Choosing the First Data Loading Process

After you have chosen which resource will be used as the starting point for loading user data into Waveset, you must decide which process to use. The following table provides a summary of the benefits and drawbacks of each data loading process. A discussion of each data loading process follows.

Using Load from File

The Load from File process seeds Waveset accounts with basic values, such as account ID, first and last name, and e-mail address. The account ID is the only required attribute.

The Load from File process imports the contents of a comma-separated values (CSV) file into Waveset. The top line of this file contains a list of attribute names, separated by commas. Each subsequent line contains a series of corresponding attribute values. All attributes must also be separated by commas.

.Load from File also accepts XML files, but the syntax of an XML file must match the syntax generated by the Extract to File feature. This format is beyond the scope of this discussion.

Load from File also accepts XML files, but the syntax of an XML file must match the syntax generated by the Extract to File feature. This format is beyond the scope of this discussion.

The data in a CSV file is often exported from a resource. For example, the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC (Microsoft Management Console) allows you to export the contents of an organization unit directly into a CSV file. The console exports all users defined in the organization unit as well as the displayed attributes. Therefore, you should verify only attributes that will be managed by Waveset are displayed in the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC. Including extraneous attributes will cause loading times to increase.

Some resources are not capable of directly exporting user account information to CSV format. If you wish to use to this method of data loading, you might need to extract the information programmatically or add data manually.

For example, the first three lines of a CSV file might look like this:

accountId,firstname,lastname,EmployeeID
Josie.Smith,Josie,Smith,1436
AJ.Harris,Anthony,Harris,c310

The attributes listed in the CSV file must be pre-defined as user view attributes. Basic attributes such as accountId, email, password, and confirmpassword are pre-defined. Others are defined in the extended user attributes configuration object. By default, this object adds firstname, lastname, and fullname to the list of available attributes.

If you want to retain values for attributes that are not pre-defined in Waveset, such as an employee ID, you must add them to the Extended User Attributes Configuration object.

The Load from File process configuration page prompts for a correlation and confirmation rules. Since this is the first attempt to load data, select the User Name Matches AccountId correlation rule. You do not need a confirmation rule.

It is important to remember that the data contained in the CSV file is used for Waveset accounts only. Even if the data is exported directly from Active Directory, for example, the data is not linked to any Active Directory accounts or resources unless you have created a custom user form to do this. Without a custom user form, a different data loading mechanism must be used to link resource account data to an Waveset user. User forms are discussed briefly in Assigning User Forms.

.The Load from File process does not add entries into the Waveset account index. Therefore, you must perform a full reconciliation, or update the users, before your Waveset deployment is complete. In addition, the Load from File does not run any workflows when creating users in Waveset.

The Load from File process does not add entries into the Waveset account index. Therefore, you must perform a full reconciliation, or update the users, before your Waveset deployment is complete. In addition, the Load from File does not run any workflows when creating users in Waveset.

Using Load from Resource

Although the configuration pages for the Load from Resource and Load from File processes are almost identical, the Load from Resource is functionally closer to reconciliation. The Load from Resource and reconciliation processes pull data from the resource, and then adds the accounts it finds to Waveset. Therefore, the adapter must be configured before you perform either of these operations.

Load from Resource is faster on the initial run than reconcile but does not populate the Account Index. Reconcile on the second execution running in Incremental mode should be faster than Load from Resource. If reconciliation is the desired tool as the long-term solution, then use reconciliation for the initial load of users.

A user form can be used to set the account ID, place users in an Organizations, and perform other related tasks related to creating users. See Assigning User Forms for more information.

When you seed Waveset accounts for the first resource using Load from Resource, the correlation and confirmation rules are not very meaningful. Select the User Name Matches AccountId correlations rule. You do not need a confirmation rule.

.The Load from Resource process does not add entries into the Waveset account index. Therefore, you must perform a full reconciliation, or update the users, before your Waveset deployment is complete. In addition, the Load from File does not run any workflows when creating users in Waveset.

Using Create Bulk Actions

The Create bulk action loads data from a CSV file. Unlike the Load from File process, the create bulk action allows you to define any writable attribute in the user view, including Waveset-specific attributes, global attributes, and resource account attributes. This flexibility means that it will probably be more difficult to assemble a bulk actions CSV file. If your bulk actions affect multiple resources, you will need to find a way to merge resource data into a single CSV file. However, you could also define a simpler bulk action file and use subsequent update actions to load data into Waveset user accounts.

Bulk actions runs the default workflows for create, update, and delete actions. This slows down the process of loading user accounts, but add greater flexibility.

The following example illustrates the use of Create bulk actions only. The command and user attributes are required.

command,user,waveset.resources,password.password,password.confirmPassword,
accounts[MyAD].description,accounts[MySolaris].comment

Create,John Doe,MyAD|MySolaris,changeit,changeit,John Doe,John Doe
Create,Jane Smith,MyAD,changeit,changeit,Jane Smith

The following example illustrates how the Create and Update bulk actions can be used in two separate files.

command,user,waveset.resources,password.password,password.confirmPassword,
accounts[MyAD].description,
Create,John Doe,MyAD,changeit,changeit,John Doe,John Doe
Create,Jane Smith,MyAD,changeit,changeit,
Jane Smith

command,user,waveset.resources,password.password,password.confirmPassword,
accounts[MySolaris].comment
Update,John Doe,MySolaris,changeit,changeit,John Doe
Update,Jane Smith,MySolaris,changeit,changeit,Jane Smith

Creating accounts using bulk actions does not add entries into the Waveset account index. Therefore, you must perform a full reconciliation before your Waveset deployment is complete.

. Creating accounts using bulk actions does not add entries into the Waveset account index. Therefore, you must perform a full reconciliation before your Waveset deployment is complete.

Using Reconciliation

The first reconciliation of a resource will probably take longer than any subsequent reconciliation. You can expect the first reconciliation of a resource to add a large number of Account Index entries.