Self-Service Active Directory

Group Management

2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hitachi ID Group Manager is a self-service group management solution. It allows users to request access to resources such as shares and folders, rather than requesting access to groups. Group Manager automatically maps requests to the appropriate security groups and invites group owners to approve or reject the proposed change. Group Manager is available both as a stand-alone solution and as a no-cost module included with Hitachi ID Identity Manager.

Contents
1 Challenges in Large-Scale Active Directory Group Management 2 Addressing Complexity Using Self-Service 3 Introducing Group Manager 4 Group Manager Technology 5 User Interface Workow 6 Requests Workow: Parallel Authorization by Multiple Approvers 7 Requests Workow: Escalation and Delegation 8 Installing, Conguring and Managing Group Manager 9 Logging and Reporting 10 Network Architecture 11 Platform Support 12 Group Manager Development Roadmap 1 2 3 4 5 7 7 9 9 10 11 11

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

Challenges in Large-Scale Active Directory Group Management

Many organizations have deployed Windows servers and Active Directory, and leveraged the powerful access control infrastructure in this platform to manage user access to data. This infrastructure uses security groups to control user access to resources: Groups are dened in Active Directory to reect business functions or organizational structure. Groups are assigned rights to network resources, such as shares, folders and printers. Users are attached to groups based on their job requirements. Groups may be nested, to simplify management. Over time, the number of groups grows and in some organizations may surpass the number of users. Moreover, in dynamic organizations users frequently change responsibilities and are assigned new projects. This churn creates complexity: User requirements must be reected by changes to user membership in groups. A user support group must be created to respond to user access problems by attaching users to appropriate groups. Users are frequently unaware of the security infrastructure, so their calls to the help desk typically begin with: "I got an access denied error..." Problem resolution is time consuming: rst map the users problem description to a network UNC, then nd the groups with rights to that resource, then nd owners for the groups, then call them to get permission to attach the user and nally attach the user to the group. Complexity in managing large numbers of changes in security group membership leads to real business problems: Stafng cost in the user access management group, due to high call volumes. Long turnaround and lost productivity when users wait hours or days to get required access rights. Users with inappropriate access rights, as a result of failures in the change authorization process.

2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

Addressing Complexity Using Self-Service

The complexity of group membership management can be greatly reduced by implementing a self-service solution in place of the security administration group. Users should then be able to: Sign into an Intranet web application. Search or browse for the resource they would like to access. Request access rights directly. Automatically route requests to the appropriate authorizers, namely the owners of the appropriate AD security group. Use e-mail and web-based workow to enable authorizers to approve requests directly. Automatically attach users to requested groups, upon approval. Deploying self-service to reduce the complexity of group membership management eliminates: The need for users to understand the security infrastructure. The cost of operating a security administration group. Security exposures due to unauthorized group memberships. Lost productivity due to long delays in change authorization.

2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

Introducing Group Manager

Hitachi ID Group Manager is a self-service group management solution. It allows users to request access to resources such as shares and folders, rather than requesting access to groups. Group Manager automatically maps requests to the appropriate security groups and invites group owners to approve or reject the proposed change. Group Manager is available both as a stand-alone solution and as a no-cost module included with Hitachi ID Identity Manager. Group Manager is a component of the Hitachi ID Management Suite designed to streamline user requests to network resources. Using Group Manager, users sign into a secure web application and request new access to a network resource, such as a share, folder, printer or mail distribution list. From the Group Manager web form, users rst select a resource container (examples: share; directory OU) and then use a tree view to browse for a specic resource (examples: folder, mail DL). Once they have selected a resource, users simply submit the request. Once the user has selected a resource, Group Manager: Dynamically maps the user resource selection to a specic managed target system and to a security group on that system. Determines whether the security group is already under Group Manager access control and if not automatically adds the group to its workow system. Checks whether at least one authorizer is already available for the group and if not automatically extracts a new authorizer list from the target system itself (e.g., identies the groups owners). Initiates a workow request, asking the appropriate authorizer(s) whether the user should be allowed to join the group in question. The Group Manager workow system automatically tracks change authorization and adds the user to the requested group if and when the proposed change is approved. Group Manager produces real, concrete business value: Group Manager improves security by ensuring that changes to membership in security groups are properly authorized before being implemented. Group Manager reduces the cost of IT support by moving requests and authorization for changes to group membership out of IT, to the community of business users. Group Manager streamlines service delivery regarding the management of membership in security groups by making it easier for users to submit clear and appropriate change requests and automatically routing those requests to the right authorizers. This makes the request process painless and the approvals process fast.

