Before connecting EmpowerID to an external directory, please review the Getting Started with Directory Systems topic. The topic walks you through the prerequisites you need to complete before connecting to an external directory for the first time. These prerequisites include: Configuring the appropriate server roles for your EmpowerID servers Reviewing the Join and Provision Rules for your environment Reviewing the Join and Provision Filters for your environment If you have already connected EmpowerID to another external directory, you can skip the above prerequisites. EmpowerID provides connectors for a wide range of user directories and resource systems. As an administrator, you can use these connectors to quickly connect EmpowerID to your organization's identity-aware systems and applications. When you do so, you create an account store for that application in the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse and use that account store to configure how you want EmpowerID to manage the identity information in that system.
In this article, we demonstrate how to use the EmpowerID Active Directory connector to connect to Active Directory. After ensuring you have met the prerequisites specified in the Getting Started with Directory Systems topic, you connect EmpowerID to Active Directory by doing the following:
Creating an account store in EmpowerID for Active Directory.
Configuring EmpowerID settings for the account store connection, including whether to provision EmpowerID Persons during inventory or in batches using the Account Inbox permanent workflow.
Mapping your external roles and locations to corresponding EmpowerID Business Roles and Locations.
Reviewing and configuring the attribute flow rules for the account store.
Turning on inventory.
Enabling the Account Inbox Permanent Workflow when ready—if you are using batch processing to provision Person objects from the inventoried user accounts. This is the recommended method.
Monitoring Inventory.
EmpowerID “Proxy” or Connection Account Requirements
EmpowerID uses highly privileged user accounts when connecting to user directories such as Active Directory, LDAP or database systems. These user "account stores" use saved proxy accounts for connecting to these systems and performing user account management operations. EmpowerID requires one privileged account per domain or directory. This account requires all of the privileges matching the functions that EmpowerID may perform (user creation, deletion, password reset, group creation, etc).
If you will be managing an Active Directory Domain, the proxy account must be able to access the deleted items container in AD. Access to the Deleted Items container requires Domain Admin access unless the container security is edited to allow non-domain admins to read it. Instructions for editing the security of the deleted items container can be found in the Microsoft Article on the subject, which can viewed in full at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892806.
If you are connecting to an Active Directory Forest with multiple domains, you must first create an account store for the forest root domain before creating account stores for other domains in the forest. The proxy account used when adding your AD account store, must have read access to the AD Configuration Partition in order for topology discovery to succeed. Errors will occur if this process and its required access are not followed.
You do not need to enable inventory on the account store created for the forest root domain.
To create an Active Directory account store in EmpowerID
On the navbar, expand Admin > Applications and Directories and then click Account Stores and Systems.
On the Account Stores page, click Create Account Store.
Under System Types, search for Active Directory Domain Services.
Click Active Directory Domain Services to select the type and then click Submit.
On the Active Directory Settings page that appears, fill in the following information:
Name and Display Name — Enter a name for the Active Directory account store.
FQDN of the Active Directory Forest — Enter the fully qualified domain name of the AD forest. If you are using LDAPS, enter the Subject name of the certificate for the domain controller to which you are connecting followed by port 636. Thus, if the Subject name is "dc01.eiddoc.com," you enter dc01.eiddoc.com:636.
Is Remote (Requires Cloud Gateway) — This setting appears for account stores with local directories, such as Active Directory, LDAP, SAP, etc. When enabled, this tells EmpowerID to use the Cloud Gateway Connection for that account store. The Cloud Gateway Connection must be installed on an on-premise machine. For installation information, please see Installing the EmpowerID Cloud Gateway Client.
Proxy Account Username — Enter a user account with read access to the Active Directory configuration partition that holds the list of all of the domains in the forest (and to the Exchange Organization, if present).
NetBIOS Domain — Enter the NetBIOS name of the domain or child domain that hosts Active Directory.
Password — Enter the password for the proxy account.
When ready, click Submit to create the account store.
On the Choose Servers page that appears, select the appropriate EmpowerID server and click Submit.
On the Discover Active Directory Domains page that appears, select one or more domains to add to the account store and click Submit.
