Configure columns

For this procedure, in Management Agent Designer, on the Configure Columns page, you can configure columns of the database table or view for synchronization. You can also specify an anchor attribute. The anchor attribute is used to correctly identify an object for safe management of the object and its attributes. The anchor attribute must be unique and immutable, and it will serve for the life of the object while it is being synchronized. You can also configure custom settings if your management agent will be importing from a specially configured delta view or importing from and exporting to a specially configured multi-value table. To complete this procedure, you must be logged on as a member of the MIISAdmins security group.

This procedure applies to management agents for the following Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 editions:

To configure columns

1. In Management Agent Designer, on the Configure Columns page, under Columns, verify that all of the attributes that are contained in the database table or view appear in the list.
2. To edit attribute properties, click Edit, and then do any of the following:
3. • To specify an attribute to be used as a reference, click Edit, and then click Reference (DN).
   • To specify an attribute with an empty string to be converted to NULL on import, click Edit, and then click Convert empty string to NULL on import (default).
   • To specify an attribute with a NULL value to be converted to an empty string on export, click Convert NULL to empty string on export (default).
4. Under Configure special attributes, click Set Anchor. In Available Attributes, click an attribute to use as the anchor, and then click Add. To remove a selected attribute as an anchor, click Remove. At least one attribute must be selected as the anchor.
5. To verify or specify one or more object types, click Object Type, and then, in Set Object Type, verify the default fixed object type that the object will be in the metadirectory. If you want an object type other than the default, click Fixed object type, and then type an object type name. If you want to specify multiple object types, click Object type column, and then select the column that contains the object type values. The primary table must have at least one column of String type that contains object type values, and it should contain at least one row for each object type. NULL value is not allowed.
6. If this management agent performs a delta or multi-value import, complete the following:

7. A delta view is specified on the Connect to Database page

   1. On the Configure Columns page, click Configure delta.
   2. In Configure Delta, in Change type attribute, click the change type attribute to specify the column that contains the change type.
   3. If you are configuring delta for multi-value attributes and you want to update a single attribute rather than the whole object in both tables, click Enable attribute-level change type synchronization, and then select the attribute name. This step is optional. This option is not available if there is only one column of string type for the attribute name.
   4. If the value or values for the change type attribute are different from the default, in Modify, Add, and Delete, type the appropriate change type attribute.
   5. If the Enable attribute-level change type synchronization option is selected and you are configuring delta for multi-value attributes, in Attribute modify, type the change type attribute.

   A multi-value table is specified on the Connect to Database page

   1. On the Configure Columns page, click Multi-value.
   2. In the Multi-value Settings dialog box, in Specify the attribute name column, click the column name that contains the names of the multi-value attributes in the multi-value table.
   3. In Attribute type settings, select at least one of the following:
   4. • If your multi-value table contains a column of string type (other than the attribute name column), click String attribute column, and then select the column name in the list. This option is not available if there is only one column for attribute name.
      • If your multi-value table contains a column of large string type, click Large string attribute column, and then select the column name in the list. This option is not available if there is no column that maps to large string type.
      • If your multi-value table contains a column of binary type, click Binary attribute column, and then select the column name in the list. This option is not available if there is no column that maps to binary type.
      • If your multi-value table contains a column of large binary type, click Large binary attribute column, and then select the column name in the list. This option is not available if there is no column that maps to large binary type.
      • If your multi-value table contains a column of number type, click Number attribute column, and then select the column name in the list. This option is not available if there is no column that maps to number type.
   5. To add a new multi-value attribute, click New. At least one multi-value attribute is required when a multi-value table is specified.
   6. In the Multi-value Attribute dialog box, in Name, type the name of the attribute, and then in Type, click an attribute type.
   7. If this attribute will be the reference attribute, click Reference (DN).
   8. To change an existing multi-value attribute to be a reference, select the attribute, click Edit, and then click Reference (DN). Only the Reference (DN) property can be changed by using Edit. To change other properties of an existing multi-value attribute, you must delete the attribute and then add the attribute again by clicking New.

Notes

• Configuring a management agent for import from a delta view has special requirements. For more information, see Related Topics.
• Configuring a management agent for import and export from a multi-value table has special requirements. For more information, see Related Topics.
• When you configure multi-value settings, you cannot specify the same column for both Specify the attribute name column and String attribute column.
• When you define an anchor attribute, you can use more than one attribute. However, the attribute string must be in the same order as the primary key in the connected data source.
• Nonindexable attributes cannot be selected as an anchor attribute. Attributes that are nonindexable are large string and large binary.
• When you configure delta views and multi-value tables, attribute name and object type columns must be of the type DBTYPE_WSTR.
• Management Agent Designer removes empty spaces for CHAR and NCHAR columns during import.
• To verify that Management Agent Designer correctly determined all attributes for the specified table, you can use SQL Server Enterprise Manager to view the selected table. For more information, see Microsoft SQL Server Help.
• All database management agents reserve the column name export_password for use with password extensions. If your connected data source database already has a table with an export_password column defined, any associated password extension will fail when the management agent is run.

Related Topics

Delta views for database management agents

Multi-value tables for database management agents

Using the management agent for IBM DB2 Universal Database

Using the management agent for Microsoft SQL Server

Using the management agent for Oracle Database