Preparing Your Network for eControl

(1)   eControl 3 Administration Guide  >  Preparing Your Network for eControl

• Enable the eControl System-wide Administrator
• No Administrative or Supervisor Rights Required
• Planning for eControl Management

Enable the eControl System-wide Administrator

eControl is designed to manage multiple Directories and email systems. All management functions as assigned to group objects in the connected Directories. The first task is to enable a system-wide administrator using the eControl service account that is recommended :

1. Create an "eControl-Admins" group in the Directory that hosts the eControl service account
    
2. Add the eControl service account as a member of the "eControl-Admins" group.

The location of the "eControl-Admins" group is not important. A recommended practise is to create these objects in a container close to the top of the Directory structure as there will be less navigating to select the group object when configuring management functions in the eControl Administration panels.

The next set of steps will enable the eControl service account as the eControl System-wide Administrator:

1. Login into eControl as the eControl service account.
   
   
    
2. Select "Administration" in the top tool bar. This will take you to the eControl Administration panel.
    
3. Select "Manage" in the top tool bar. This will take you to the administration panel for the "Manage" module.
   
   
    
4. Click the "Add" button which will open the "Add Group" window.
    
5. Click the down arrow button for "System Name" and select the Directory that hosts the eControl service account.
   
   
    
6. Click the browse button for "Group Context", browse the Directory and select the "eControl-Admins" group. Click "OK".
   
   
    
7. Ensure that "All Tasks" is selected as the "Task Collection". Click the "Add" button.
   
   
    
8. Double-click the "eControl-Admins" group object to open the "Group Information" window.
   
   
    
9. In the "Group Information" window below "Search Contexts" click the "Add" button to open the "Add Search Context" window.
    
10. Use the drop-down button to select the System Name (e.g. DEMO2-TREE) and the browse button to select the top level container for the search context (e.g. o=ACME).  Leave the Scope as Sub Tree. 
    
    
    
    Click the Add button to save this search context.
     
11. Repeat steps 9 adn 10 to add as many search contexts as required to cover all Directory systems that are being managed.
    
    
     
12. Click the "Apply New Settings" button to save the changes and make them available in the eControl.
     
13. Select "Home" in the tool bar and you should be able to see the manage module.
    
    

No Administrative or Supervisor Rights Required

User accounts that will be enabled to use eControl to manage network users and resources require NO supervisor or administrator rights in the file system, in the Directory or to email systems being managed. Management tasks are assigned to eDirectory or Active Directory groups through the eControl Administration panel. Any member of a group that has been assigned a specified task can carry out that task.

Planning for eControl Management

To implement eControl, some time can be taken to create and configure objects in advance. Some things to consider are:

• What different types of administration do you want to implement:
  • Will there be system-wide administrators?
  • Will there be container specific administrators?
  • What other types of administrators do you want to enable ... for example:
    • IT help desk operators who can enable/disable accounts, change passwords, and modify group membership
    • Office Managers who can enable/disable accounts and change passwords
    • Regional Administrators who can perform user and group management across multiple locations
• Who will be enabled to create users and groups?
• Will users be enabled to change their personal information and reset their own passwords?

If eControl is going to be used to create user accounts and group objects, then the following should be considered:

• creating eDirectory user objects will need eDirectory user template objects created and properly configured
• creating Active Directory user objects will need Active Directory user objects that can be used as template objects
• creating group objects will require the selection of existing group objects that will be used as a template