Use Microsoft Active Directory with Autonomous AI Database

You can configure Autonomous AI Database to authenticate and authorize Microsoft Active Directory users.

This configuration allows Active Directory users to access Autonomous AI Database using their Active Directory credentials including passwords and Kerberos.

Prerequisites to Configure CMU with Microsoft Active Directory on Autonomous AI Database

You can configure Autonomous AI Database to authenticate and authorize Microsoft Active Directory users.

Depending on where the Active Directory servers reside, there are two options for configuring Autonomous AI Database with Centrally Managed Users (CMU) with Microsoft Active Directory:

Note: See Use Microsoft Entra ID with Autonomous AI Database for information on using Azure Active Directory with Autonomous AI Database. The CMU option supports Microsoft Active Directory servers but does not support the Azure Active Directory service.

The integration of Autonomous AI Database with Centrally Managed Users (CMU) provides integration with Microsoft Active Directory. CMU with Active Directory works by mapping Oracle database global users and global roles to Microsoft Active Directory users and groups.

The following are required prerequisites to configure the connection from Autonomous AI Database to Active Directory:

Configure CMU with Microsoft Active Directory on Autonomous AI Database

You can configure Autonomous AI Database to authenticate and authorize Microsoft Active Directory users.

To configure Autonomous AI Database for CMU to connect to Active Directory:

Note: When you perform the configuration steps, connect to the database as the ADMIN user.

  1. Verify if another external authentication scheme is enabled on your database, and disable it.

    You can continue with CMU-AD configuration on top of Kerberos to provide CMU-AD Kerberos authentication for Microsoft Active Directory users.

    See Kerberos Authentication for CMU with Microsoft Active Directory for more information.

  2. Upload the CMU configuration files, including the database wallet file, cwallet.sso and the CMU configuration file, dsi.ora to your Object Store. This step depends on the Object Store you use.

    The dsi.ora configuration file contains the information to find the Active Directory servers.

    If you are using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Store, see Putting Data into Object Storage for details on uploading files.

  3. Run DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION procedure and pass in a location URI with the params JSON argument. You must place the configuration files cwallet.sso and dsi.ora in the Object Storage location specified in the location_uri parameter.

    For example:

    BEGIN
   DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION(
       type     => 'CMU',
       params   => JSON_OBJECT('location_uri' value 'https://objectstorage.us-phoenix-1.oraclecloud.com/n/namespace-string/b/bucketname/o',
                               'credential_name' value 'my_credential_name')
   );
END;
/

    Oracle recommends that you store the CMU configuration files in a private bucket in your Object Store.

    In this example, namespace-string is the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure object storage namespace and bucketname is the bucket name. See Understanding Object Storage Namespaces for more information.

    The credential_name you use in this step is the credentials to access the Object Store.

    Creating a credential to access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Store is not required if you enable resource principal credentials. See Use Resource Principal to Access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Resources for more information.

    If the location_uri is a pre-authenticated URL or a pre-signed URL, then supplying a credential_name is not required.

    The procedure creates a directory object named CMU_WALLET_DIR in your database and copies the CMU configuration files from the Object Store location to the directory object. This procedure also sets the database property CMU_WALLET to the value 'CMU_WALLET_DIR' and sets the LDAP_DIRECTORY_ACCESS parameter value to the value PASSWORD to enable access from the Autonomous AI Database instance to Active Directory.

  4. After you enable CMU authentication, remove the CMU configuration files including the database wallet cwallet.sso and the CMU configuration file dsi.ora from Object Store. You can use local Object Store methods to remove these files or use DBMS_CLOUD.DELETE_OBJECT to delete the files from Object Store.

  5. When Active Directory servers are on a private endpoint, perform additional configuration steps to provide access to the private endpoint.

    1. Set the database ROUTE_OUTBOUND_CONNECTIONS property.

      See Enhanced Security for Outbound Connections with Private Endpoints for more information.

