sMSA, so products which support sMSA will support gMSA

  • Services which use Service Control Manager to configure logon identity

  • Services which use the IIS manager for application pools to configure identity

  • Tasks using Task Scheduler.

Requirements for group Managed Service Accounts

The following table lists the operating system requirements for Kerberos authentication to work with services using gMSA. The Active Directory requirements are listed after the table.

A 64-bit architecture is required to run the Windows PowerShell commands used to administer group Managed Service Accounts.

Operating system requirements

Element Requirement Operating system
Client Application host RFC compliant Kerberos client At least Windows XP
User account's domain DCs RFC compliant KDC At least Windows Server 2003
Shared service member hosts Windows Server 2012
Member host's domain DCs RFC compliant KDC At least Windows Server 2003
gMSA account's domain DCs Windows Server 2012 DCs available for host to retrieve the password Domain with Windows Server 2012 which can have some systems earlier than Windows Server 2012
Backend service host RFC compliant Kerberos application server At least Windows Server 2003
Backend service account's domain DCs RFC compliant KDC At least Windows Server 2003
Windows PowerShell for Active Directory Windows PowerShell for Active Directory installed locally on a computer supporting a 64-bit architecture or on your remote management computer (for example, using the Remote Server Administration Toolkit) Windows Server 2012

Active Directory Domain Service requirements

  • The Active Directory schema in the gMSA domain's forest needs to be updated to Windows Server 2012 to create a gMSA.

    You can update the schema by installing a domain controller that runs Windows Server 2012 or by running the version of adprep.exe from a computer running Windows Server 2012 . The object-version attribute value for the object CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=Contoso,DC=Com must be 52.

  • New gMSA account provisioned

  • If you are managing the service host permission to use gMSA by group, then new or existing security group

  • If managing service access control by group, then new or existing security group

  • If the first master root key for Active Directory is not deployed in the domain or has not been created, then create it. The result of its creation can be verified in the KdsSvc Operational log, Event ID 4004.

For instructions how to create the key, see Create the Key Distribution Services KDS Root Key. Microsoft Key Distribution Service (kdssvc.dll) the root key for AD.

Lifecycle

The lifecycle of a server farm using the gMSA feature typically involves the following tasks:

  • Deploying a new server farm

  • Adding member hosts to an existing server farm

  • Decommissioning member hosts from an existing server farm

  • Decommissioning an existing server farm

  • Removing a compromised member host from a server farm if required.

Deploying a new server farm

When deploying a new server farm, the service administrator will need to determine:

  • If the service supports using gMSAs

  • If the service requires inbound or outbound authenticated connections

  • The computer account names for the member hosts for the service using the gMSA

  • The NetBIOS name for the service

  • The DNS host name for the service

  • The Service Principal Names (SPNs) for the service

  • The password change interval (default is 30 days).

Step 1: Provisioning group Managed Service Accounts

You can create a gMSA only if the forest schema has been updated to Windows Server 2012 , the master root key for Active Directory has been deployed, and there is at least one Windows Server 2012 DC in the domain in which the gMSA will be created.

Membership in Domain Admins or the ability to create msDS-GroupManagedServiceAccount objects, is the minimum required to complete the following procedures.

Note

A value for the -Name parameter is always required (whether you specify -Name or not), with -DNSHostName, -RestrictToSingleComputer, and -RestrictToOutboundAuthentication being secondary requirements for the three deployment scenarios.

To create a gMSA using the New-ADServiceAccount cmdlet

  1. On the Windows Server 2012 domain controller, run Windows PowerShell from the Taskbar.

  2. At the command prompt for the Windows PowerShell, type the following commands, and then press ENTER. (The Active Directory module will load automatically.)

    New-ADServiceAccount [-Name] <string> -DNSHostName <string> [-KerberosEncryptionType <ADKerberosEncryptionType>] [-ManagedPasswordIntervalInDays <Nullable[Int32]>] [-PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword <ADPrincipal[]>] [-SamAccountName <string>] [-ServicePrincipalNames <string[]>]

    Parameter String Example
    Name Name of the account ITFarm1
    DNSHostName DNS host name of service ITFarm1.contoso.com
    KerberosEncryptionType Any encryption types supported by the host servers None, RC4, AES128, AES256
    ManagedPasswordIntervalInDays Password change interval in days (default is 30 days if not provided) 90
    PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword The computer accounts of the member hosts or the security group that the member hosts are a member of ITFarmHosts
    SamAccountName NetBIOS name for the service if not same as Name ITFarm1
    ServicePrincipalNames Service Principal Names (SPNs) for the service http/ITFarm1.contoso.com/contoso.com, http/ITFarm1.contoso.com/contoso, http/ITFarm1/contoso.com, http/ITFarm1/contoso, MSSQLSvc/ITFarm1.contoso.com:1433, MSSQLSvc/ITFarm1.contoso.com:INST01

    Important

    The password change interval can only be set during creation. If you need to change the interval, you must create a new gMSA and set it at creation time.

    Example

    Enter the command on a single line, even though they might appear word-wrapped across several lines here because of formatting constraints.

    New-ADServiceAccount ITFarm1 -DNSHostName ITFarm1.contoso.com -PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword ITFarmHosts$ -KerberosEncryptionType RC4, AES128, AES256 -ServicePrincipalNames http/ITFarm1.contoso.com/contoso.com, http/ITFarm1.contoso.com/contoso, http/ITFarm1/contoso.com, http/ITFarm1/contoso

Membership in Domain Admins, Account Operators, or ability to create msDS-GroupManagedServiceAccount objects, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. For detailed information about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships, see Local and Domain Default Groups.

