Question

Difficulty: MediumIdentity Federation and Directory Services

A logistics company is designing a security architecture for its new multi-account AWS environment managed by AWS Organizations. The company manages all corporate identities in an on-premises Microsoft Active Directory. The security team wants to grant employees single sign-on (SSO) access to the AWS Management Console. The solution must authenticate users against the on-premises directory without replicating any Active Directory data to AWS, must avoid the creation of individual IAM users, and must minimize administrative effort. Which solution meets these requirements?

  1. Configure AWS IAM Identity Center and connect it to the on-premises directory by deploying an AD Connector.Answer
  2. B
    Create individual IAM users in each AWS account corresponding to Active Directory identities, and use an automation script to synchronize passwords.
  3. C
    Deploy AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory (AWS Managed Microsoft AD) and configure a synchronization agent to replicate Active Directory credentials to AWS.
  4. D
    Set up SAML 2.0 federation in each AWS account using the AWS account root user to import metadata and establish role-mapping policies.

Answer

Configure AWS IAM Identity Center and connect it to the on-premises directory by deploying an AD Connector.
Deploying an AD Connector as a proxy between AWS IAM Identity Center and the on-premises Microsoft Active Directory satisfies all security and operational requirements. AD Connector redirects authentication requests directly to the on-premises domain controllers, ensuring that directory data is never replicated to the cloud. AWS IAM Identity Center provides centralized single sign-on access control across all accounts within the AWS Organizations structure, eliminating the need to manage individual IAM users or credentials.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze directory replication constraints.
Identify that AD Connector is the only directory gateway service that acts as a proxy/redirector without replicating or caching Active Directory database data in the AWS cloud.
The scenario requires that no Active Directory data is replicated to AWS.
2
Select the centralized authentication interface for multiple AWS accounts.
Choose AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS Single Sign-On) integrated with the AD Connector.
This centralizes user access management across the AWS Organizations multi-account structure, avoiding the need to configure federation or IAM users in each individual account.

Key Concept

Federating on-premises Active Directory to AWS Organizations using AD Connector and AWS IAM Identity Center to prevent data replication and minimize management overhead.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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