Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of royatnts
royatnts

asked on

AutoEnrollment group policy is not enabled

Hello. I'm not an expert when it comes to certificates,  getting a non-compliance warning to the BPA for AD CS. Details are;

Title:
User autoenrollment group policy is not enabled
Severity:Warning

Date:
3/16/2014 2:48:19 PM

Category:
Configuration

Issue:
This certification authority (CA) was installed as an enterprise CA, but Group Policy settings for user autoenrollment have not been enabled.

Impact:
An enterprise CA can use autoenrollment to simplify certificate issuance and renewal.  If autoenrollment is not enabled, certificate issuance and renewal may not occur as expected.

Resolution:
If user autoenrollment is desired, use the Group Policy Management Console to configure user autoenrollment policy settings, and use the Certificate Templates snap-in to configure autoenrollment settings on the certificate templates.

More information about this best practice and detailed resolution procedures: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=122630

I have followed the instructions in the link above to enable, but if I run a new scan, the BPA warning still exists. And if I view the Default Domain Policy details, it shows it's enabled.

How can I resolve this?
Avatar of Imtiaz Hasham
Imtiaz Hasham
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Remove CA options from your server
Remove CA options from your server. I would never use my server as a CA.  Just buy a cert, its cheap or use an automatically generated certificate
Avatar of royatnts
royatnts

ASKER

Thanks for your reply. Can you be more specific? Do you mean to remove the AD CA role?  I'm not sure why it is there. installed years ago, but also am not sure of the impact this will cause, if any.

I checked and there is a 3rd party cert installed in the exchange server for SSL. However I thought this cert was just for exchange. Are the other remote connection services (OWA, RWA, IIS, Outlook Anywhere, Autodiscover etc) using it as well?
The third party cert is what you need installed for all roles (if required).

I don't know why you'd have your own CA.
Thanks again. I'm not sure why the CA is installed either. Maybe the intent was insure remote clients were using (enrolling) the self signed cert, and or possible before the 3rd party cert was purchased.

I have checked the private 3rd party cert using Exchange Mgmt Console/Exchange Certificates and it has IMAP, POP, SMTP & IIS applied to it, still valid for another year.

Getting back to your comment to remove the CA options. Would I simply do the "Remove Role Service" under Server Manage/Certificate Authority Options and walk through the wizard?

Also, what impact could I expect now that this service has been running for years?

BTW- The CA is the only option installed within AD CS, so is it safe to remove the entire AD CS role? And if this applies, what impact could I expect for this?

Thanks in advance.
For a self signed cert, you don't need the CA installed :)

If you remind me in 10 hours, and give me the exact version of OS (incl SP) I can check why it was installed (whether it was automatic).

And yes, removing is literally, remove the role.

As far as the removal goes, take a backup of your private and public keys from the CA.
Thanks again - here is your reminder. BTW, I'm all for removing anything that isn't needed,,,keeping management and operations as simple as possible.
Server Info......
Windows Small Business Server 2011 SP1
Rolls: AD CS using only AD CA option
          AD DS
          Application Server
          DHCP Server
          DNS Server
          File Server
          Network Policy & Access Server
          Remote Desktop Server
          Web Server (IIS)
w/ Exchange Server 2010 Version: 14.01.0218.013

In server manager, under the Enterprise PKI, I have one entry for the <domainname-machinename-CA>

In server manager, under the entry for the <domainname-machinename-CA> lists;
    Revoked Certificates - none
    Issued Certificates - about 30 in list
    Pending Requests - none
    Failed Requests - none
    Certificate Templates - 12
I did a right-click of the CA above and performed a "Backup CA" task.

Again, I'm not an expert when it comes to certificates and how they've been issued for user, workstation and domain connections of this client. We need to make sure that by removing the CA will not break anything (local and/or remote connections) either immediately or whenever any issued certs expire. I'm concerned of the impact of doing this is a production environment. Would it be safer to just shut down the AD CS service and see what happens?
Apologies for the delay in coming back to you.  Been manic at work!

I did check and Active Directory Certificate Services is installed on the server.  Don't remove the feature please.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd379539(v=ws.10).aspx - has the solution for your problem
Imtiaz,
I believe we are back to square one. Please see the top of this article. That Microsoft solution is where I started. I was hoping you could shed some light on why it did not work.
I've requested that this question be closed as follows:

Accepted answer: 0 points for royatnts's comment #a39950840

for the following reason:

Since no one is responding, I'm considering this topic closed. There really wasn't a solution posted, however credit is given for some useful info I received.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy
Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial