Lithnet Access Manager
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v2.0
v2.0
  • Home
  • What's new in Access Manager v2
  • How does Lithnet Access Manager help prevent lateral movement?
  • Access Manager Editions
  • Licensing
  • Change log
  • Installation
    • Getting started
    • System Requirements
    • Downloads
    • Upgrading from Access Manager v1
    • Installing the Access Manager Server
      • Creating a service account for the Access Manager Service
      • SQL installation options
      • Installing the Access Manager Service
      • High availability options
        • Load balancing Access Manager
        • Installing Access Manager in a Failover Cluster
    • Installing the Access Manager Agent
      • Choosing between the Microsoft and Lithnet agents for LAPS support
      • Installing the Access Manager Agent on Windows
      • Installing the Access Manager Agent on Linux
      • Installing the Access Manager Agent on macOS
  • Configuration
    • Setting up Authentication
      • Setting up authentication with ADFS
      • Setting up authentication with Azure AD
      • Setting up authentication with Okta
      • Setting up smart card authentication
      • Setting up integrated windows authentication
    • Deploying Features
      • Setting up Microsoft LAPS for Active Directory
      • Setting up Microsoft LAPS for Azure Active Directory
      • Setting up Lithnet LAPS
        • Preparing the AMS directory
        • Setting the AMS directory for Lithnet LAPS clients
        • Setting up Lithnet LAPS for Azure AD joined and registered devices
        • Setting up Lithnet LAPS for domain-joined devices
        • Setting up Lithnet LAPS for macOS and Linux
        • Setting up Lithnet LAPS for standalone Windows devices
      • Setting up BitLocker access
      • Setting up JIT for computers
      • Setting up JIT for roles
    • Importing authorization rules
      • Import Microsoft LAPS permissions from Active Directory
      • Importing BitLocker permissions from Active Directory
      • Importing local administrator group membership from domain-joined Windows devices
      • Import mappings from a CSV file
      • Importing rules from the Lithnet LAPS web app
      • Performing an offline discovery of local admins
  • Help and support
    • Frequently asked Questions
    • Troubleshooting
    • Quick start guides
      • Getting started with Windows LAPS and Lithnet Access Manager
      • Getting started with Windows LAPS for Active Directory
      • Getting started with Windows LAPS for Azure Active Directory
    • Support Articles
      • KB000001: The Access Manager Agent cannot connect and logs a token-validation-failed error
      • KB000002: Users retain their admin rights after their JIT period expires
      • KB000003: Configuring the Access Manager Agent to manage an account other than 'root' on Linux
      • KB000004: Creating a log file to troubleshoot installation issues with the Access Manager Service
      • KB000005: Access Manager stops working after applying the November 2022 Windows update
      • KB000006: Migrating the Access Manager Database
      • KB000007: Adding JIT groups via Group Policy doesn't work with NTLM Disabled
      • KB000008: AMS is unable to JIT into privileged groups such as Domain Admins
    • Advanced help topics
      • Ports and traffic flows
      • Internet access requirements
      • Access evaluation in Access Manager Service (AMS)
      • Recovering from a lost encryption certificate
      • Script-based authorization
      • Customized auditing with PowerShell notification channels
      • Variables available in audit notification channels
      • Setting up audit templates
      • Backup and Restore
      • Event ID reference
    • PowerShell reference
      • Add-AmsDeviceRegistrationKeyGroup
      • Add-AmsGroupMember
      • Export-AmsServerDiagnostics
      • Get-AmsActiveDirectoryJitOptions
      • Get-AmsComputerAuthorizationRule
      • Get-AmsDevice
      • Get-AmsDeviceRegistrationKey
      • Get-AmsGroup
      • Get-AmsGroupMembers
      • Get-AmsHostConfig
      • Get-AmsJitSchedulerJob
      • Get-AmsLocalAdminPassword
      • Get-AmsLocalAdminPasswordHistory
      • Get-AmsRoleAuthorizationRule
      • New-AmsComputerAuthorizationRule
      • New-AmsDeviceRegistrationKey
      • New-AmsGroup
      • New-AmsRoleAuthorizationRule
      • Remove-AmsComputerAuthorizationRule
      • Remove-AmsDevice
      • Remove-AmsDeviceRegistrationKey
      • Remove-AmsDeviceRegistrationKeyGroup
      • Remove-AmsGroup
      • Remove-AmsGroupMember
      • Remove-AmsJitSchedulerJob
      • Remove-AmsRoleAuthorizationRule
      • Set-AmsActiveDirectoryJitOptions
      • Set-AmsComputerAuthorizationRule
      • Set-AmsDevice
      • Set-AmsDeviceRegistrationKey
      • Set-AmsGroup
      • Set-AmsHostConfig
      • Set-AmsRoleAuthorizationRule
    • Application help pages
      • Access Manager Directory configuration page
      • Access Manager Directory Devices page
      • Access Manager Directory Groups page
      • Lithnet LAPS configuration page (Access Manager Directory)
      • Access Manager Directory Registration Keys page
      • Lithnet LAPS configuration page (Active Directory)
      • Microsoft LAPS configuration page
      • Active Directory configuration page
      • Auditing page
      • Authentication configuration page
      • Computer authorization rules page
      • Role authorization rules page
      • Azure Active Directory configuration page
      • BitLocker configuration page
      • Database configuration page
      • Effective access page
      • Email configuration page
      • IP Address detection configuration page
      • Just-in-time access configuration page
      • Licensing configuration page
      • Rate limit configuration page
      • Host configuration page
      • User interface configuration page
      • Security page
    • Getting Support
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On this page
  • Requirements
  • Installation procedure
  • 1. Prepare the SQL database
  • 2. Install Access Manager Service on the first node
  • 3. Install Access Manager Service on the remaining nodes
  • 4. Configure the IP address detection settings
  • 5. Configure the load balancer
  • Load balancer probes/Health checks
  • Web app
  • API

