Sailpoint IdentityIQ: IdentityIQ Aggregation Using Multi Threading and target resource mapping

Posted on by Akhil Kondapalli in Technology

Aggregation Using Multi Threading:

Introduction:

SailPoint IdentityIQ supports partitioning of various jobs so that data processing can not only be split across multiple hosts but also across multiple threads per host. The overall goal with partitioning is to increase processing throughput and speed. Specifically, partitioning is supported for account aggregation tasks, for identity refresh tasks, for generation of manager certifications, and for role propagation. This blog describes the steps required to configure partitioning for account aggregation tasks and Target resource mapping.

In the following presentation, I will be providing a brief introduction of IdentityIQ Aggregation Using Multi Threading and target resource mapping

Partitioning Settings:

The Server, ServiceDefinition, and RequestDefinition objects defined for the installation specify important parameters that affect partitioning.

Server Object:

SailPoint IdentityIQ automatically creates a Server object for each host which connects to an IdentityIQ database. A maxRequestThreads value can be specified in the Server object’s attributes map to designate the maximum number of threads which can be used for request processing on this host at one time.

If your installation uses maxRequestThreads settings per Server object, the recommendation is to set the maxRequestThreads value equal to two times the number of CPUs on the server (e.g. 4 CPU means value of 8).

Service Definition Object:

By default, each IdentityIQ host as part of an installation serves in UI, task, and request roles simultaneously. By default, the hosts attribute is set to global for Task and Request ServiceDefinition objects, meaning all connected IdentityIQ hosts function as Request and Task hosts. The CSV delimited list of host names in the hosts attribute must be set to the same value returned by the hostname command when it is run on the application server hosts.

RequestDefinition Object:

RequestDefinition objects govern how IdentityIQ handles items added to the Request queue for processing. Each RequestDefinition object specifies the maximum number of threads per server to use for each request type through its maxThreads attribute. The maxThreads values on each of these mentioned RequestDefinition objects govern the number of threads that IdentityIQ will attempt to use on each request server to run each task of the specified type. 

The recommended best practice is to specify a value for maxThreads in the range of 1-2 times the number of CPUs for all RequestDefinition objects mentioned here. It is strongly recommended that all request/task servers in an IdentityIQ installation have the same number of CPUs, available memory, and allocated disk space.

Aggregation Task Configuration:

Activating partitioning on an aggregation task is simple once other partitioning settings are configured. It only requires selecting the Enable Partitioning option in the task definition user interface page. This must be enabled for each aggregation task which will use partitioning, as this setting is disabled by default. There is a second configuration option for TaskDefinitions that is applicable in some situations: objects per partition. This option sets the maximum number of records to include in each partition. IdentityIQ will then divide the accounts from the data source into as many partitions as required.

Target Resource Mapping:

In sailpoint identityiq Target Resource mapping is used to reflect the changes in target application based on the source application.

Source and Target Mapping Configuration:

The source mappings is used for the attributes coming in from target to IIQ. For ex., you may define a source mapping for status attribute as “employeeStatus”. This attribute can then be used by SailPoint for all internal processing.

The target mappings is used for provisioning the updated values of attributes to target from IIQ. Assume, you have defined source mapping “employeeStatus” coming from HR application and if you wish to populate this value to AD, the target mappings can be utilized.

Refresh Identity Cube Task Configuration:

In Refresh Identity Cube task we have an field which is Synchronize attribute.

After checking that field the identity mappings target will be provisioned if there are any changes in source application

In the following video, I will be providing a detailed demo on IdentityIQ Aggregation Using Multi Threading

SailPoint IdentityNow: Extensibility Feature Integration for Access Requests

Posted on by Arshad Moghul in Identity Governance, Sailpoint, Technology

Each progressing year, IT is getting more and more complex. Organizations keep growing and subsequently more and more people come into the organization each with their own needs. These users are then provided with their own levels of access to resources. The problem that arises here is that the growing mess of systems and user access management.

IdentityNow is an IDaaS (Identity as a Service) based IAM solution, unlike IdentityIQ which is on-premise. IdentityNow also helps people get the access that they need and manage the lifecycle around it. The current blog discusses the extensibility features announced by SailPoint. These features will help make security decisions on the go very effectively.

