6 Administering Requests

You can create and track requests for resources that you have requested for users and organizations. As an administrator, you can create requests to provision resources for the users you manage. If you are an approver, you can view and act on the tasks assigned to you. For example, you can approve or reject a task. If you are both an approver and an administrator, then you can perform the functions associated with both roles.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• Creating and Managing Requests

• Tracking Requests

For a list of roles and their associated Oracle Identity Manager capabilities, see "Understanding User Roles and Capabilities".

6.1 Creating and Managing Requests

You can use the Administrative and User Console to create and manage requests for provisioning resources to yourself, other users, and organizations.

As an administrator, you can create requests to provision other users with resources. Some resources may be configured to allow users to request the resource for themselves, as follows:

• If a resource allows self-service requests, then you do not have to be an administrator to request it for yourself.

• If the resource is configured as allowed for all users, then you must be an administrator to request it for another user.

If a resource is not set as allowable for all users, then only the users who are associated with departments or organizations for which the resource is allowed will be able to have the resource requested for them. To determine if a resource can be requested for you, contact your system administrator or the administrator for the resource.

To enable, disable, and revoke a resource instance, the resource must be configured for these tasks.

You can search for resources based on the following criteria:

• User ID

• Request ID

• Date the request was created

• Resource name

• Status of the request

In the left navigation pane, under the Requests menu item, when you click Resources, the following options are available to you:

• Grant Resource: Enables resources to be provisioned to a target.

• Disable Resource: Disables resources temporarily.

• Re-enable Resource: Allows you to reenable resources after the resources are disabled by the system administrator.

• Revoke Resource: Deletes resources permanently. You cannot reenable a resource after you have revoked it.

This section discusses the following topics:

• Granting Resources

• Disabling Resources

• Reenabling Resources

• Revoking Resources

6.1.1 Granting Resources

This section describes how to create requests for granting (or provisioning) resources. You can provision the same resource multiple times if the resource is configured for this usage.

Note:

Requesting resources for an organization is similar to requesting resources for a user. Therefore, the following procedure includes the steps for requesting resources for only a user.

To create a request for granting a resource:

1. In the left navigation pane, click Requests, then click Resources.

   The Make a Request page is displayed. In this page, the Grant Resource option is selected by default. You can use this option to grant a resource to a specific user or organization.

2. Click Continue. The Step 1: Select type page of the Create a Request To Provision Resources Wizard is displayed.

3. Click the Users option to assign a resource to one or many users.

   Alternatively, select the Organization option to provision a resource to one or many organizations.

   Click Continue.

   If you select the Users option, the Step 2: Select users page is displayed. In this page, the results table displays the following information:

   Field	Description
   User ID	The login identification or user name
   First Name	The first name of the user
   Last Name	The last name of the user

   
   

4. In the results table, select the options for the users, and then click Add to place the user names in the Selected list.

   You can click Remove to delete any user in the Selected list.

   To filter the list of users, select a key in the Filter By menu, enter selection criteria in the box next to this menu, and click Go.

   If the request system form has any user-defined fields, these fields are displayed on the STEP 2: Provide Additional Information page. These fields are created in the Design Console by using the User Defined Field Definition form "REQUESTS".

   See Also:

   Oracle Identity Manager Design Console Guide for information about the User Defined Field Definition form

   When you are finished, click Continue. The Step 3: Provide resources page is displayed.

5. Select the option for the resource, and then click Add to place the resource name in the Selected list.

   You can click Remove to delete any item from the Selected list.

   To filter the list, select a key in the Filter By menu, enter selection criteria in the box next to this menu, and click Go.

   When you are finished, click Continue. The Step 4: Provide Resource Data page is displayed. This page displays information about the resource and the user for this request.

6. If the information in the Step 4: Provide Resource Data page is correct, then click Continue, or click Back to make corrections.

   Any associated forms are displayed on the next page.

7. Enter the information requested in the Forms field and click Continue, or click Back to make corrections.

   If you click Continue, the Step 5: Verify Information page is displayed.

8. To add a comment, click Click here to add a comment.

   The Add Request Comment page is displayed.

9. Enter your comment in the Comment field, and click Add comment to insert your comment with your resource request.

   Otherwise, click Clear to delete the text in the Comment field, or click Close to cancel this page.

   After adding a comment, this page displays the added comment.

10. After verifying the information, click Submit Now to make the request active.

    The Request Submitted page is displayed.

    This page shows the following information:

    Field	Description
    Status	The status of the request
    Requester	The name of the person who made the request
    Action	The action taken for this request
    Date	The date when the request is executed

    
    

11. To activate this request at a later time, click Schedule for Later to define a date when the request becomes active.

    Specify a date that is later than today's date. The Schedule for Later page is displayed.