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  1. Installation
  2. Installing the Access Manager Server
  3. High availability options

Load balancing Access Manager

PreviousHigh availability optionsNextInstalling Access Manager in a Failover Cluster

Last updated 2 years ago

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High availability is an Enterprise edition feature

Access Manager is fully supported in load-balanced environments. You can have a load-balanced web app farm, and a separate API farm, or a single farm for both.

Requirements

  • If the load balancer 'hides' the real client IP address (e.g. a 'application/layer 7' load balancer), it must support supplying the client IP address in the X-Forwarded-For header

  • The load balancer must support load balancing both HTTP and HTTPS. 'SSL offloading' is not supported.

  • A Lithnet Access Manager enterprise edition license

  • At least one Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller in the domain where AMS will be installed

  • The KDS root key in the domain must be enabled

  • The same account must be used on all hosts in the farm. A group-managed service account is strongly recommended

  • Each host must be running the same version of the Access Manager Service at all times

  • An external SQL server, Azure SQL, or Amazon RDS SQL server. Using SQL express is not supported in a high availability scenario

Installation procedure

1. Prepare the SQL database

  • You cannot use the built-in SQL express database instance when installing AMS for high availability, so you'll need to create your database in advance. This can be on a SQL standard or enterprise edition standalone host, or cluster, or you can deploy the database in an Azure SQL or Amazon RDS instance. See the SQL installation guide for more information.

2. Install Access Manager Service on the first node

  • On the first node, follow the steps in the installation guide for configuring AMS features as appropriate for your environment.

  • Make sure you provide your Enterprise edition license key, save your configuration, and restart the service before moving onto install subsequent nodes

3. Install Access Manager Service on the remaining nodes

  • Repeat the installation process for the next node. Make sure to use the same service account, connection string, and TLS certificate on each server.

Settings on the Host configuration page will need to be configured per-node. All other settings are stored centrally in the database. Therefore, you will not need to provide the license key after installing it on the first node.

4. Configure the IP address detection settings

  • If the load balancer 'hides' the real client IP address (e.g. a 'application/layer 7' load balancer), you must configure the IP address detection settings in the app. If you are using a 'transport layer' load balancer, such as Microsoft NLB, you can skip this step.

  • From the App configuration/IP detection page, select the option to Resolve client IP address from X-Forwarded-For headers.

  • If you have multiple load balancers, web application firewalls, or reverse proxies in front of the application, adjust the Maximum allowed entries in header to reflect the number of trusted devices that will be contributing to the X-Forwarded-For header value. For example, if your AMS server sits behind a load balancer farm, which sits behind a WAF farm, then enter 2 for this value.

  • Provide the IP address, or IP network range that the load balancer appliance (and other WAFs or proxies) sits in. This allows AMS to accurately detect which IP address belongs to the client.

  • Test that the configuration is working correctly, by making an access request via the web app. In audit entry that appears in the event log, you should see the correct client IP address, and not the IP address of the load balancer.

5. Configure the load balancer

  • Configure the load balancer to point to the nodes of the farm.

  • If your load balancer provides customizable probes or health checks, see the 'Load balancer probes/Heath check` section below.

Load balancer probes/Health checks

Web app

If you are load balancing the web app, the load balancer can be configured to make a HTTP GET call to the /health-check endpoint to determine host availability. A HTTP 200 OK response indicates the service is healthy. Any other response should be treated as a failure. Health check requests must be performed over HTTPS.

API

If you are load balancing the API host, you can make a HTTP GET call to the api/v1.0/health-check endpoint to determine host availability. A HTTP 200 OK response indicates the service is healthy. Any other response should be treated as a failure. Health check requests must be performed over HTTPS.