    2. Validate that the CMU-AD configuration file dsi.ora includes host names. When the ROUTE_OUTBOUND_CONNECTIONS database property is set, IP addresses cannot be specified in dsi.ora.

Note for CMU with Active Directory on Autonomous AI Database:

See Disable Active Directory Access on Autonomous AI Database for instructions to disable the access from Autonomous AI Database to Active Directory.

See ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION Procedure for information on DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION.

See Configuring Centrally Managed Users with Microsoft Active Directory for more information on configuring CMU with Microsoft Active Directory.

Kerberos Authentication for CMU with Microsoft Active Directory

You can configure Autonomous AI Database to use Kerberos authentication for CMU with Microsoft Active Directory users. This configuration allows CMU Active Directory (CMU-AD) users to access an Autonomous AI Database instance using Kerberos credentials.

Kerberos can be configured with or without CMU-AD. Just configuring Kerberos requires you to create and maintain a database user for every Kerberos user. Configuring Kerberos with CMU allows you to map an Active Directory group of Kerberos users to a single database user, shared schema, so database access can be controlled by Active Directory group membership. See Configure Kerberos Authentication with Autonomous AI Database for details on configuring Kerberos without CMU-AD.

Note: When implementing both the Kerberos authentication and CMU-AD for authorization, Oracle recommends implementing Kerberos authentication first, and then adding CMU-AD authorization.

  1. Enable Kerberos in your Autonomous AI Database instance using Microsoft Active Directory Kerberos server.

    Only Microsoft Active Directory Kerberos servers are supported for Kerberos when you configure Kerberos authentication with CMU-AD.

    a. To enable Kerberos authentication for your Autonomous AI Database, you must obtain the Kerberos configuration files: krb.conf and the service key table file v5srvtab.

    To generate these files when you configure Kerberos authentication with CMU-AD you need the server host name. You can obtain the value of the server host from the attribute PUBLIC_DOMAIN_NAME in the CLOUD_IDENTITY column of V$PDBS. This value is different from the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for a database on a private endpoint.

    Use the following command to obtain the server host name:

    SELECT guid ||'/'|| json_value(cloud_identity, '$.PUBLIC_DOMAIN_NAME')
    "KSERVICE/KINSTANCE" FROM v$pdbs;

    You can use a command such as the following to generate the service key table file:

    ktpass -princ ORACLE/DATABASE_SERVER_HOST_NAME.DATABASE_SERVER_HOST_DOMAIN@ACTIVE_DIRECTORY_DEFAULT_DOMAIN
                  -pass ACTIVE_DIRECTORY_PASSWORD
                  -mapuser DATABASE_SERVER_HOST_NAME
                  -crypto ALL
                  -ptype KRB5_NT_PRINCIPAL
                  -out database.keytab

    For example:

    ktpass -princ ORACLE/user.example.com@example.com
                 -pass password -mapuser dbexamplekrb
                 -crypto ALL -ptype KRB5_NT_PRINCIPAL -out database.keytab

    For more information on these files and steps required to obtain them, see Configuring Kerberos Authentication.

    b. Copy the Kerberos configuration files krb.conf and v5srvtab to a bucket in your Object Store.

    This step differs depending on the Object Store you use.

    If you are using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Store, see Putting Data into Object Storage for details on uploading files.

    c. Run DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION to enable Kerberos external authentication.

    For example:

    BEGIN
   DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION(
       type     => 'KERBEROS',
       params   => JSON_OBJECT('location_uri' value 'https://objectstorage.us-phoenix-1.oraclecloud.com/n/namespace-string/b/bucketname/o',
                               'credential_name' value *'my_credential_name'*)
   );
END;
/

    Note: Oracle recommends that you store the Kerberos configuration files in a private bucket in your Object Store.

    In this example, namespace-string is the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure object storage namespace and bucketname is the bucket name. See Understanding Object Storage Namespaces for more information.

    The credential_name you use in this step is the credentials for the Object Store.

    See Enable Kerberos Authentication on Autonomous AI Database for more information.

    d. Confirm that Kerberos is configured and enabled.

