Administrator Guide

94 | Preparing for Active Directory Authentication Dell Networking W-ClearPass Deployment Guide
If you need to authenticate users that belong to multiple Active Directory forests or domains in your network,
and there is no trust relationship between these entities, then you must join W-ClearPass to each of these
untrusting forests or domains.
You do not need to join W-ClearPassPolicy Manager to multiple domains belonging to the same Active Directory
forest, because a one-way trust relationship exists between these domains. In this case, you should join CPPM to the
root domain.
About the Domain Controller
A domain is defined as a logical group of network objects (computers, users, and devices) that share the same
active directory database. The domain controller is the Microsoft Active Directory server responsible for
responding to requests for authentication from users and computer accounts (for example, logging in and
checking permissions) within the Windows Server domain. The Active Directory server contains the domain
controller.
It’s common for an Active Directory domain controller to function as a DNS server. Active Directory domain
controllers can also be LDAP servers, as well as perform any number of additional functions that are loaded on
the same server.
By default, a domain controller stores one domain directory partition consisting of information about the
domain in which it is located, plus the schema and configuration directory partitions for the entire forest.
Confirming the Date and Time Are in Sync
Assuming that this W-ClearPass server has never been joined to the Active Directory domain before, first make
sure that the date and time are correct and in sync on both the W-ClearPass server and the Active Directory
domain controller that you will use for the join domain operation.
1. In W-ClearPass Policy Manager, navigate to Administration > Server Manager > Server Configuration.
The Server Configuration screen appears:
Figure 83 Server Configuration Screen
2. From the Server Configuration screen, click Set Date and Time.
The Change Date and Time dialog appears.