SAMIT: Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers?
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@bigbear said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@storageninja said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
There are other windows functions tied to AD (Print Servers, GPO's, authentication if users are domain users).
Are we at the point of using MDM systems for management, and external identity and SSO for authentication?Honestly I cant believe we arent at the point where everyones cell phone doubles as a desktop CPU and all business apps arent pushed through app streaming.
Well, I can tell you, some major reasons I don't want that are....
- I want my cell phone free for other tasks, I don't want it locked up being tied to a monitor all day.
- Doing this would interfere with my battery management regime, not impossible to work around, but would take something simple and make it complex.
- I need my computer as a backup device, the more I tie to my cell phone, the more issues I have if it gets broken or lost
- Most phones are single user devices, they lack user control mechanisms, which could easily fall under your "why don't they make this work" feeling, but is a current problem that people see them as an identifying object like an RSA card, but treat them as a computer a la Windows 98
- If all we are doing is app streaming and nothing else, I don't want the hassle of attaching my phone or anything else, I want that minimal logic built into the monitor or, for trivial effort, bolted onto it like we already do today.
Honestly, I think where we are today is better than it would be if we used our phones for it.
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@bigbear said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@storageninja said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
Are we at the point of using MDM systems for management, and external identity and SSO for authentication?
- Yes, MDM systems or similar, which is just another term for LANless authentication, is definitely the point we've been at for years.
- Is central authentication really all that important? What a lot of people are finding is that that is an overblown bit of hype. Certainly important, but not critical in the way that people have behaved for the last 20 years.
I would agree, the only important thing is probably being able to reset a user's forgotten password. Which one can easily accomplish without directory services.
Right, exactly. The need to have a central authentication authority is often assumed, I think based on conversations I've had about this, to do things that are not actually related to it. Central authentication, while it does have value, in the SMB seems to be primarily deployed out of confusion, rather than out of solving a problem.
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@bigbear said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@storageninja said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
Are we at the point of using MDM systems for management, and external identity and SSO for authentication?
- Yes, MDM systems or similar, which is just another term for LANless authentication, is definitely the point we've been at for years.
- Is central authentication really all that important? What a lot of people are finding is that that is an overblown bit of hype. Certainly important, but not critical in the way that people have behaved for the last 20 years.
I would agree, the only important thing is probably being able to reset a user's forgotten password. Which one can easily accomplish without directory services.
You can generally do that without any infrastructure, just using scripts or something.
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If we are going to talk about AD (MIcrosoft Active Directory) Then I would still debate that even when you don't need to have 2 DC you need to separate some functions from a DC such as Exchange or SQL (If you are using that still in-house) which then begs the question where are we moving forward with technologies and the cloud.
There are many IaaS and DaaS that can cover the need for a DC, OwnCloud and then like for file collaboration and something like PrintLogic for PrintServers
https://www.printerlogic.com/
That combined with a centralized scripting deployment will work well. That is why something like Sodium or RMM tool comes into play. Even the policies are applied much faster (As soon as the agent or services are contacted). -
@dbeato said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
If we are going to talk about AD (MIcrosoft Active Directory) Then I would still debate that even when you don't need to have 2 DC you need to separate some functions from a DC such as Exchange or SQL (If you are using that still in-house) which then begs the question where are we moving forward with technologies and the cloud.
There are many IaaS and DaaS that can cover the need for a DC, OwnCloud and then like for file collaboration and something like PrintLogic for PrintServers
https://www.printerlogic.com/
That combined with a centralized scripting deployment will work well. That is why something like Sodium or RMM tool comes into play. Even the policies are applied much faster (As soon as the agent or services are contacted).Yes, you commonly don't need AD at all. The video is really focused on "if you have AD, do you need two?" Certainly that AD is not needed at all is a real consideration.
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In reality today, AD should be the exception, not the rule, at least in the SMB. A common exception, but still not the rule.
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@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
In reality today, AD should be the exception, not the rule, at least in the SMB. A common exception, but still not the rule.
OK - in a 15+ user shop.. how do you handle logins? manually make accounts at each location?
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@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
In reality today, AD should be the exception, not the rule, at least in the SMB. A common exception, but still not the rule.
OK - in a 15+ user shop.. how do you handle logins? manually make accounts at each location?
Sure, same as I've seen 300+ person shops do. You need to make them all anyway. So no additional effort. And if you have any kind of central control, that can all be automated.
In my environments, AD might add value, but it does so at the cost of an increase in effort. Few things are as trivially easy and simple as local logins.
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@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
In reality today, AD should be the exception, not the rule, at least in the SMB. A common exception, but still not the rule.
OK - in a 15+ user shop.. how do you handle logins? manually make accounts at each location?
Sure, same as I've seen 300+ person shops do. You need to make them all anyway. So no additional effort. And if you have any kind of central control, that can all be automated.
In my environments, AD might add value, but it does so at the cost of an increase in effort. Few things are as trivially easy and simple as local logins.
How do you manage 300 local logins? What if you need user portability?
You keep saying that it's likely that many don't need AD - but I see AD making these things much easier (for a cost) than not using AD. That's probably all you're really saying.. buy/use the correct solution for your needs.. which may or may not be the use/purchase of AD.
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@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
In reality today, AD should be the exception, not the rule, at least in the SMB. A common exception, but still not the rule.
OK - in a 15+ user shop.. how do you handle logins? manually make accounts at each location?
Sure, same as I've seen 300+ person shops do. You need to make them all anyway. So no additional effort. And if you have any kind of central control, that can all be automated.
In my environments, AD might add value, but it does so at the cost of an increase in effort. Few things are as trivially easy and simple as local logins.
How do you manage 300 local logins? What if you need user portability?
How do you manage 300 remote logins? Same effort.
User portability is a different matter and requires some ammount of effort, but very little. It's non-zero, though. Portability is, however, surprisingly rare in business. Not to say it is rare, just much more rare than people think. Even places where I'd totally expect it, like a doctor's office or clinic, I often find that they have no need for it.
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@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
You keep saying that it's likely that many don't need AD - but I see AD making these things much easier (for a cost) than not using AD.
I think that that is mostly a myth. For a normal SMB, especially a relatively small one, AD saves no effort anywhere, but generates a ton of effort in needing to build and maintain servers, needing to maintain CALs, track CALs, take server backups, etc. All things that don't need to exist without AD, in some cases.
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@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
That's probably all you're really saying.. buy/use the correct solution for your needs.. which may or may not be the use/purchase of AD.
Correct. but don't be surprised that AD makes way less sense than people expect. Most of the value that it brings is for its own purposes. AD for AD's sake.
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@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
You keep saying that it's likely that many don't need AD - but I see AD making these things much easier (for a cost) than not using AD.
I think that that is mostly a myth. For a normal SMB, especially a relatively small one, AD saves no effort anywhere, but generates a ton of effort in needing to build and maintain servers, needing to maintain CALs, track CALs, take server backups, etc. All things that don't need to exist without AD, in some cases.
I'm happy to use SAMBA in it's place. The ability for users to log into any machine on the network without me having to setup a user for them is nice.
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@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
You keep saying that it's likely that many don't need AD - but I see AD making these things much easier (for a cost) than not using AD.
I think that that is mostly a myth. For a normal SMB, especially a relatively small one, AD saves no effort anywhere, but generates a ton of effort in needing to build and maintain servers, needing to maintain CALs, track CALs, take server backups, etc. All things that don't need to exist without AD, in some cases.
I'm happy to use SAMBA in it's place. The ability for users to log into any machine on the network without me having to setup a user for them is nice.
SAMBA is not in place of AD, Samba is AD.
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@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
The ability for users to log into any machine on the network without me having to setup a user for them is nice.
