Move the PSMConnect user to the domain when ActiveX is the connection method in a load-balanced environment.

Outline: a clear path through the topic

• Opening hook: small, practical reality—why the PSMConnect user’s location (domain) can matter in real-world setups.

• What is PSMConnect? A quick refresher so everyone’s on the same page.

• The core scenario: ActiveX as the connection method in a load-balanced environment.

• Why moving PSMConnect to the domain helps: authentication, reliability, and smoother cross-server sessions.

• How to approach the move: practical steps and checks.

• When not to move: routine maintenance, SSL certificate work, or starting a new session—why these aren’t about domain-based connectivity.

• Common gotchas: pitfalls to watch for and tips to mitigate them.

• A relatable analogy to tie it together, plus a brief recap.

• Final takeaway: what this means for day-to-day operations.

Let’s talk about the little things that make a big difference

What is PSMConnect, anyway?

If you’ve wrestled with CyberArk’s Privileged Session Manager (PSM), you’ve already met the PSMConnect user in some form. Think of PSMConnect as the service account that helps PSM reach target systems to establish privileged sessions. It’s not your everyday user—it's the bridge between CyberArk and the endpoints you’re securing. The right authentication and permissions for this bridge matter a lot, especially in complex environments.

Here’s the thing about ActiveX and load balancers

Now, imagine you’re using ActiveX as the connection method. That’s a specific tech path that can involve certain compatibility and security expectations. Add a load-balanced environment into the mix, and you’ve got multiple PSM nodes, all trying to hand off sessions cleanly to target systems. In that setup, the way you authenticate and authorize the PSMConnect user becomes critical. If the credentials aren’t consistently recognized across nodes, you’ll see hiccups: session drops, delays, or failed connections. It’s not glamorous, but it’s exactly the kind of reliability issue that bites in production.

Why moving PSMConnect to the domain makes sense in this scenario

Let me explain with a simple mental model. When you move the PSMConnect user to the domain, you’re aligning its identity with your central identity provider—Active Directory. That alignment pays off in three practical ways in a load-balanced, ActiveX-enabled setup:

• Consistent authentication across nodes: In a load-balanced environment, requests flow to different PSM instances. If each instance checks credentials against the same domain, you’re delivering a uniform authentication experience. Inconsistent credentials between nodes becomes a thing of the past.

• Structured permissions and auditing: The domain gives you clear group memberships and permission boundaries. You can assign the PSMConnect account to the exact AD groups that grant the needed access to target systems, and you can track who did what through standard AD and security logging.

• Reliable domain-based features: Kerberos or NTLM authentication, service principal names (SPNs), and trust relationships—these can help ensure stable connections, smoother ticket renewal, and fewer surprises when the load balancer routes traffic to another PSM node.

These aren’t abstract benefits. In real terms, they translate to fewer session interruptions, faster recoveries when something goes awry, and a more predictable security posture across the fleet of PSM gateways.

What you should actually do, step by step

If your environment now uses ActiveX as the connection method and you’re operating a load-balanced setup, moving the PSMConnect user to the domain is a practical move. Here’s a rough, reality-grounded checklist to guide you:

• Confirm the scenario: Is ActiveX the connection method and is there a load balancer in front of multiple PSM instances? If yes, proceed with domain-based configuration.

• Create or map the PSMConnect account in the domain: This might be a dedicated service account in AD, with a secure password and password rotation policy that aligns with your security posture.

• Grant precise permissions: Add the PSMConnect account to the AD groups that grant access to the required target systems. Keep privileges narrow, following the principle of least privilege.

• Configure PSM and AD integration: Point the PSM back end to use domain authentication. Ensure the authentication method (Kerberos preferred, with fallback to NTLM if necessary) is correctly set up on all PSM nodes.

• Validate across all nodes: Test a session via ActiveX through each PSM node to confirm consistent connectivity and no auth prompts that stall the flow.

• Review auditing and logging: Make sure security logs capture PSMConnect activity, and that you can trace actions back to the domain account.

• Monitor after cutover: Keep an eye on session reliability, ticket lifetimes, and any authentication latency. If anything looks off, revisit SPN configuration or group memberships.

• Document the changes: A concise record helps future admins understand why the domain move was made and what to check if issues arise later.

A quick note on what this isn’t about

If you’re just performing routine maintenance, generating an SSL certificate, or establishing a brand-new user session, moving PSMConnect to the domain isn’t inherently connected to those tasks. Those activities might touch security or encryption, but they don’t address the cross-server authentication reliability that becomes critical when ActiveX is the chosen connection path in a load-balanced landscape. In other words, the domain move is a targeted fix for a specific connectivity and authentication dynamic, not a general-purpose switch for every occasion.

Common pitfalls and practical tips

Even with a clear plan, a few traps are easy to miss. Here are practical reminders to keep things smooth:

• Don’t ignore SPN and time sync: If your domain services depend on Kerberos, make sure time is synchronized across the domain and PSM nodes. A clock skew can derail ticket issuance and cause silent failures.

• Keep service accounts clean: Regularly rotate passwords per policy, and ensure the PSMConnect account isn’t carrying unnecessary permissions.

• Watch cross-domain complexities if you have them: If parts of your infrastructure sit in a different domain, you’ll want careful trust relationships and possibly a documented cross-domain authentication flow.

• Test with real traffic patterns: Don’t rely on sterile test sessions. Simulate peak load and failover to ensure that moving the account to the domain actually stabilizes behavior across the board.

• Log-and-trace hygiene: Ensure there’s an easy path from a failed session back to the root cause—whether it’s a permission misstep, an AD replication delay, or a ticket issue.

• Don’t overlook recovery planning: Have a rollback plan if the domain move introduces unforeseen side effects. It’s not dramatic—just prudent.

A relatable analogy to anchor the idea

Think of a busy city with a network of buses (your PSM nodes) and a central ferry terminal (the domain). If every bus knows how to swipe a shared pass (domain credentials) and get permission to board, riders move smoothly from any bus to any destination. But if some buses rely on one-off tokens that only work on certain routes, people end up stuck when the bus they’re on gets rerouted. Moving the PSMConnect account into the domain is like giving all buses the same universal pass, tuned to the central rules. In a world where ActiveX is the connection method and traffic hops between multiple PSM nodes, that uniform pass isn’t a luxury—it’s a stabilizing force.

Putting it all together

In practice, the decision to move the PSMConnect user to the domain hinges on one scenario: ActiveX as the connection method in a load-balanced environment. In that setup, domain-based authentication and permissions help ensure that sessions are established, maintained, and routed without the jitter that can come from mismatched credentials across nodes. It’s not a universal rule for every maintenance task, but for the architecture with multiple PSM gateways and cross-server connections, it’s a sensible, often necessary step.

If you’re navigating a CyberArk deployment with these characteristics, the path is clear: align the PSMConnect identity with the domain, configure precise permissions, and validate end-to-end connectivity across all PSM nodes. Do that, and you’re less likely to trip over authentication hiccups, you’ll enjoy steadier connections, and you’ll have a cleaner audit trail to boot.

Final takeaway

The moment ActiveX threads its way through a load-balanced environment, domain-aligned authentication for the PSMConnect user becomes a practical best practice. It isnures consistency, reliability, and a cleaner security posture across the board. And if you ever pause to ask, “Why this step now?”—the answer is simple: in a multi-node setup, a single, domain-backed identity keeps the whole system humming rather than faltering on a patchwork of local credentials.