    The Schedule for Later option is often used for new employees who are starting on a future date. After you define a date, the request is created, the approval process is initiated, approvers can approve the tasks, and the approval process can be completed. However, the provisioning process is not initiated until the scheduled date.

12. Use the calendar icon to define a date to activate your request, and then click Submit.

Note:

When you use a single request to grant resources to multiple users, rule evaluation performed to determine the password policy to be applied is based on the last modified user from the selected group of users.

6.1.2 Disabling Resources

This section discusses how to create requests for disabling resources.

Note:

Disabling resources for an organization is similar to disabling resources for a user. Therefore, the following procedure includes the steps for disabling resources for only a user.

To create a request for disabling a resource:

1. In the left navigation pane, click Requests, then click Resources.

   The Make a Request page is displayed.

2. Select the Disable Resource option, and click Continue.

   The Step 1: Select type page of the Create a Request To Disable Resources Wizard is displayed.

   This page lets you select one of the following options:

   • Users: You can disable resources for one or many users.

   • Organizations: You can disable resources for one or many organizations.

     In this example, the Users option is selected.

3. Click Continue.

   The Step 2: Select users page is displayed.

4. Select the options for the users, and then click Add to place the user names in the Selected list.

   You can click Remove to delete any user in the Selected list.

   To filter the list, select a key in the Filter By menu, enter selection criteria in the box next to this menu, and click Go.

   When you are finished, click Continue.

   The Step 3: Provide resources page is displayed.

5. Select the option for any resource that you want to disable from the user, and then click Add to place the resources in the Selected list.

   You can click Remove to delete any resources in the Selected list.

6. Click Continue.

   If multiple instances of a resource are provisioned for the user, the Step 4: Resolution page is displayed. Otherwise, the Step 5: Verify Information page is displayed.

7. If the Step 4: Resolution page is displayed, select the resource instance you want to disable, then click Continue.

   The Step 5: Verify Information page displays the following information.

   Field	Description
   User ID	The login identification or user name
   First Name	The first name of the user
   Last Name	The last name of the user
   Resource Name	The name of the resource you are disabling
   Details	The additional detailed information about the resource

   
   

8. To add a comment, click Click here to add a comment.

   The Add Request Comment page is displayed.

9. Enter a comment in the Comment field, and click Add a comment to insert the comment with your resource request.

   Click Clear to delete the text in the Comment field. Click Close to close this page.

   The Verify Information page displays any added comment.

   To modify the information for this resource request, click Change. Click the Add link to add another comment.

10. After verifying the information, click Submit Now to make the request active.

    The Request Submitted page is displayed.

    This page shows the following information:

    Field	Description
    Status	The status of the request
    Requester	The name of the person who made the request
    Action	The action taken for this request
    Date	The date when the request is executed

    
    

11. To activate this request at a later time, click Schedule for Later.

    The Schedule for Later page is displayed. Use the calendar icon to define a date to activate your request, then click Submit.

6.1.3 Reenabling Resources

You can reenable a resource after you disable it. You cannot reenable a revoked resource. This section discusses how to create requests for reenabling resources.

Note:

Reenabling resources for an organization is similar to reenabling resources for a user. Therefore, the following procedure only includes the steps for reenabling resources for only a user.

To create a request for reenabling a resource:

1. In the left navigation pane, click Requests, then click Resources.

   The Make a Request page is displayed.

   The Grant Resource option is selected by default.

2. Select the Reenable Resource option to provide access to resources that are system administrator for this user, and click Continue.

   The Step 1: Select type page of the Create a Request To Reenable Resources wizard is displayed.

3. Click Users to reenable resources that are system administrator for one or many users.

   Otherwise, select Organization to reenable resources that are system administrator for one or many organizations. In this example, the Users option is selected.

4. Click Continue.

   The Step 2: Select users page is displayed.

   The results table displays the following information:

   Field	Description
   User ID	The login identification or user name
   First Name	The first name of the user
   Last Name	The last name of the user

   
   

5. Select the Users option, and then click Add to place the user name or names in the Selected list, or click Remove to delete users from the Selected list.

   When you are finished, click Continue.

   The Step 3: Provide resource page is displayed.

6. Select the Resource Name option, and then click Add to place the resource name in the Selected list, or click Remove to delete users from the Selected list. Then, click Continue.

   If multiple instances of a resource instance are provisioned for the user, the Step 4: Resolution page is displayed. Otherwise, the Step 5: Verify Information page is displayed.

7. If the Step 4: Resolution page is displayed. Select the resource instance you want to reenable, and then click Continue.

   The Step 5: Verify Information page is displayed.

8. To add a comment, click Click here to add a comment.

   The Add Request Comment page is displayed.

9. Enter your comment in the Comment field, and click Add Comment to insert your comment with your resource request.

   The page displays the added comment.

   Click Clear to delete the text in the Comment field, or click Close to cancel this page.

