You can't join a storage virtual machine (SVM) to Active Directory - FSx for ONTAP
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You can't join a storage virtual machine (SVM) to Active Directory

If you're unable to join an SVM to an Active Directory (AD), first review Joining SVMs to a Microsoft Active Directory. Common problems that prevent an SVM from joining to your Active Directory are listed in the following sections, including the error messages generated for each circumstance.

The SVM NetBIOS name is the same as the NetBIOS name for the home domain.

Joining an SVM to your self-managed Active Directory fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to establish a connection with your Active Directory. This is because the server name you specified is the NetBIOS name of the home domain. To fix this problem, choose a NetBIOS name for your SVM that is different from the NetBIOS name of the home domain. Then reattempt to join your SVM to your Active Directory.

To resolve this issue, follow the procedure described in Joining an SVM to an Active Directory using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI and API to reattempt joining your SVM to your AD. Ensure that you use a NetBIOS name for your SVM that's different than the NetBIOS name of the Active Directory's home domain.

The SVM is already joined to another Active Directory

Joining an SVM to an Active Directory fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to establish a connection to your Active Directory. This is because the SVM is already joined to a domain. To join this SVM to a different domain, you can use the ONTAP CLI or REST API to unjoin this SVM from Active Directory. Then reattempt to join your SVM to a different Active Directory.

To resolve the issue, do the following:

  1. Use the NetApp ONTAP CLI to unjoin the SVM from its current Active Directory. For more information, see Unjoin an Active Directory from your SVM using the NetApp ONTAP CLI.

  2. Follow the procedure described in Joining an SVM to an Active Directory using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI and API to reattempt joining your SVM to the new AD.

Amazon FSx can't connect to your Active Directory domain controllers because the SVM's NetBIOS name is already in use

Creating an SVM joined to your self-managed AD fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to establish a connection with your Active Directory. This is because the NetBIOS (computer) name you specified is already in-use in your Active Directory. To fix this problem, pick a NetBIOS name for your SVM that is not in use in your Active Directory., specifying a NetBIOS (computer) Then reattempt to join your SVM to your Active Directory.

To resolve this issue, follow the procedure described in Joining an SVM to an Active Directory using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI and API to reattempt joining your SVM to your AD. Ensure that you use a NetBIOS name for your SVM that's unique and not already in use in your Active Directory.

Amazon FSx can't communicate with your Active Directory domain controllers

Joining an SVM to your self-managed AD fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to communicate with your Active Directory. To fix this problem, ensure that network traffic is allowed between Amazon FSx and your domain controllers. Then reattempt to join your SVM to your Active Directory.

To resolve this issue, do the following:

  1. Review the requirements described in Network configuration requirements, and make changes needed to enable network communications between Amazon FSx and your AD.

  2. Once Amazon FSx is able to communicate with your AD, follow the procedure described in Joining an SVM to an Active Directory using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI and API and reattempt joining your SVM to your AD.

Amazon FSx can't connect to your Active Directory due to unmet port requirements or service account permissions

Joining an SVM to your self-managed AD fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to establish a connection with your Active Directory. This is due to either the port requirements for your Active Directory not being met, or the service account provided not having permissions to join the storage virtual machine to the domain with the specified organization unit. To fix this problem, update your storage virtual machine's Active Directory configuration after resolving any permissions issues with ports and service accounts, as recommended in the Amazon FSx user guide.

To resolve this issue, do the following:

  1. Review the requirements described in Network configuration requirements, and make changes needed to meet the networking requirements and make sure communications are enabled on the required ports

  2. Review the service account requirements described in Active Directory service account requirements. Ensure that service account has the delegated permissions necessary to join your SVM to the AD domain using the specified organizational unit.

  3. Once you have made changes to the port permissions or the service account, follow the procedure described in Joining an SVM to an Active Directory using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI and API and reattempt joining your SVM to your AD.

Amazon FSx can't connect to your Active Directory domain controllers because the service account credentials are not valid

Joining an SVM to your self-managed Active Directory fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to establish a connection with your Active Directory domain controller(s) because the service account credentials provided are invalid. To fix this problem, update your storage virtual machine's Active Directory configuration with a valid service account.

To resolve this issue, use the procedure described in Updating an existing SVM Active Directory configuration using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI, and API to update the SVM's service account credentials. When entering the service account user name, be sure to include only the user name (for example, ServiceAcct), and don't include any domain prefix (for example, corp.com\ServiceAcct) or domain suffix (for example, ServiceAcct@corp.com). Don't use the distinguished name (DN) when entering the service account user name (for example, CN=ServiceAcct,OU=example,DC=corp,DC=com).

Amazon FSx can't connect to your Active Directory domain controllers because of insufficient service account credentials

Joining an SVM to your self-managed Active Directory fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to establish a connection with your Active Directory domain controller(s). This is due to either the port requirements for the Active Directory have not been met, or the service account provided does not have permission to join the storage virtual machine to the domain with the specified organizational unit.

To resolve this issue, make sure that you have delegated the required permissions to the service account that you provided. The service account must be able to create and delete computer objects in the OU in the domain to which you're joining the file system. The service account also needs, at a minimum, to have permissions to do the following:

  • Reset passwords

  • Restrict accounts from reading and writing data

  • Validated ability to write to the DNS hostname

  • Validated ability to write to the service principal name

  • Ability to create and delete computer objects

  • Validated ability to read and write Account Restrictions

For more information about creating a service account with correct permissions, see Active Directory service account requirements and Delegating permissions to your Amazon FSx service account.

