
Teleport
Desktop Access with Active Directory
- Version 15.x
- Version 14.x
- Version 13.x
- Version 12.x
- Older Versions
- Available for:
- OpenSource
- Team
- Cloud
- Enterprise

Teleport Windows Access with Active Directory
Length: 19:21
This guide will help you configure Teleport and Active Directory in order to provide secure, passwordless access to Windows desktops.
Microsoft's Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) offering does not support the Kerberos authentication protocol, which is required for Teleport's certificate-based authentication.
At this time, Teleport does not support integration with Azure AD, however Teleport Enterprise customers can access Windows desktops (including those joined to Azure AD) using local accounts via the process described in Getting Started with Desktop Access.
The Teleport Desktop Service is designed to be a secure access solution for Windows environments. Teleport implements a minimal feature set of the RDP protocol with security as a priority, and may not be as performant as standard RDP clients. Consider the Desktop Service to manage access to your most sensitive Windows environments, not as a drop-in replacement for other tools to provide general access to Windows desktops.
Prerequisites
-
A running Teleport cluster. For details on how to set this up, see the Getting Started guide.
-
The
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool version >= 14.2.0.See Installation for details.
To check version information, run the tctl version
and tsh version
commands.
For example:
tctl versionTeleport v14.2.0 git:api/14.0.0-gd1e081e go1.21
tsh versionTeleport v14.2.0 go1.21
Proxy version: 14.2.0Proxy: teleport.example.com
-
A Teleport Team account. If you don't have an account, sign up to begin your free trial.
-
The Enterprise
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool, version >= 14.1.3.You can download these tools from the Cloud Downloads page.
To check version information, run the tctl version
and tsh version
commands.
For example:
tctl versionTeleport Enterprise v14.1.3 git:api/14.0.0-gd1e081e go1.21
tsh versionTeleport v14.1.3 go1.21
Proxy version: 14.1.3Proxy: teleport.example.com
-
A running Teleport Enterprise cluster. For details on how to set this up, see the Enterprise Getting Started guide.
-
The Enterprise
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool version >= 14.2.0.You can download these tools by visiting your Teleport account workspace.
To check version information, run the tctl version
and tsh version
commands.
For example:
tctl versionTeleport Enterprise v14.2.0 git:api/14.0.0-gd1e081e go1.21
tsh versionTeleport v14.2.0 go1.21
Proxy version: 14.2.0Proxy: teleport.example.com
-
A Teleport Enterprise Cloud account. If you don't have an account, sign up to begin a free trial of Teleport Team and upgrade to Teleport Enterprise Cloud.
-
The Enterprise
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool version >= 14.1.3.You can download these tools from the Cloud Downloads page.
To check version information, run the tctl version
and tsh version
commands.
For example:
tctl versionTeleport Enterprise v14.1.3 git:api/14.0.0-gd1e081e go1.21
tsh versionTeleport v14.1.3 go1.21
Proxy version: 14.1.3Proxy: teleport.example.com
- A server or virtual machine running a Windows Server operating system. In this guide, we'll install Active Directory on this server in order to support passwordless logins with Teleport to the Windows desktops in the Active Directory domain.
- A Linux host where you will run the Teleport Desktop Service.
- An Active Directory domain, configured for LDAPS (Teleport requires an encrypted LDAP connection). Typically this means installing AD CS.
Step 1/2. Run the discovery wizard
In this step, you will use the Teleport Web UI to download and run two scripts:
- An Active Directory installation script to run on your Windows Server host
- An installation script for the Teleport Desktop Service, which you will run on your Linux host
Install Active Directory
In your web browser, access the Teleport Web UI at the address of your Proxy
Service host, e.g., example.teleport.sh
. Go to the Desktops section, then
select Add Desktop. Select Active Directory resource to start the guided
enrollment from the Enroll New Resource section.
If you already have Active Directory installed on your Windows Server host, skip to the next step. Otherwise, copy and paste the first command provided into a Windows PowerShell window on your Windows Server host. If you aren't already running AD Certificate services, copy and paste the second command after the first one completes and the server restarts:
Once the server is restarted from one or both command executions, click NEXT.
Copy and paste the provided command into a Windows PowerShell window to download and run the "configure Active Directory" script:
Click NEXT.
The PowerShell script will output a Teleport configuration block. Copy this block to a temporary location. Click Next.
