User Administration

Overview of User Administration

User administration is the task of managing which users and groups are known to the iKnowBase system. Generally, being known to the system means that you have access to at least parts of the system.

iKnowBase has two key concepts for user administration:

• Users define the principals known to iKnowBase. Generally, a principal is the same as a person, but it may also be another computer system which has access to iKnowBase.
• Groups are collections of users. By itself, this has no meaning, but groups are useful later on, for assigning permissions to more than one user.

Manage Users

Automatic User Synchronization

User and group definitions are often defined in other systems, such as Microsoft Active Directory or another user directory.

In such cases, use an integration mechanism for automatically transferring user information:

• The iKnowBase LDAP synchronizatopm mechanism will transfer users and groups from an LDAP (Oracle Internet Directory, OpenDJ or Microsoft Active Directory). Use the iKnowBase Development Studio to configure the synchronization jobs.
• The iKnowBase Service API has endpoints for adding, deleting or changing users and groups, as well as groups and group memberships. Use this if you want automatic synchronization from other users sources.

Manual User Synchronization

When the set of users is not defined elsewhere, or when you want to manage extra users, use the user directory tools of the iKnowBase Development Studio to perform the required changes. See User Reference for further information.

Manage Groups

A core set of groups are often synchronized from other systems, but it is also common to add iKnowBase-specific groups directly to the iKnowBase repository. Here, the business requirements will often decide what you need to do.

The following set of groups is often useful:

• An administrator group, with permissions to most metadata and content.
• Groups for information owners, with access to their own defined areas.
• A group for everybody, with access to all internal content (for intranet usage).
• A group for external user, with access to all web content (for www.example.com).
• A group for managers.
• A group for each project.

Use the user directory tools of the iKnowBase Development Studio to manage groups. See User Administration Reference for further information.