Selecting the domain controller allows you to specify what domain controller Password Manager should use when connecting to the managed domain. By default, two options are available: domain controller used by user computer and default domain controller.
Domain controller used by user computer is a domain controller that a user computer connects to. It may not be the same as the domain controller used by the computer running the Password Manager Service. The information about this domain controller is passed to Password Manager in requests made by Secure Password Extension.
Default domain controller is a domain controller that is automatically identified as a preferred domain controller for the computer running the Password Manager Service.
You can also add any other domain controller from the specified domain by pressing the Add button under the domain controllers table on the Advanced settings tab of the Edit Domain Connection dialog.
You can select several domain controllers to ensure fault tolerance in your environment. By default, the first domain controller in the list will be used by Password Manager to connect to the domain. But if the first domain controller is not available, Password Manager will attempt to connect to the next domain controller in the list, and so on.
When Password Manager uses a domain controller other than the first one in the list of domain controllers, the Environment Health Checker scheduled task checks whether the first domain controller (with the highest priority) is available. When it becomes available, Password Manager switches back to using this domain controller. For more information, see Environment Health Checker Task.
To specify domain controllers
- On the Administration site, select the Management Policy you want to configure and click the User Scope link.
- On the User Scope page, select the domain connection for which you want to specify domain controllers and click Edit.
- On the User Scope Settings for #Domain# page, click Edit.
- On the Advanced settings tab of the Edit Domain Connection dialog, click Add under the domain controllers table then select required domain controllers, and click Add.
- Click Save and select how you want to apply the updated settings. You can either apply the new settings for this user scope only, or everywhere where this domain connection is used.
By specifying Active Directory sites in the domain connection settings you select the site in which you want Password Manager to replicate changes as soon as they occur in other sites. This reduces downtime that users may experience when your environment has several Active Directory sites and changes do not get immediately replicated between the sites.
For example, when users unlock their accounts on the Self-Service site, this operation may occur in one site. But when they attempt to log in to their computers, this operation may occur in another site, to which the information about the unlocked account has not been replicated yet. In this case, users will not be able to log in until the information is replicated to the second site. To mitigate this issue, select the Active Directory sites in which you want to replicate changes immediately in the domain connection settings.
When specifying the site, you can select either the default writable domain controller (automatically selected in Active Directory) or select several writable domain controllers from this site. If you specify several domain controllers, changes will be propagated to the first available domain controller in the site.
Specifying Active Directory sites
- On the Administration site, select the Management Policy you want to configure and click the User Scope link.
- On the User Scope page, select the domain connection for which you want to specify Active Directory sites and click Edit.
- On the User Scope Settings for #Domain# page, click Edit.
- On the Advanced Options tab of the Edit Domain Connection dialog, click Add under the Active Directory sites table, select required sites, and click Add.
- Click Save and select how you want to apply the updated settings. You can either apply the new settings for this user scope only, or everywhere where this domain connection is used.
After you specify the Active Directory sites in which you want to push changes, you can also select what kind of changes to propagate. The following options are available:
- Propagate changes related to the user’s account in Active Directory
- Propagate changes related to the user’s Questions and Answers profile
- Propagate password-related changes
Select this option to propagate information about unlocking and enabling user accounts in Active Directory. It is recommended to use this option when a managed domain has users in multiple Active Directory sites.