To create a gMSA for outbound authentication only using the New-ADServiceAccount cmdlet

  1. On the Windows Server 2012 domain controller, run Windows PowerShell from the Taskbar.

  2. At the command prompt for the Windows PowerShell Active Directory module, type the following commands, and then press ENTER:

    New-ADServiceAccount [-Name] <string> -RestrictToOutboundAuthenticationOnly [-ManagedPasswordIntervalInDays <Nullable[Int32]>] [-PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword <ADPrincipal[]>]

    Parameter String Example
    Name Name the account ITFarm1
    ManagedPasswordIntervalInDays Password change interval in days (default is 30 days if not provided) 75
    PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword The computer accounts of the member hosts or the security group that the member hosts are a member of ITFarmHosts

    Important

    The password change interval can only be set during creation. If you need to change the interval, you must create a new gMSA and set it at creation time.

Example

New-ADServiceAccount ITFarm1 -RestrictToOutboundAuthenticationOnly - PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword ITFarmHosts$

Step 2: Configuring service identity application service

To configure the services in Windows Server 2012 , see the following feature documentation:

Other services could support gMSA. See the appropriate product documentation for details on how to configure those services.

Adding member hosts to an existing server farm

If using security groups for managing member hosts, add the computer account for the new member host to the security group (that the gMSA's member hosts are a member of) using one of the following methods.

Membership in Domain Admins, or the ability to add members to the security group object, is the minimum required to complete these procedures.

If using computer accounts, find the existing accounts and then add the new computer account.

Membership in Domain Admins, Account Operators, or ability to manage msDS-GroupManagedServiceAccount objects, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. For detailed information about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships, see Local and Domain Default Groups.

To add member hosts using the Set-ADServiceAccount cmdlet

  1. On the Windows Server 2012 domain controller, run Windows PowerShell from the Taskbar.

  2. At the command prompt for the Windows PowerShell Active Directory module, type the following commands, and then press ENTER:

    Get-ADServiceAccount [-Identity] <string> -Properties PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword

  3. At the command prompt for the Windows PowerShell Active Directory module, type the following commands, and then press ENTER:

    Set-ADServiceAccount [-Identity] <string> -PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword <ADPrincipal[]>

Parameter String Example
Name Name the account ITFarm1
PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword The computer accounts of the member hosts or the security group that the member hosts are a member of Host1, Host2, Host3

Example

For example, to add member hosts type the following commands, and then press ENTER.

Get-ADServiceAccount [-Identity] ITFarm1 -Properties PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword

Set-ADServiceAccount [-Identity] ITFarm1 -PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword Host1$,Host2$,Host3$

Updating the group Managed Service Account properties

Membership in Domain Admins, Account Operators, or the ability to write to msDS-GroupManagedServiceAccount objects, is the minimum required to complete these procedures.

Open the Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell, and set any property by using the Set-ADServiceAccount cmdlet.

For detailed information how to set these properties, see Set-ADServiceAccount in the TechNet Library or by typing Get-Help Set-ADServiceAccount at the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell command prompt and pressing ENTER.

Decommissioning member hosts from an existing server farm

Membership in Domain Admins, or ability to remove members from the security group object, is the minimum required to complete these procedures.

Step 1: Remove member host from gMSA

If using security groups for managing member hosts, remove the computer account for the decommissioned member host from the security group that the gMSA's member hosts are a member of using either of the following methods.

If listing computer accounts, retrieve the existing accounts and then add all but the removed computer account.

Membership in Domain Admins, Account Operators, or ability to manage msDS-GroupManagedServiceAccount objects, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. For detailed information about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships, see Local and Domain Default Groups.

To remove member hosts using the Set-ADServiceAccount cmdlet

  1. On the Windows Server 2012 domain controller, run Windows PowerShell from the Taskbar.

  2. At the command prompt for the Windows PowerShell Active Directory module, type the following commands, and then press ENTER:

    Get-ADServiceAccount [-Identity] <string> -Properties PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword

  3. At the command prompt for the Windows PowerShell Active Directory module, type the following commands, and then press ENTER:

    Set-ADServiceAccount [-Identity] <string> -PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword <ADPrincipal[]>

Parameter String Example
Name Name the account ITFarm1
PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword The computer accounts of the member hosts or the security group that the member hosts are a member of Host1, Host3

Example

For example, to remove member hosts type the following commands, and then press ENTER.

Get-ADServiceAccount [-Identity] ITFarm1 -Properties PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword

Set-ADServiceAccount [-Identity] ITFarm1 -PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword Host1$,Host3$

Step 2: Removing a group Managed Service Account from the system

Remove the cached gMSA credentials from the member host using Uninstall-ADServiceAccount or the NetRemoveServiceAccount API on the host system.

Membership in Administrators, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete these procedures.

To remove a gMSA using the Uninstall-ADServiceAccount cmdlet

  1. On the Windows Server 2012 domain controller, run Windows PowerShell from the Taskbar.

  2. At the command prompt for the Windows PowerShell Active Directory module, type the following commands, and then press ENTER:

    Uninstall-ADServiceAccount <ADServiceAccount>

    Example

    For example, to remove the cached credentials for a gMSA named ITFarm1 type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    Uninstall-ADServiceAccount ITFarm1

For more information about the Uninstall-ADServiceAccount cmdlet, at the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell command prompt, type Get-Help Uninstall-ADServiceAccount, and then press ENTER, or see the information on the TechNet web at Uninstall-ADServiceAccount.