Chapter 36. Joining RHEL systems to an Active Directory by using RHEL system roles

Procedure

1. Store your sensitive variables in an encrypted file:

   1. Create the vault:

      $ ansible-vault create vault.yml
      New Vault password: <vault_password>
      Confirm New Vault password: <vault_password>

   2. After the ansible-vault create command opens an editor, enter the sensitive data in the <key>: <value> format:

      usr: administrator
      pwd: <password>

   3. Save the changes, and close the editor. Ansible encrypts the data in the vault.

2. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

   ---
   - name: Active Directory integration
     hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
     vars_files:
       - vault.yml
     tasks:
       - name: Join an Active Directory
         ansible.builtin.include_role:
           name: rhel-system-roles.ad_integration
         vars:
           ad_integration_user: "{{ usr }}"
           ad_integration_password: "{{ pwd }}"
           ad_integration_realm: "ad.example.com"
           ad_integration_allow_rc4_crypto: false
           ad_integration_timesync_source: "time_server.ad.example.com"

   The settings specified in the example playbook include the following:

   ad_integration_allow_rc4_crypto: <true|false>

   Configures whether the role activates the AD-SUPPORT crypto policy on the managed node. By default, RHEL does not support the weak RC4 encryption but, if Kerberos in your AD still requires RC4, you can enable this encryption type by setting ad_integration_allow_rc4_crypto: true.

   Omit this the variable or set it to false if Kerberos uses AES encryption.

   ad_integration_timesync_source: <time_server>

   Specifies the NTP server to use for time synchronization. Kerberos requires a synchronized time among AD domain controllers and domain members to prevent replay attacks. If you omit this variable, the ad_integration role does not utilize the timesync RHEL system role to configure time synchronization on the managed node.

   For details about all variables used in the playbook, see the /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.ad_integration/README.md file on the control node.

3. Validate the playbook syntax:

   $ ansible-playbook --ask-vault-pass --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

   Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

4. Run the playbook:

   $ ansible-playbook --ask-vault-pass ~/playbook.yml