Category: Active Directory

Disabling Inactive Domain User and Computer Accounts in Active Directory with Ansible

In my last article I wrote about having Ansible run several audit requests including: “We need a list of all inactive user accounts” as well as “We need a list of inactive computer accounts”. Now that we have those listed, we can let Ansible clean those up. I preferred to create a new playbook for these tasks. First it will list the Users and Computers it will be handling first, next it will disable the account, followed by moving it to either the Inactive_Users or Inactive_Computers OU. I never delete the accounts as we prefer to disable, then move them.

Below is my ansible playbook “fix_AD_Inactive-Users-AND-Computers-90days.yml” 

---
- hosts: pdc
  gather_facts: no
  tasks:
     - name: copy file to windows
       win_copy:
          src: files/fix_inactive_usr.ps1
          dest: c:\it\fix_inactive_usr.ps1

     - name: copy file to windows
       win_copy:
          src: files/fix_inactive_pc.ps1
          dest: c:\it\fix_inactive_pc.ps1

     - name: Fix inactive users - 90 days
       win_shell: c:\it\fix_inactive_usr.ps1
       register: inactive_usr

     - debug: var=inactive_usr.stdout_lines

     - name: Fix inactive computers - 90 days
       win_shell: c:\it\fix_inactive_pc.ps1
       register: inactive_computer

     - debug: var=inactive_computer.stdout_lines

Below is the code for “fix_inactive_usr.ps1”

$date = (get-date).AddDays(-90)

$USR = (Get-ADUser -Filter {LastLogonDate -lt $date} -Property Enabled | Where-Object {$_.Enabled -like "true"} | Select DistinguishedName).DistinguishedName
echo $USR
ForEach ($Item in $USR){
   Disable-ADAccount $Item
   Move-ADObject -Identity $Item -TargetPath "OU=Disabled_Accounts,DC=contoso,DC=com"
   }

Please note in the PowerShell scripts above and below, you will need to change “DC=contoso,DC=com” to reflect your actual domain

Below is the code for “fix_inactive_pc.ps1”

# Specify inactivity range value below
$DaysInactive = 90
# $time variable converts $DaysInactive to LastLogonTimeStamp property format for the -Filter switch to work

$time = (Get-Date).Adddays(-($DaysInactive))

# Identify inactive computer accounts

$PC = (Get-ADComputer -Filter {LastLogonTimeStamp -lt $time} -Property Enabled | Where-Object {$_.Enabled -like "true"} | Select DistinguishedName).DistinguishedName
echo $PC
ForEach ($Item in $PC){
   Disable-ADAccount $Item
   Move-ADObject -Identity $Item -TargetPath "OU=Disabled_Computers,DC=contoso,DC=com"
   }

Audit Active Directory with Ansible

Everyone loves an audit right? We have to deal with audits quite a bit and that requires remedial tasks like “We need a list of AD user accounts that have been locked out”, “We need a list of all inactive user accounts”, “We need a list of inactive computer accounts”, “We need a list of all members of Domain Admins group” as well as “We need a list of all AD accounts”. All of these requirements can easily be scripted with PowerShell. Since I love to automate things and I would rather not run these commands separately, I figured I would just create an Ansible script to run all request at the same time. that way I could logon once, select my Ansible playbook and let it run and I don’t even need to logon to the DC to run theses tasks. I can sit back and let Ansible deal with this.

This simple Ansible playbook uses 3 PowerShell commands and 2 PowerShell scripts that I’m sure most Windows Administrators are familiar with. 

---
- hosts: pdc
  gather_facts: no
  tasks:
     - name: copy audit_AD_inactive_users.ps1 to Windows
       win_copy:
          src: files/audit_AD_inactive_users.ps1
          dest: c:\cit\audit_AD_inactive_users.ps1

     - name: copy audit_AD_inactive_computers.ps1 to Windows
       win_copy:
          src: files/audit_AD_inactive_computers.ps1
          dest: c:\cit\audit_AD_inactive_computers.ps1

     - name: Run Audit for Locked-Out Accounts
       win_shell: Search-AdAccount -LockedOut | select Name, LockedOut,LastLogonDate,distinguishedName
       register: lockedoutaccounts

     - debug: var=lockedoutaccounts.stdout_lines

     - name: Run Audit of inactive users - 90 days
       win_shell: c:\cit\audit_AD_inactive_users.ps1
       register: inactive_users

     - debug: var=inactive_users.stdout_lines

     - name: Run Audit of inactive computers - 90 days
       win_shell: c:\cit\audit_AD_inactive_computers.ps1
       register: inactive_computers

     - debug: var=inactive_computers.stdout_lines

     - name: Run Audit for members of Domain Admins group
       win_shell: Get-ADGroupMember -Identity 'Domain Admins' | Select-Object name, objectClass,distinguishedName
       register: dom_admin_users

     - debug: var=dom_admin_users.stdout_lines

     - name: Run Audit for all domain users
       win_shell: Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase "dc=contoso,dc=com" | select Name, objectClass,distinguishedName
       register: all_dom_users

     - debug: var=all_dom_users.stdout_lines

Not bad right? Ansible Rocks! The only complaint I may see is I’m not outputting the results to a CSV file, but if you run this script often, you shouldn’t need the fancy format.

Below is the first PowerShell script “audit_AD_inactive_users.ps1”

$date = (get-date).AddDays(-90)

Get-ADUser -Filter {LastLogonDate -lt $date} -Property Enabled | Where-Object {$_.Enabled -like “true”} | Select Name, SamAccountName, DistinguishedName

Below is the second PowerShell script “audit_AD_inactive_computers.ps1”

# Specify inactivity range value below
$DaysInactive = 90
# $time variable converts $DaysInactive to LastLogonTimeStamp property format for the -Filter switch to work

$time = (Get-Date).Adddays(-($DaysInactive))

# Identify inactive computer accounts

Get-ADComputer -Filter {LastLogonTimeStamp -lt $time} -ResultPageSize 2000 -resultSetSize $null -Properties Name, OperatingSystem, SamAccountName, DistinguishedName, LastLogonDate | Select DNSHostName, LastLogonDate, DistinguishedName

Creating an AD Realm on a Cisco ASA 5508-x running FTD (via FTM)

Creating an AD Realm on a Cisco ASA 5508-x running FTD (via FTM)

This was done on FTD vs 6.2.3-83. 

  1. In the Top Menu (Monitoring, Policies, Objects, Device), Select Objects
  2.  Under the Object types side menu, select Identity Realm
  3.  Enter a Realm name (I entered Client domain).
  4. For me, the Type: Active Directory was grayed out (it was my only choice anyway)
  5. For base DN, I entered: dc=example,dc=com
  6. for AD Primary domain, I entered our domain name
  7. Hostname, I entered the ip of the AD server and port I left at the default of 389
  8. I left encryption as None. I then tested satisfactory and saved the config.

Please check out my related article:

Setting up AnyConnect VPN’s on the Cisco ASA 5508x (FTD)

Force static IP clients to move to DHCP

The following will set the client to use DHCP:

netsh interface ip set address “Local Area Connection” dhcp

Unfortunately, you will need to do the same with DNS as well (otherwise it remains statically assigned)

netsh interface ip delete dns “Local Area Connection” all

Place that in GPO as a startup script after testing.