Amazon FSx can't communicate with your Active Directory DNS servers or domain controllers

Joining an SVM to your self-managed Active Directory fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to communicate with your Active Directory. This is because Amazon FSx can't reach the DNS servers provided or domain controllers for your domain. To fix this problem, update your storage virtual machine's Active Directory configuration with valid DNS servers and a networking configuration that allows traffic to flow from the storage virtual machine to the domain controller.

To resolve this issue, use the following procedure:

  1. If only some of the domain controllers in your Active Directory are reachable, for example due to geographical limitations or firewalls, you can add preferred domain controllers. Using this option, Amazon FSx attempts to contact the preferred domain controllers. Add preferred domain controllers using the vserver cifs domain preferred-dc add NetApp ONTAP CLI command, as follows:

    1. To access the NetApp ONTAP CLI, establish an SSH session on the management port of the Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system by running the following command. Replace management_endpoint_ip with the IP address of the file system's management port.

      [~]$ ssh fsxadmin@management_endpoint_ip

      For more information, see Managing file systems with the ONTAP CLI.

    2. Enter the following command, where:

      • -vserver vserver_name specifies the storage virtual machine (SVM) name.

      • -domain domain_name specifies the fully qualified Active Directory name (FQDN) of the domain to which the specified domain controllers belong.

      • -preferred-dc IP_address,…​ specifies one or more IP addresses of the preferred domain controllers, as a comma-delimited list, in order of preference.

      FsxId123456789::> vserver cifs domain preferred-dc add -vserver vserver_name -domain domain_name -preferred-dc IP_address, …​+

      The following command adds domain controllers 172.17.102.25 and 172.17.102.24 to the list of preferred domain controllers that the SMB server on SVM vs1 uses to manage external access to the cifs.lab.example.com domain.

      FsxId123456789::> vserver cifs domain preferred-dc add -vserver vs1 -domain cifs.lab.example.com -preferred-dc 172.17.102.25,172.17.102.24
  2. Check to see if your Domain Controller can be resolved with DNS. Use the vserver services access-check dns forward-lookup NetApp ONTAP CLI command to return the IP address of a hostname based on the lookup on the DNS server specified or the vserver’s DNS configuration.

    1. To access the NetApp ONTAP CLI, establish an SSH session on the management port of the Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system by running the following command. Replace management_endpoint_ip with the IP address of the file system's management port.

      [~]$ ssh fsxadmin@management_endpoint_ip

      For more information, see Managing file systems with the ONTAP CLI.

    2. Enter the ONTAP CLI advanced mode using the following command.

      FsxId123456789::> set adv
    3. Enter the following command, where:

      • -vserver vserver_name specifies the storage virtual machine (SVM) name.

      • -hostname host_name specifies the hostname to look up on the DNS server.

      • -node node_name​ specifies the name of the node on which the command is executed.

      • -lookup-type specifies the type of IP address to be looked up on the DNS server, default is all.

      FsxId123456789::> vserver services access-check dns forward-lookup \ -vserver vserver_name -node node_name \ -domains domain_name -name-servers dns_server_ip_address \ -hostname host_name
  3. Review the information you need to have when joining an SVM to an AD.

  4. Review the networking requirements when joining an SVM to an AD.

  5. Use the procedure described in Network configuration requirements to update your SVM's AD configuration using the correct IP addresses for your AD DNS servers.

Amazon FSx can't communicate with your Active Directory because of a invalid Active Directory domain name.

Joining an SVM to your self-managed Active Directory fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx has detected the provided FQDN is invalid. To fix this problem, update your storage virtual machine's Active Directory configuration with an FQDN that adheres to configuration requirements.

To resolve this issue, use the following procedure:

  1. Review the on-premises Active Directory domain name requirements described in Information needed when joining an SVM to an Active Directory Make sure that the AD you are attempting to join meets that requirement.

  2. Use the procedure described in Joining an SVM to an Active Directory using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI and API and reattempt joining your SVM to an AD. Be sure to use the correct format for the AD domain's FQDN.

The service account can't access the administrators group specified in the SVM Active Directory configuration

Joining an SVM to your self-managed Active Directory fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to apply your Active Directory configuration. This is because the administrators group you provided either doesn't exist or isn't accessible to the service account you provided. To fix this problem, ensure that your networking configuration allows traffic from the SVM to your Active Directory’s domain controller(s) and DNS servers. Then update your SVM’s Active Directory configuration, providing your Active Directory’s DNS servers and, specifying an administrators group in the domain that is accessible to the service account provided.

To resolve this issue, do the following:

  1. Review the information about providing a domain group to perform administrative actions on your SVM. Make sure that you are using the correct name of the AD domain administrators group.

  2. Use the procedure described in Joining an SVM to an Active Directory using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI and API and reattempt joining your SVM to an AD.

Amazon FSx can't connect to the Active Directory domain controllers because the organizational unit specified doesn't exist or isn't accessible

Joining an SVM to your self-managed Active Directory fails with the following error message:

Amazon FSx is unable to establish a connection with your Active Directory. This is because the organizational unit you specified either doesn't exist or isn't accessible to the service account provided. To fix this problem, update your storage virtual machine's Active Directory configuration, specifying an organizational unit to which the service account has permissions to join.

To resolve this issue, do the following:

  1. Review the prerequisites for joining an SVM to an AD.

  2. Review the information that you need to have when joining an SVM to an AD.

  3. Reattempt joining the SVM to the AD using this procedure with the correct organization unit.