Microsoft® Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 provides an integrated and comprehensive solution for managing the entire lifecycle of user identities and their associated credentials. It provides identity synchronization, user provisioning, certificate and password management and policy management in a single solution that works across heterogeneous systems. As a result, IT organizations can define and automate the processes used to manage identities from creation to retirement. For more information about extending FIM, see Forefront Identity Manager 2010 Extensibility Roadmap.

In This Section

The functionality of FIM is separated into three different areas of the documentation as described below:

Forefront Identity Manager Service Developer Reference

The FIM Service includes solutions for management of users, access, credentials, and policies. FIM Service improves operational efficiency by automating common identity lifecycle management tasks and providing self-help solutions to end users. It provides self-service identity and access management capabilities such as password reset. It can be extended through the use of web service APIs, modifying the object schema, and creating custom workflows and activities. For more information, see Web Services Overview.

Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization Service Developer Reference

FIM Synchronization Service provides identity synchronization and user provisioning across multiple directories. Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization Service (FIM Synchronization Service) is a revised version of the functionality previously released as Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) 2003 and as a component of Microsoft® Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007 (ILM 2007). Many management agents (MA) are included with FIM Synchronization Service to help the user communicate between the FIM Synchronization Service and external databases and systems. FIM Synchronization Service also enables users to create custom management agents. The identity data managed by FIM Synchronization Service can be accessed by the FIM Service.

FIM Certificate Management Overview

Forefront Identity Manager Certificate Management (FIM CM) builds on the synchronization and user provisioning capabilities in FIM Synchronization Service and adds new capabilities for managing strong credentials such as smartcards. Forefront Identity Manager Certificate Management (FIM CM) is an extension of the Certificate Lifecycle Manager product released as part of Microsoft® Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007 (ILM 2007). The version included in FIM 2010 includes support for third-party certification authorities. See FIM Certificate Management Overview.

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