6.2 Using Designer In Your Planning Process

6.2.1 Using the Architect View to Design Your Identity Environment

  1. Launch Designer.

  2. Open or create a new project in the Modeler view.

  3. Select the Architect view from the bottom of the Modeler view.

  4. Drag and drop items from the Palette.

    These items are representations of the drivers and applications that make up an Identity Manager solution. There are also a number of design elements to help you in designing your network layout.

  5. Edit the item’s names to match your Identity Manager environment.

  6. Use the Architect view as a basis for your actual Designer project.

  7. Use the Developer view to run the configuration wizards on any driver sets and drivers you have added through the Architect view.

    Driver objects created through the Architect view are not configured to run in an Identity Manager system. Consequently, you need to import or create the drivers from the Developer view in the Modeler in order to run the Driver Wizard. The Driver Wizard configures the driver with policies, entitlements, and other configuration information that is necessary for the driver to run in an Identity network.

6.2.2 Designing New Solutions

  1. Launch Designer.

  2. Using the New Project Wizard, open or create a project.

  3. Drag and drop items from the Modeler Palette.

  4. Edit the items’ settings and configurations (for example, names, IP addresses, and passwords).

  5. Using the Policy Builder and other policy editors, write a policy for sharing data between systems.

  6. Check your work.

  7. Use the Document Generator to generate project documentation, and review the documentation with others.

  8. Deploy the project to a test system for verification.

  9. After the project is verified, deploy the project back to a live system.

6.2.3 Redesigning Existing Solutions

  1. Launch Designer.

  2. Open or create a new project.

  3. Import Identity Management elements (drivers, driver sets) from working directories.

  4. Edit the element settings and configurations (for example, names, IP addresses, and passwords).

  5. Using the Policy Builder and other policy editors, write a policy for sharing data between systems.

  6. Check your work.

  7. Use the Document Generator to generate project documentation, and review the documentation with others

  8. Deploy the project to a test system for verification.

  9. After the project is verified, deploy the project to a live system.

6.2.4 Working on Live Systems

The fundamental model/paradigm of Designer is to import solutions, configure them locally in the Designer environment, and then deploy when a solution is ready. This approach was taken to optimize the experience for the following:

  • Off-line work

  • Highly productive development

  • A safer model of configuring and testing before touching your live system

The best practice is to set up a test environment for configuration and testing before deploying the solution into a live system.

The Live Operations tool is aimed at developers and architects as the primary audience. For convenience, Designer enables you to perform key operations that a developer typically needs to do, so that the developer can be effective: browse live trees, check driver status, start/stop drivers, and configure driver security.

The functionality of Live Operations options takes immediate effect on the end systems. These operations are clearly grouped in the Designer UI, so that you can tell if you are performing a live operation.