Saatvik Solar's Journey to a Robust and Scalable Infrastructure with Active Directory on GCP
Saatvik Solar is a leading Indian manufacturer of high-quality solar PV modules, with an annual production capacity of 3.8GW. They offer a range of Monocrystalline, Bifacial, and N-TopCon modules for residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar projects. Based in Ambala, Haryana, Saatvik Solar has supplied over 3GW of solar modules globally and is expanding with a new manufacturing plant in northern India, set to be operational by FY 2024-25.
Challenges
Solutions
Saatvik Solar needed to deploy Active Directory (AD) in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to centralize and secure user management across their two office locations. They required a single forest and single domain architecture, with email integration for domain login. Additionally, the company aimed to secure the domain infrastructure through Group Policies, implement data protection measures for AD, and categorize location-based users in the directory. At the time, Saatvik Solar did not have an existing Active Directory setup. Their workforce of 500 users was spread across two locations, with email services hosted on Google Workspace (GWS). The lack of a centralized directory meant that Saatvik Solar needed a scalable and secure solution to streamline user authentication and access management.
To meet these requirements, a VPN tunnel in High Availability (HA) mode was established between Saatvik Solar’s offices in Gurgaon and Ambala and GCP, ensuring secure communication. Two Windows 2022 servers were deployed in the same GCP region to host the Active Directory in a single forest and single domain architecture. The Windows servers were promoted as domain controllers, enabling Active Directory replication for high availability. A Cloud NAT Gateway was implemented to manage outbound internet traffic for instances without external IPs. To enforce security, account and password policies were configured. This allowed users to access their desktops offline while restricting access to domain-authenticated network resources. Snapshots were configured for data protection, ensuring easy recovery if needed.
Business Impact
The implementation of Active Directory in GCP provided centralized user management, simplifying operations for Saatvik Solar. The secure domain login via email and Group Policies strengthened the company’s security posture. The HA VPN tunnel and Active Directory replication ensured a resilient, reliable infrastructure. The cache mode login allowed users to work offline, improving productivity. Overall, the solution resulted in a secure, scalable, and manageable IT environment, setting a strong foundation for Saatvik Solar’s continued growth and expansion.
