topic Re: User-ID mapping without ldap across an enterprise in General Topics

User-ID mapping without ldap across an enterprise

PA_nts — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:35:07 GMT

Hi All,

not having the best day with thinking 😞

Palo Alto Scenario:

PA FW CLuster in HQ
Panorama Log Collector only in HQ
Standalone PA FW in SiteA
Standalone PA FW in SiteB
Standalone PA FW in SiteC
Standalone PA FW in SiteD

No Panorama mgmt in place. All Sites have L3 connectivity back to HQ

FWs are configured to send logs to log collector in HQ

Note: OS are a mix of Windows / Linux / MacOS / Android and IOS
Not all users are AD users as we have byod / guests also. (else would have done ldap integration or similar)

Goal - to be able to use security rules based on user-id / security groups rather than IPs accross all FWs

In your opinion, What is the best solution for something like this.

Global protect on FW cluster in HQ?
if so we should be able to define user based access groups in the rules on FWs in the Sites? how would the FWS at the sites identify the users?

Captive Portal on FW cluster in HQ?
again - if so we should be able to define user based access groups in the rules on FWs in the Sites? how would the FWS at the sites identify the users?

Any other options perhaps?
thanks in adv

Re: User-ID mapping without ldap across an enterprise

kiwi — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 14:08:29 GMT

Hi @PA_nts ,

The following DOC describes the different methods of user mapping:

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/11-0/pan-os-admin/user-id/user-id-concepts/user-mapping

Hope this helps,

-Kim.

Re: User-ID mapping without ldap across an enterprise

OtakarKlier — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 20:12:27 GMT

Hello,

What I have are user-id agents on windows servers to grab active-directory logs, you can always use agentless. You can have all your PAN's connect directly to the user agents, or you can distribute the info from one PAN to others. I dont recommend client probing as this leaves the clients vulnerable to other things.

Regards,

Re: User-ID mapping without ldap across an enterprise

J.Dhling — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:43:27 GMT

He also asked about group mapping without LDAP. If I'm not mistaken, group mapping is only available with an LDAP server profile: "Use the following procedure to enable the firewall to connect to your LDAP directory and retrieve Group Mapping information."

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/11-0/pan-os-admin/user-id/map-users-to-groups

If not, I'm happy to hear another way. I'm currently looking for a workaround.