10. Verify the information on the Step 5: Verify Information page, then click Submit Now to make the request active.

    The Request Submitted page is displayed, which shows the following information:

    Field	Description
    Status	The status of the request
    Requester	The name of the person who made the request
    Action	The action taken for this request
    Date	The date when the request is executed

    
    

    If you want to view the details of this request, then click Request ID. The Request Details page is displayed. For more information about this page, see "Tracking Requests".

11. To activate this request at a later time, click Schedule for Later.

    The Schedule for Later page is displayed.

12. Use the calendar icon to define a date to activate your request, and then click Submit.

6.1.4 Revoking Resources

Revoking requests is a permanent operation.

To create a request for revoking a resource:

1. In the left navigation pane, click Requests, then click Resources.

   The Make a Request page is displayed.

2. Select the Revoke Resource option, and then click Continue.

   The Step 1: Select type page of the Create a Request To Revoke Resources Wizard is displayed.

   This page lets you select one of the following options:

   • Users: You can revoke resources for one or many users.

   • Organizations: You can revoke resources for one or many organizations.

   In this example, the Users option is selected.

3. Click Continue.

   The Step 2: Select users page is displayed.

4. Select the option for the users, and then click Add to place the user names in the Selected list.

   You can click Remove to delete any user names from the Selected list, and then click Continue.

   The Step 3: Provide resources page is displayed.

5. Select the option for each resource for which you want to revoke user access, then click Add to place the resources in the Selected list.

   You can click Remove to delete any resources from the Selected list, and then click Continue.

   If multiple instances of a resource are provisioned for the user, the Step 4: Resolution page is displayed. Otherwise, the Step 5: Verify Information page is displayed.

6. If the Step 4: Resolution page is displayed, select the resource instance you want to revoke, and then click Continue.

   The Step 5: Verify Information page is displayed.

7. The Step 5: Verify Information page displays the information described in the following tables.

   The Users Selected table displays the following information:

   Field	Description
   User ID	The login identification or user name
   First Name	The first name of the user
   Last Name	The last name of the user

   
   

   The Resources Selected table displays the following information:

   Field	Description
   Resource Name	The name of the resource you are requesting or provisioning
   Details	The additional detailed information about the resource

   
   

8. To add a comment, click Click here to add a comment.

   The Add Request Comment page is displayed.

9. Enter your comment in the Comment field, and click Add a comment to insert your comment with your resource request.

   The Verify Information page displays the added comment.

   Otherwise, click Clear to delete the text in the Comment field, or click Close to cancel this page.

   To modify the information for this resource request, click Change to change the resource, or click Add to add another comment.

10. Verify the information and click Submit Now to make the request active.

    The Request Submitted page is displayed. This page shows the following information:

    Field	Description
    Status	The status of the request
    Requester	The name of the person who made the request
    Action	The action taken for this request
    Date	The date when the request is executed

    
    

11. To activate this request at a later time, click Schedule for Later to define a date when the request becomes active.

    The Schedule for Later page is displayed. Use the calendar icon to define a date to activate your request, and then click Submit.

6.2 Tracking Requests

Depending on the permissions that have been assigned to you in Oracle Identity Manager, you can view requests for resources. In addition, you can edit details or approve tasks within those requests. This is referred to as tracking a request. The requests that you can track fall into one of the following categories:

• Requests created by other users to provision you with resources

• Requests you created to provision other users with resources

• Requests you created to provision yourself with resources

• Requests you created through self-registration

• Requests you created by modifying your profile

The types of requests you can create, view, and edit are governed by characteristics of your account in Oracle Identity Manager. If you are assigned to approve a task within a request, you can approve any task assigned to you when tracking that request. For a list of the various roles and their associated capabilities, see "Understanding User Roles and Capabilities".

The following topics describe how to perform tasks related to tracking requests:

• Searching for Requests

• Viewing Approval Details

• Viewing Provisioning Details

• Viewing Request Comments

• Viewing Request Status History

6.2.1 Searching for Requests

The following procedure describes how to search for a request.

1. In the left navigation pane, click Requests, then click Track.

   The Track Requests page is displayed. To locate the request you want to track, you can search for existing requests by using the options on this page. You can select only one of these options, for example, User ID or Request ID, not both. If you select a request ID or resource name and leave the fields associated with that option blank, all requests are displayed.

   If you are unable to locate a request by using one of the search options, select a different option or widen your search criteria to retrieve more results. The following table lists the available search criteria.

