Configure SSSD Offline Domain Join

The System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) authentication method is one of the supported solutions for performing an offline domain join on an instant-cloned Linux virtual machine (VM).

System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) Authentication supports offline domain join with Active Directory for instant-cloned desktops running the following Linux distributions.

• Ubuntu 18.04/20.04/22.04
• Debian 10.x/11.x
• RHEL 7.9/8.x/9.x
• CentOS 7.9
• SLED/SLES 15.x

Use the guidelines described in the following procedure to offline domain-join an instant-cloned Linux VM to Active Directory (AD) using SSSD authentication.

Procedure

1. On the golden-image Linux VM, perform the domain join using SSSD authentication. Ensure that the golden image uses the same domain as the instant clones.

   For detailed domain-join instructions, refer to the documentation for your Linux distribution.

   • (Ubuntu) Go to https://ubuntu.com/server/docs and search for information related to "SSSD and Active Directory".
   • (RHEL/CentOS) Go to the Red Hat customer portal and find the documentation page for your release version. For example, you can find English documentation at https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/.
     • For RHEL 9.x, find the "Configuring authentication and authorization in RHEL" document and search for information related to SSSD.
     • For RHEL 8.x, find the "Integrating RHEL Systems Directly With Windows Active Directory" document and search for information related to "connecting RHEL systems directly to AD using SSSD".
     • For RHEL/CentOS 7.x, find the "Windows Integration Guide" and search for information related to "discovering and joining identity domains".
   • (SLED/SLES) Go to the SUSE documentation portal at https://documentation.suse.com/ and search for information related to "integrating Linux and Active Directory environments".

2. Install the krb5 support libraries.

   • (Ubuntu) Run the following command.

     sudo apt-get install krb5-user
     

   • (RHEL/CentOS) Run the following command.

     sudo yum install krb5-workstation
     

   • (SLED/SLES) Run the following command sequence.

     sudo zypper install krb5-client
     sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mit/bin/ktutil /usr/bin/ktutil
     sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mit/bin/kvno /usr/bin/kvno
     

3. Install Horizon Agent for Linux, as described in Install Horizon Agent on a Linux Virtual Machine.

4. Modify the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file, using the following example as reference.

   Replace the placeholder values in the example with information specific to your configuration:

   • Replace mydomain.com with the DNS name of your AD domain.
   • Replace MYDOMAIN.COM with the DNS name of your AD domain, in all capital letters

5. (RHEL/CentOS 7.x, Ubuntu 18.04) Modify the /etc/krb5.conf configuration file to use only the rc4-hmac encryption algorithm.

   This is the only encryption algorithm supported when using SSSD authentication to domain-join an instant-cloned RHEL/CentOS 7.x, or Ubuntu 18.04 VM.

   [libdefaults]
    dns_lookup_realm = false
    ticket_lifetime = 24h
    renew_lifetime = 7d
    forwardable = true
    rdns = false
    pkinit_anchors = FILE:/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
    default_realm = *MYDOMAIN.COM*
    default_ccache_name = KEYRING:persistent:%{uid}
    default_tkt_enctypes = rc4-hmac       #Add this line to use rc4-hmac encryption only
    default_tgs_enctypes = rc4-hmac       #Add this line to use rc4-hmac encryption only
   

6. To ensure that Horizon Agent recognizes the Linux VM as domain-joined using SSSD authentication, add the following line to the viewagent-custom.conf configuration file.

   OfflineJoinDomain=sssd
   

7. Restart the golden-image Linux VM and take a snapshot of the VM in vCenter Server.