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Configure connections to Profile Services

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Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

In this article:

  • Add import connections

  • Configure import connections

  • Configure user profiles

Personal information about the users in your organization is stored in directory services and line-of-business applications and imported to the user profile store so that it can be used to present personalized or targeted content in sites, and to search for people in your organization.

When the administrator of the Shared Services Provider (SSP) configures user profile imports, the import connections necessary for those settings are configured automatically except for custom connections. Custom import connections must be configured separately.

Configure import settings

Import settings are used to regularly import properties from each directory services connection. Each property is mapped to a property in the user profile.

Use the following procedure to configure import settings.

Configure import settings

  1. Open the administration page for the SSP.
    To open the administration page for the SSP, do the following:

    1. On the top navigation bar, click Application Management.

    2. On the Application Management page, in the Office SharePoint Server Shared Services section, click Create or configure this farm’s shared services.

    3. On the Manage this Farm’s Shared Services page, there is a link to each SSP and links to the Web applications for each SSP. Click the link for the SSP that you want to open.

    You can also access the SSP by clicking the link to the SSP home page in the Quick Launch.

  2. On the SSP home page, in the User Profiles and My Sites section, click User profiles and properties.

  3. On the User Profiles and Properties page, in the Profiles and Import Settings section, click Configure profile import.

  4. On the Configure Profile Import page, in the Source section, select the source for the import. This is usually the current domain, or the entire forest.
    Note   Changing this setting will delete any manually configured connections for the current source.

  5. In the Default Access Account section, select Specify Account and type a name and password for the access account.

    Note

    It is recommended that you specify an account, rather than relying on the default content access account. To use the default content access account, select Use Default Content Access Account.

  6. Depending on your plan for scheduling user profile imports, select Schedule full import in the Full Import Schedule section, or select Schedule incremental import in the Incremental Import Schedule section, and then select the day and time to schedule the import.

  7. Click OK.

Before continuing with configuration of personalization features, ensure that you have imported all user profiles at least once. To run a full import of user profiles:

  • On the User Profiles and Properties page, in the Profile and Import Settings section, click Start full import.

Add import connections

The administrator of personalization services for the SSP configures import connections, adding accounts for all users who are sharing personalized information by using the SSP. In deployments that have groups of isolated users, personalized information is isolated by using multiple SSPs. In deployments that have multiple SSPs, the SSP administrator must add connections between SSPs.

Connections to directory services can include Active Directory directory services and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory services. You can add a connection to the Business Data Catalog, but it is recommended that you first add import connections for directory services.

Most of these connections are configured automatically when import settings are configured. You can change the default configuration options or add custom import connections.

Use the following procedure to add an import connection.

Add an import connection

  1. Open the administration page for the SSP.
    To open the administration page for the SSP, perform the following:

    1. On the top navigation bar, click Application Management.

    2. On the Application Management page, in the Office SharePoint Server Shared Services section, click Create or configure this farm's shared services.

    3. On the Manage this Farm's Shared Services page, there is a link to each SSP and links to the Web applications for each SSP. Click the link for the SSP that you want to open.

    You can also access the SSP by clicking the link to the SSP home page in the Quick Launch.

  2. On the SSP home page, in the User Profiles and My Sites section, click User profiles and properties.

  3. On the User Profiles and Properties page, in the Profile and Import Settings section, click View import connections.

  4. On the View Import Connections page, click Create New Connection.

  5. To add a connection to Active Directory directory services:

    1. On the Add Connection page, in the Connection Settings section, on the Type menu, click Active Directory.

    2. In the Domain name text box, type the domain name for the domain that contains the information that you want to import.

    3. Select Auto discover domain controller if the specific domain controller is not important. To select a specific domain controller, select Specify a domain controller, and then in the Domain controller name menu, click the name of a specific domain controller.

    4. In the Port text box, type the number of the port to use to connect to the domain. To use SSL to help secure the connection, select the Use SSL-secured connection check box, and type a port number that is configured to use SSL in the Port text box.

