Metaverse Designer is used to create and configure object types and their attributes in the schema of Microsoft® Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010. FIM creates its own metaverse schema when it is installed, defining a set of object types, such as Person or Organization, and defining a set of attributes that are associated with each object type. The schema also describes the data types of attributes, data constraints, and if certain information is mandatory for specific objects. For more information about the metaverse schema, see The Metaverse and the Connector Space.

Note

A schema is also created in FIM for each connected data source. For more information about connected data source schemas, see Configuring Management Agents.

You use Metaverse Designer to configure and analyze attribute flow precedence, configure object deletion rules, and configure the metaverse schema.

Metaverse Designer displays the current object types that are available in the schema and their attributes. Selecting an object type in the top pane displays the object type's current attribute set in the lower pane.

The options available for configuring objects are:

The options available for configuring attributes are:

Note

Only the String (indexable) and Binary (indexable) attribute types may be indexed.

Importing and exporting the metaverse schema

During the deployment of FIM, you may have configured the server running FIM in a lab environment, to test the configuration. When moving FIM to your production environment, you can export the tested schema to an XML file and then import the schema to your production server. In addition, you can continue to test changes to the metaverse schema in your test environment and update the server schema in the production environment as needed. When you import a metaverse schema, you cannot remove object types from the metaverse schema.