EmpowerID creates the account store and the associated resource system. The next step is to configure attribute flow between the account store and EmpowerID.
EmpowerID supports the configuration of attribute synchronization rules for flowing attribute changes between directories and the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse. Attribute Flow rules are visually configured and are always relative to the relationship between an attribute in a directory and the corresponding attribute in the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse. Attribute Flow rules define the specific fields and attributes that are synchronized between the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse person objects and the external user accounts to which they are linked. Additionally, Attribute Flow rules can be weighted by account store. For example, if you have connected EmpowerID to an HR system as well as Active Directory, and you want any changes made to an attribute in the HR system to take priority over changes made in Active Directory or EmpowerID (while allowing changes to be made in any system), you would give a higher score for each CRUD operation originating from the HR account store and correspondingly lower scores for the Active Directory account store. The following flow rules are available: No Sync ( Red Circle) — When this option is selected, no information flows between EmpowerID and the native system. Bidirectional Flow (Bidirectional Green Arrow) — When this option is selected, changes made within EmpowerID update the native system and vice-versa. For most attributes, this is the default setting. Account Store Changes Only (Left Pointing Arrow) — When this option is selected, changes can only be made in the native system and are then passed to EmpowerID. EmpowerID Changes Only (Right Pointing Arrow) — When this option is selected, changes can only be made in EmpowerID and are then passed to the native system. The following CRUD operations are available: Create — This operation is used to create an attribute value for an existing attribute when the value of that attribute is null. Update — This operation is used to update the value of an attribute. Delete — This operation is used to delete the value of an attribute. From the Account Stores tab of the Account Stores and Systems page, search for the account store you just created and click the Account Store link for it. Click the Attribute Flow Rules tab to view the current rules for the account store. Please note that the attributes available depend on the account store. To change the flow for an attribute, click the Attribute Flow drop-down located between the Person Attribute column and the External Directory Attribute column, and select the desired flow direction from the context menu. To change the score for any of the available CRUD operations (Create, Update and Delete), enter the new score in the appropriate field. By default, scores are weighted evenly, which means that a change to an attribute originating in one connected external directory has the same authority as a change to an attribute occurring in another connected external directory. EmpowerID only considers scores for attribute CRUD operations when multiple account stores with the same user records are connected to EmpowerID, such as would be the case if an HR System and this account store were being inventoried by EmpowerID.
Now that the attribute flow has been set, the next steps include configuring the account store, mapping locations and enabling EmpowerID to inventory it.
To configure account store settings
On the Account Store and Resource System page, click the Account Store tab and then click the pencil icon to put the account store in edit mode.
This opens the edit page for the account store. This page allows you to specify the account proxy used to connect EmpowerID to your Active Directory as well as how you want EmpowerID to handle the user information it discovers in Active Directory during inventory. Settings that can be edited are described in the table below the image.
Account Store Settings
Setting
Description
General Settings
IT Environment Type
Allows you to specify the type of environment in which you are creating the account store.
Option 1 Specify an Account Proxy
Allows you to change the credentials for the account that EmpowerID uses to connect to and manage the account store.
Option 2 Select a Vaulted Credential as Account Proxy
Allows you to use a credential that you have vaulted in EmpowerID as the account that EmpowerID uses to connect to and manage the account store.
Use Secure LDAPS Binding
Specifies whether you are using Secure LDAP to encrypt LDAP data when establishing a directory bind.
Inventoried Directory Server
Allows you to select a connected server as the directory server for the account store.
Is Remote (Cloud Gateway Connection Required)
This setting appears for account stores with local directories, such as Active Directory, LDAP, SAP, etc. When enabled, this tells EmpowerID to use the Cloud Gateway Connection for that account store. The Cloud Gateway Connection must be installed on an on-premise machine. For installation information, please see Installing the EmpowerID Cloud Gateway Client.
Authentication and Password Settings
Use for Authentication
Specifies whether user credentials in the external system can be used to authenticate to EmpowerID.