In the following presentation, I will be providing a detailed overview of Extensibility Feature Integration with IdentityNow for Access Requests.

Overview of Extensibility Features :

Users at an enterprise level are distributed among different geographies of the world. SailPoint’s access request integration with applications such as Microsoft Teams and Slack enable the users to get the access that they need right from the tool that they use the most. SailPoint also ensures that the appropriate governance and compliance controls are enforced while providing ease of access to the users while making access requests.

Current Access Request Process :

To briefly understand the current access request process in IdentityNow below is an illustrative diagram:

Roles in IdentityNow combine provisioning to multiple sources by combining different access profiles. However, for access requests, roles can be marked as “requestable”. By doing this, the roles are then visible in the Request Center tab in IdentityNow. We can have approvals in place for this role such that any user who requests for this role, will by routed through an approval process.

Applications in IdentityNow have their own XML structure with their own password policies and account creation restrictions. For the approvals, we can define the approval hierarchy in Access Profiles itself. Once the application has been created, it should be marked as ‘visible in request center’ and ‘allow access requests’.

Users have to login to their IdentityNow tenant with their credentials. They navigate to Request Center tab to see “Applications” and “Roles” where they can make an access request from either of these. Both Roles and Applications facilitate provisioning to the target source using Access Profiles.

Applications and Integration Overview :

  1. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft teams is a chat-based collaboration platform from Microsoft. With capabilities such as documents sharing, online meetings, teams and channels, online video calling and screen sharing, messaging and many more extensible features for business communication. It is extremely user friendly and can facilitate a work environment between remote users and large businesses. Below are the benefits from this integration:

  • Ease of making access requests from within the Teams Application.
  • Users can request either for a Role or Application depending on the business needs.
  • This integration ensures seamless user experience for making access requests.

Below is the process followed post the integration with MS Teams:

  • Users will login to their Teams application using their Office365 account.
  • A SailPoint chatbot is configured which appears in the Applications tab.
  • Connect to your IdentityNow tenant and click on “Create Access Request”.
  • Find and select the Application/Role to request.
  • Select the role for himself or for others.
  • Submit the request.

2. Slack

Slack is workspace alternative communication tool just like teams which combines the functionalities for messaging, tools and files. Users can communicate over channels or Direct Messages based on their requirement and it has support for third-party application integrations and add-ins. Although the application is free to use with certain limitations, there is an enterprise level application as well. Below are the benefits from this integration:

  • Ease of making access requests from within the Slack Application.
  • Users can request either for a Role or Application depending on the business need.
  • This integration ensures seamless user experience for making access requests.

Below is the process followed post the integration with Slack:

  • A user will login to their Slack application using their work email and authenticating from it.
  • A SailPoint chatbot is configured which appears in the Applications tab.
  • Connect to your IdentityNow tenant and click on “Create Access Request” by entering a forward slash in the SailPoint’s chatbot.
  • Find and select the Application/Role to request.
  • Select the role for himself or for others.
  • Submit the request.

Access Request : From an API perspective

  • This integration is achieved using REST API’s. REST stands for Representational State Transfer.
  • It is an architectural style for the web services.
  • This architectural style helps in lesser use of bandwidth to make an application more suitable to communicate over the internet.
  • It is often regarded as the language of the internet.
  • The primary methods that the REST APIs communicate are
    • Create – POST
    • Read – GET
    • Update – PUT/PATCH
    • Delete – DELETE
  • SailPoint has developed the REST API’s for IdentityNow. The reference documentation is available at developer.sailpoint.com
  • Please note that the {api-url} below is the org name of your IdentityNow tenant.
  • The primary APIs that are used behind this integration are:
    • List of access request objects: Returns a list of requestable items for an access request.
      • GET – https://{api-url}.api.identitynow.com/v3/requestable-objects
    • Create an access request: Submits an access request to IdentityNow. This will not return any result because the request has been submitted by the system. If there are more than one identity for the access request, the JSON payload will contain a list of id’s for each identity.
      • POST – https://{api-url}.api.sailpoint.com/v3/access-requests
    • Get the access-request status: Returns a list of access request statuses based on the specified query parameters.
      • GET – https://{api-url}.api.identitynow.com/beta/access-request-status

In the following video, I will be providing a detailed demo of the access request integration with Teams and Slack.

