Windows Federated Services

General Notes

This service is easy enough to get up and running using server manager. In my case I have Server 2016 Core running in AWS on a private subnet.
You do need to ensure you have the following

• A certificate for the publicly accessible fqdn. i.e. sts.yourdomain.tld. This does NOT need to match your internal domain.
  • A CSR can be created using Windows MMC and is easy to do.
  • Make sure to import the acquired cert back into the same system that created the CSR, then export the whole thing with key.
• Have a dedicated service account created in AD.
• Firewall issues will get you if you are not careful

Enable test page

This is used to test sign in.
I was able to log in from both the native domain as well as a trusted domain without further configuration.

Set-AdfsProperties –EnableIdpInitiatedSignonPage $True

Then go to https://sts.yourdomain.tld/adfs/ls/idpinitiatedsignon.htm

AD FS Proxy

In my case I wanted to use Server 2016 Core and NOT enroll it in my domain. Domain joined computers on the internet scares me.

• Please make sure that you either used an alternate name in the certificate, or you will need to add a host to the hosts file. i.e.

$newhost='xxx.xxx.xxx sts.yourdomain.tld'
$newhost | Out-File -FilePath C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts -Append -Encoding ascii

• If you haven't, install the certificate. Copying from another server if needed.

$mypwd = Get-Credential -UserName 'Enter password below' -Message 'Enter password belowe'
Import-PfxCertificate -FilePath C:\sts.yourdomain.tld.pfx -CertStoreLocation Cert:\LocalMachine\My -Password $mypwd.password

• Make sure you have the certificate thumbprint/hash as well. The following command should show this to you.

netsh http show ssl

Install-WindowsFeature Web-Application-Proxy -IncludeManagementTools
Install-WebApplicationProxy -FederationServiceName "sts.yourdomain.tld" -FederationServiceTrustCredential $FScredential -CertificateThumbprint "0a1b2c3d0a1b2c3d0a1b2c3d0a1b2c3d0a1b2c3d"

Manage using headless server

This does not work

• To manage the headless server using Server Manager
  • Give the server a fqdn and manually add the DNS entry.
  • Add the server to the trusted hosts for management

https://knowledge.digicert.com/solution/SO29005.html

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/rmilne/2017/06/20/how-to-enable-idpinitiatedsignon-page-in-ad-fs-2016/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-R2-and-2012/dn383662(v=ws.11)?redirectedfrom=MSDN