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does anyone know of a way of running an active directory domain controller, in amazon web services, and connect it to a physical pc outside of the network. Many thanks

Jacob Pounds
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2 Answers2

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Sure, companies do this all the time. Use a VPN to connect your AWS VPC back to your corporate network.

EEAA
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There are three sections to this - High level method, AD Option, Connectivity

High Level Method

You can either run a form of AD, or you can run a federation proxy to an external AD service (AWS AD connector). If you run a proxy there's more latency but it's simpler.

AD Options

You can run

  • Your own AD controller on EC2
  • AWS Simple AD (part of AWS DS). This is a simpler product that emulates AD, and works well for simple use cases. Limitations here.
  • AWS Active Directory (part of AWS DS). This is full, managed Microsoft AD.

Connectivity

You can

  • Simply connect over the internet. This may not be fully secure, I don't know AD protocols well enough to say
  • Run a Virtual Private Network. This is secure, it's relatively quick, cheap, and easy
  • Use Direct Connect, a dedicated line (massive overkill for your situation). Expensive, fast, slow to set up.

Recommendation

You should probably consider AWS Simple AD with a VPN.

Tim
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