Sailpoint IdentityIQ: Object Exporter Script

Posted on by Pavan Chappidi in Identity Governance, Sailpoint, Technology

Introduction:

SailPoint IdentityIQ is a J2EE Application that is built on top of Hibernate object-relational model. All the Dev Artifacts are Java Objects represented in XML. The current blog discusses the script which helps in

  1. Migrating Artifacts to higher environments
  2. Migrating standard libraries

Working:

Below are the steps describing working of the script:

  1. The script will export objects from one IdentityIQ Environment through console attached to the instance (Console is a command line utility to each identityIQ instance provided).
  2. Script will perform necessary processing on the exported objects and prepares to be imported to the Target Environment.
  3. The Objects will be imported into the Target Environment through console attached to the instance.

Usage:

  1. Configure the Config.xml file provided with the following parameters
    1. Export Console Path
    2. Import Console Path
    3. Required Objects
  2. Run the script provided.

Below is the Demo on Exporter script:

ERP Overview from an IAM Perspective

Posted on by Shivangi Singh in Identity Governance, Technology

ERP plays a critical role by helping an organization in managing its core business processes such as, project management, procurement, sales, etc. It manages day-to-day business activities by providing a central information system for data sharing. A greater visibility, increased productivity and operational efficiency can be observed by synchronizing all these areas. To authenticate and authorize the users within ERP software, there is a major role played by Identity and Access Management. It authenticates the digital identity of the users and manage their roles and access privileges in the central information system.

In this blog we are discussing about the benefit of implementing ERP by comparing it with the traditional method and also about securing it with the help of IAM modules. The blog also mentioned about the SAP (System applications and Product) which is a top ERP solution, it has positioned as a leader in Gartner’s Magic quadrant for single instance ERP, for multiple consecutive areas as per different evaluation criteria.

COBIT in IAM Projects – An overview

Posted on by Shivangi Singh in Cyber Security, Identity Governance, Technology

Information technology is expanding within the business world immensely. For the success of your business, one of the key requirements is the effective IT governance. There are numerous frameworks available to manage the Information Technology within an organization, and COBIT is one such framework that aligns your IT strategies with business strategies. It narrowly focuses on security, risk, management and governance.

While an organization is dealing with important projects like Identity and Access Management, COBIT implementation ensures that we are aligning with the business & IT objectives for IAM.

In this blog we are going to put some light on the COBIT framework and its implementation within the business processes of an organization.

SailPoint IdentityNow SSO integration with Okta

Posted on by Chaitanya Malladi in Identity Governance, Okta, Sailpoint, Technology

Okta is the leading solution for user authentication and single sign-on (SSO) for workforce as well as customer identities. Okta is capable of managing SSO to wide range of applications along with multi-factor authentication, directory integrations and lifecycle management from the cloud.

SailPoint IdentityNow is a cloud based identity and access management solution which aims to provide identity-as-a-service. IdentityNow enables a complete set of IAM capabilities delivered from the cloud to manage hybrid IT environments that include on-premises and cloud resources. IdentityNow supports SAML based Single Sign On. SAML is an open standard which allows an identity provider (like Okta) to pass on authentication information to a service provider (like IdentityNow).

In the following demonstration, we take a look at the SAML integration of IdentityNow with Okta for Single Sign-on. We will also go over the Active Directory integration in Okta and how this can be backed by IdentityNow’s lifecycle management.

SailPoint IdentityIQ QuickBooks ERP Integration using Dell Boomi as Middleware

Posted on by Akhil Sangam in Identity Governance, Sailpoint, Technology

In recent years, we’ve witnessed a rapid shift from on-premise applications to a hybrid mix of SaaS (software-as-a-service), iPaaS (Integration Platform as a service) and on-premise applications, as well as integration between various cloud providers and platforms. Very Soon Everything is going to be connected to Cloud and data . All this is going to be mediated by a software(Middleware).

