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LDAP sources in synchronization tasks

When you configure a synchronization task to use an LDAP source, you can configure the source properties.
The source properties appear on the Source page of the Synchronization Task wizard when you specify an LDAP connection.
The following table describes the LDAP source properties:
Source Property
Description
Connection
Name of the source connection.
Source Type
Type of the source object. Select Single as the source type.
Source Object
Name of the source object. Select the source object for the task.

LDAP source properties in synchronization tasks

You can configure the advanced source properties on the Schedule page of the Synchronization Task wizard.
The following table describes the LDAP advanced source properties:
Property
Description
Page Size
Size of the page set to retrieve the maximum number of entries for each request.
If you set the value of the Page Size to 0, the Secure Agent retrieves the number of entries that is set in the MaxPageSize LDAP property in one request.
For example, if you set the value of the Page Size to 0 and the MaxPageSize LDAP property is set to 1000, the Secure Agent retrieves 1000 entries in one request.
If you set the value of the Page Size to a non-zero value, the Secure Agent retrieves all the entries from LDAP in multiple requests. The number of requests made to retrieve the entries are calculated based on the total number of entries in LDAP divided by the Page Size value.
For example, if you set the value of the Page Size to 100, the MaxPageSize LDAP property is set to 1000, and there are 1100 entries in LDAP, the Secure Agent retrieves all the entries in 11 requests.
Parent DN
Required. The DN in an LDAP directory server namespace from where you want to fetch data.
For example, you can specify the following DN to read data about people from Informatica: ou=people, o= infa.com
Search Level
Searches for entries while reading from the LDAP directory server. You can select one of the following search options:
  • - One-level. Retrieves immediate children of a base object, but excludes the base object.
  • - Subtree. Retrieves all objects subordinate to the base object including the base object.
Default is one-level.
Use Object Category Filter
Fetches entries based on the object category value.
When disabled, the fetches the entries based on the object class value. For example, when you disable the filter, the user object class fetches the entries from both the user and computer because computer is derived from the user object class.
To fetch only the user entry, enable the object category filter as both user and computer have different object category values.
CDC
Captures the changed data in Active Directory based on the time stamp or the last extracted point. Select CDC and configure the following options to capture changed data:
  • - Specify the start time and end time to capture changed data for that period.
  • - Specify only the start time to capture changed data until the last change.
  • - Do not specify a start time and end time to capture data from the last recorded update sequence number (USN).
  • - Specify only the end time to capture changes from the beginning till the specified end time.
  • - Reset the value of the CDC to capture changes by ignoring the values stored in the CDC file.
CDC Start Time
The start time from when you want the to capture the changed data.
If you select CDC and specify a start time, but do not specify an end time, the captures the changed data until the last change.
Use the following sample format to specify the start time: 20150312081001.0Z
CDC End Time
The end time until when you want the to capture the changed data. When you specify only the end time, the captures the changed data from the beginning until the specified end time.
Use the following sample format to specify the end time: 2050412081001.0Z
CDC File Path
Absolute path of the file that stores the change number for the last read changed entry.
Reset CDC
Ignores the CDC change number stored in the CDC file. After the reset, the captures the changes made to the LDAP directory server from the beginning.

LDAP source synchronization task example

You work for the IT department and you have an LDAP directory server to store data of assets allotted to employees. You want to track the availability and utilization of virtual machines across employees in the organization.
You want to generate an analytic report in Tableau Server. Based on the report, you want to take decisions to allocate unused hardware effectively.
You perform the following synchronization tasks:
Define the synchronization task.
Configure a synchronization task to use the insert operation.
Use an LDAP source object.
The source object for a synchronization task is an LDAP computer class object that contains the asset details. Use the LDAP connection to connect to the LDAP directory server and read data. The LDAP object is a single source in the synchronization task.
The following table describes the fields for the computer source object that you can include:
Field
Description
name
The name of the asset.
description
Description of the asset.
managedBy
Name of the employee who owns the asset.
memberOf
Team or group that the employee belongs to.
Create a Tableau target.
The target in a synchronization task is Tableau Server. Use the Tableau connection to connect to Tableau Server. Use the target_write.tde as the target object in the synchronization task.
Include the name, description, mangedBy, and memberOf target fields from the source object that you want to insert into the target object.
Configure a field mapping.
Map the fields of the LDAP computer source object to the Tableau target object.
The following image shows the mapping of the computer source with the Tableau target:
Configure the advanced source and target properties.
In the advanced source properties, you choose properties that are specific to LDAP. Specify OU=Platform_QA_Adapters,OU=R&D,OU=INFA,DC=ADPQATEST,DC=COM as the parent DN in the LDAP directory server namespace from where you want to fetch the data.
In the advanced target properties, you choose properties that are specific to Tableau Server. Save and run the task. The Secure Agent retrieves the computer data from LDAP directory server and writes to Tableau Server based on the fields you mapped in the synchronization task.
Open the project in Tableau Server to visualize the exported data.
The following image shows the data categorized by asset availability in Tableau Server:
You can view the allocation of assets for each employee, listed along with the number and type of applications that are running on each computer.
IT managers can use the information to visualize and query the computer assets to make decisions.