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Opal’s integration with Active Directory supports the following, and more:
  • Users can request time-bounded access to your AD groups.
  • Auditors can initiate access reviews that assign managers or group admins to periodically review users with long-lived access to AD groups.
  • Admins can add resources from other Opal integrations to an AD group so an AD group’s members can automatically gain birthright access to, for example, a GitHub repo, AWS IAM role, etc.
  • All access changes are tracked as events that can be logged to a Slack channel or be exported to your favorite tools.

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Supported resources

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Create an Active Directory app

To get started, go to the Inventory > Apps page, then select +App. Select the Active Directory tile. You will see a form to be completed. Opal requires the following credentials in order to manage access to your AD groups.

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Step 1 - Configure an Active Directory service account for Opal

In order for Opal to manage your Active Directory server on your behalf, you need to create an Active Directory service account for your server with proper permission scopes.
  • Connect to a Domain Controller or to a computer with Active Directory Remote Server Administration Tools installed.
  • Click Start, type “dsa.msc”, then press Enter.
  • Navigate to the Organizational Unit where the Opal Service Account will be located.
  • Right-click the Organizational Unit, select New > User.
  • Optional: Type “Opal” into the First Name field and “Service Account” into the Last Name field.
  • Type “OpalServiceAccount” into the User logon name field. Click Next.
  • Configure a password based on your organization’s password policy requirements, uncheck the User must change password at next logon checkbox, and check the Password never expires checkbox. Click Next. Click Finish.
  • Double click on the newly created service account user. On the Member Of tab, add the Domain Admins group (or if you’re using AWS Managed AD, then add AWS Delegated Administrators instead). Then save the account and click OK.

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Step 2 - Fill out Opal form

Back in the Create App form, fill in details about your Active Directory server and service account:
  • For Server hostname and Server port, input the hostname and port of your Domain Controller (port 636 is always treated as LDAPS; for other ports, turn on TLS Mode to connect over TLS).
    • Please ensure your AD hostname is reachable from the instance that is hosting the Opal app.
  • For Base distinguished name, enter the Distinguished Name (DN) of the OU that Opal should begin directory searches from.
  • For Root username and Root password, enter the credentials of the AD service account that you created above.
If this step is successful, you have completed setting up the Active Directory server connection.
Last modified on October 27, 2026