Amidst such scenarios , It is essential for the need of a software to bridge the gap between applications and other tools or databases. It is effectively a method of communication and data management between applications that would otherwise not have any way to exchange data — such as with software tools and databases. 

Dell Boomi AtomSphere is an on-demand multi-tenant cloud integration platform for connecting cloud and on-premises applications and data. The platform enables customers to design cloud-based integration processes called Atoms and transfer data between cloud and on-premises applications. Dell Boomi specializes in cloud-based integration, API management and Master Data Management. 

QuickBooks is an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit and are geared mainly toward small and medium-sized businesses and offer on-premises accounting applications as well as cloud-based versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and payroll functions.

The following is the demonstration of steps for Integrating  SailPoint IdentityIQ QuickBooks ERP using Dell Boomi as Middleware.

SailPoint IdentityIQ SSO Integration with Okta

Posted on by Akhil Sangam in Identity Governance, Okta, Sailpoint, Technology

You have to admit that there are many people who change their password to ‘incorrect’ .That way it always reminds them whenever they enter a wrong password – “your password is incorrect” . Also a survey stated more than 78% of people tend to forget their latest passwords within 21 days of inactivity .

Amidst such scenarios , securing and monitoring the access for any external users like partners, contractors and customers who have access to organizational resources have always been a challenge for many organizations thereby increasing the demand for a centralized login system. Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication process that allows a user to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials. 

Okta is the one of the leading provider for user authentication and standards-based single sign-on (SSO) for employee, partner and customer identity types. Okta supports and manages SSO for the enterprises with wide range of applications thereby providing a single secured centralized login system.

SailPoint IdentityIQ  supports Single sign-on as one of its supported login configurations . The SSO is based on the SAML protocol which is a standard protocol for the SSO and other security assertions.

In this blog we are going to take a look at the integration of SailPoint IdentityIQ with Okta for Single Sign on.

The following presentation discusses in detail about the integration between SailPoint IdentityIQ and Okta.

The following is the demonstration of steps for configuring Okta as an Identity Provider for SailPoint IdentityIQ

SailPoint IdentityNow Ticketing integration with ServiceNow

Posted on by Mohit Kayla in Technology

Ticketing systems form an excessive part of any enterprise’s IT infrastructure. An IT ticketing software, also known as an IT ticketing system, is a software program that enables organizations to resolve their internal IT support queries by managing and streamlining the process of issue resolution.
ServiceNow is a global leader in cloud-based ticketing systems and has been playing a visionary role in ITSM and ITOM.

IdentityNow is a leader in the market for a perfect IAM solution for organizations taking the next step into cloud computing. The product is simpler to tack together than several other IAM solutions in the market, thus additional configuration can be completed without the need for specialist resources. The User interface (UI) is a lot easier to interface for end-users and needs less coaching.
IdentityNow’s Service Integration Module, or SIM integration with ServiceNow, which converts IdentityNow provisioning actions into tickets in ServiceNow.

The following presentation will give the overall idea of ServiceNow service catalog integration with SailPoint IdentityNow and explanation of the use case,

The following is the demonstration and walk through the IdentityNow integration with Servicenow and showcases the integration use case,

Oracle E-Business Suite Integration with SailPoint IdentityNow

Posted on by Chaitanya Malladi in Technology

Oracle‘s E-Business Suite (EBS) is the most comprehensive collection of business applications to enable management and optimization of critical business processes. EBS includes applications for enterprise resource planning (ERP), human resources management (HRMS), customer relationship management (CRM), financials and supply chain management (SCM) among others.

SailPoint IdentityNow provides a complete solution to manage Oracle E-Business accounts data, passwords, and access with it’s connector. The user management and the assignment of roles and responsibilities can be simplified and streamlined using IdentityNow. This integration also facilitates implementation of Segregation of Duties (SoD) policies in real-time, enabling role based access and performing user access reviews.

In this presentation, we will overview of Oracle EBS and its integration with IdentityNow for user access management including the pre-requisites and the connector APIs.

The following demonstration includes the basic integration process along with role based access control for Oracle EBS.