SharePoint user accounts provide the information necessary for user authentication, such as, the authentication mode and login names. In addition, permissions of users in a site collection are specified in the user accounts.
Each SharePoint user account represents an object from an authentication system trusted by the SharePoint installation. If this authentication system is managed as a target system in One Identity Manager, the SharePoint object used for authentication can be saved as the authentication object in the user policy. This means the SharePoint user account permissions are mapped to employees managed in One Identity Manager. One Identity Manager makes it possible for you to obtain an overview of all an employee's SharePoint access permissions. SharePoint permissions can be attested and checked for compliance. Employees can request or obtain the SharePoint permissions they requires through their memberships in hierarchical roles or through the Web Portal when appropriately configured.
Example
Set up guest access to a site collection with read-only permissions. To do this, a SharePoint user account is added. The Active Directory group "Guests" is assigned as authentication object to the user account. Clara Harris owns an Active Directory user account, which is a member in this group. She can log in to the site collection with this and obtain all the SharePoint user account's permissions.
Jan Bloggs is also requires guest access to the site collection. He owns an Active Directory user account in the same domain. He request membership of the Web Portal group in Active Directory. Once the request is granted approval and assigned, he can log in on the site collection.
By default, the following objects can be assigned as authentication objects in One Identity Manager.
- Active Directory groups (ADSGroup)
- Active Directory user accounts (ADSAccount)
- LDAP groups (LDAPGroup)
- LDAP user accounts (LDAPAccount)
During synchronization, One Identity Manager tries to assign the matching authentication object using the login name.
SharePoint access permissions are supplied in different ways in the One Identity Manager, depending on the referenced authentication object.
Case 1: The associated authentication object is a group. The authentication system is managed in One Identity Manager. (Default case)
- The user account represents an Active Directory or LDAP group. This group can be assigned in the One Identity Manager as authentication object.
- The user account cannot be assigned to an employee. This means, the user account can only become a member in SharePoint roles and groups through direct assignment.
- In order for an employee to log in on the SharePoint system, they require an Active Directory or LDAP user account. This user account must be member in the Active Directory or LDAP group.
- A new SharePoint user account can be created manually.
- The user account cannot be managed through an account definition.
Case 2: The authentication object is a user account. The authentication system is managed in One Identity Manager.
- The user account represents an Active Directory or LDAP user account. The user account is not assigned as an authentication object in One Identity Manager.
- The SharePoint user account can be assigned to an employee. This means that the user account can become a member in SharePoint roles and groups through inheritance and direct assignment.
If an authentication object is assigned, the connected employee is found through the authentication object.
If there is no authentication object assigned, the employee can be assigned automatically or manually. Automatic employee assignment depends on "TargetSystem | SharePoint | PersonAutoFullsync" and "TargetSystem | SharePoint | PersonAutoDefault".
- A new SharePoint user account can be manually created or by using an account definition. The Active Directory or LDAP user account used as authentication object must belong to a domain trusted by the referenced authentication system.
- The user account can be managed through an account definition.
Case 3: The authentication object is a user account. The authentication system is not managed in One Identity Manager.
- The user account cannot be assigned an authentication object.
- The user account can be manually or automatically assigned to an employee. This means that the user account can become a member in SharePoint roles and groups through inheritance and direct assignment. Automatic employee assignment depends on "TargetSystem | SharePoint | PersonAutoFullsync" and "TargetSystem | SharePoint | PersonAutoDefault".
- A new SharePoint user account can be manually created or by using an account definition. If an account definition is used, the column templates must be customized for the SPSUser.LoginName and SPSUSer.DisplayName columns.
- The user account can be managed through an account definition.
The basics for managing employees and user account are described in the One Identity Manager Target System Base Module Administration Guide.
Different types of user accounts, such as default user accounts, administrative user accounts, service accounts, or privileged user accounts, can be mapped in One Identity Manager.
The following properties are used for mapping different user account types.
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Identity
The Identity property (IdentityType column) is used to describe the type of user account.
Table 21: Identities of user accounts
| Primary identity |
Employee's default user account. |
Primary |
| Organizational identity |
Secondary user account used for different roles in the organization, for example for subcontracts with other functional areas. |
Organizational |
| Personalized admin identity |
User account with administrative permissions, used by one employee. |
Admin |
| Sponsored identity |
User account that is used for a specific purpose, such as training. |
Sponsored |
| Shared identity |
User account with administrative permissions, used by several employees. |
Shared |
| Service identity |
Service account. |
Service |
NOTE: To enable working with identities for user accounts, the employees also need identities. You can only link user accounts to which an identity is assigned with employees who have this same identity.
The primary identity, the organizational identity, and the personalized admin identity are used for different user accounts, which can be used by the same actual employee to perform their different tasks within the company.
To provide user accounts with a personalized admin identity or an organizational identity for an employee, you create subidentities for the employee. These subidentities are then linked to user accounts, enabling you to assign the required permissions to the different user accounts.
User accounts with a sponsored identity, group identity, or service identity are linked to dummy employees that do not refer to a real person. These dummy employees are needed so that permissions can be inherited by the user accounts. When evaluating reports, attestations, or compliance checks, check whether dummy employees need to be considered separately.
For detailed information about mapping employee identities, see the One Identity Manager Identity Management Base Module Administration Guide.
-
Privileged user account
Privileged user accounts are used to provide employees with additional privileges. This includes administrative user accounts or service accounts, for example. The user accounts are labeled with the Privileged user account property (IsPrivilegedAccount column).
Default user accounts
Normally, each employee obtains a default user account, which has the permissions they require for their regular work. The user accounts are linked to the employee. By default, the link between employee and SharePoint user account is set up through the authentication objects to which the user account is assigned. Alternatively, employees can also be directly linked to the user accounts. Such user accounts can be managed through account definitions. The effect of the link and the scope of the employee’s inherited properties on the user accounts can be configured through an account definition and its manage levels.
To create default user accounts through account definitions
- Create an account definition and assign the Unmanaged and Full managed manage levels.
- Specify the effect of temporarily or permanently disabling, deleting, or the security risk of an employee on its user accounts and group memberships for each manage level.
- Create a formatting rule for IT operating data.
You use the mapping rule to define which rules are used to map the IT operating data for the user accounts, and which default values are used if no IT operating data can be determined through a person's primary roles.
Which IT operating data is required depends on the target system. The following setting are recommended for default user accounts:
- In the mapping rule for the IsGroupAccount column, use the default value 1 and enable the Always use default value option.
- In the mapping rule for the IdentityType column, use the default value Primary and enable Always use default value.
- Enter the effective IT operating data for the target system. Select the concrete target system under Effects on.
Specify in the departments, cost centers, locations, or business roles that IT operating data should apply when you set up a user account.
- Assign the account definition to employees.
When the account definition is assigned to an employee, a new user account is created through the inheritance mechanism and subsequent processing.
Administrative user accounts
An administrative user account must be used for certain administrative tasks. Administrative user accounts are usually predefined by the target system and have fixed names and login names, such as Administrator.
Administrative user accounts are imported into One Identity Manager during synchronization.
NOTE: Some administrative user accounts can be automatically identified as privileged user accounts. To do this, in the Designer, enable the Mark selected user accounts as privileged schedule.
You can label administrative user accounts as a Personalized administrator identity or as a Shared identity. Proceed as follows to provide the employees who use this user account with the required permissions.
Privileged user accounts
Privileged user accounts are used to provide employees with additional privileges. This includes administrative user accounts or service accounts, for example. The user accounts are labeled with the Privileged user account property (IsPrivilegedAccount column).
NOTE: The criteria according to which user accounts are automatically identified as privileged are defined as extensions to the view definition (ViewAddOn) in the TSBVAccountIsPrivDetectRule table (which is a table of the Union type). The evaluation is done in the TSB_SetIsPrivilegedAccount script.
To create privileged users through account definitions
- Create an account definition. Create a new manage level for privileged user accounts and assign this manage level to the account definition.
- If you want to prevent the properties for privileged user accounts from being overwritten, set the IT operating data overwrites property for the manage level to Only initially. In this case, the properties are populated just once when the user accounts are created.
- Specify the effect of temporarily or permanently disabling or deleting, or the security risk of an employee on its user accounts and group memberships for each manage level.
- Create a formatting rule for the IT operating data.
You use the mapping rule to define which rules are used to map the IT operating data for the user accounts, and which default values are used if no IT operating data can be determined through a person's primary roles.
Which IT operating data is required depends on the target system. The following settings are recommended for privileged user accounts:
- In the mapping rule for the IsPrivilegedAccount column, use the default value 1 and set the Always use default value option.
- You can also specify a mapping rule for the IdentityType column. The column owns different permitted values that represent user accounts.
- To prevent privileged user accounts from inheriting the entitlements of the default user, define a mapping rule for the IsGroupAccount column with a default value of 0 and set the Always use default value option.
- Enter the effective IT operating data for the target system.
Specify in the departments, cost centers, locations, or business roles which IT operating data should apply when you set up a user account.
- Assign the account definition directly to employees who work with privileged user accounts.
When the account definition is assigned to an employee, a new user account is created through the inheritance mechanism and subsequent processing.
TIP: If customization requires that the login names of privileged user accounts follow a defined naming convention, create the template according to which the login names are formed.
Each SharePoint user account represents an object from an authentication system. This object can be a group or a user. The group authentication and user authenticated user accounts are select separately in the navigation system.
To edit the properties of a group authenticated user account
- Select the SharePoint | User accounts (group authentication) category.
- Select the user account in the result list and run Change master data.
- OR -
Click 
in the result list.
- Edit the user account's resource data.
- Save the changes.
To edit the properties of a user authenticated user account.
- Select the SharePoint | User accounts (user authentication) category.
- Select the user account in the result list and run the Change master data task.
- OR -
Click in the result list.
- Edit the user account's resource data.
- Save the changes.
To manually assign or create a user authenticated user account for an employee
- Select the Employees | Employees category.
- Select the employee in the result list and run the Assign SharePoint user accounts task.
- Assign a user account.
- Save the changes.
Detailed information about this topic
Table 22: Configuration parameters for risk assessment of user accounts
| QER | CalculateRiskIndex |
Preprocessor relevant configuration parameter controlling system components for calculating an employee's risk index. Changes to the parameter require recompiling the database.
If the parameter is enabled, values for the risk index can be entered and calculated. |
Enter the following master data for a group authenticated user account.
Table 23: Group authenticated user account master data
| Site collection |
Site collection the user account is used in. |
| Group authenticated |
Specifies whether the user account's authentication object is a group. |
| |
Authentication object referencing the user account. Each SharePoint user account represents an object from an authentication system trusted by the SharePoint installation. If this authentication system is managed as a target system in One Identity Manager, the SharePoint object used for authentication can be saved as the authentication object in the user policy.
The authentication object is assigned during automatic synchronization. You can assign an authentication object when setting up a new user account in the Manager. The authentication object cannot be changed after saving.
The following authentication objects can be assigned to a group authenticated user account:
- Active Directory groups with the type "Security group" from the domain assigned to the farm or a trusted domain
- LDAP groups from the domain assigned to the farm
|
| |
Authentication mode used for logging in on the SharePoint server with this user account.
The login name of new user accounts depends on the authentication mode. The authentication mode is set by a template. The value depends on the Claims-based authentication option of the associated web application. If you have defined custom authentication modes, select your authentication mode in the menu.
NOTE: Modify the template for this column (SPSUser.UID_SPSAuthSystem) to assign a custom authentication mode to user accounts. |
| Display name |
Any display name for the user account. By default, the display name is taken from the authentication object display name. Enter the display name by hand if no authentication object is assigned. |
| Login name |
User account login name. It is found using a template. Enter the login name by hand if no authentication object is assigned.
NOTE: Modify the template for this column (SPSUser.LoginName) to assign a custom authentication mode to user accounts. |
| Email address |
User account email address. It is formatted using templates from the authentication object's email address. |
|
Risk index (calculated) |
Maximum risk index value of all assigned SharePoint roles and groups. The property is only visible if the QER | CalculateRiskIndex configuration parameter is set. For detailed information, see the One Identity Manager Risk Assessment Administration Guide. |
| Category |
Categories for the inheritance of groups by the user account. Groups can be selectively inherited by user accounts. To do this, groups and user accounts or contacts are divided into categories. Select one or more categories from the menu. |
| Advice |
Text field for additional explanation. |
|
Identity |
User account's identity type Permitted values are:
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Primary identity: Employee's default user account.
-
Organizational identity: Secondary user account used for different roles in the organization, for example for subcontracts with other functional areas.
-
Personalized administrator identity: User account with administrative permissions, used by one employee.
-
Sponsored identity: User account that is used for a specific purpose, such as training.
-
Shared identity: User account with administrative permissions, used by several employees. Assign all employees that use this user account.
-
Service identity: Service account. |
| Privileged user account |
Specifies whether this is a privileged user account. |
| Administrator |
Specifies whether the user account is a site collection administrator. |
| Auditor |
Specifies whether the user account is a site collection auditor. |
Detailed information about this topic
