I am pleased to say that as part of Claromentis 6.1 ( currently in Beta ) we have significantly improved our intranet support for LDAP beyond the established support for Microsoft Active Directory that we have had for many years.

The difference between LDAP servers is in the way how they store users accounts and groups information – different servers use different attributes (properties) to indicate record type “user”, “group”, account state etc., a different property name that stores username and some other things. Plus Windows uses “domains” which are not really a part of LDAP.

Previously we had all these properties hard-coded so they match the ones used in Microsoft Active Directory. Now they can be defined in our config file. Currently our support documentation contains configuration options valid for AD and for Novell (as these are two servers that we have production tested in Claromentis 6.1), but it is architected to correctly communicate with other LDAP servers such as OpenLDAP or Samba LDAP server.

This fits very well with one of our core values of choice and cross platform support, and is a very positive development for those companies that require an intranet single sign on but do not use active directory!

Intranet-Extranet, Resources-Technical, The Framework intranet, ldap, novell, OpenLDAP, samba

Managing and Maintaining user accounts is always struggle for an IT team.  They have to work closely with the HR department to ensure that new starters and leavers are granted and removed from the appropriate groups on the internal network.  This can often be a struggle even without an intranet; so introducing an Intranet to the business can cause additional complexities.  However… there are options available to ensure that this potential issue is reduced, or even eliminated entirely.

The Claromentis Intranet Software offers a variety of methods for ensuring that the Intranet user accounts are simple and easy to manage and maintain.

The options for manging user accounts within Claromentis are:

1. Manual User Creation and Deletion
2. Bulk User Import and Update using CSV
3. Auto Sync with Active Directory using LDAP

All of the options above have their pro’s adn con’s, but most importantly, the options are available, and you can in-fact use any combination of them, at any time.

Let me explain.

The IT department may not be prepared to introduce a syncronization option at the beginning of the intranet deployment process, so they may wish to begin with a bulk upload of a collection of users by using the CSV file import process.  If then at a later date, the IT department decides that they would like to switch to an automated synchronization process, the switch is simple. Claromentis can provide instructions and assistance with the switch; and I can tell you now, the process is relatively straight forward to complete. If then at a later date, the company decides that they wish to manage accounts on the intranet as a manual process; again, the switch to do this is again relatively straight forward.
The point is simple. Claromentis Intranet Software offers 3 very different ways of managing user accounts on the Intranet Software. Each of these methods is designed to sit neatly with a variety of existing network infrastructures and business models, from 5 user systems to 50,000 user systems. Whatever your implementation; Claromentis ensures that managing and maintaining access to the system is straight forward and simple.
If you are an existing Claromentis Customer, and would like to find out more about the items discussed in this post, please contact the Claromentis Support Team.

Services intranet, ldap, managing users