You can have one or more Metadirectory servers in your Identity Manager solution, depending on the server workload. The Metadirectory server requires that eDirectory be installed as shown in Figure 3-3. You can add a Remote Loader server, not represented in the figure, to help with the workload or configuration of your environment.
Drivers must run on the same server as the connected application. For example, to configure the Active Directory driver, the server in Figure 3-3 must be a member server or a domain controller. If you do not want to install eDirectory and Identity Manager on a member server or domain controller, then you can install the Remote Loader on a member server or a domain controller. The Remote Loader sends all of the events from Active Directory to the Metadirectory server. The Remote Loader receives any information from the Metadirectory server and passes that to the connected application.
The Remote Loader provides added flexibility for your Identity Manager solution. For more information, see the Identity Manager 4.0 Remote Loader Guide.
Figure 3-3 Metadirectory Sever
There are many variables that affect the performance of the server. The standard recommendation is that you have no more than ten drivers running on a Metadirectory server. However, if you are synchronizing millions of objects with each driver, you might not be able to run ten drivers on a server. On the other hand, if you are synchronizing 100 objects per driver, you can probably run more than ten drivers on one server.
Setting up the Identity Manager solution in a lab environment gives you the opportunity to test how the servers will perform. You can use the health monitoring tools in iManager to obtain a baseline and then be able to make the best decisions for your environment. For more information about the health monitoring tools, see Monitoring Driver Health
in the Identity Manager 4.0 Common Driver Administration Guide.
For considerations for each driver, see the Identity Manager Drivers documentation Web site. Driver-specific information is provided in each driver guide.