User Sources - Novell ZENWORKS 10 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT SP3 - SYSTEM PLANNING-DEPLOYMENT-BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 10.3 30-03-2010 System Planning Manual

4.2.2 User Sources

User-based management requires an authoritative source of user information to govern access
privileges, permissions, and configurations. The new architecture allows you link to multiple user
directories for this information, including your choice of Active Directory, eDirectory
Linking system management with authoritative user directories ensures that new hires, terminations,
internal moves, and other business changes immediately result in the appropriate provisioning,
deprovisioning, reconfiguration, and other system management changes. Other systems typically
require you to synchronize or copy Active Directory or eDirectory information to your management
database, which increases the change management burden by requiring installation of additional
software on the authoritative servers. If synchronization happens once a week, for example, users
can wait for several days for the directory to be synchronized—or perhaps have several days when
they can access resources they should not be able to use.
In ZENworks Configuration Management, all communication with authoritative sources is read-
only, through LDAP. There is no need to extend schemas, so you avoid a potentially big change
management issue. Also, there is no need to install new software or make any other changes to the
user directories you currently use. Nor is there a need to install an intermediary identity management
system between ZENworks Configuration Management and authoritative sources.
Primary servers can link directly to any number of authoritative sources, of any type, and user
groups can span authoritative sources. This architecture allows simple management of resources
through user, user group, and container assignments, without the limitation of a single authoritative
source or the need to install and manage additional infrastructure to mediate between authoritative
sources and ZENworks Configuration Management.
The following graphic illustrates how Primary Servers link to various user sources:
Figure 4-1
Primary Servers
User GUID
stored in
database
As a best practice, you should set up your user sources prior to any deployment activities (discovery
of devices and deployment of the ZENworks Adaptive Agent). You must understand your directory
services infrastructure first, and the systems you will be referencing from your ZENworks Primary
Servers. In addition, if your deployment is a migration from an existing ZENworks infrastructure
48 System Planning, Deployment, and Best Practices Guide
Primary Server and User Sources
eDirectory
LDAP lookup from ZCC
and user login on device
Active Directory
, or both.
TM