   Field	Description
   User ID	Lets you track requests that are created for yourself or another user. Select Self or Other. If you select Other, then you must click Find User ID and specify the user associated with the requests that you want to track. You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard character to search for requests associated with user IDs beginning or ending with specific characters or numbers. You can also search by the organization to which the user belongs.
   Request ID	Lets you track requests by the ID of the request. This is usually a numeric value. Select this option, and then enter the ID of the request. You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard character to search for requests beginning or ending with specific characters or numbers.
   Creation Date	Lets you track requests by date of creation. Select this option, then enter the start and end dates for the range on which you want to query. All the requests created between those dates are displayed.
   Resource Name	Lets you track requests according to the resources to be provisioned, which means, the resources specified on the request. Select this option, and then enter the name of the resource. You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard character to perform searches for requests containing a resource name that begins or ends with specific characters.
   Status	Lets you track requests according to the status of the request, for example, Request Initialized, Request Received, Approved, Not Approved, Request Cancelled, Request Closed, Object Approval Complete, Request Complete, or Provide Information. Select this option, and then select the desired status from the menu.

   
   

2. Click Search.

   All the requests that match the criteria you entered are displayed. If your query has retrieved several pages of requests, then use the First, Previous, and Next links to move through the result set.

3. To view the details of a request, click the Request ID link in the results table.

   The Request Details page is displayed.

   To cancel an entire request, select the option next to it, and click Cancel Request.

6.2.2 Viewing Approval Details

Approval details include all approvals for the request including process and pending tasks.

To view approval details:

1. Search for a resource request, as described in "Searching for Requests".

2. Select Approval Details option from the Additional Details box.

   The Approved Tasks page is displayed. The Approval Details field shows all tasks associated with the approval processes. The Request ID number is an active link to the Request Details page for this request. The Request Approval Task table displays the following fields:

Field	Description
Task	Name of the approval task.
Status	Current status of the request.
Assign To	Assignment of the request to the user or proxy user. The request can also be assigned to a user group or proxy group.
Action	The Action column has an option for each request. The last row contains Approve, Deny, and Re-assign buttons that you select to determine the action for the request. Select the requests and click Approve or Deny. A confirmation page is displayed with the tasks with Confirm and Cancel buttons. If you click Re-assign, then the console displays a list of all the users that you or the proxy user has permission to see to whom you can reassign the task. This page has an option that, when selected, lists all the groups to whom the task can be reassigned.

6.2.3 Viewing Provisioning Details

You can view provisioning tasks by user, organization, or resource depending on whether the request is created for a user, organization, or resource.

To view provisioning details:

1. Search for a resource request, as described in "Searching for Requests".

2. Select the Provisioning Details option from the Additional Details box.

   The Provisioning Tasks page is displayed. The Provisioning Details field shows all the tasks associated with the provisioning processes.

3. Select the appropriate option to display the information you want.

6.2.3.1 Viewing Provisioning Details by User/Organization

When you select User/Organization, the page displays all the tasks for the users or organizations who will be provisioned. If a request has multiple users or organizations, then the page displays a corresponding table for each user or organization.

The information table shows the following:

Field	Description
Resource Name	The name of the resource object to be provisioned
Resource Status	The current status of the resource request
Process Instance Name	The name of either an approval process or a provisioning process
Description	A number that uniquely identifies the process or any identifier that maps the process to the Map Descriptive field
Process Status Details	The current status of the process

6.2.3.2 Viewing Provisioning Details by Resource

Select the Resource option to display all the resources and information related to this resource. If a request has multiple resources, then the page displays a corresponding table for each user or organization.

The information table shows the following:

Field	Description
User/Organization	The name of the user or organization that has been provisioned with this resource object
Resource Status	The current status of the resource request
Process Instance Name	The name of the provisioning process
Data	A number that uniquely identifies the process
Process Status Details	The current status of the process

6.2.4 Viewing Request Comments

A request is viewed by any user with view permissions. Comments enable other users to understand the request. Users, as well as the system administrator, can add comments to the request so that others can see how the request has been processed.

To view request comments:

1. Search for a resource request, as described in "Searching for Requests".

2. Select the Request Comments option from the Additional Details box.

3. Click the Request ID number to go back to the Request Details page.

   You can add a comment on this page by clicking Click here to add a comment. If there is a comment added to this request, then the Request Comments page is displayed with the comment.

   This page displays a table with the following information:

Field	Description
Comment	The actual comment that is added
Date	The date when the comment is added
Add By	The user name logged in to the console

6.2.5 Viewing Request Status History

Request status history is a supplemental view that helps you understand the state of the current workflow. Users can make a request and a workflow is created. There are many steps and actions that must be taken, such as a manual action by the user or a system action, before the request is completed or rejected.

Whenever an action is executed, the status of the workflow is changed and it transitions to the next state.

To view status history:

1. Search for a resource request, as described in"Searching for Requests".

2. Select the Request Status History option from the Additional Details box.

   The Request History page is displayed. This page shows a table that depicts the workflow of the request. This page displays the information listed in the following table.

Field	Description
Status	The current status of the resource request
Date	The date when the request is created
Create by	The name of the user who created this request