2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

Group Manager Technology

Hitachi ID Group Manager is currently designed to target a single platform Active Directory. Its user interface exposes resources that are typically made accessible by user membership in AD groups: Shares on le servers. Folders on shares, including the full depth of folder hierarchy. Printers and print server queues published in AD. Mail distribution lists, for example as used by MS Exchange. Group Manager uses plugins to connect to target platforms. The Windows/AD resource discovery plugin is able to drill down into Windows-based network resources, nd out which groups have rights to which resources, and lookup group owners on Active Directory. The Hitachi ID Management Suite Active Directory connector, included with Group Manager, can enumerate AD users and groups, authenticate AD passwords and update AD group memberships.

2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

User Interface Workow

Hitachi ID Group Manager can be used to manage many different types of resources. A plug-in program binds Group Manager to a specic type of resource, such as Windows shares, whose access is mediated by membership in an Active Directory group. Other resources include network printers and mail distribution lists. The description is best claried with a concrete example:

2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

User 1 Sign in using a network login ID and password. Initiate a new resourceaccess request.

Group Manager Validate credentials

Resource-Type Plug-in

Target System

Display a list of descriptive names for congured Windows le servers and shares. Select a share. Display a tree view of folders in the selected shares Interactive tree view display

4 5 6

Browse for and select a folder where access is desired. Select a set of privileges and an authorizer to request.

Iteratively provide a list of sub-directories from the selected share.

..Display and user input..

Provide a list of groups that have privileges on the share and the security privileges each one has been assigned. (read-only? read-write? etc.) One or more owners (authorizers) are provided for each group.

8 9

Workow to track change authorization (Change approved) Run agent to update the users group membership. Send a conrmation e-mail to the user and to all owner/authorizers.

Updated privileges. User can now access the folder.

2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

Requests Workow: Parallel Authorization by Multiple Approvers

Starting with Windows 2003SP1, it became possible to attach a group of users as the owner of another group. This effectively means that an AD group can have multiple owner/authorizers. Hitachi ID Group Manager supports approval by multiple owners, and/or by a specied subset of them (e.g., 1 out of 2 or 3 out of 5 authorizers). Group Manager supports both parallel and serial change authorization, but Hitachi ID Systems encourages all of its customers to use parallel authorization. With either parallel and serial authorization, every authorizer must approve a change before it is implemented. As a result, there is no security implication to choosing one method over the other. The difference between parallel and serial authorization is that parallel authorization favors efcient SLA (Service Level Agreement) , while serial authorization shields subsequent authorizers from the occasional, spurious request that an earlier authorizer would reject. In Hitachi ID Systems experience, users are aware that their requests will be highly visible and almost never make requests that are unlikely to be approved. Consequently, the number of spurious requests is close to zero in practice and there is no real business advantage to shielding later authorizers from spurious requests. As a consequence, the advantages of parallel authorization improved SLA and reduced process complexity are the deciding factor.

Requests Workow: Escalation and Delegation

Once a user has requested access to a network resource, a workow process takes over, prompting the appropriate authorizer(s) (AD group owner(s)) to review the request. Sometimes, authorizers will not respond promptly. To meet IT service level agreements (SLAs), requests must be supported by automatic reminders, automatic escalation and manual delegation of authority. Workow is used in Hitachi ID Group Manager to approve change requests, to implement approved requests, to certify user access and more. A participant in the workow process is a person who is being asked to complete a task, most commonly change authorization. The Group Manager workow engine has built-in support for automatic reminders, escalation and delegation, so as to elicit reliable responses from individually-unreliable users: When participants are rst chosen, their out-of-ofce status on their primary e-mail system may be checked, to trigger early escalation to an alternate participant. Non-responsive participants that have been asked to review a request receive automatic reminders. The reminder interval is congurable. Participants who remain non-responsive (too many reminders) are automatically replaced with alternate participants, identied using escalation business logic. Escalation is most often based on OrgChart data i.e., the original authorizers direct manager is often the escalated authorizer. Participants can pro-actively delegate their authority, temporarily or permanently. Delegation may
2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

trigger its own approval asking the new participant to accept a new responsibility. A workow manager can reassign participants attached to open requests, for instance when they are terminated or when a request is urgent and already-assigned participants are not available.

