Creating Import Specifications

An Import Specification defines the connection details for an LDAP server which includes user accounts that may be imported into LiveCompare. In addition to providing connection details, and Import Specification defines the role that will be assigned to each imported user account, and the projects to which the account will be added. An Import Specification may also have a schedule associated with it, so that user accounts may be added to LiveCompare (or removed if necessary) at regular intervals.

If you have LiveCompare Administrator privileges, Import Specifications are accessible from the Administration/Import Specifications folder in the LiveCompare hierarchy. It is possible to create more than one Import Specification, allowing you to import users from more than one LDAP security group, assigning them different roles. For example, users from one security group may be assigned the Editor role, while users from a second security group may be assigned the Consumer role.

If you have LiveCompare Administrator privileges, Import Specifications may be created by carrying out the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the Administration/Import Specifications folder in the LiveCompare hierarchy. This folder is only displayed for users with LiveCompare Administrator privileges.
  2. Select ‘New Import Specification…’ from the context menu, and complete the Create LDAP  Input Specification screen as follows:
Field Description
Name: Enter a unique name that will identify the Import Specification. The following characters may not be used in the name of an Import Specification: . / \ *. These characters are converted underscores when LDAP settings from earlier LiveCompare releases are upgraded to Import Specifications.

LDAP

Complete the fields in the LDAP tab as follows:

Field Description
Domain: The domain name for your network.
Domain Controller: The hostname of your LDAP domain controller.
Authentication Method: This field specifies how each username and password is authenticated with the LDAP server. Select either ‘Simple’ or ‘Negotiate’. The default authentication method is ‘Negotiate’.
Group DN: The distinguished name of a security group that has been set up manually on your LDAP server. The users in this security group may be imported into LiveCompare to create user accounts that will be authenticated with the LDAP server.
Group member attribute: The name of the attribute in the LDAP database that stores the distinguished name of users who are members of the security group identified by the ‘Group DN’ setting.
User Base: The starting point for username searches in the LDAP directory
LDAP Account Name: The network account used by LiveCompare to log in to LDAP and search for the user accounts to be imported into LiveCompare.
LDAP Account Distinguished Name: The distinguished name of the account used by LiveCompare to read the security group and import LDAP accounts. If Simple authentication is used, the LDAP Account Distinguished Name is authenticated rather than the LDAP Account Name.
LDAP Account Password: The network password for the specified LDAP account name.
User Name Field: The LDAP field containing the user account names to be imported into LiveCompare.
User Description Field: The LDAP field containing the descriptions to be used for the LiveCompare user accounts.
User Email Field: The LDAP field containing the email addresses for the user account names to be imported into LiveCompare.

The following screen shows some example settings.

Example LDAP Settings.

Role

In the Role tab, select the LiveCompare role that will be assigned to each user imported from the specified LDAP server and security group. The LiveCompare Consumer role is selected by default.

Projects

In the Projects tab, select each of the projects to which users imported from the LDAP server and security group will be assigned. Note that if LiveCompare is project-controlled, imported LDAP users must be assigned to at least one project.

Schedule

In the Schedule tab, specify a schedule to define when user accounts from the specified LDAP server and security group will be imported into LiveCompare. Complete the fields in the Schedule tab as follows:

Field Description
Import users according to this schedule: Select this check box to enable the schedule, or clear the check box to disable it. A schedule may not be modified unless it is enabled.
Run time: Enter a run time for the schedule.
Run daily at the scheduled time: Select this radio button to import users daily at the specified run time.
Repeat every: for a duration of: Use these fields to specify how often the daily schedule should be repeated, and for how long.
Run weekly on this day of the week: Select this radio button to import users weekly on the selected day of the week, at the scheduled run time.
Run monthly on this day of each month: Select this radio button to import users monthly on the selected day of the month, at the scheduled run time.
  1. Click ‘Save’ to save the Import Specification.

Importing LDAP Users