Allow Search for User Name in Authentication
This setting works in conjunction with pass-through authentication to allow users to log in without specifying a domain name. When this is enabled, EmpowerID first checks to see if the user name entered exists within its Identity Warehouse and if so attempts to authenticate as that user. If a matching logon name exists but the login fails, EmpowerID then searches through all Accounts Stores where simple username search is enabled to find the correct user name and password combination.
Allow Password Sync
Enables or disables the synchronization of password changes to user accounts in the domain based on password changes for the owning person object or another account owned by the person. This setting does not prevent password changes by users running the reset user account password workflows.
Queue Password Changes
Specifies whether EmpowerID sends password changes to the Account Password Reset Inbox for batch processing.
Password Manager Policy for Accounts without Person
Specifies the Password Manager Policy to be used for user accounts not joined to an EmpowerID Person.
Provisioning Settings
Allow Person Provisioning (Joiner Source)
Specifies whether EmpowerID Persons can be provisioned from user accounts in the account store.
Allow Attribute Flow
Specifies whether attribute changes should flow between EmpowerID and the account store.
Allow Provisioning (By RET)
Allows or disallows the Resource Entitlement (RET) Inbox process to auto-provision accounts for this domain for users who receive RET policy-assigned user accounts, but have not yet had them provisioned.
Allow Deprovisioning (By RET)
Allows or disallows the Resource Entitlement Inbox process to auto de-provision accounts for this domain for users who still have RET policy-assigned user accounts, but no longer receive a policy that grants them a user account in the domain. De-provisioning only occurs if the de-provision action on the Resource Entitlement policy is set to De-Provision.
Max Accounts per Person
This specifies the maximum number of user accounts from this domain that an EmpowerID Person can have linked to them. This prevents the possibility of a runaway error caused by a wrongly configured Join rule. It is recommended that this value be set to 1 unless users will have more than 1 account and you wish them to be joined to the same person.
Allow Account Creation on Membership Request
Specifies whether EmpowerID creates user accounts in the account store when an EmpowerID Person without one requests membership within a group belonging to the account store.
Recertify All Group Changes as Detected
Specifies whether detected group changes should trigger recertification.
Default Person Business Role
Specifies the default EmpowerID Business Role to be assigned to each EmpowerID Person provisioned from the user accounts in the account store.
Default Person Location (leave blank to use account container)
Specifies the default EmpowerID Location to be assigned to each EmpowerID Person provisioned from the user accounts in the account store.
Directory Clean Up Enabled
Directory Clean Up Enabled
Specifies whether the SubmitAccountTermination permanent workflow should claim the account store for processing account terminations. When enabled, accounts in the account store that meet the qualifications to be marked for deletion are moved into a special OU within the external directory, disabled and finally deleted after going through an automated approval process. This process involves setting a number of system settings in EmpowerID and requires multiple approvals by designated personnel before an account is finally removed from the account store.
Report Only Mode (No Changes)
When enabled, a report of what the Directory Clean Up process would do is written to the log. The process itself is ignored and all accounts are set to Termination Pending,
OU to Move Stale Accounts
Specifies the external directory in which to move accounts marked for termination.
Special Use Settings
RBAC Assign Group Members On First Inventory
Converts each user account in an group to a Access Level assignment for the EmpowerID Person who owns the user account. Enabling this function is not recommended in most cases as it removes the ability to manage groups in the account store. A consequence of this is that if a user account is removed from a native system, EmpowerID puts the account back in the group.
Automatically Join Account to a Person on Inventory (Skip Account Inbox)
Specifies whether EmpowerID should attempt to join user accounts in the account store to an existing EmpowerID Person during the inventory process. When enabled, the Account Inbox is bypassed.
Automatically Create a Person on Inventory (Skip Account Inbox)
Specifies whether EmpowerID should create new EmpowerID Persons from the user accounts discovered in the account store during the inventory process. When enabled, the Account Inbox is bypassed.
Show in Location Tree
Specifies whether the account store shows in the Location Tree within the EmpowerID UI.
Queue Password Changes on Failure
Specifies whether EmpowerID should send password changes to the Account Password Reset Inbox only when the change fails.
Inventory Settings
Inventory Schedule Interval
Specifies the time span that occurs before EmpowerID performs a complete inventory of the account store. The default value is 10 minutes.
