Steps for adding or removing a managed domain
The operation of adding a managed domain results in the creation of an object that holds the registration information about the domain. For this reason, it is also referred to as registering a domain with Active Roles.
To add a managed domain
- In the console tree, expand Configuration | Server Configuration.
- Under Server Configuration, right-click Managed Domains, and select New | Managed Domain to start the Add Managed Domain wizard.
- On the Welcome page of the wizard, click Next.
- On the Domain Selection page, do one of the following, and then click Next.
- Type the name of the domain you want to add.
- Click Browse, and select the domain from the list.
- On the Active Roles Credentials page, click one of these options that determine the logon information that Active Roles will use to access the domain:
- The service account information the Administration Service uses to log on
- The Windows user account information specified below
If you choose the second option, type the user name and password of the user account you want Active Roles to use when accessing the domain.
- Click Next, and then click Finish.
To remove a managed domain
- In the console tree, expand Configuration | Server Configuration.
- Under Server Configuration, click Managed Domains.
- In the details pane, right-click the domain you want to remove, and then click Delete.
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NOTE:
- You can use the Properties command on an object held in the Managed Domains container to view or modify the registration information for the respective managed domain. For example, it is possible to change the logon information that is used to access the domain: on the General tab in the Properties dialog box, choose the appropriate option and click Apply. You can choose one of the two options that are listed in Step 5 of the procedure above.
- The Managed Domains container holds the registration objects for all domains that are registered with Active Roles. You can un-register domains by deleting objects from that container.
- By default, no domains are registered with Active Roles. When you register a domain, the domain registration is saved as part of the Active Roles configuration.
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Using unmanaged domains
After you’ve registered an Active Directory domain with Active Roles, you have the option to use the domain as an unmanaged domain. An unmanaged domain is basically a domain that is registered with Active Roles for read-only access. The use of the unmanaged domain option allows you to reduce licensing costs since the user count that corresponds to the unmanaged domains is not added to product usage statistics (see Evaluating product usage).
Unmanaged domains are instrumental in the following scenarios:
- Group membership management When used to add members to a group, by selecting the new members from a list of objects, Active Roles requires the domain that holds the objects to be registered. If you only use Active Roles for selecting member objects when managing group membership, you can configure the domain that holds the member objects as an unmanaged domain.
- Exchange resource forest When used to create Exchange mailboxes in a forest that is different from the forest that holds the accounts of the mailbox users, Active Roles requires the domain of the mailbox users (account domain) to be registered. If you do not use Active Roles for user management in the account domain, you can make that domain an unmanaged domain.
As applied to a registered unmanaged domain, the features and functions of Active Roles are limited to those that do not require write access to the objects held in that domain (including write access to the object data that is stored by Active Roles as virtual attributes). Thus, you can use Active Roles to:
- Search for, list and select objects from unmanaged domains
- Populate groups in regular managed domains with objects from unmanaged domains
- Retrieve and view properties of objects held in unmanaged domains
- Assign users or groups from unmanaged domains to the role of manager, primary owner, or secondary owner for objects held in regular managed domains
- Delegate management tasks and approval tasks to users or groups held in unmanaged domains
- Run Active Roles policies against objects held in unmanaged domains, provided that the policies require only read access to those objects
- Provision users from unmanaged domains with linked Exchange mailboxes held in a separate managed forest
- Populate Managed Units with objects from unmanaged domains
Since Active Roles has read-only access to unmanaged domains, it cannot:
- Create, move, or delete objects in unmanaged domains
- Change any properties of objects held in unmanaged domains
- Run any group membership related policies against the groups in unmanaged domains, including the Group Family and Dynamic Group policies
- Run any auto-provisioning or deprovisioning policies against the users or groups held in unmanaged domains
- Run any workflow that makes changes to objects in unmanaged domains
- Restore objects from Active Directory Recycle Bin in unmanaged domains
Configuring an unmanaged domain
You can configure an unmanaged domain by applying the Built-in Policy - Exclude from Managed Scope Policy Object in the Active Roles console.
To configure an unmanaged domain
- In the console tree, under the Active Directory node, right-click the domain you want to configure, and click Enforce Policy.
- Click Add in the dialog box that appears, and then select the Built-in Policy - Exclude from Managed Scope Policy Object.
- Click OK to close the dialog boxes.
Once applied to a domain, the Built-in Policy - Exclude from Managed Scope Policy Object stops product usage statistics from counting objects in the domain and prevents any changes to the objects held in that domain, making the objects available for read access only. For more information, see Managed scope to control product usage.
Evaluating product usage
Active Roles provides a predefined collection of statistics that helps you understand how many Active Directory domain users, AD LDS, Azure, and SaaS users are managed by this product over time. By analyzing this statistical data, you can establish a baseline of product usage, verify your current Active Roles licensing compliance, and plan for future licensing needs. Since Active Roles’ license fee is calculated based on the number of managed users, product usage statistics enables you to justify and predict your Active Roles licensing expenditures. For instructions on how to examine product usage, see Viewing product usage statistics.
For each Active Directory domain, AD LDS instance, Azure tenants, and SaaS applications registered with Active Roles, product usage data is collected on a scheduled basis by counting the number of enabled users in that domain, instance, registered Azure tenants, and connected SaaS applications with the resulting counts stored in the Active Roles database. For further details, see Scheduled task to count managed objects.
By default, Active Roles counts users in the entire domain or instance. It is possible to have Active Roles count users within a part of a domain or instance by changing managed scope—a tunable collection of containers assumed to hold the managed users. For further details, see Managed scope to control product usage.
Active Roles counts the managed objects on a scheduled basis, and provides a report of managed object statistics. This does not impose any restrictions on the number of objects managed by Active Roles. However, as the number of the managed objects is a key factor in determining the license fee, you may need to ensure that your managed object count does not exceed a certain limit. For this purpose, you can configure Active Roles to check the number of managed objects and send an e-mail notification if the total number of managed objects exceeds a given threshold value. For further details, see Voluntary thresholds for the managed object count.