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Set up Active Directory login

Connect Content Central to your Windows domain so people sign in with their AD passwords — the Configuration Manager setup, importing the users, and what stays true afterward.

AdministratorsContent Central 7.x30 minutesVerified 2026-09-05

Before you begin

  • Access to the Content Central server (Configuration Manager runs there)
  • An Active Directory account for testing the connection

At the end of this guide, your domain is connected, your people are imported as AD-linked users, and they sign in to Content Central with the same password they use for Windows — validated by your domain controller, never stored by Content Central.

Two halves: the domain connection (Configuration Manager, on the server) and the user import (web administration). Doing only the first half accomplishes nothing visible — AD users must be imported before anyone can sign in.

Step 1: Connect the domain

  1. On the Content Central server, open Configuration Manager and choose Active Directory.

  1. Check Enable Active Directory Authentication.

  1. Under Domains, click Add and replace the placeholder with your Fully Qualified Domain Name — the full form, like corp.company.com, not the short NetBIOS name.

  1. Under Active Directory Login, enter a directory account's User name and Password, and click Test Login.

Figure

Configuration Manager's Active Directory screen with a domain added and Test Login showing Test Succeeded

  1. What you should see: "Test Succeeded." Then click Apply — nothing takes effect until you do.

Note

A failed test quotes the directory's own error — most often a wrong FQDN, or a domain controller the Content Central server can't reach. Fix connectivity before touching anything else.

Step 2: Import the users

Sign-in requires each person to exist in Content Central as an AD-linked user — membership in an AD group grants nothing by itself.

  1. In the web interface, go to Administration > Users.

  1. Open the New Active Directory User page. On current versions this import screen opens in the Classic interface — if you don't see a button for it on the Users page, browse directly to /Admin/AdminNewActiveDirectoryUser.aspx under your Content Central address and it will switch views for you.

  1. Pick the Domain, narrow the list with the Filter (it takes wildcards, like sm*), check the users to import, choose their initial permissions, and click Apply.

Success check: back on the Users page, imported accounts show Yes in the AD column. Have one imported user sign in — the login page now offers a Domain choice, and their Windows password works.

Important

Named-user licensing counts imported AD users like any others — import the people who'll actually use the system, not the whole directory.

What stays true afterward

  • Passwords live in AD. Content Central never stores them; profile fields on AD-linked users are managed in the directory (the user page says so: "These settings can be changed only in Active Directory").
  • Disabled in AD means locked out here. Content Central follows the directory's disabled state automatically.
  • Permissions still live in Content Central. AD answers who you are; what you can reach is still assigned per user and group inside Content Central.
  • Keep one local administrator. If the domain controller is ever unreachable, a local admin account is your way in — How signing in works covers that safety net and the whole three-layer picture.

If sign-in fails after setup

Work the layers in order: does Test Login still succeed in Configuration Manager? Does the user exist with AD: Yes? Is their AD account enabled? The concepts article's troubleshooting section — How signing in works — walks the full checklist, including the classic mistake of expecting an AD group membership to create users.