Inventory Enabled
Allows EmpowerID to inventory the user information in the account store.
Membership Settings
Membership Schedule Interval
Specifies the time span that occurs before EmpowerID runs the Group Membership Reconciliation job. The default value is 10 minutes.
Enable Group Membership Reconciliation
Allows EmpowerID to manage the membership of the account store’s groups, adding and removing user to and from groups based on policy-based assignment rules.
Edit the account store as needed and then click Save to save your changes.
If you are using EmpowerID Cloud, the next step is to select the on-premise machine where you installed the EmpowerID Cloud Gateway. If you have yet to install the Cloud Gateway, please refer to Installing the EmpowerID Cloud Gateway Client and then return to this step. If EmpowerID is an on-premise installation, you can skip ahead to mapping locations. From the Account Stores tab of the Find Account Stores page, search for the above account store and then click the Account Store link for it. This directs you to the Account Store Details page for the account store, where you should see a Cloud Gateway Servers pane. If you do not see this pane, this means the Is Remote (Cloud Gateway Connection Required) setting was not enabled for the account store. Click the Edit link for Cloud Gateway Servers. Enter the name of the server and then click the tile that appears for that server. Click Save. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to select any other Cloud Gateway servers in your environment.To select the Cloud Gateway Server
To map locations
EmpowerID Role and Location mappings allow multiple AD, LDAP or other external directory containers to be visually mapped to one or more logical locations in EmpowerID for unified and easy management. When a mapping occurs, all the resources or objects located in the directory container are assigned to a corresponding EmpowerID location, allowing you to use those locations for delegating user access and setting default policy settings. If you create these mappings before your first inventory, all new people discovered by EmpowerID during the inventory process will be provisioned in EmpowerID locations (instead of directory locations), and those EmpowerID locations will be assigned to them as the "Location" portion of their Business Role and Location (BRL). For example, if you have a user named "Barney Smythe" in a London > Contractors OU and a user named "Kris McClure" in a London > Employees OU and you map both of those London OUs to a single London location in EmpowerID, when you turn on your inventory the Location portion of the BRL for both Barney Smythe and Kris McClure would be the EmpowerID location and not the external OUs.
From the navigation sidebar, expand Identity Lifecycle and click Role and Location Mapper.
Select the Location Mapper tab.
From the Location pane of the Location Mapper tab, enter the name of the EmpowerID location you want to map and press ENTER to load the location.
Select the location from the tree.
From the External Location pane, enter the name of the external directory location to which you want to map the EmpowerID location.
Click Save to save the mapping.
Repeat for any other mappings you wish to create.
If you select an external location that is a parent location, the children of that location will be mapped to the selected EmpowerID location.
Now that everything is configured, you can enable the Account Inbox Permanent Workflow and monitor inventory. Be sure inventory is enabled on the account store settings page.
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Monitor inventory
On the navbar, expand System Logs > Policy Inbox Logs and click Account Inbox.
The Account Inbox page appears. This page provides tabbed views of all information related to processing new user accounts discovered in a connected account store during inventory. An explanation of these tabs follows.
Dashboard — This tab provides a quick summary of account inbox activity.
Not Processed — This tab displays a grid view of all inventoried user accounts not yet used to provision a new EmpowerID Person or joined to an existing Person. Any accounts that fail to meet the Join and Provision rules are displayed here as well.
Failed — This tab displays a grid view of any account joining or provisioning failures.
Ignored — This tab displays a grid view of all accounts ignored by the account inbox. Accounts are ignored if they do not qualify as user accounts.
Joined — This tab displays a grid view of all accounts joined to an EmpowerID Person. Joins occur based on the Join rules applied to the account store.
Processed — This tab displays a grid view of all accounts that have been used to either provision a new EmpowerID Person or joined to an existing EmpowerID Person.
Provisioned — This tab displays a grid view of all accounts that have been used to provision an EmpowerID Person. Provisioning occurs based on the Provision rules applied to the account store.
Orphans — This tab displays a grid view of all user accounts without an EmpowerID Person.
All — This tab displays a grid view of all user accounts and the status of those accounts in relation to the Account Inbox.
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