    SELECT property_value FROM database_properties
      WHERE property_name='KERBEROS_DIRECTORY';

  2. Enable and configure CMU-AD on Autonomous AI Database.

    a. Upload the CMU configuration files, including the database wallet file, cwallet.sso and the CMU configuration file, dsi.ora to your Object Store.

    You upload the cwallet.sso so that the CMU-AD configuration has the credentials for the Autonomous AI Database instance to connect to the Active Directory service account.

    The dsi.ora configuration file contains the information to find the Active Directory servers.

    This step differs depending on the Object Store you use.

    If you are using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Store, see Putting Data into Object Storage for details on uploading files.

    b. Run the DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION procedure and pass in a location URI with the params JSON argument. You must place the configuration files cwallet.sso and dsi.ora in the Object Storage location specified in the location_uri parameter.

    For example:

    BEGIN
   DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION(
       type     => 'CMU',
       params   => JSON_OBJECT('location_uri' value 'https://objectstorage.us-phoenix-1.oraclecloud.com/n/namespace-string/b/bucketname/o',
                               'credential_name' value 'my_credential_name')
   );
END;
/

    Oracle recommends that you store the CMU configuration files in a private bucket in your Object Store.

    In this example, namespace-string is the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure object storage namespace and bucketname is the bucket name. See Understanding Object Storage Namespaces for more information.

    The credential_name you use in this step is the credentials to access the Object Store.

    Creating a credential to access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Store is not required if you enable resource principal credentials. See Use Resource Principal to Access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Resources for more information.

    If the location_uri is a pre-authenticated URL or a pre-signed URL, then supplying a credential_name is not required.

    See Prerequisites to Configure CMU with Microsoft Active Directory on Autonomous AI Database for more information.

    c. Confirm that CMU-AD is configured and enabled.

    SELECT property_value FROM database_properties
      WHERE property_name='CMU_WALLET';

  3. After completing Step 1 and Step 2, verify that the configuration of Kerberos authentication with CMU-AD is complete.

    a. Login to the Autonomous AI Database instance as an Active Directory user so that SYS_CONTEXT information populated in your USERENV.

    b. Query the SYS_CONTEXT USERENV.

    SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','AUTHENTICATION_METHOD') FROM DUAL;
    SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','AUTHENTICATION_METHOD')

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KERBEROS_GLOBAL

    When you have Kerberos authentication configured and enabled without CMU-AD, this query returns: KERBEROS. See Configure Kerberos Authentication with Autonomous AI Database for more information.

    When you have CMU-AD authentication configured without Kerberos, this query returns: PASSWORD_GLOBAL. See Prerequisites to Configure CMU with Microsoft Active Directory on Autonomous AI Database for more information.

Notes for using Kerberos authentication with CMU-AD:

Add Microsoft Active Directory Roles on Autonomous AI Database

To add Active Directory roles, map the database global roles to Active Directory groups with CREATE ROLE or ALTER ROLE statements (and include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause).

To add global roles for Active Directory groups on Autonomous AI Database:

  1. Log in as the ADMIN user to the database that is configured to use Active Directory (the ADMIN user has the CREATE ROLE and ALTER ROLE system privileges that you need for these steps).

  2. Set the database authorization for Autonomous AI Database roles with CREATE ROLE or ALTER ROLE statement. Include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause and specify the DN of an Active Directory group.

    Use the following syntax to map a directory user group to a database global role:

    CREATE ROLE global_role IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
     'DN_of_an_AD_GROUP_of_WHICH_the_AD_USER_IS_a_MEMBER';

    For example:

    CREATE ROLE widget_sales_role IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
     'CN=widget_sales_group,OU=sales,DC=production,DC=example,DC=com';

    In this example all members of the widget_sales_group are authorized with the database role widget_sales_role when they log in to the database.

