Understanding the Different Active Directory Offerings in AWS
AWS provides integration capabilities with Microsoft AD to enable seamless authentication and authorization of users in AWS environments. The integration allows you to extend your existing on-premises AD to AWS resources, such as EC2 instances, Amazon RDS databases, and AWS WorkSpaces.
Figure 16.1: On-premises AD to managed AWS AD
Once you have set up a version of the AWS Directory Service, you establish a trust relationship between your on-premises AD and AWS. This trust relationship allows users in your on-premises AD to access AWS resources using their existing AD credentials. When users attempt to access an AWS resource, such as by logging in to an EC2 instance, AWS leverages the trust relationship with AD to authenticate the user. The user provides their AD credentials, which are validated against the on-premises AD. The user is then granted access to the requested resource if the credentials...