Creation of a newly connected system will be demonstrated on a database connector (ConnIdDBBundle). Firstly, we will create a new system named Table and choose the database connector. All settings for this connector are available in the Configuration tab. In the picture below is an example of the configuration:
When the connector is configured correctly, we can move on to the System scheme tab. There, we will create the scheme either manually or we will use the scheme which will be returned by the connector itself (according to the filled-in configuration).
The scheme will be automatically created by pressing Generate scheme.
After a successful generation, there should be a new entry (object class) __ACCOUNT__ in the object types table. This entry will contain available attributes in the system (for object ACCOUNT). In our case, it will contain an attribute for each column in the mapped table and the semantic attributes:
When the system scheme is created, we can move on to attribute mapping in the Attribute mapping tab. Mapping serves two basic purposes:
Firstly, we will create a group (operation type and entity type) which we would like to map. We will select Provisioning and Identity. Then we will start creating the individual mappings. It is very important to create a mapping for the account identifier in the system and connect it correctly to the IdM identity. This is done by adding a new attribute.
In the attribute mapping details we will fill in:
For optimalization, the attribut can be cached. New mapping attribute is marked as 'cached' by default.
It's possible to send additional attributes to provisioning, when password is changed (e.g. password expiration in extended attribute). New flag sendOnPasswordChange
was added to system attribute mapping - attribute with this flag checked will be send together with changed password to provisioning. Two ways for provisioning additional attributes are implemented:
Two ways are be configurable by application configuration idm.sec.acc.provisioning.sendPasswordAttributesTogether
:
true
: additional password attributes will be send in one provisioning operation together with passwordfalse
: additional password attributes will be send in new provisioning operation, after password change operation (some systems doesn't support to change other attributes in the same request with password)In the previous paragraphs, we created a system which contains a scheme and mapped attributes for an identity and provisioning. In order to create an account for a specific user in the end system, we have to create a role which will be assigning this system and, at the same time, we have to assign this role to the user.
In the previous chapter we explained how to assign a role tied to a system. By doing this, we created an account which corresponds precisely to the mapping in the system. That was a default mapping. However, if want to create a role which will affect only a specific attribute, we will need to adjust the behavior (mapping) of the attribute, i.e. we will need to overload the attribute mapping.
The attribute strategy defines how will the attribute and primarily its value be dealt with during provisioning and synchronization.
The strategies are as follows:
The default strategy which sends the acquired value to the end system as IdM calculates it. If the value is the same on the end system, the attribute isn't sent.
This strategy is applied both to account editing and its creation.
The attribute value which is calculated by IdM is sent to the end system only if the end system value is calculated as equal to null. Before the final comparison whether the value is non-existent, transformation from the system is applied to the attribute value from the end system. The transformation is defined in the mapping of the attribute.
This strategy is applied both to account editing and its creation.
The attribute value which is calculated by IdM is sent to the end system only when creating a new account on the end system.
The CREATE strategy has a lower priority than WRITE-IF-NULL, SET, MERGE and AUTHORITATIVE-MERGE.
This strategy (identically to MERGE) alters the logic of calculating attributes and their values. With the other strategies applies the following: if there are more occurrences of the same strategy for the same attribute (more overloaded attributes in more roles), the one with the highest priority is found (according to role priorities or their names). The resulting value going into provisioning is calculated on the basis of this one attribute only.
The MERGE strategies are different, however. If there are more attributes overloading the same default attribute, all the values are merged into one. This resulting value (list) is sent to the IdM system as a "wish" of how the value should look like on the end system.
With authoritative merge, the original values of the attribute on the end system are not taken into account (i.e. if some other system or administrator had put a different value to the attribute, it would be ignored by IdM).
Therefore, in a situation where the resulting value of the merged attribute from IdM is [A,B] and the value of the same attribute on the end system is [C,D], then the end system attribute will gain the value of [A,B] after provisioning.
This strategy follows the same pattern as authoritative merge up until the phase of creating a "wish" for IdM.
A procedure different from authoritative merge occurs at the moment of provisioning. The goal is to ensure that the attribute on the end system can be shared by more systems (it means IdM is not authority for all values in the attribute).
Another goal is to ensure the correct removing of the managed values.
For identify what values are controlled by the IdM, we get it based on the settings of the roles mapping the system and overloaded this attribute (this 'calculation of the definition' approach is used since version 9.3.0. The previous approach, where the values from the provisioning archive were used no longer used).
The controlled values are currently valid values (based on roles values) and values valid in the past. Such a "historical" value arises at the time of the definition of role change, typically in the following cases:
Because the calculation of which values are currently controlled could be time expensive operation, are that values cached in entity SysAttributeControlledValue which is mapped on system mapping attribute. That persisted 'cache' is evicted when definiton for that attribut is changed on the role (SysRoleSystemAttribute).
The evicted cache is recalculated by using the AttributeControlledValuesRecalculationTaskExecutor task, which is run after each save of attribute mapping on a role. In this case, this task recalculates the cache for all evicted attributes of the provisioning mapping.
Cache recalculation with this task can be started manually. At this startup, you must specify the system identifier and entity type (the 'IDENTITY' is filled in as default). It is also possible to deselect onlyEvicted. In this case, all attributes for that mapping will be recalculated even if their cache is not marked as evicted. Second situation when is cache recalculated is during provisioning. If the attribute is still marked as evicted.
Therefore, in a situation where the resulting value of the merged attribute from IdM is [A,B] and the value of the same attribute on the end system is [C,D], then the end system attribute will gain the value of [A,B,C,D] after provisioning.
Let us continue with the previous case, where the value [A,B,C,D] is on the end system. If we remove the role which was defining value B in IdM, then the value on the end system must be [A,C,D] after provisioning. We will then remove only the value which we are managing.
In our case we have the following information at our disposal:
By comparing these values, we can deduce that we have to remove value B, so that the result is value [A,C,D].
An advantage of this approach is the ability of detecting dynamic changes as well. This means that if we don't remove the role which assigned value B, but instead we change the calculation definition of this value, so that the result is X, then it follows from the above mentioned that we are able to correctly identify that we want to send value [A,X,C,D] to the end system.
Aside from a strategy, every attribute can also have the indications Always send and Send only if IdM value exists. These indications can be combined with all strategies.