  3. Use GRANT statements to grant the required privileges or other roles to the global role.

    For example:

    GRANT CREATE SESSION TO WIDGET_SALES_ROLE;
GRANT DWROLE TO WIDGET_SALES_ROLE;

    DWROLE is a predefined role that has common privileges defined. See Manage User Privileges on Autonomous AI Database - Connecting with a Client Tool for information on setting common privileges for Autonomous AI Database users.

  4. If you want to make an existing database role to be associated with an Active Directory group, then use ALTER ROLE statement to alter the existing database role to map the role to an Active Directory group.

    Use the following syntax to alter an existing database role to map it to an Active Directory group:

    ALTER ROLE existing_database_role
   IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'DN_of_an_AD_GROUP_of_WHICH_the_AD_USER_IS_a_MEMBER';

  5. If you want to create additional global role mappings for other Active Directory groups, follow these steps for each Active Directory group.

For more information on configuring roles with Microsoft Active Directory, see Configuring Authorization for Centrally Managed Users in Oracle Database 19c Security Guide or Oracle AI Database 26ai Security Guide.

Add Microsoft Active Directory Users on Autonomous AI Database

To add Active Directory users to access a database, map database global users to Active Directory groups or users with CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements (with IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause).

The integration of Autonomous AI Database with Active Directory works by mapping Microsoft Active Directory users and groups directly to Oracle database global users and global roles.

To add global users for Active Directory groups or users on Autonomous AI Database:

  1. Log in as the ADMIN user to the database that is configured to use Active Directory (the ADMIN user has the required CREATE USER and ALTER USER system privileges that you need for these steps).

  2. Set database authorization for Autonomous AI Database users with CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements and include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause, specifying the DN of an Active Directory user or group.

    Use the following syntax to map a directory user to a database global user:

    CREATE USER global_user IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'DN_of_an_AD_USER';

    Use the following syntax to map a directory group to a database global user:

    CREATE USER global_user IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
    'DN_of_an_AD_GROUP_of_WHICH_the_AD_USER_IS_a_MEMBER';

    For example, to map a directory group named widget_sales_group in the sales organization unit of the production.example.com domain to a shared database global user named WIDGET_SALES:

    CREATE USER widget_sales IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS
     'CN=widget_sales_group,OU=sales,DC=production,DC=example,DC=com';

    This creates a shared global user mapping. The mapping, with global user widget_sales, is effective for all users in the Active Directory group. Thus, anyone in the widget_sales_group can log in to the database using their Active Directory credentials (through the shared mapping of the widget_sales global user).

  3. If you want Active Directory users to use an existing database user, own its schema, and own its existing data, then use ALTER USER to alter an existing database user to map the user to an Active Directory group or user.

    • Use the following syntax to alter an existing database user to map it to an Active Directory user:

      ALTER USER existing_database_user IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'DN_of_an_AD_USER';

    • Use the following syntax to alter an existing database user to map it to an Active Directory group:

      ALTER USER existing_database_user
     IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'DN_of_an_AD_GROUP_of_WHICH_the_AD_USER_IS_a_MEMBER';

  4. If you want to create additional global user mappings for other Active Directory groups or users, follow these steps for each Active Directory group or user.

For more information on configuring roles with Microsoft Active Directory, see Configuring Authorization for Centrally Managed Users in Oracle Database 19c Security Guide or Oracle AI Database 26ai Security Guide.

Tools Restrictions with Active Directory on Autonomous AI Database

Notes for using Autonomous AI Database tools with Active Directory:

Connect to Autonomous AI Database with Active Directory User Credentials

After the ADMIN user completes the CMU Active Directory configuration steps and creates global roles and global users, users log in to the database using their Active Directory username and password.

Note: Do not log in using a Global User name. Global User names do not have a password and connecting with a Global User name will not be successful. You must have a global user mapping in your Autonomous AI Database in order to log in to the database. You cannot log in to the database with only global role mappings.

  1. To log in to the database using an Active Directory username and password, connect as follows:

    CONNECT "AD_DOMAIN\AD_USERNAME"/AD_USER_PASSWORD@TNS_ALIAS_OF_THE_AUTONOMOUS_DATABASE;

    For example:

    CONNECT "production\pfitch"/password@adbname_medium;

    You need to include double quotes when the Active Directory domain is included along with the username, as with this example: "production\pfitch".

