Mixed enterprise environments represent a significant challenge
to administrators, requiring increased IT personnel staffing to
administer the heterogeneous systems. Identity and permissions
administration within these environments represents one aspect of
systems administration that presents unique challenges and security
issues. IVA partners Centrify, Likewise (formerly Centeris), Quest,
and Microsoft have worked together in the Directory Management
Interoperability Lab to demonstrate various interoperability
features available to extend Microsoft Active Directory
capabilities to non-Microsoft based systems in a mixed enterprise
environment.
Lab Scenarios
Integration of Unix and Linux into Active
Directory
One path to system integration is the migration of UNIX and Linux
data stores into Active directory. Likewise Identity 3.0 was used
to import data stores, allow multiple NIS maps, Active Directory
group policies and single user sign-on administration in a
heterogeneous enterprise environment.
Zone Administration
To control user access among mixed enterprise environments,
Centrify demonstrated the access permission control and zone
grouping capabilities of their DirectControl software in an Active
Directory administered mixed platform system including Linux, UNIX,
Windows, and Macintosh machines. Identity
Management
Multiple user logins for each network user poses a significant
security hazard as well as presenting administrative complexities
across multiple systems. In this scenario, using Quest Software
Vintela Authentication Services, we explored various features
including single user sign-on across Windows and UNIX systems as
well command line interfacing.
Related Links
Tecplot Case Study
Centrify Case Study