2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

Installing, Conguring and Managing Group Manager

Hitachi ID Group Manager is very simple to congure and manage. For example, to congure it to manage group membership in Active Directory, to enable users to gain access to group-controlled le folders, one need only: Set up Active Directory as a Group Manager target system. Enter the base UNC for each share in which Group Manager will manage access. Ensure that the owner eld is correctly populated on each AD user group. Group Manager deployment is typically very quick: Install the product. Congure the primary target system a Windows / Active Directory domain. Install the resource location plugin (currently a Windows resource plugin is available, supporting shares, folders, printers and Exchange mail distribution lists). Congure root nodes for resource browsing, such as share UNCs. Verify that group owners are correctly dened in AD, as these people will be used as authorizers. Test and debug the installation as appropriate. The entire process typically requires just 2-3 days of technical conguration work.

Logging and Reporting

Hitachi ID Group Manager logs all attempted and completed requests for group membership. Group Manager workow-related reports include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Request summary. Request lifecycle. Request statistics. Request details. Implementers summary. Current delegations. Historical delegations. Requests that were escalated.

All workow requests are retained in the Group Manager database indenitely, for reporting at any future date.
2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

10

Network Architecture

The Hitachi ID Group Manager network architecture is illustrated in Figure 1.

Requester
User Workstation
Web browser 1 Windows filesystem client Browse resources; request access

Hitachi ID Group Manager

Web server

Authorizer
Review request: approve or deny 6

User Workstation
Web browser

Discover resources and ACLs 2 3 Discover users, groups, group owners 7 Update group memberships Invite authorization 5 ID-Access application 4 Mail client

Any Client OS
8 Access resource
File Server
Share or folder

Windows 2003

Any Client OS

Domain Controller
AD: Users, Groups

E-mail System

Mailboxes

Windows Server OS

Windows Server OS

Typically Exchange

Figure 1: Group Manager Network Architecture Diagram In the diagram: 1. A requester signs into Group Manager and locates a network resource of interest, using some combination of searching and browsing. 2. The requester asks for access to the resource. 3. Group Manager looks up the ACLs on the resource, and determines which group membership would be appropriate. 4. Group Manager looks up the groups owners, and sends them an e-mail on behalf of the requester, asking that the requester be attached to their group, in order to enable the requester to access the resource of interest. 5. At some later time, the group owners receive the e-mail, sign into Group Manager, and either approve or deny the request. 6. If the request is received, Group Manager updates the user and group objects in AD, to create a new group membership. Access by the requester and authorizer to Group Manager is typically HTML over HTTPS. Access by both the requester and Group Manager to the network resources in question may be SMB, DFS or LDAP.
2011 Hitachi ID Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

10

Self-Service Active Directory Group Management

11

Platform Support

Hitachi ID Group Manager currently supports Active Directory group membership management, where AD runs on Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 servers. It also supports management of: 1. SMB and DFS based lesystems. 2. Nested groups. Users and/or policy plugins choose the group for which membership will be requested. 3. Access to shares (i.e., share-level ACLs). 4. Access to folders (i.e., NTFS folder-level ACLs). 5. Access to printers (i.e., ACLs on AD-published print queues). 6. Access to mail distribution lists (i.e., membership in AD mail DLs).

12

Group Manager Development Roadmap

Support for other platforms, such as NetWare/NDS/eDirectory, will be forthcoming, with timing based on customer demand. The plugin architecture makes Hitachi ID Group Manager suitable for enabling users to browse for and request access to any type of resource, including any type of LDAP-published group, any network-enabled lesystem, and any complex application ACLs.

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File: /pub/wp/documents/id-access/id-access-white-paper-1.tex Date: 2007-02-18

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