    5. To minimize the performance impact on the domain controller, type a number of seconds in the Time out text box, and select Enable Server Side Incremental.

      Note

      The Enable Server Side Incremental option must be selected if you are planning to perform incremental imports.

  6. To add a connection to an Active Directory resource:

    1. In the Connection Settings section, on the Type menu, click Active Directory Resource.

    2. In the Domain name text box, type the domain name for the domain that contains the information that you want to import.

    3. Select Auto discover domain controller if the specific domain controller is not important. To select a specific domain controller, select Specify a domain controller, and then in the Domain controller name menu, click the name of a specific domain controller.

    4. In the Port text box, type the number of the port to use to connect to the domain. To use SSL to help secure the connection, select the Use SSL-secured connection check box, and type a port number that is configured to use SSL in the Port text box.

    5. To minimize the performance impact on the domain controller, type a number of seconds in the Time out text box, and select Enable Server Side Incremental.

    6. In the Master Forest Connection Settings section, in the Domain name text box, type the domain name for the master forest associated with the Active Directory resource that you want to import.

    7. Select Auto discover domain controller if the specific domain controller for the master forest is not important. To select a specific domain controller, select Specify a domain controller, and then in the Domain controller name menu, click the name of a specific domain controller.

    8. In the Port text box, type the number of the port to use to connect to the domain. To use SSL to help secure the connection, select the Use SSL-secured connection check box, and type a port number that is configured to use SSL in the Port text box.
      Select Specify Account and type the account name and password that you want to use to import user profiles from this connection.

      Note

      It is recommended that you specify an account, rather than relying on the default content access account. To use the default content access account, select Use Default Account.

  7. To add a connection to LDAP directory services:

    1. On the Add Connection page, in the Connection Settings section, in the Type menu, click LDAP Directory.

    2. In the Connection name text box, type the name of the connection.

    3. In the Directory service server name text box, type the name of the server for the directory service.

    4. In the Port text box, type the number of the port to use to connect to the domain. To use SSL to help secure the connection, select the Use SSL-secured connection check box, and type a port number that is configured to use SSL in the Port text box.

    5. To minimize the performance impact on the domain controller, type a number of seconds in the Time out text box, and select Enable Server Side Incremental.

    6. In the Provider name text box, type the name of the provider for this connection.

    7. In the Username attribute text box, type the name of the attribute to import.

      Note

      This attribute is the identification attribute for each entry in LDAP directory services, associated with a single user or account. By default, this is the uid attribute.

  8. In the Search Settings section, in the Search base text box, type the distinguished name of the directory node from which to import the users. If you do not know the distinguished name, click the Auto Fill Root Search Base button.

  9. In the User filter text box, you can add new query clauses to the default query to filter which user profiles are imported.

  10. Under Scope, select One level to import one level of user profiles, or Subtree to import all user profiles under the search base.

  11. To improve performance, you can type a maximum number of user profiles to import in the Page Size text box, and type a maximum number of seconds for the import in the Page time out text box.

  12. In the Authentication Information section, select Specify Account and type the account name and password that you want to use to import user profiles from this connection.

    Note

    It is recommended that you specify an account, rather than relying on the default content access account. To use the default content access account, select Use Default Account.

  13. Click OK.

For most connections, unless you have a specific need to narrow the scope of the import or limit the impact on the servers for directory services, you can accept the default values that appear on the Add Connection page. If you have non-user accounts in Active Directory, such as accounts used for testing, you might want to filter out those accounts. Configuration settings for connections can be modified to improve performance as part of regular operations.

For more information about the exact settings to use when importing user profiles, see the technical reference documentation for Microsoft SharePoint Office Server 2007. For more information about Active Directory, see the documentation for Active Directory.

After you have configured import connections to directory services, you can add a connection for additional properties imported from the Business Data Catalog. Unlike directory services, it is not possible to create user profiles from the Business Data Catalog. You can only add Business Data Catalog data to existing user profiles imported from directory services, although you can add as much or as little data as you want.

Use the following procedure to add an import connection to the Business Data Catalog.

