1 Introduction

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the Oracle Identity Manager product and its architecture. It contains the following sections:

• Product Overview

• Oracle Identity Manager Components

• Product Architecture

• Installation Overview

Product Overview

Oracle Identity Manager is an advanced, secure enterprise provisioning system that helps streamline the creation of user accounts, management of those accounts, and revocation of user access rights and privileges. Oracle Identity Manager automates access rights management, security, and provisioning of IT resources.

Oracle Identity Manager instantly connects users to the resources they need to be productive. It also prevents unauthorized access to protected, sensitive corporate information.

Access rights management is the process that grants and revokes permissions to access enterprise resources.

Provisioning is the process that grants employees, customers, suppliers, and business partners appropriate access rights to enterprise systems and applications. The provisioning process involves setting up user accounts, groups, and attributes for each user, so that they can access the information they need to work within your company. The Oracle Identity Manager provisioning solution automates these time-consuming manual tasks and secures the correct approvals so that users are connected quickly and securely.

Reconciliation is the process by which any action to create, modify, or delete a target system identity initiated in the target system (using traditional means) is communicated back to the provisioning system and recorded.

De-provisioning is the process of revoking access rights and privileges.

Oracle Identity Manager Components

Oracle Identity Manager includes the following components:

• Oracle Identity Manager Server

• Oracle Identity Manager Remote Manager

• Oracle Identity Manager Design Console (for Windows only)

All components use a single database schema and include documentation. These components can be deployed on one or more host machines that meet the supported requirements. Refer to "Host System Requirements for Oracle Identity Manager Components" for more information.

Product Architecture

Oracle Identity Manager uses a three-tier architecture: the presentation tier, the server tier, and the data and enterprise integration tier.

The presentation tier contains the following components:

• Design Console

• Administrative and User Console

• Any installed custom client applications

The server tier contains the Oracle Identity Manager Server component, which serves as a bridge between the presentation tier and the data and enterprise integration tier. All requests between the clients and the database are processed through the server tier.

The data and enterprise integration tier contains the database server, which holds the Oracle Identity Manager data structure.

Note:

Throughout this document, the Oracle Identity Manager Server is referred to as "the server." The JBoss application server that hosts the Oracle Identity Manager Server is referred to as "the application server."

Figure 1-1 illustrates the Oracle Identity Manager architecture:

Figure 1-1 Oracle Identity Manager Architecture

Installation Overview

The following steps explain how to use this guide for installing Oracle Identity Manager on JBoss:

1. Use Chapter 2, "Planning the Installation" to prepare for the installation.

2. Use Chapter 3, "Installing and Configuring JBoss for Oracle Identity Manager" to set up JBoss for Oracle Identity Manager.

3. Use Chapter 4, "Installing and Configuring a Database For Oracle Identity Manager" to set up a database for Oracle Identity Manager.

4. Use one of the following chapters to install a single Oracle Identity Manager instance:

   • Chapter 5, "Installing Oracle Identity Manager Server on Windows"

   • Chapter 6, "Installing Oracle Identity Manager Server on UNIX or Linux"

5. Use Chapter 7, "Post-Install Configuration for Oracle Identity Manager Server and JBoss" to perform basic Oracle Identity Manager Server and JBoss configuration tasks related to the installation setup.

6. Use Chapter 8, "Starting and Stopping the Oracle Identity Manager Server" to start the Oracle Identity Manager server and access the Administrative and User Console.

7. Use Chapter 9, "Deploying in a Clustered JBoss Configuration" to deploy Oracle Identity Manager in a JBoss cluster.

8. Use Chapter 10, "Installing and Configuring the Oracle Identity Manager Design Console" to install, configure, and start the Oracle Identity Manager Design Console.

9. Use Chapter 11, "Installing and Configuring the Oracle Identity Manager Remote Manager" to install, configure, and start the Oracle Identity Manager Remote Manager.

10. Use Chapter 12, "Troubleshooting Your Oracle Identity Manager Installation" to help troubleshoot your Oracle Identity Manager installation.