Sun Identity Manager 8.1 Business Administrator's Guide

Data Synchronization Tools: Which to Use?

Identity Manager provides several tools that can be used to import and synchronize account data. For help selecting the correct tool for a given task, refer to Table 7–1.

Note –

For an in-depth explanation of how data loading and synchronization works in Identity Manager, see Chapter 4, Data Loading and Synchronization, in Sun Identity Manager Deployment Guide .

Table 7–1 Tasks to Use with the Data Synchronization Tools


If you want to	Choose this feature
Initially pull resource accounts into Identity Manager, without viewing before loading	Load from Resource
Initially pull resource accounts into Identity Manager, optionally viewing and editing data before loading	Extract to File, Load from File
Periodically pull resource accounts into Identity Manager, taking action on each account according to configured policy	Reconcile with Resources
Push or pull resource account changes into Identity Manager	Synchronization using Active Sync adapters (multiple resource implementations)