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Customer-managed process for configuring Kerberos authentication on an Amazon RDS for SQL Server DB instance, joined to a self-managed Active Directory

Database Blog



This AWS Database Blog article details a comprehensive process for configuring Kerberos authentication on Amazon RDS for SQL Server DB instances joined to a self-managed Active Directory.

  • Explains why Windows Authentication falls back to NTLM authentication by default
  • Provides step-by-step guidance for implementing Kerberos authentication
  • Describes how to add UPN suffixes and Service Principal Names (SPNs) to enable Kerberos
  • Offers an AWS SAM template to automate SPN updates during host replacements or failovers
  • Highlights the security benefits of using Kerberos over NTLM authentication

The solution improves database connection security by ensuring Kerberos authentication is used instead of the less secure NTLM protocol, with an automated approach to managing SPNs across dynamic infrastructure environments.



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