Connect to SCIM Applications

EmpowerID's SCIM Connector is a versatile solution that allows organizations to implement connectivity and automate user identity tasks across various applications using the SCIM specification. It includes an internal SCIM account store and a customizable SCIM microservice, enabling integration with both SCIM-compatible and incompatible applications. This article provides detailed instructions on configuring and using the SCIM Connector for these purposes.

Procedure

Step 1 – Create an account store in EmpowerID

On the navbar, expand Admin > Applications and Directories and select Account Stores and Systems.
Select the Actions tab and then click Create Account Store.
Under System Types, search for SCIM Connector.
Click the SCIM Connector record to select it, and then click Submit.

This opens the SCIM connector form.
Enter the following information in the SCIM connector form:
- Name – Name of the connector
- Base URL – URL for the site hosting the SCIM microservice. For example, enter the URL for the app service if the microservice is hosted in an Azure app service.
- Client Secret – If using OAuth authentication, enter the Client Secret for the app.
- Client ID – If using OAuth authentication, enter the Client ID for the app.
- Certificate – If using certificate-based authentication, enter the thumbprint of the certificate.
When ready, click Submit.

Step 2 – Verify resource system parameters

Navigate to the Find Account Store page (Admin > Applications and Directories > Account Stores and Systems) and search for the SCIM account store you just created.
Click the Account Store link to navigate to the details page for the account store.
Click the Resource System tab and then expand the Configuration Parameters accordion.
The accordion contains the following parameters, some of which may not pertain to your specific implementation.
Edit the parameters as needed. To do so, click the Edit button for the parameter you want to update, as shown below.
Enter the appropriate value for the parameter in the Value field and click Save.
Repeat for each parameter that needs to be updated.

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 – When this option is selected, no information flows between EmpowerID and the native system.
Bidirectional Flow – 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 – When this option is selected, changes can only be made in the native system and are then passed to EmpowerID.
EmpowerID Changes Only – 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.

On the Account Store Details page for the SCIM app account store, select the Attribute Flow Rules tab.
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 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 EmpowerID was inventorying an HR System and this account store.

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, 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 lets you specify how you want EmpowerID to handle the user information it discovers during inventory. The settings that can be edited are described in the table below.

Account Store Settings

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 of account store you are creating.
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.
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.
Is Visible in IAM Shop	Specifies whether the account store can be used to filter objects relative to the account store, such as groups, to users searching for resources in the IAM Shop.
Authentication and Password Settings
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.
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 or Query-Based Collection with groups that need to be recertified when changes to the membership of one or more of those groups occurs. The setting must be set to the GUID of the target SetGroup. If the GUID for a specific SetGroup is not set and Recertify External Group Changes as Detected is enabled for the account store, EmpowerID processes all security group memberships for recertification. Group recertification is processed by the Continuous Group Membership Recertification permanent workflow. This workflow must be enabled for recertification to occur.
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,
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.
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 in minutes 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.

Next, enable the Account Inbox permanent workflow to allow the Account Inbox to provision or join the user accounts in ServiceNow to EmpowerID Persons as demonstrated below.

EmpowerID recommends using the Account Inbox for provisioning and joining.

Step 4 – Enable the 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

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