External directory settings

The name that you provide here is used to refer to the external directory service anywhere it is used in the PE console. For example, when you view a remote user in the console, the name that you provide in this field is listed in the console as the source for that user. Set any name of your choice.

A URL supplied here becomes a "Need help logging in?" link on the login screen. The href attribute of this link is set to the URL that you provide.

The FQDN of the directory service to which you are connecting.

The port that PE uses to access the directory service. The port is generally 389, unless you choose to connect using SSL, in which case it is generally 636.

The distinguished name (DN) of the directory service user account that PE uses to query information about users and groups in the directory server. If a username is supplied, this user must have read access for all directory entries that are to be used in the console. We recommend that this user is restricted to read-only access to the directory service.

If your LDAP server is configured to allow anonymous binding, you do not need to provide a lookup user. In this case, the RBAC service binds anonymously to your LDAP server.

The lookup user's password.

If your LDAP server is configured to allow anonymous binding, you do not need to provide a lookup password. In this case, the RBAC service binds anonymously to your LDAP server.

The number of seconds that PE attempts to connect to the directory server before timing out. Ten seconds is fine in the majority of cases. If you are experiencing timeout errors, make sure the directory service is up and reachable, and then increase the timeout if necessary.

Select the security protocol you want to use to connect to the external directory.

SSL and StartTLS encrypt the data transmitted.

Plain text is not a secure connection.

In addition, to ensure that the directory service is properly identified, configure the ds-trust-chain to point to a copy of the public key for the directory service. For more information, see Verify directory server certificates.

Use this field if you need to specify different certificate chains between servers.

This option is not available when you choose to connect to the external directory using plain text.

Select Yes to verify that the Directory Service hostname used to connect to the LDAP server matches the hostname on the SSL certificate.

This option is not available when you choose to connect to the external directory using plain text.

Select Yes to allow a connection to a Directory Services server with a SSL certificates that use a wildcard (*) specification.

This option is not available when you choose to connect to the external directory using plain text.

When PE constructs queries to your external directory (for example to look up user groups or users), the queries consist of the relative distinguished name (RDN) (optional) + the base distinguished name (DN), and are then filtered by lookup/login attributes. For example, if PE wants to authenticate a user named Bob who has the RDN ou=bob,ou=users, it sends a query in which the RDN is concatenated with the DN specified in this field (for example, dc=puppetlabs,dc=com). This gives a search base of ou=bob,ou=users,dc=puppetlabs,dc=com.

The base DN that you provide in this field specifies where in the directory service tree to search for groups and users. It is the part of the DN that all users and groups that you want to use have in common. It is commonly the root DN (example dc=example,dc=com) but in the following example of a directory service entry, you could set the base DN to ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com because both the group and the user are also under the organizational unit ou=Puppet.

Example directory service entry:

# A user named Harold
dn: cn=harold,ou=Users,ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalPerson
cn: harold
displayName: Harold J.
mail: harold@example.com
memberOf: inspectors
sAMAccountName: harold11

# A group Harold is in
dn: cn=inspectors,ou=Groups,ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: group
cn: inspectors
displayName: The Inspectors
member: harold

This is the directory attribute that the user uses to log in to PE. For example, if you specify sAMAccountName as the user login attribute, Harold logs in with the username "harold11" because sAMAccountName=harold11 in the example directory service entry provided above.

The value provided by the user login attribute must be unique among all entries under the User RDN + Base DN search base you’ve set up.

For example, say you’ve selected the following settings:

base DN = dc=example,dc=com
user RDN = null
user login attribute = cn

When Harold tries to log in, the console searches the external directory for any entries under dc=example,dc=com that have the attribute/value pair cn=harold. (This attribute/value pair does not need to be contained within the DN). However, if there is another user named Harold who has the DN cn=harold,ou=OtherUsers,dc=example,dc=com, two results are returned and the login does not succeed because the console does not know which entry to use. Resolve this issue by either narrowing your search base such that only one of the entries can be found, or using a value for login attribute that you know to be unique. This makes sAMAccountName a good choice if you’re using Active Directory, as it must be unique across the entire directory.

The directory attribute to use when displaying the user's email address in PE.

The directory attribute to use when displaying the user's full name in PE.

The user RDN that you set here is concatenated with the base DN to form the search base when looking up a user. For example, if you specify ou=users for the user RDN, and your base DN setting is ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com, PE finds users that have ou=users,ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com in their DN.

This setting is optional. If you choose not to set it, PE searches for the user in the base DN (example: ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com). Setting a user RDN is helpful in the following situations:

• When you experience long wait times for operations that contact the directory service (either when logging in or importing a group for the first time). Specifying a user RDN reduces the number of entries that are searched.
• When you have more than one entry under your base DN with the same login value.

The name of an object class that all groups have.

Tells PE how to find which users belong to which groups. This is the name of the attribute in the external directory groups that indicates who the group members are.

The attribute that stores the display name for groups. This is used for display purposes only.

The value used to import groups into PE. Given the example directory service entry provided above, the group lookup attribute would be cn. When specifying the Inspectors group in the console to import it, provide the name inspectors.

The value for this attribute must be unique under your search base. If you have users with the same login as the lookup of a group that you want to use, you can narrow the search base, use a value for the lookup attribute that you know to be unique, or specify the Group object class that all of your groups have in common but your users do not.

The group RDN that you set here is concatenated with the base DN to form the search base when looking up a group. For example, if you specify ou=groups for the group RDN, and your base DN setting is ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com, PE finds groups that have ou=groups,ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com in their DN.

This setting is optional. If you choose not to set it, PE searches for the group in the base DN (example: ou=Puppet,dc=example,dc=com). Setting a group RDN is helpful in the following situations:

• When you experience long wait times for operations that contact the directory service (either when logging in or importing a group for the first time). Specifying a group RDN reduces the number of entries that are searched.
• When you have more than one entry under your base DN with the same lookup value.

When PE detects an Active Directory that supports the LDAP_MATCHING_RULE_IN_CHAIN feature, PE automatically uses it. You can select Yes to turn off the LDAP matching rule that looks up the chain of ancestry for an object until it finds a match. For organizations with a large number of group memberships, matching rule in chain can slow performance.

When authorizing users, the RBAC service can search nested groups. Nested groups are groups that belong to external directory groups. For example, assume your external directory has a System Administrators group, and you've given that group a Superusers user role in RBAC. If you selected Yes for this setting, in addition to assigning the Superusers role to individual users in the System Administrators group, RBAC looks for other groups in the System Administrators group and assigns the Superusers role to the individual users in those nested groups.

By default, this setting is not selected and RBAC does not search nested groups. To enable nested group searches, select Yes.