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Configure User Access Control and Permissions

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  • Gjelder for:
    ✅ Windows Admin Center, ✅ Windows Admin Center Preview

If you haven't already, familiarize yourself with the user access control options in Windows Admin Center.

Note

Group based access in Windows Admin Center is not supported in workgroup environments or across non-trusted domains.

Gateway access role definitions

There are two roles for access to the Windows Admin Center gateway service:

Gateway users can connect to the Windows Admin Center gateway service to manage servers through that gateway, but they can't change access permissions nor the authentication mechanism used to authenticate to the gateway.

Gateway administrators can configure who gets access as well as how users authenticate to the gateway. Only gateway administrators can view and configure the Access settings in Windows Admin Center. Local administrators on the gateway machine are always administrators of the Windows Admin Center gateway service.

There is also an additional role specific to the management of CredSSP:

Windows Admin Center CredSSP Administrators are registered with the Windows Admin Center CredSSP endpoint and have permissions to perform predefined CredSSP operations. This group is especially useful for installations of Windows Admin Center in desktop mode, where only the user account that installed Windows Admin Center is given these permissions by default.

Note

Access to the gateway doesn't imply access to managed servers visible by the gateway. To manage a target server, the connecting user must use credentials (either through their passed-through Windows credential or through credentials provided in the Windows Admin Center session using the Manage as action) that have administrative access to that target server. This is because most Windows Admin Center tools require administrative permissions to use.

Active Directory or local machine groups

By default, Active Directory or local machine groups are used to control gateway access. If you have an Active Directory domain, you can manage gateway user and administrator access from within the Windows Admin Center interface.

On the Users tab, you can control who can access Windows Admin Center as a gateway user. By default, and if you don't specify a security group, any user that accesses the gateway URL has access. Once you add one or more security groups to the users list, access is restricted to the members of those groups.

If you don't use an Active Directory domain in your environment, access is controlled by the Users and Administrators local groups on the Windows Admin Center gateway machine.

Smartcard authentication

You can enforce smartcard authentication by specifying an additional required group for smartcard-based security groups. Once you have added a smartcard-based security group, a user can only access the Windows Admin Center service if they are a member of any security group AND a smartcard group included in the users list.

On the Administrators tab, you can control who can access Windows Admin Center as a gateway administrator. The local administrators group on the computer will always have full administrator access and cannot be removed from the list. By adding security groups, you give members of those groups privileges to change Windows Admin Center gateway settings. The administrators list supports smartcard authentication in the same way as the users list: with the AND condition for a security group and a smartcard group.

Microsoft Entra ID

If your organization uses Microsoft Entra ID, you can choose to add an additional layer of security to Windows Admin Center by requiring Microsoft Entra authentication to access the gateway. In order to access Windows Admin Center, the user's Windows account must also have access to gateway server (even if Microsoft Entra authentication is used). When you use Microsoft Entra ID, you'll manage Windows Admin Center user and administrator access permissions from the Azure portal, rather than from within the Windows Admin Center UI.

Accessing Windows Admin Center when Microsoft Entra authentication is enabled

Depending on the browser used, some users accessing Windows Admin Center with Microsoft Entra authentication configured will receive an additional prompt from the browser where they need to provide their Windows account credentials for the machine on which Windows Admin Center is installed. After entering that information, the users will get the additional Microsoft Entra authentication prompt, which requires the credentials of an Azure account that has been granted access in the Microsoft Entra application in Azure.

Note

Users whose Windows account has Administrator rights on the gateway machine will not be prompted for the Microsoft Entra authentication.

Configuring Microsoft Entra authentication for Windows Admin Center Preview

Go to Windows Admin Center Settings > Access and use the toggle switch to turn on "Use Microsoft Entra ID to add a layer of security to the gateway". If you have not registered the gateway to Azure, you will be guided to do that at this time.

By default, all members of the Microsoft Entra tenant have user access to the Windows Admin Center gateway service. Only local administrators on the gateway machine have administrator access to the Windows Admin Center gateway. Note that the rights of local administrators on the gateway machine cannot be restricted - local admins can do anything regardless of whether Microsoft Entra ID is used for authentication.

