After you checked the connectivity between the EC2 and RDS instances, you can deploy and configure Active Roles on the EC2 instance.

Prerequisites

Before starting the procedure, make sure that the following requirements are met:

To install Active Roles on the EC2 instance

  1. Download the Active Roles installation media to the EC2 instance.

  2. Run the setup and install Active Roles with all required prerequisites as described in Active Roles installation in the Active Roles Quick Start Guide.

After installing Active Roles, configure the Active Roles Administration Service.

To configure Active Roles Administration Service for managing AWS Managed Microsoft AD in SQL Server Management Studio

  1. Start Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and connect to the RDS for SQL Server instance as described in Verifying connectivity between the EC2 and RDS instances.

  2. Under the Databases node of the Object Explorer, create two new empty databases to be used later for configuring Active Roles:

    • A database for the Management History database. Name it, for example, ARMH.

    • A database for the Active Roles Configuration database. Name it, for example, ARConfig.

  3. Create a new user that Active Roles will use to connect to the SQL database in the RDS instance. To do so, right-click the Security > Logins node of the Object Explorer, then select New login and specify the following details:

    1. Under General > Login name, enter the name of the user (for example, sql-activeroles). Then, select SQL Server authentication.

    2. Under User Mapping, select the databases that you created (in this example, ARMH and ARConfig), and assign the db_owner role to both of them.

To configure Active Roles Administration Service for managing AWS Managed Microsoft AD in Active Roles Configuration Center

  1. Start the Active Roles Configuration Center.

  2. On the Dashboard, under Administration Service, click Configure.

  3. In Service Account, enter the user name and password of the Active Roles Service account. This can be, for example, the domain admin account supplied by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

  4. In Active Roles Admin, specify the security group or administrator user in the EC2 instance who will hold Active Roles Admin permissions.

  5. In Configuration Database Options, select New Active Roles database and Use a pre-created blank database.

  6. In Connection to Configuration Database, configure the following settings:

    • Database type: Select On Premise. In the context of Active Roles, the Amazon RDS for SQL Server instance functions like an on-premises SQL Server.

    • Database Server name: Specify the endpoint URL of the RDS instance. This is the same endpoint you specified during Verifying connectivity between the EC2 and RDS instances.

    • Database name: Specify the name of the blank database that you created as the Active Roles Configuration database (in this example, ARConfig).

    • Connect using: Select SQL Server authentication, and enter the user name and password of the user created as the owner of the database.

  7. In Management History Database Options, select New Active Roles database and Use a pre-created blank database.

  8. In Connection to Management History Database, specify the same Database type, Database Server name and connection settings that you set for the Configuration database. However, for Database name, enter the name of the blank database that you created for use as the Active Roles Management History database (in this example, ARMH).

  9. In Encryption Key Backup, specify the file name and save location of the Active Roles database encryption key.

  10. (Optional) Still in Encryption Key Backup, specify a password for additional protection. To continue, click Next.

  11. Review your settings. Then, to apply your changes, click Configure.

After you configured the Active Roles Administration Service, you can also configure the Active Roles Console to manage your AWS Managed Microsoft AD instance.

To configure Active Roles Console for managing AWS Managed Microsoft AD

  1. Start the Active Roles Console.

  2. Due to limitations with Service Connection Points (SCPs) in the Amazon cloud, Active Roles Console is likely unable to automatically discover the Administration Service instance you configured previously.

    To manually connect to the Administration Service, in the Connect to Administration Service dialog, under Service, specify localhost. Under Connect as, select Current user, then click Connect.

    NOTE: If you cannot connect to the Administration Service by specifying localhost, then specify the full Device name as indicated in the Settings > About page of the operating system.

  3. After you connected, in the Active Roles Console landing page, click Add Domain.

  4. In the Add Managed Domain Wizard, in Domain Selection, click Browse and select the domain configured by AWS for the EC2 instance.

  5. In Active Roles Credentials, select The service account information the Administration Service uses to log on.

  6. To finish adding the domain, click Next, then Finish.

  7. To make sure that the contents of the AWS Managed Microsoft AD domain appear in the Active Roles Console, click Refresh or right-click the Active Roles node, then click Reconnect.

    NOTE: The connected AWS Managed Microsoft AD environment will contain several built-in and AWS-specific containers with read-only access. You can create and manage AD objects only in the Organizational Unit whose name matches the shortname of the connected domain's name (specified during Creating the AWS Managed Microsoft AD instance).