In Day 46 of my PCNSA series, I focused on one specific and very practical piece of GlobalProtect: how to authenticate GlobalProtect users using Active Directory (AD). In my previous video I explained SAML-based authentication, but here I wanted to show you what AD is in simple terms and why it’s so useful in real organizations. AD is basically the directory where the company keeps user details like username/password and it also controls what users can do on their domain PCs. So when we integrate Palo Alto with AD, the firewall can validate the same corporate credentials users already use every day. In the lab, I didn’t rebuild the full GlobalProtect configuration again—I only showed the AD/LDAP integration and the changes needed on the portal and gateway authentication. I first adjusted the Service Route (so DNS/Kerberos/LDAP don’t incorrectly try to use the management interface), then I added the LDAP server profile pointing to my Windows Server (192.168.20.20) with the proper Base DN (DC=bikashtech,DC=com) and a bind user. After that, I created a test user (GP test) in AD, updated the GlobalProtect portal and gateway to use the LDAP authentication profile, and finally tested from the client. I also captured the traffic so you can literally see the LDAP bind request and the success—proof that the firewall is validating credentials from AD.