If you want to give specific Microsoft Entra users or groups gateway user or gateway administrator access to the Windows Admin Center service, you must do the following:

  1. Go to your Windows Admin Center Microsoft Entra application in the Azure portal by using the hyperlink provided in Access Settings. Note this hyperlink is only available when Microsoft Entra authentication is enabled.
    • You can also find your application in the Azure portal by going to Microsoft Entra ID > Enterprise applications > All applications and searching WindowsAdminCenter (the Microsoft Entra app will be named WindowsAdminCenter-<gateway name>). If you don't get any search results, ensure Show is set to all applications, application status is set to any and select Apply, then try your search. Once you've found the application, go to Users and groups
  2. In the Properties tab, set User assignment required to Yes. Once you've done this, only members listed in the Users and groups tab will be able to access the Windows Admin Center gateway.
  3. In the Users and groups tab, select Add user. You must assign a gateway user or gateway administrator role for each user/group added.

Once you turn on Microsoft Entra authentication, the gateway service restarts and you must refresh your browser. You can update user access for the SME Microsoft Entra application in the Azure portal at any time.

Users will be prompted to sign in using their Microsoft Entra identity when they attempt to access the Windows Admin Center gateway URL. Remember that users must also be a member of the local Users on the gateway server to access Windows Admin Center.

Users and administrators can view their currently logged-in account and as well as sign out of this Microsoft Entra account from the Account tab of Windows Admin Center Settings.

Configuring Microsoft Entra authentication for Windows Admin Center

To set up Microsoft Entra authentication, you must first register your gateway with Azure (you only need to do this once for your Windows Admin Center gateway). This step creates a Microsoft Entra application from which you can manage gateway user and gateway administrator access.

If you want to give specific Microsoft Entra users or groups gateway user or gateway administrator access to the Windows Admin Center service, you must do the following:

  1. Go to your SME Microsoft Entra application in the Azure portal.
    • When you select Change access control and then select Microsoft Entra ID from the Windows Admin Center Access settings, you can use the hyperlink provided in the UI to access your Microsoft Entra application in the Azure portal. This hyperlink is also available in the Access settings after you select save and have selected Microsoft Entra ID as your access control identity provider.
    • You can also find your application in the Azure portal by going to Microsoft Entra ID > Enterprise applications > All applications and searching SME (the Microsoft Entra app will be named SME-<gateway>). If you don't get any search results, ensure Show is set to all applications, application status is set to any and select Apply, then try your search. Once you've found the application, go to Users and groups
  2. In the Properties tab, set User assignment required to Yes. Once you've done this, only members listed in the Users and groups tab will be able to access the Windows Admin Center gateway.
  3. In the Users and groups tab, select Add user. You must assign a gateway user or gateway administrator role for each user/group added.

Once you save the Microsoft Entra access control in the Change access control pane, the gateway service restarts and you must refresh your browser. You can update user access for the Windows Admin Center Microsoft Entra application in the Azure portal at any time.

Users will be prompted to sign in using their Microsoft Entra identity when they attempt to access the Windows Admin Center gateway URL. Remember that users must also be a member of the local Users on the gateway server to access Windows Admin Center.

Using the Azure tab of Windows Admin Center general settings, users and administrators can view their currently logged-in account and as well as sign out of this Microsoft Entra account.

Conditional access and multi-factor authentication

One of the benefits of using Microsoft Entra ID as an additional layer of security to control access to the Windows Admin Center gateway is that you can leverage Microsoft Entra ID's powerful security features like conditional access and multi-factor authentication.

Learn more about configuring conditional access with Microsoft Entra ID.

Configure single sign-on

Single sign-on when deployed as a Service on Windows Server

When you install Windows Admin Center on Windows 10, it's ready to use single sign-on. If you're going to use Windows Admin Center on Windows Server, however, you need to set up some form of Kerberos delegation in your environment before you can use single sign-on. The delegation configures the gateway computer as trusted to delegate to the target node.

To configure Resource-based constrained delegation in your environment, use the following PowerShell example. This example shows how you would configure a Windows Server [node01.contoso.com] to accept delegation from your Windows Admin Center gateway [wac.contoso.com] in the contoso.com domain.

