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.
EmpowerID Amazon Web Services (AWS) connector allows organizations to bring the user, group, role and computer data in their AWS domain to EmpowerID, where it can be managed and synchronized with data in any connected back-end user directories. When EmpowerID inventories AWS, it creates an account in the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse for each Amazon user account, a computer for each Amazon computer, a group for each Amazon group, and a special group called an RBAC-Only group for each Amazon role.
Prerequisites
In order to connect EmpowerID to AWS, you must have an AWS domain with an account that EmpowerID can use to connect to AWS. (EmpowerID recommends using a dedicated service account.) At a minimum, this account must have a policy with permission to read the user, group and computer data in AWS. If you plan to use EmpowerID to provision, deprovision and modify this data in AWS, the profile needs to have create, update and delete permissions as well. In addition, you must provide EmpowerID with the following information:
Access Key ID for the service account
Secret Access Key for the service account
AWS Site Name
AWS TenantID
After ensuring you have met the prerequisites, you do the following to connect EmpowerID to AWS:
Create an account store in EmpowerID for AWS.
Configure EmpowerID settings for the account store connection, including whether to provision EmpowerID Persons during inventory or in batches using the Account Inbox permanent workflow (recommended).
Review and configure the attribute flow rules for the account store.
Turn on inventory.
Enable 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.
Monitor Inventory.
Step 1 – Create an account store for AWS
On the navbar, expand Admin, then Applications and Directories, and click Account Stores and Systems.
On the Account Stores page, click Create Account Store.
Select Amazon AWS from the list of system types and click Submit.
This opens the AWS Settings form, which is where you enter information about your Amazon AWS instance needed to connect EmpowerID to it.
Enter the following information in the AWS Settings form to connect EmpowerID to your Amazon instance:
Site Name — The address of your AWS site
Client API Key — The Access Key ID generated by Amazon for the service account
Client API Secret — The Secret Access Key generated by Amazon for the service account
Tenant ID — Tenant ID for your AWS site
Click Submit.
EmpowerID creates the account store and the associated resource system. The next step is to configure the attribute flow between the account store and EmpowerID.
Step 2 – Configure Attribute Flow
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 and enabling EmpowerID to inventory it.
Step 3 – Configure account store settings
On the Account Store and Resource System page, select 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 AWS account store. This page allows you to specify the account proxy used to connect EmpowerID to your AWS account as well as how you want EmpowerID to handle the user information it discovers in AWS 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.
Account Store Type
Allows you to specify the type for the account store.
Inventoried Directory Server
Allows you to select a connected server as the directory server for the account store.
Is Visible in ITShop
Specifies whether the account store can be used to filter IT Shop resources to show resources, such as groups, contained in the account store.
Authentication and Password Settings
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.
Max Accounts Per Person
Specifies the maximum number of user accounts that a person can have in the account store.
Send All Changes to Outbox
Specifies whether all changes should be sent to the Provisioning Outbox for processing.
Auto Process Outbox
Allows or disallows the Provisioning Outbox process to auto process accounts for this account store. Auto processing only occurs if Send All Changes to Outbox is enabled.
Business Role Settings
Allow Business Role and Location Re-Evaluation
Specifies whether Business Role and Location re-evaluation should occur for the account store
Business Role and Location Re-Evaluation Order
Specifies the order of the account store for re-evaluating Business Roles and locations
Inventory Auto Provision OUs as IT System Locations
Specifies whether EmpowerID should automatically provision external OUs as IT System locations
Inventory Auto Provision External Roles as Business Roles
Specifies whether EmpowerID should provision Business roles for external account store roles
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.
Group Settings
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 External Group Changes as Detected
Specifies whether detected group changes should trigger recertification.
SetGroup of Groups to Monitor for Real-Time Recertification
Specifies the SetGroup to be used for monitoring group membership changes.
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 location 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,
Special Use Settings
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.
Queue Password Changes on Failure
Specifies whether EmpowerID should send password changes to the Account Password Reset Inbox only when the change fails.
Membership Settings
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.
Membership Schedule Interval
Specifies the time span that occurs before EmpowerID runs the Group Membership Reconciliation job. The default value is 10 minutes.
Edit the account store as needed and then click Save to save your changes.
Next, enable the Account Inbox permanent workflow to allow the Account Inbox to provision or join the user accounts in AWS to EmpowerID Persons as demonstrated below.
EmpowerID recommends using the Account Inbox for provisioning and joining.
Step 4 – Enable Account Inbox Permanent Workflow
On the navbar, expand Infrastructure Admin > EmpowerID Server and Settings and select Permanent Workflows.
On the Permanent Workflows page, click the Display Name link for Account Inbox.
On the Permanent Workflow Details page that appears, click the pencil icon to put the workflow in edit mode.
Check Enabled.
Click Save to save your changes.
Step 5 – Monitor Inventory
On the navbar, expand Identity Lifecycle and select 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.
All — This tab displays a grid view of all user accounts and the status of those accounts in relation to the Account Inbox.
Dashboard — This tab provides a quick summary of account inbox activity.
Orphans — This tab displays a grid view of all user accounts without an EmpowerID Person.