Add an import connection to the Business Data Catalog

  1. On the View Import Connections page, click Create New Connection.

  2. On the Add Connection page, in the Connection Settings section, in the Type menu, click Business Data Catalog.

  3. In the Connection name text box, type the name of the connection.

  4. In the Domain name text box, type the domain name for the domain that contains the information that you want to import.

  5. In the Business Data Catalog Entity menu, select the name of the business data type that contains the data field to import as a user profile property.

  6. Under Connection, select Connect User Profile Store to Business Data Catalog Entity as a 1:1 mapping, and then select a profile property that maps to the business data type in the Return items identified by this profile property menu.

  7. To import multiple items for the business data type, select Connect User Profile Store to Business Data Catalog Entity as a 1:many mapping, select a property to filter by in the Filter items by menu, and then type a property for the filter value in the Use this profile property as the filter value menu.

  8. Select Auto discover domain controller if the specific domain controller is not important. To select a specific domain controller, select Specify a domain controller, and then in the Domain controller name menu, click the name of a specific domain controller.

  9. In the Port text box, type the number of the port to use to connect to the domain. To use SSL to help secure the connection, select the Use SSL-secured connection check box, and type a port number that is configured to use SSL in the Port text box.

  10. To minimize the performance impact on the domain controller, type a number of seconds in the Time out text box, and select Enable Server Side Incremental.

  11. In the Provider name text box, type the name of the provider for this connection.

  12. In the Username attribute text box, type the name of the attribute to import.

    Note

    This attribute is the identification attribute for each entry in the Business Data Catalog for this business data type.

Configure user profiles

You can add properties to user profiles other than those that are imported from directory services and the business data catalog. These properties can be mapped to existing properties so that their values can be automatically updated during profile imports.

During initial deployment, add the additional properties that you identified during user profile planning.

Use the following procedure to add properties to user profiles.

Add properties to user profiles

  1. On the User Profiles and Properties page, in the User Profile Properties section, click Add profile property.

  2. On the Add User Profile Property page, in the Property Settings section, type a name and display name for the property.

    Note

    If your deployment uses multiple languages, you can provide alternative display names for each language by clicking the Edit Languages button, clicking Add Language, selecting a language from the menu, and then typing the display name in the new language. You can add display names for any of the available languages. The display name that appears depends on the language used by the user viewing the property.

  3. On the Type menu, select the data type for the property.

  4. On the Length menu, type the maximum number of characters allowed for values for this property.

  5. To allow multiple values for this property, select the Allow multiple values check box, and then select an option from the Multivalue Separator menu.

    Note

    If you select the Allow multiple values check box, the property will be permanently set as a multi-valued property. You cannot change this setting after you have selected it.

  6. To allow users to select values from a list of choices, select the Allow choice list check box

  7. In the User Description section, type a description that provides instructions for users who are adding values for this property.

    Note

    If your deployment uses multiple languages, you can provide alternative descriptions for each language by clicking the Edit Languages button, clicking Add Language, selecting a language from the menu, and then typing the display name in the new language. You can add descriptions for any of the available languages. The description that appears depends on the language used by the user viewing the property.

  8. In the Policy Settings, Edit Settings, and Display Settings sections, select a policy setting and default privacy setting for this property, select whether users can edit values for this property, and configure display options. For more information about privacy policies, see Configure policies for Profile Services.

  9. In the Choice List Settings section, choose whether the property uses a defined choice list, add the choices, and select whether users can add to the choice list.

    Note

    This section is only available if you selected the Allow choice list check box in the Property Settings section. For more information about choice lists, see Plan for people and user profiles.

  10. In the Search Settings section, select the Alias check box if the property is equivalent to the user's name for purposes of search. Select Indexed if this property is part of the search schema for users, so that it can be used to find users or is displayed in users search results.

  11. In the Property Import Mapping section, select the data source and data type field to use when mapping this property.

  12. Click OK.

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

See the full list of available books at Office SharePoint Server technical library.

See Also

Concepts

Plan for people and user profiles
Configure policies for Profile Services
Configure targeted content
Configure personalization sites