    In this example, the Active Directory username is pfitch in domain production. The Active Directory user is a member of widget_sales_group group which is identified by its DN 'CN=widget_sales_group,OU=sales,DC=production,DC=example,DC=com'.

After configuring CMU with Active Directory on Autonomous AI Database and setting up Active Directory authorization, with global roles and global users, you can connect to your database using any of the connection methods described in Connect to Autonomous AI Database. When you connect, if you want to use an Active Directory user then use Active Directory user credentials. For example, provide a username in this form, “AD_DOMAIN**AD_USERNAME” (double quotes must be included), and use your AD_USER_PASSWORD for the password.

If your Autonomous AI Database instance is in Restricted Mode, this mode only allows users with the RESTRICTED SESSION privilege to connect to the database. The ADMIN user has this privilege. You can use restricted access mode to perform administrative tasks such as indexing, data loads, or other planned activities. See Change Autonomous AI Database Operation Mode to Read/Write Read-Only or Restricted for more information.

Verify Active Directory User Connection Information with Autonomous AI Database

When users log in to the database using their Active Directory username and password, you can verify and audit the user activity.

For example, when the user pfitch logs in:

CONNECT "production\pfitch"/password@exampleadb_medium;

The Active Directory user’s log on username (samAccountName) is pfitch and widget_sales_group is the Active Directory Group name, and widget_sales is the database global user.

After pfitch logs in to the database, the command SHOW USER shows the global user name:

SHOW USER;

USER is "WIDGET_SALES"

The following command shows the DN (Distinguished Name) of the Active Directory user:

SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV', 'ENTERPRISE_IDENTITY') FROM DUAL;

For example you can verify this centrally managed user’s enterprise identity:

SQL> SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV', 'ENTERPRISE_IDENTITY') FROM DUAL;
SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','ENTERPRISE_IDENTITY')
----------------------------------------------------------------------
cn=Peter Fitch,ou=sales,dc=production,dc=examplecorp,dc=com

The following command shows the “AD_DOMAIN\AD_USERNAME”:

SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV', 'AUTHENTICATED_IDENTITY') FROM DUAL;

For example, the Active Directory authenticated user identity is captured and audited when the user logs on to the database:

SQL> SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV', 'AUTHENTICATED_IDENTITY') FROM DUAL;
SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','AUTHENTICATED_IDENTITY')
----------------------------------------------------------------------
production\pfitch

See Verifying the Centrally Managed User Logon Information in Oracle Database 19c Security Guide or Oracle AI Database 26ai Security Guide for more information.

Remove Active Directory Users and Roles on Autonomous AI Database

To remove Active Directory users and roles from Autonomous AI Databases, use standard database commands. This does not remove the related Active Directory users or groups that were mapped from the dropped database users or roles.

To remove users or roles from Autonomous AI Database:

  1. Log in to the database that is configured to use Active Directory as a user who has been granted the DROP USER or DROP ROLE system privilege.

  2. Drop the global users or the global roles that are mapped to Active Directory groups or users with DROP USER or DROP ROLE statement.

    See Remove Users on Autonomous AI Database for more information.

Disable Active Directory Access on Autonomous AI Database

Describes the steps to remove the CMU configuration from your Autonomous AI Database (and disable the LDAP access from your Autonomous AI Database to Active Directory).

After you configure your Autonomous AI Database instance to access CMU Active Directory, you can disable the access as follows:

  1. Connect to the Autonomous AI Database as the ADMIN user.

  2. Use the DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DISABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION to disable CMU authentication.

    Note: To run this procedure you must be logged in as ADMIN user or have the EXECUTE privilege on DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.

    For example:

    BEGIN
   DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DISABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION;
END;
/

    This disables CMU authentication on your Autonomous AI Database instance.

See DISABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTHENTICATION Procedure for more information.