You mean another user for that. But we get this without AD (from any source) so the two are not connected. I only need make a user once, but they are available on every machine. Just a trivial script does that.
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@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@dashrender said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
You keep saying that it's likely that many don't need AD - but I see AD making these things much easier (for a cost) than not using AD.
I think that that is mostly a myth. For a normal SMB, especially a relatively small one, AD saves no effort anywhere, but generates a ton of effort in needing to build and maintain servers, needing to maintain CALs, track CALs, take server backups, etc. All things that don't need to exist without AD, in some cases.
AD takes no effort to setup or deploy. GPO largely "just works" for a ton of things and core applications with tons of existing templates and easily googlable guides (and staff who know how to maintain it that are cheap as chips), it hooks into other Microsoft domain tech (Print server management).
CALs are cheap ($50 as a standalone, cheaper if you buy in a pack).
I worked for a MSP and the amount of "maintenance" we did on AD was really non-existent. If you want to be fancy, you have your RMM script a backup once a day doing a LDIFDE -f backupad.ldif but beyond that, there's just not a lot to it. Any RMM worth it's salt (get it, a SALT joke) can manage 100 domain controllers with RMM tools without any real overhead, etc.
I agree that AD isn't providing as much value these days for small shops as it used to, but the overheads are smaller than ever.
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@storageninja said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
AD takes no effort to setup or deploy.
It takes a lot of effort. You have to finance it, purchase it, figure out CALs, buy CALs, get a server, install it, configure it.
You live in a world of unlimited budgets and unlimited dedicated staff for tasks. You see purchasing as something handled by the purchasing department, as budgeting done by the CFO, as $700 being something you don't mention.
In the SMB, those things are huge. $700 isn't even remotely trivial, and setting up AD, in fact just buying AD, is generally double the effort of the alternative.
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@storageninja said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
GPO largely "just works" for a ton of things and core applications with tons of existing templates and easily googlable guides (and staff who know how to maintain it that are cheap as chips), it hooks into other Microsoft domain tech (Print server management).
GPO is unnecessarily complicated and unreliable. It's pushed as a miracle product, but takes huge amounts of effort to learn and maintain and rarely works flawlessly. And AD isn't what provides GPO, that's one of the common myths that cause people to buy AD without actually looking into their needs. GPO doesn't come with AD, you already have it.
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@scottalanmiller said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
@storageninja said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
GPO largely "just works" for a ton of things and core applications with tons of existing templates and easily googlable guides (and staff who know how to maintain it that are cheap as chips), it hooks into other Microsoft domain tech (Print server management).
GPO is unnecessarily complicated and unreliable. It's pushed as a miracle product, but takes huge amounts of effort to learn and maintain and rarely works flawlessly. And AD isn't what provides GPO, that's one of the common myths that cause people to buy AD without actually looking into their needs. GPO doesn't come with AD, you already have it.
It does, but AD and OUT structures are the way most people use to deploy it (As well as the central policy store for deploying 3rd party). You could push it out with SALT etc, but in a SMB internal staff will not know how to use something like that.
You could have your RMM or MDM manage push outs though (and I am seeing Stuff like Airwatch positioned as a replacement). the big gap is MAM as a lot of apps had GPO's and need to have API's for management to make the transition smooth.
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@storageninja said in Do You Need Two AD Domain Controllers? SAMIT Video:
CALs are cheap ($50 as a standalone, cheaper if you buy in a pack).
CALs are either cheap or they are $50 per user, but they aren't both. For an SMB, $50 per user for no reason is expensive. What do they get from that $50?
And that's hardly the full cost... let's look at a ten person business:
- Server: $1,000
- Windows License: $700
- CALs: $500
- Windows Pro Upgrades: $1,500
- Admin Time to Set Up: 2-5 days
That's $3,700 or $370 per user just to set up, plus around half a day of effort, per user to get set up. In many SMBs, it could take a week of effort just to get that kind of spending approved!
