About Active Directory security management
The Active Roles Console makes it easy to examine and manage permission entries in Active Directory, by showing the access available to each user, along with the scope of their access. A centralized view of all permission entries for any given object helps with the analysis and administration of permissions in Active Directory. For each permission entry, the view displays a number of entry properties, including the permission description, origin, and security principal. From the main window, additional properties can be displayed and the native security editor can be accessed.
The centralized display of native security allows the administrator to quickly view permissions assigned to objects in Active Directory, and to determine whether the permission is inherited. The list of permission entries can be sorted by security principal name to determine who has access to the selected object. If a permission entry is inherited, Active Roles identifies the object from which the permission originates, so that the administrator can easily find and edit the permission entry for that object.
The Active Roles Console provides the capability to view the permissions for an object by simply clicking the object to display the permission entries in a centralized view. This makes it easier for the administrator to verify the permissions on security-sensitive objects, and to identify possible security problems.
Management of native security
Active Roles Access Templates can be used to specify permissions in Active Directory. Designed to support the role-based grouping of permissions, Access Templates provide an efficient mechanism for setting and maintaining access control, simplifying and enhancing the management of permissions in Active Directory.
To provide this capability, Active Roles gives the administrator the option to keep Active Directory native security updated with selected permissions specified using Access Templates. This option, referred to as Permissions Propagation, is intended to provision users and applications with native permissions to Active Directory. The normal operation of Active Roles does not rely on this option.
For Active Roles permission entries with the Permissions Propagation option set, Active Roles generates Active Directory native permission entries in accordance with the Active Roles permissions. Once set, the option ensures that every time Active Roles permission assignments or templates change, the associated native permission entries change accordingly.
Customization using ADSI Provider and script policies
Active Roles offers the facility to customize its off-the-shelf functionality using scripts and applications that interact with the Administration Service. It allows a high degree of customer modification to meet specific business and organizational needs. This gives customers greater flexibility when using the product, and enables them to build solutions that can easily be integrated with existing systems and data.
The following list shows some of the ways in which the product can be customized:
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Using the Active Roles ADSI Provider, the existing proprietary applications or custom web-based interfaces could communicate with Active Roles to perform administration and provisioning tasks on user accounts and groups.
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Using policy scripts, custom corporate rules could be enforced to regulate data format and administrative workflows.
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Using policy scripts, the data stored in an HR database or ERP system could be incorporated into the administration and provision of users.
Active Roles makes it possible for user-developed scripts and applications to manipulate directory objects through the Administration Service (known as persistent objects), and to take control of objects that are in the process of being created, modified, or deleted with Active Roles (in-process objects).
Having programmatic access to persistent and in-process objects makes it easy for developers to customize Active Roles in these two areas:
About custom applications and user interfaces
A custom application or user interface can be created to manipulate directory objects in Active Roles. Active Roles offers the ADSI Provider to communicate with the Administration Service using standard COM interfaces that conform to the Microsoft ADSI 2.5 specification.
Custom applications are executables that provide, retrieve and process data to or from the Administration Service. For example, an organization with a separate human resources database could develop and deploy a custom application that extracts personal information from the database, then passes it to the Administration Service to facilitate user account provisioning.
Custom user interfaces are usually web-based interfaces that distribute certain tasks to users. Custom user interfaces can also be used to streamline the workflow of network administrators and help-desk operators. For example, web-based pages could be created so that helpdesk operators only see the fields related to user properties that they can view and modify, according to their corporate standards.
Both custom applications and user interfaces rely on the Active Roles ADSI Provider to access the functionality of Active Roles.
