Internet Authentication Service

Internet Authentication Service (IAS) is a component of Windows Server operating systems that provides centralized user authentication and authorization, auditing and accounting.

Overview

While Routing and Remote Access (RRAS) security is sufficient for small networks, larger companies often need a dedicated infrastructure for authentication. RADIUS is a standard for dedicated authentication servers.

Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 include the Internet Authentication Service (IAS), an implementation of RADIUS server. IAS supports authentication for Windows-based clients, as well as for third-party clients that adhere to the RADIUS standard. IAS stores its authentication information in Active Directory, and can be managed with Remote Access Policies. IAS first showed up for Windows NT 4.0 in the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack and in Microsoft Commercial Internet System (MCIS) 2.0 and 2.5.

While IAS requires the use of an additional server component, it provides a number of advantages over the standard methods of RRAS authentication. These advantages include centralized authentication for users, auditing and accounting features, scalability, and seamless integration with the existing features of RRAS.

In Windows Server 2008, Network Policy Server (NPS) replaces the Internet Authentication Service (IAS). NPS performs all of the functions of IAS in Windows Server 2003 for VPN and 802.1X-based wireless and wired connections and performs health evaluation and the granting of either unlimited or limited access for Network Access Protection clients.

Logging

By default, IAS logs to local files (%systemroot%\LogFiles\IAS\*) though it can be configured to log to SQL as well (or in place of).

When logging to SQL, IAS appears to wrap the data into XML, then calls the stored procedure report_event, passing the XML data as ntext... the stored procedure can then unwrap the XML and save data as desired by the user.

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References

External links