Lifecycle of a Connector

Managing Connector Lifecycle 6-3 the original connector. The Clone Connectors feature of the Advanced Administration enables you to automatically generate copies of a set of connector objects. Upgrade To make use of new features introduced in later releases of a connector, you might upgrade a connector by applying patch sets released by Oracle. Typically, upgrading to a new release of a connector involves processes that range from simple changes such as a JAR file upgrade to changes that affect most of the adapter tasks that were shipped as part of the connector. You can use the Upgrade Connectors feature to upgrade a connector. Uninstalling If you stop using a connector, then this action is also provided to additional environments, such as System Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing, and Staging, where that connector is also stopped. The need to keep a clean development environment that does not have any unnecessary Oracle Identity Manager objects, you would like to uninstall a particular connector version that you no longer need to use. The Uninstall Connectors utility enables you to uninstall connectors as well as individual connector objects. Figure 6–1 depicts the connector lifecycle: Note: Upgrading connectors preserve the existing customizations in a connector. Note: Uninstalling a connector is performed in the development environment and not in production environment. Note: You must have the System Administrator role to perform connector lifecycle management tasks, such as installing connectors including importing connector XML files by using the Deployment Manager, and cloning, defining, upgrading, and uninstalling connectors. 6-4 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle Identity Manager Figure 6–1 Connector Lifecycle

6.2 Connector Lifecycle and Change Management Terminology

The following terms have been introduced in this chapter: ■ Oracle-released connector refers to a connector released by Oracle. ■ Custom release or custom connector refers to connectors that you develop as well as Oracle-released connectors that you customize or reconfigure in any way. ■ Source release or source connector refers to the existing release of the connector that you want to upgrade to a different that is, new release. For example, if you want to upgrade the SAP User Management connector from release 9.1.2 to release 9.1.2.1, then release 9.1.2 is the source release. ■ Target release or target connector is the release to which you want to upgrade the source release. In the preceding example, SAP User Management release 9.1.2.1 is the target release. ■ A configuration XML file contains information that is used during connector installation by the Install Connectors feature. For a connector released by Oracle, the configuration XML file is included in the deployment package. For a custom-developed connector, you might want to develop the individual connector objects on the staging test server and then deploy the connector on the production server. In this case, you can create a configuration XML file for the connector if you want to install the connector on the production server by using the Install Connectors feature. ■ A connector XML file contains definitions of the individual objects that constitute a connector. When the XML file is imported into Oracle Identity Manager through the Deployment Manager, these objects definitions are used to create the Note: Some of the preceding terms can be combined to provide a shortened description of the type of connector that is under discussion. For example, a custom source release is a connector that you had created, customized, or reconfigured and now want to upgrade to a target release. See Also: Installing Connectors on page 6-6 for information about the Install Connectors feature. Managing Connector Lifecycle 6-5 connector objects in the Oracle Identity Manager database. The manner in which the XML file is imported into Oracle Identity Manager depends on the type of connector: – For an Oracle-released connector that is compatible with the Install Connectors feature, the connector XML file is automatically imported when you use the Install Connectors feature. This feature implicitly calls the Deployment Manager to import the connector XML file. – For an Oracle-released connector that is not compatible with the Install Connectors feature, you use the Deployment Manager to import the XML file. – For a custom connector, you can use the Deployment Manager to first export definitions of objects that you had created on the staging server. The output of this process is the connector XML file. You can then import the file into the production server. Alternatively, if you create a complete deployment package including the configuration XML file for the connector, then you can use the Install Connectors feature to install the connector. This feature implicitly calls the Deployment Manager to import the file.

6.3 Viewing Connector Details

To view the details of a connector: 1. Login to the Administrative and User Console.

2. Go to Advanced Administration, expand System Management, Deployment

Manager, and then click Manage Connector. 3. In the Connector Name field, enter the name of the connector and then click Search . 4. The search results show the details of the connector. If you do not know the full name of the connector, then you can perform a wildcard search for a connector. For example, if you want to display details of the Microsoft Active Directory connector installed in your operating environment, then you can use Direct as the search string. See Also: Exporting Connector Object Definitions in Connector XML Format on page 6-33 for information about exporting connector object definitions by using the Deployment Manager Note: In this release of Oracle Identity Manager, the connector lifecycle management functionality have been introduced such as defining, cloning, upgrading, and uninstalling connectors. For all these features, complete connector DM-XML is required in the database, and this is the source for all the connector lifecycle management activities. When Oracle Identity Manager is upgraded from Release 9.1.x or from 11g Release 1 11.1.1.3 to 11g Release 1 11.1.1.5, you must define the connector so that all the lifecycle management operations on the connector are possible to perform. Without defining the connector, it is not possible to search for the installed connector, upgrade the installed connector, clone the connector, and uninstall the connector. See Defining Connectors on page 6-11 for information about defining connectors.