Set-ADComputer -Identity (Get-ADComputer node01) -PrincipalsAllowedToDelegateToAccount (Get-ADComputer wac)

To remove this relationship, run the following cmdlet:

Set-ADComputer -Identity (Get-ADComputer node01) -PrincipalsAllowedToDelegateToAccount $null

Role-based access control (RBAC)

Role-based access control enables you to provide users with limited access to the machine instead of making them full local administrators. Read more about role-based access control and the available roles.

Setting up RBAC consists of two steps: enabling support on the target computer(s) and assigning users to the relevant roles.

Tip

Make sure you have local administrator privileges on the machines where you are configuring support for role-based access control.

Apply role-based access control to a single machine

The single machine deployment model is ideal for simple environments with only a few computers to manage. Configuring a machine with support for role-based access control will result in the following changes:

  • PowerShell modules with functions required by Windows Admin Center will be installed on your system drive, under C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules. All modules will start with Microsoft.Sme
  • Desired State Configuration will run a one-time configuration to configure a Just Enough Administration endpoint on the machine, named Microsoft.Sme.PowerShell. This endpoint defines the three roles used by Windows Admin Center and will run as a temporary local administrator when a user connects to it.
  • Three new local groups will be created to control which users are assigned access to which roles:
    • Windows Admin Center Administrators
    • Windows Admin Center Hyper-V Administrators
    • Windows Admin Center Readers

Note

Role-based access control is not supported for cluster management (i.e. features that are dependent on RBAC such as CredSSP will fail).

To enable support for role-based access control on a single machine, follow these steps:

  1. Open Windows Admin Center and connect to the machine you wish to configure with role-based access control using an account with local administrator privileges on the target machine.
  2. On the Overview tool, select Settings > Role-based access control.
  3. Select Apply at the bottom of the page to enable support for role-based access control on the target computer. The application process involves copying PowerShell scripts and invoking a configuration (using PowerShell Desired State Configuration) on the target machine. It may take up to 10 minutes to complete, and will result in WinRM restarting. This will temporarily disconnect Windows Admin Center, PowerShell, and WMI users.
  4. Refresh the page to check the status of role-based access control. When it is ready for use, the status will change to Applied.

Once the configuration is applied, you can assign users to the roles:

  1. Open the Local Users and Groups tool and navigate to the Groups tab.
  2. Select the Windows Admin Center Readers group.
  3. In the Details pane at the bottom, select Add User and enter the name of a user or security group that should have read-only access to the server through Windows Admin Center. The users and groups can come from the local machine or your Active Directory domain.
  4. Repeat steps 2-3 for the Windows Admin Center Hyper-V Administrators and Windows Admin Center Administrators groups.

You can also fill these groups consistently across your domain by configuring a Group Policy Object with the Restricted Groups Policy Setting.

Apply role-based access control to multiple machines

In a large enterprise deployment, you can use your existing automation tools to push out the role-based access control feature to your computers by downloading the configuration package from the Windows Admin Center gateway. The configuration package is designed to be used with PowerShell Desired State Configuration, but you can adapt it to work with your preferred automation solution.

Download the role-based access control configuration

To download the role-based access control configuration package, you'll need to have access to Windows Admin Center and a PowerShell prompt.

If you're running the Windows Admin Center gateway in service mode on Windows Server, use the following command to download the configuration package. Be sure to update the gateway address with the correct one for your environment.

$WindowsAdminCenterGateway = 'https://windowsadmincenter.contoso.com'
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "$WindowsAdminCenterGateway/api/nodes/all/features/jea/endpoint/export" -Method POST -UseDefaultCredentials -OutFile "~\Desktop\WindowsAdminCenter_RBAC.zip"

If you're running the Windows Admin Center gateway on your Windows 10 machine, run the following command instead:

$cert = Get-ChildItem Cert:\CurrentUser\My | Where-Object Subject -eq 'CN=Windows Admin Center Client' | Select-Object -First 1
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://localhost:6516/api/nodes/all/features/jea/endpoint/export" -Method POST -Certificate $cert -OutFile "~\Desktop\WindowsAdminCenter_RBAC.zip"

When you expand the zip archive, you'll see the following folder structure:

  • InstallJeaFeatures.ps1
  • JustEnoughAdministration (directory)
  • Modules (directory)
    • Microsoft.SME.* (directories)

To configure support for role-based access control on a node, you need to perform the following actions:

  1. Copy the JustEnoughAdministration and Microsoft.SME.* modules to the PowerShell module directory on the target machine. Typically, this is located at C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules.
  2. Update InstallJeaFeature.ps1 file to match your desired configuration for the RBAC endpoint.
  3. Run InstallJeaFeature.ps1 to compile the DSC resource.
  4. Deploy your DSC configuration to all of your machines to apply the configuration.

The following section explains how to do this using PowerShell Remoting.

Deploy on multiple machines

To deploy the configuration you downloaded onto multiple machines, you'll need to update the InstallJeaFeatures.ps1 script to include the appropriate security groups for your environment, copy the files to each of your computers, and invoke the configuration scripts. You can use your preferred automation tooling to accomplish this, however this article will focus on a pure PowerShell-based approach.

By default, the configuration script will create local security groups on the machine to control access to each of the roles. This is suitable for workgroup and domain joined machines, but if you're deploying in a domain-only environment you may wish to directly associate a domain security group with each role. To update the configuration to use domain security groups, open InstallJeaFeatures.ps1 and make the following changes:

  1. Remove the 3 Group resources from the file:
    1. "Group MS-Readers-Group"
    2. "Group MS-Hyper-V-Administrators-Group"
    3. "Group MS-Administrators-Group"
  2. Remove the 3 Group resources from the JeaEndpoint DependsOn property
    1. "[Group]MS-Readers-Group"
    2. "[Group]MS-Hyper-V-Administrators-Group"
    3. "[Group]MS-Administrators-Group"
  3. Change the group names in the JeaEndpoint RoleDefinitions property to your desired security groups. For example, if you have a security group CONTOSO\MyTrustedAdmins that should be assigned access to the Windows Admin Center Administrators role, change '$env:COMPUTERNAME\Windows Admin Center Administrators' to 'CONTOSO\MyTrustedAdmins'. The three strings you need to update are:
    1. '$env:COMPUTERNAME\Windows Admin Center Administrators'
    2. '$env:COMPUTERNAME\Windows Admin Center Hyper-V Administrators'
    3. '$env:COMPUTERNAME\Windows Admin Center Readers'

Note

Be sure to use unique security groups for each role. Configuration will fail if the same security group is assigned to multiple roles.

Next, at the end of the InstallJeaFeatures.ps1 file, add the following lines of PowerShell to the bottom of the script:

Copy-Item "$PSScriptRoot\JustEnoughAdministration" "$env:ProgramFiles\WindowsPowerShell\Modules" -Recurse -Force
$ConfigData = @{
    AllNodes = @()
    ModuleBasePath = @{
        Source = "$PSScriptRoot\Modules"
        Destination = "$env:ProgramFiles\WindowsPowerShell\Modules"
    }
}
InstallJeaFeature -ConfigurationData $ConfigData | Out-Null
Start-DscConfiguration -Path "$PSScriptRoot\InstallJeaFeature" -JobName "Installing JEA for Windows Admin Center" -Force

Finally, you can copy the folder containing the modules, DSC resource and configuration to each target node and run the InstallJeaFeature.ps1 script. To do this remotely from your admin workstation, you can run the following commands:

$ComputersToConfigure = 'MyServer01', 'MyServer02'

$ComputersToConfigure | ForEach-Object {
    $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $_ -ErrorAction Stop
    Copy-Item -Path "~\Desktop\WindowsAdminCenter_RBAC\JustEnoughAdministration\" -Destination "$env:ProgramFiles\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\" -ToSession $session -Recurse -Force
    Copy-Item -Path "~\Desktop\WindowsAdminCenter_RBAC" -Destination "$env:TEMP\WindowsAdminCenter_RBAC" -ToSession $session -Recurse -Force
    Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock { Import-Module JustEnoughAdministration; & "$env:TEMP\WindowsAdminCenter_RBAC\InstallJeaFeature.ps1" } -AsJob
    Disconnect-PSSession $session
}