Ansible: joining Redhat 8 to Active Directory

Now that I’ve been using Ansible for joining Redhat and CentOS 8.x Linux machines to Active Directory domains in production for a while, I’m confident enough to share the playbook I’ve been using. This example uses password-based authentication and sudo elevation for the ansible user, so make sure to edit accordingly in case you are using key-based auth.

When testing, don’t forget to add your AD account to the newly created AD admin group, this has bitten me way more times than I’d like to admit and in case you’re wondering what that OID in ad_access_filter does: it allows for recursive group permissions to work, so while you can add users directly, you do not HAVE to.

join-ad-linux-rhel tree:

admin.account@server join-ad-linux-rhel]$ tree
.
├── ansible.cfg
├── hosts
├── join-ad-linux-rhel.yaml
└── templates
    ├── ADsudoers.j2
    ├── krb5.j2
    └── sssd.j2

1 directory, 6 files

join-ad-linux-rhel/ansible.cfg:

[defaults]
inventory           = hosts
host_key_checking   = False

join-ad-linux-rhel/hosts:

[all]
examplehost ansible_host=192.168.1.100 ansible_ssh_user=ansibleuser

join-ad-linux-rhel/join-ad-linux-rhel.yaml:

- hosts: all
  user: ansibleuser
  become: true

  vars:
    pkgs:
      - sssd
      - sssd-tools
      - realmd
      - oddjob
      - oddjob-mkhomedir
      - adcli
      - samba-common
      - samba-common-tools
      - krb5-workstation
      - openldap-clients
    AD_Domain: MY.DOMAIN
    AD_Domain_alt: my.domain
    Join_OU: OU="member servers",OU=computers,DC=my,DC=domain
    SRV_ADM_GRP_OU: OU=groups,DC=my,DC=domain

  vars_prompt:
    - name: username
      prompt: "What is your AD administrator username?"
      private: no

    - name: password
      prompt: "What is your AD administrator password?"
      private: yes

    - name: adhostname
      prompt: "What is the desired hostname in a simple, non-fqdn format?"
      private: no

  tasks:

  - name: Checking if running RedHat/CentOS
    fail:
      msg: The system is not running RedHat/CentOS, aborting
    when: ansible_facts['os_family'] != 'RedHat'

  - name: Checking if packages required to join AD realm are present
    yum: name={{ pkgs }} state=present update_cache=yes

  - name: Settings up hostname
    shell: hostnamectl set-hostname {{ adhostname }}.{{ AD_Domain_alt }}

  - name: Joinining the AD realm (creating AD computer account and updating /etc/krb5.keytab)
    shell: echo '{{ password }}' | adcli join --stdin-password {{ AD_Domain }} -U {{ username }} --domain-ou={{ Join_OU }}

  - name: Creating AD server admin group
    shell: echo '{{ password }}' | adcli create-group ADM_{{ adhostname }} --stdin-password --domain={{ AD_Domain }} --description="Admin group for {{ adhostname }} server" --domain-ou={{ SRV_ADM_GRP_OU }} -U {{ username }}

  - name: Configuring sssd.conf
    template:
      src: sssd.j2
      dest: /etc/sssd/sssd.conf
      owner: root
      group: root
      mode: 0600

  - name: Configuring krb5.conf
    template:
      src: krb5.j2
      dest: /etc/krb5.conf
      owner: root
      group: root
      mode: 0644

  - name: Configuring sudoers
    template:
      src: ADsudoers.j2
      dest: /etc/sudoers.d/ADsudoers
      owner: root
      group: root
      mode: 0440

  - name: Configuring PAM/SSHD to use SSSD
    shell: authselect select sssd with-mkhomedir --force

  - name: Enabling oddjobd service
    systemd:
      name: oddjobd.service
      enabled: yes
      state: started

  - name: Restarting SSSD
    systemd:
      name: sssd
      enabled: yes
      state: restarted

join-ad-linux-rhel/templates/ADsudoers.j2:

%ADM_{{ adhostname }}@{{ AD_Domain_alt }}      ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

join-ad-linux-rhel/templates/sssd.j2:

[sssd]
domains = {{ AD_Domain_alt }}
config_file_version = 2
services = nss, pam

[domain/{{ AD_Domain_alt }}]
krb5_realm = {{ AD_Domain }}
realmd_tags = manages-system joined-with-adcli
cache_credentials = True
id_provider = ad
default_shell = /bin/bash
ldap_id_mapping = True
use_fully_qualified_names = False
fallback_homedir = /home/%u
access_provider = ad
ad_maximum_machine_account_password_age = 30
ad_access_filter = DOM:{{ AD_Domain_alt }}:(memberOf:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:=cn=ADM_{{ adhostname }},{{ SRV_ADM_GRP_OU }})

dyndns_update = false
dyndns_update_ptr = false

#debug_level = 9

join-ad-linux-rhel/templates/krb5.j2

includedir /etc/krb5.conf.d/

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

[libdefaults]
    dns_lookup_realm = true
    dns_lookup_kdc = true
    ticket_lifetime = 24h
    renew_lifetime = 7d
    forwardable = true
    rdns = false
    pkinit_anchors = FILE:/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
    spake_preauth_groups = edwards25519
    default_realm = {{ AD_Domain }}
    default_ccache_name = KEYRING:persistent:%{uid}

[realms]
    {{ AD_Domain }} = {
    }

[domain_realm]
    .{{ AD_Domain_alt }} = {{ AD_Domain }}
    {{ AD_Domain_alt }} = {{ AD_Domain }}

When copy/pasting these into actual files on your system, take care to ensure indentation isn’t lost as YAML is very particular about these things. Run the playbook with:

ansible-playbook -k -K join-ad-linux-rhel.yaml