Install the Teleport Desktop Service
On the Linux host where you will run the Teleport Desktop Service, create a file
called /etc/teleport.yaml
and paste the configuration provided by the output
of the previous step.
If you would like to run the Teleport Desktop Service from a Teleport process
that is already running other services, copy and paste only the
windows_desktop_service
section.
The configuration file will resemble the following:
version: v3
teleport:
auth_token: abcd123-insecure-do-not-use-this
proxy_server: teleport.example.com:443
auth_service:
enabled: no
ssh_service:
enabled: no
proxy_service:
enabled: no
windows_desktop_service:
enabled: yes
ldap:
addr: '10.10.1.50:636'
domain: 'windows.teleport.example.com'
username: 'WIN\svc-teleport'
server_name: 'windows-server-hostname'
# insecure_skip_verify prevents teleport from authenticating the LDAP CA
# against the systems trust store.
insecure_skip_verify: false
ldap_ca_cert: |
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDnzCCAoegAwIBAgIQT/UIn+MT4aZC9ix/QuiV9zANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADBi
...
31qA4dO3if7RdikD9hVbiIF9jQ==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
discovery:
base_dn: '*'
labels:
teleport.internal/resource-id: 42d8859c-60d0-4d7f-9767-bdd66b63fce6
Install the Teleport Desktop Service on your Linux host.
Select an edition, then follow the instructions for that edition to install Teleport.
Teleport Edition
- Teleport Community Edition
- Teleport Team
- Teleport Enterprise
- Teleport Enterprise Cloud
curl https://goteleport.com/static/install.sh | bash -s 14.2.0
Add the Teleport repository to your repository list:
Download Teleport's PGP public key
sudo curl https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/gpg \-o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.ascSource variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport APT repository for cloud.
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] \https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/${ID?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/cloud" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/nullsudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install teleport-ent-updater
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for cloud.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/cloud/teleport-yum.repo")"sudo yum install teleport-ent-updaterTip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for cloud.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use the dnf config manager plugin to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/cloud/teleport-yum.repo")"Install teleport
sudo dnf install teleport-ent-updaterTip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport Zypper repository for cloud.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use Zypper to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo zypper addrepo --refresh --repo $(rpm --eval "https://zypper.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/cloud/teleport-zypper.repo")Install teleport
sudo zypper install teleport-ent-updater
OS repository channels
The following channels are available for APT, YUM, and Zypper repos. They may be used in place of
stable/v14
anywhere in the Teleport documentation.
Channel name | Description |
---|---|
stable/<major> | Receives releases for the specified major release line, i.e. v14 |
stable/cloud | Rolling channel that receives releases compatible with current Cloud version |
stable/rolling | Rolling channel that receives all published Teleport releases |
Before installing a teleport
binary with a version besides
v14, read our compatibility rules to ensure that the
binary is compatible with Teleport Cloud.
When running multiple teleport
binaries within a cluster, the following rules
apply:
- Patch and minor versions are always compatible, for example, any 8.0.1 component will work with any 8.0.3 component and any 8.1.0 component will work with any 8.3.0 component.
- Servers support clients that are 1 major version behind, but do not support
clients that are on a newer major version. For example, an 8.x.x Proxy Service
is compatible with 7.x.x resource services and 7.x.x
tsh
, but we don't guarantee that a 9.x.x resource service will work with an 8.x.x Proxy Service. This also means you must not attempt to upgrade from 6.x.x straight to 8.x.x. You must upgrade to 7.x.x first. - Proxy Services and resource services do not support Auth Services that are on
an older major version, and will fail to connect to older Auth Services by
default. This behavior can be overridden by passing
--skip-version-check
when starting Proxy Services and resource services.
