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I've
been thinking about the exact same scenario, for the same reasons...Some months
ago, there was a presentation at the local Microsoft office by a large local
company that's using the proxy object method. They put their extranet
users directly in ADAM, and built some internal code to create proxy objects in
ADAM for their internal users. The portal authenticates using simple LDAP
binds (over SSL) to ADAM. I have talked to the presenter a couple of times
since then, and they seem to be happy with the functionality and
performance. I really don't know what the 'security concerns' are
regarding using proxy objects, other than the normal concerns around using
simple binds, but SSL helps mitigate those. On the back end (the proxy
authentication to AD), normal AD authentication is used IIRC. Seems like a
pretty good approach, assuming you can automagically create/delete proxy objects
as users come and go from the intranet directory.
If you
did go down the path of synchronized user objects in ADAM, why not use P-Synch
for both the INTRANET and EXTRANET domains ? In other words, an extranet
user would have an object in ADAM and EXTRANET, and would have those two targets
configured in P-Synch. Any password change on the extranet would get
hooked by the P-Synch DLL on the extranet DCs and transparently synched to ADAM,
so you shouldn't need to write any hooks to your home-grown password change
mechanism...
Yet
another solution that's been suggested to me is to use a 'virtual directory'
product to virtualize the internal and external directories into a single image
that's used by the portal. I have no experience with these products, but
perhaps someone else could comment.
Short
summary is that we don't have a solution nailed down yet either, but it sounds
like a common problem/scenario. In fact, I almost could have written your
original post word for word....
Dave
I'll be a lot more
interested in MIIS when "free" doesn't mean I have to "buy" SQL licenses to
run it. I can understand the server license for Windows, but it should run on
any version of the latest Windows server (enterprise, standard, etc) or a
desktop OS. Not sure why that is not possible, unless maybe there's a wait for
the new SQL 2005 products.
Anyway, I'm with Joe on this. I
think the simpler you can keep it the better. Writing it in-house with a
series of scripts may be enough to do what you want and it's not too terribly
difficult.
As for proxy objects, if I recall
correctly you typically don't want to use them because of the security
issues and because it's really designed for legacy apps. If you can use
AD, use AD. If you have to use simple bind, then proxy objects may fit
the requirement as long as you remember to use some sort of transport
security.
You may have a problem with multiple
forests as well. Haven't tried that, but since it's a proxy bind, I
imagine it may get a little confused. I'd be interested to hear if that's
not the case though.
Al
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on
behalf of Robert Bobel
Sent: Sun 7/31/2005 10:56 AM
To:
[email protected]
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: MIIS,
ADAM, & AD
Nice side benefit is
that the license to use MIIS with the Feature Integration pack to sync AD to
ADAM is free.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=D9143610-C04D-41C4-B7EA-6F56819769D5&displaylang=en
Bob
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of joe
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2005 7:59
PM
To:
[email protected]
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: MIIS, ADAM,
& AD
Where is this going
to be located? Extranet or Intranet?
If you are going to
be doing some very simple syncing, I would look at writing something myself or
maybe implementing one of the lighter syncing tools like SimpleSync or HP's
LDSU. If you need to do a lot of transforms or complex translations or connect
to lots of different data sources such as SAP, etc, MIIS might be where you
want to go. If you spin up MIIS, it is possible you may need to have a
body sitting there maintaining and troubleshooting it due to its complexity
plus it is really in flux right now in my opinion in terms of how many things
they are looking to change and/or add to it.
How is the data in
the directory to be used? Is it going to be an auth point for apps or
???
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Ken
Cornetet
Sent: Friday, July
29, 2005 10:03 AM
To:
[email protected]
Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: MIIS, ADAM,
& AD
We have an upcoming project which
will require an LDAP directory containing both our internal users, and our
extranet users. Currently, our internal users are in one AD domain, the
extranet users are in another. The domains are in separate forests, and there
are no trusts.
My plan is to use ADAM for the
central LDAP directory. However, I'm on the horns of an enema, um, I mean
dilemma on how to sync ADAM to the two domains. A first glance would
suggest MIIS. However, MIIS looks pretty complicated, and difficult to
configure.
I'm considering writing my own
sync code since the task at hand is relatively straight-forward. Passwords
will be a bit of a problem, but not unworkable. We use Psynch to maintain our
internal passwords, so I can have it change the ADAM passwords at the same
time it changes the internal AD passwords. The extranet users change their
password via an existing web app, so having it change the ADAM passwords won't
be an issue.
Reading about
ADAM "proxy users" leads me to believe they'd be a perfect fit as the object
type to use for our internal users (authentication is relayed to AD thus
negating the need to sync passwords). However, the ADAM tech ref says proxy
users should only be used as a last resort, and to refer to the next section
as to why. Unfortunately, the next section doesn't explain why not to use
them. Anybody know why proxy user objects are evil?
Are there any good "MIIS for
dummies" type documentation around? Any good ADAM and/or MIIS mailing
lists?
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