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Add Local Windows Servers

If you have Windows servers with local users and groups, you can add those servers to EmpowerID as managed account stores. This allows you to inventory local users and groups and manage those objects from EmpowerID, providing you with automated role-based access control, delegated permissions administration, and provisioning policy capabilities with a full audit trail of any actions involving those objects. Once connected, you can manage this data form EmpowerID in the following ways:

  • Account Management

    • Inventory user accounts

    • Create, Update and Delete user accounts

    • Enable and Disable user accounts

  • Group Management

    • Inventory groups

    • Inventory group memberships

    • Create and Delete groups

    • Add and Remove members to and from groups

  • Application Pools

    • Inventory Application Pools

    • Start and stop Application Pools

    • Recycle Application Pools

  • Windows Services

    • Inventory Windows Services

    • Start and stop Windows Services

To communicate with local Windows servers, EmpowerID requires the Cloud Gateway Client to be installed on a dedicated server in the same domain as the local Windows servers. The Cloud Gateway Client acts as an EmpowerID agent, passing commands from EmpowerID to the Cloud Gateway and from the Cloud Gateway to and from the Windows servers. For information on installing the Cloud Gateway Client, please see Cloud Gateway Client for SaaS.

Additionally, as PowerShell is used, you need to install the latest version of the Windows Management Framework and PowerShell on each server, as well as enable remote PowerShell.

Step 1 – Create a Local Windows Users account store in EmpowerID

  1. On the navbar, expand Admin > Applications and Directories and select Account Stores and Systems.

  2. On the Account Stores page, select the Actions tab and click Create Account Store.

     

  3. Under System Types, search for Local Windows Users.

  4. Click Local Windows Users to select the type and then click Submit.

     

  5. On the Local Windows Server Settings page, fill in the following information:

    • Name – Enter a name for the account store.

    • Display Name – Enter a display name for the account store.

    • Fully Qualified Name – Enter the fully resolvable DNS for the Windows server.

    • Computer is Member of Domain – Select this option if your server belongs to a domain that is already inventoried in EmpowerID. If selected, EmpowerID links the computer to an already-inventoried domain computer. If this option is left cleared, EmpowerID creates a new computer object for the server.

    • Is Remote (Requires Cloud Gateway) – This option appears for account stores with local directories, such as Active Directory, LDAP, SAP, local Windows servers, etc. This setting must be enabled for local Windows servers. This option requires the Cloud Gateway Connection to be installed on an on-premise machine. For installation information, please see Installing the EmpowerID Cloud Gateway Client.

  6. When ready, click Submit.

  7. Search for and select one or more cloud gateway servers and then click Submit.

  8. EmpowerID creates the account store and the associated resource system. The next step is to configure the account store settings.

Step 2 – Configure account store settings

  1. 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.

  2. On the Account Store Details page, 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 Windows server as well as how you want EmpowerID to handle the user information it discovers there during inventory. Settings that can be edited are described in the table below the image.


  3. Edit the account store as needed and then click Save to save your changes. The next step is to add the user name and password of the PowerShell user the agent uses to communicate with the local server as configuration parameters.

Step 3 – Add the PowerShell username and password as configuration parameters

The PowerShell User account must have the following permissions on the local server:

  • Manage Users and groups

  • Start and stop IIS

  • Manage app pools

  1. From the Resource Systems tab of the Account Stores and Systems page, search for the account store you just created and click the Display Name link for it.

  2. Select the Resource System tab and then expand the Configuration Parameters accordion at the bottom of the page.

  3. In the accordion, click the Add button above the grid and then enter the following information in the General pane for the PowerShell user account:

    • Name — Enter PowershellUser

    • Value — The user name of the account making the PowerShell calls

  4. Click Save.

  5. Click the Add button above the grid again and then enter the following information in the General pane for the PowerShell user password:

    • Name — Enter PowershellPassword

    • Value — The password of the account making the PowerShell calls

    • Encrypt Data — Select this to encrypt and hide the password

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.

Step 4 – Enable the Account Inbox Permanent Workflow

Step 5 – Monitor Inventory


Next Steps

Manage Local Windows Users

Manage Local Windows Groups

Manage Local Windows Services and App Pools

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