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Add Local Windows Servers

Owned by Phillip Hanegan
Last updated: Jun 10, 2024
8 min read

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 from 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 installing the Cloud Gateway Connection 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.

  2. Click the pencil icon on the Account Store Details page 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 and 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.



Account Store Settings

Account Store Settings

Setting

Description

General Settings

IT Environment

Allows you to specify the type of environment in which you are creating the account store.

Account Store Type

Allows to specify a type for the 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.

Active Directory Computer

Allows you to select the AD computer 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.

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.

Send All Changes to Outbox

 

Auto Process Outbox

 

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, the workflow . When enabled, accounts in the account store that are marked for deletion are first moved into a external directory, disabled and finally deleted when approved. This process involves setting a number of system settings in EmpowerID and requires multiple approvals 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.

Create RBAC Item Level Fulfillment Approval

 

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.

 

  1. 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

Manage Local Windows Users

Manage Local Windows Groups

Manage Local Windows Services and App Pools

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