Download Teleport's PGP public key
sudo curl https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/gpg \-o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.ascSource variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport APT repository for v14. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] \https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/${ID?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/v14" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/nullsudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install teleport-ent
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo apt-get install teleport-ent-fips
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for v14. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
First, get the major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v14/teleport.repo")"sudo yum install teleport-entTip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo yum install teleport-ent-fips
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport Zypper repository for v14. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use zypper to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo zypper addrepo --refresh --repo $(rpm --eval "https://zypper.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/cloud/teleport-zypper.repo")sudo yum install teleport-entTip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo yum install teleport-ent-fips
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for v14. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
First, get the major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use the dnf config manager plugin to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v14/teleport.repo")"Install teleport
sudo dnf install teleport-entTip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo dnf install teleport-ent-fips
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport Zypper repository.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use Zypper to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo zypper addrepo --refresh --repo $(rpm --eval "https://zypper.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v14/teleport-zypper.repo")Install teleport
sudo zypper install teleport-ent
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo zypper install teleport-ent-fips
In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM_ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v14.2.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v14.2.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v14.2.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v14.2.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations of Teleport Enterprise, package URLs will be slightly different:
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v14.2.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v14.2.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v14.2.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v14.2.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
OS repository channels
The following channels are available for APT, YUM, and Zypper repos. They may be used in place of
stable/v14
anywhere in the Teleport documentation.
Channel name | Description |
---|---|
stable/<major> | Receives releases for the specified major release line, i.e. v14 |
stable/cloud | Rolling channel that receives releases compatible with current Cloud version |
stable/rolling | Rolling channel that receives all published Teleport releases |
Add the Teleport repository to your repository list:
Download Teleport's PGP public key
sudo curl https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/gpg \-o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.ascSource variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport APT repository for cloud.
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] \https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/${ID?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/cloud" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/nullsudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install teleport-ent-updater
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for cloud.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/cloud/teleport-yum.repo")"sudo yum install teleport-ent-updaterTip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for cloud.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use the dnf config manager plugin to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/cloud/teleport-yum.repo")"Install teleport
sudo dnf install teleport-ent-updaterTip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport Zypper repository for cloud.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use Zypper to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo zypper addrepo --refresh --repo $(rpm --eval "https://zypper.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/cloud/teleport-zypper.repo")Install teleport
sudo zypper install teleport-ent-updater
OS repository channels
The following channels are available for APT, YUM, and Zypper repos. They may be used in place of
stable/v14
anywhere in the Teleport documentation.
Channel name | Description |
---|---|
stable/<major> | Receives releases for the specified major release line, i.e. v14 |
stable/cloud | Rolling channel that receives releases compatible with current Cloud version |
stable/rolling | Rolling channel that receives all published Teleport releases |
Before installing a teleport
binary with a version besides v14,
read our compatibility rules to ensure that the binary is compatible with
Teleport Enterprise Cloud.
When running multiple teleport
binaries within a cluster, the following rules
apply:
- Patch and minor versions are always compatible, for example, any 8.0.1 component will work with any 8.0.3 component and any 8.1.0 component will work with any 8.3.0 component.
- Servers support clients that are 1 major version behind, but do not support
clients that are on a newer major version. For example, an 8.x.x Proxy Service
is compatible with 7.x.x resource services and 7.x.x
tsh
, but we don't guarantee that a 9.x.x resource service will work with an 8.x.x Proxy Service. This also means you must not attempt to upgrade from 6.x.x straight to 8.x.x. You must upgrade to 7.x.x first. - Proxy Services and resource services do not support Auth Services that are on
an older major version, and will fail to connect to older Auth Services by
default. This behavior can be overridden by passing
--skip-version-check
when starting Proxy Services and resource services.
In the Teleport Web UI, click Next.
Step 2/2. Start Teleport
Once you've saved /etc/teleport.yaml
, start Teleport:
Configure the Teleport Desktop Service to start automatically when the host boots up by creating a systemd service for it. The instructions depend on how you installed the Teleport Desktop Service.
On the host where you will run the Teleport Desktop Service, enable and start Teleport:
sudo systemctl enable teleportsudo systemctl start teleport
On the host where you will run the Teleport Desktop Service, create a systemd service configuration for Teleport, enable the Teleport service, and start Teleport:
sudo teleport install systemd -o /etc/systemd/system/teleport.servicesudo systemctl enable teleportsudo systemctl start teleport
You can check the status of the Teleport Desktop Service with systemctl status teleport
and view its logs with journalctl -fu teleport
.
The access wizard will detect when the new Teleport instance has joined the cluster, and you can then click Next.
Teleport will discover available Windows desktops in the domain, and list them under Desktops. Click Finish then BROWSE EXISTING RESOURCES to see them:
Troubleshooting
If you hit any issues, check out the Troubleshooting documentation for common problems and solutions. For information about configuring Windows-specific role permissions, see Role-Based Access Control for Desktops.