4.3 Creating the Driver in iManager

You create the Active Directory driver by importing the driver’s basic configuration file and then modifying the configuration to suit your environment. After you create and configure the driver, you need to start it.

4.3.1 Importing the Driver Configuration File

  1. In iManager, click Driver icon to display the Identity Manager Administration page.

  2. In the Administration list, click Import Configuration to launch the Import Configuration Wizard.

  3. Follow the wizard prompts, filling in the requested information (described below) until you reach the Summary page.

    Prompt

    Description

    Where do you want to place the new driver?

    You can add the driver to an existing driver set, or you can create a new driver set and add the driver to the new set. If you choose to create a new driver set, you are prompted to specify the name, context, and server for the driver set.

    Import a configuration into this driver set

    Use the default option, Import a configuration from the server (.XML file).

    In the Show field, select Identity Manager 4.0 configurations.

    In the Configurations field, select the ActiveDirectory file.

    Driver name

    Type a name for the driver. The name must be unique within the driver set.

    Connected System or Driver Name

    Specify the name of the connected system, application or Identity Manager driver.

    Domain DNS Name

    Specify the DNS name of the Active Directory domain managed by this driver.

    Subscriber Channel Placement Type

    Specify the type of placement for the Subscriber Channel. Select Flat to strictly place objects within the base container. Select Mirrored to hierarchically place objects within the base container. This is used to determine the Subscriber Channel Placement policies.

    Publisher Channel Placement Type

    Specify the type of placement for the Publisher Channel. Select Flat to strictly place objects within the base container. Select Mirrored to hierarchically place objects within the base container. This is used to determine the Publisher Channel Placement policies.

    Active Directory User Container

    Specify the container where user objects reside in Active Directory.

    User Container

    Select the Identity Vault container where Active Directory users will be placed. This value becomes the default for all drivers in the driver set. If you don’t want to change this value for all drivers, leave this field unchanged and change the value on the driver’s Global Configuration Values page after you’ve finished importing the driver.

    Driver is Local/Remote

    Select Local if this driver will run on the Metadirectory server without using the Remote Loader service. Select Remote if you want the driver to use the Remote Loader service, either locally on the Metadirectory server or remotely on another server.

    Remote Host Name and Port

    This applies only if the driver is running remotely.

    Specify the host name or IP address of the server where the driver’s Remote Loader service is running.

    Driver Password

    This applies only if the driver is running remotely.

    Specify the driver object password that is defined in the Remote Loader service. The Remote Loader requires this password to authenticate to the Metadirectory server.

    Remote Password

    This applies only if the driver is running remotely.

    Specify the Remote Loader’s password (as defined on the Remote Loader service). The Metadirectory engine (or Remote Loader shim) requires this password to authenticate to the Remote Loader

    Authentication ID

    Specify an Active Directory account with administrative privileges to be used by Identity Manager. The form of the name used depends on the selected authentication mechanism.

    For Negotiate, provide the name form required by your Active Directory authentication mechanism. For example:

    • Administrator: AD Logon Name

    • Domain/Administrator: Domain qualified AD Logon Name

    For Simple, provide an LDAP ID. For example:

    • cn=DirXML,cn=Users,DC=domain,dc=com

    Authentication Password

    Provide the password for the Active Directory account specified.

    Authentication Context

    Provide the name of the Active Directory domain controller to use for synchronization.

    For example, for the Negotiate authentication method, use the DNS name (for example, mycontroller.domain.com). For the Simple authentication method, you can use the IP address of your server (for example, 10.10.128.23 or the DNS name).

    If no value is specified, localhost is used.

    NOTE:DNS alias name is not supported.

    Define Security Equivalences

    The driver requires rights to objects within the Identity Vault. The Admin user object is most often used to supply these rights. However, you might want to create a DriversUser (for example) and assign security equivalence to that user. Whatever rights that the driver needs to have on the server, the DriversUser object must have the same security rights.

    Exclude Administrative Roles

    You should exclude any administrative User objects (for example, Admin and DriversUser) from synchronization.

    When you finish providing the information required by the wizard, a Summary page similar to the following is displayed.

    At this point, the driver is created from the basic configuration file. To ensure that the driver works the way you want it to for your environment, you must review and modify (if necessary) the driver’s default configuration settings.

  4. To modify the default configuration settings, click the linked driver name, then continue with the next section, Configuring the Driver.

    or

    To skip the configuration settings at this time, click Finish. When you are ready to configure the settings, continue with Configuring the Driver.

4.3.2 Configuring the Driver

There are many settings that can help you customize and optimize the driver. The settings are divided into categories such as Driver Configuration, Engine Control Values, and Global Configuration Values (GCVs). Although it is important for you to understand all of the settings, your first priority should be to review the Driver Parameters located on the Driver Configuration page and the Global Configuration Values. These settings must be configured properly for the driver to start and function correctly.

To configure the settings:

  1. Make sure the Modify Object page for the Active Directory driver is displayed in iManager. If it is not:

    1. In iManager, click to display the Identity Manager Administration page.

    2. Click Identity Manager Overview.

    3. Browse to and select the driver set object that contains the new driver.

    4. Click the driver set name to access the Driver Set Overview page.

    5. Click the upper right corner of the driver, then click Edit properties.

  2. Review the settings on the various pages and modify them as needed for your environment. The configuration settings are explained in Section A.0, Driver Properties.

  3. After modifying the settings, click OK to save the settings and close the Modify Object page.

  4. (Conditional) If the Active Directory driver’s Summary page for the Import Configuration wizard is still displayed, click Finish.

    WARNING:Do not click Cancel on the Summary page. This removes the driver from the Identity Vault and results in the loss of your work.

In addition to the driver settings, you should review the set of default policies and rules provided by the basic driver configuration. Although these policies and rules are suitable for synchronizing with Active Directory, your synchronization requirements for the driver might differ from the default policies. If this is the case, you need to change them to carry out the policies you want. The default policies and rules are discussed in Section 1.4, Default Driver Configuration.

4.3.3 Starting the Driver

When a driver is created, it is stopped by default. To make the driver work, you must start the driver and cause events to occur. Identity Manager is an event-driven system, so after the driver is started, it won’t do anything until an event occurs.

To start the driver:

  1. In iManager, click to display the Identity Manager Administration page.

  2. Click Identity Manager Overview.

  3. Browse to and select the driver set object that contains the driver you want to start.

  4. Click the driver set name to access the Driver Set Overview page.

  5. Click the upper right corner of the driver, then click Start driver.

For information about management tasks with the driver, see Section 8.0, Managing the Driver.