2.5 Managing Authentication Server Connections for User Sources

The Authentication Servers panel on a user source’s details page lets you edit authentication server connections, including adding, removing or reordering connections.

The Authentication Servers panel displays information about the user source’s ZENworks Primary Servers and Satellite devices that have been configured with the Authentication role. You can also edit the user source settings for each device.

When users logged in to previous versions of ZENworks, they were authenticated to the Management Zone by contacting the ZENworks Primary Server, which in turn contacted the user source that contains the users.

Satellite devices with the Authentication role can now speed the authentication process by spreading the workload among various devices and by performing authentication locally to managed devices. You can have multiple Satellite devices with the Authentication role. In addition, each Satellite with the Authentication role can have multiple user sources configured and each Satellite can have multiple connections to each user source to provide failover.

On the managed device, the Authentication module is inactive until you promote the managed device to be a Satellite with the Authentication role or until the Authentication role is added to an existing Satellite.

The following sections contain more information:

2.5.1 Assigning a Connection to an Authentication Server

  1. In ZENworks Control Center, click the Configuration tab.

  2. In the User Sources panel, click the name of a user source to display its details.

  3. In the Authentication Servers panel, select the check box next to the server’s name, then click Edit to display the Edit Authentication Server Connections dialog box.

  4. Click Add to display the Add User Source Connections dialog box.

    By default, the Add link is disabled because all connections to the user source display. If a connection is removed, the Add link is enabled.

  5. (Optional) Use the Connection Name field to filter the list of connections.

    Specify all or part of the name for the connection to the LDAP directory, then click Filter to display the list of connections that match the criteria.

    If you have many connections in your ZENworks Management Zone, you can use the Connection Name field to display only those connections that match the criteria. For example, to display all connections that contain the word “London,” type London in the Connection Name field, then click Filter.

  6. (Optional) Use the Connection Address field to filter the list of connections.

    Specify part of the IP address or DNS hostname of the connection to the LDAP directory, then click Filter to display all connections with that IP address.

    If you have many connections in your ZENworks Management Zone, you can use the Connection Address field to display only those connections that match the criteria. For example, to search for and display all connections that have an IP address starting with 172, type 172 in the Connection Address field, then click Filter.

  7. In the User Source Connections list, select the check box next to the desired connection.

  8. Click OK.

2.5.2 Removing a Connection

  1. In ZENworks Control Center, click the Configuration tab.

  2. In the User Sources panel, click the name of a user source to display its details.

  3. In the Authentication Servers panel, select the check box next to the server’s name, then click Edit to display the Edit Authentication Server Connections dialog box.

  4. In the User Source Connections list, select the check box next to the desired connection, then click Remove.

  5. Click OK.

2.5.3 Reordering Connections

  1. In ZENworks Control Center, click the Configuration tab.

  2. In the User Sources panel, click the name of a user source to display its details.

  3. In the Authentication Servers panel, select the check box next to the server’s name, then click Edit to display the Edit Authentication Server Connections dialog box.

  4. In the User Source Connections list, select the check box next to the desired connection, then click Move Up or Move Down.

    The authentication server uses the connections in the order they are listed to authenticate the device to the ZENworks Management Zone.

  5. Click OK.