Home
Administering Connections 6.5
Welcome to the HCL Connections 6.5 documentation. HCL Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
Administering
Run administration and maintenance tasks to keep your environment up-to-date. For example, learn how to customize your deployment or how to use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration files. You can also schedule tasks, maintain application databases, moderate content, or manage users and their roles.
Administering common areas
Administer the common areas of HCL Connections.
Managing access
Manage roles, credentials, users, and directories, and allow third-party access to HCL Connections data.
Managing users
As employees come and go from your organization, the corporate directory changes, and there are some steps that you, as the administrator, must take to make sure that those changes are reflected in the product by keeping the HCL Connections membership tables up-to-date with the changes that occur in your corporate directory.
Managing users when the Profiles application is installed
Managing users is easier if the Profiles application is installed and you accept the default configuration in which the Profiles directory service extension is used to retrieve data from the Profiles database instead of retrieving it from the LDAP directory. Starting with version 3, when you make changes to user status and data in the Profiles database, the changes are automatically propagated to the other application databases.
Managing user data using Tivoli® Directory Integrator Solution scripts
There are a number of scenarios in which you might want to synchronize changes between the Profiles database and the LDAP directory, using IBM® Tivoli® Directory Integrator.

Administering Connections 6.5
Welcome to the HCL Connections 6.5 documentation. HCL Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
- What's new in HCL Connections
  Find out about features that are new or updated in this release of HCL Connections.
- Product overview
  Learn how to deploy, customize, and administer the HCL Connections social networking product.
- Planning
  Before installing HCL Connections™, study the system requirements, deployment options, and documentation conventions.
- Installing
  To install HCL Connections™, you need to follow a detailed series of procedures.
- Uninstalling HCL Connections
  Uninstall HCL Connections.
- Migrating and updating
  Migrate HCL Connections™ and its supporting software to the latest release and then update the installation with the latest deployment, interim fixes, or Cumulative Refresh (CR).
- Administering
  Run administration and maintenance tasks to keep your environment up-to-date. For example, learn how to customize your deployment or how to use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration files. You can also schedule tasks, maintain application databases, moderate content, or manage users and their roles.
  - Administering common areas
    Administer the common areas of HCL Connections.
    - Administrator checklist
      Consider tasks that you might want to complete after you install HCL Connections and before users start using it.
    - Administration tools
      Use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration properties or run administrative commands.
    - System maintenance
      Make sure HCL Connections works properly in your particular environment.
    - Managing content
      Use superusers, moderation, and other methods to manage HCL Connections content.
    - Administering the Widget container
      The Widget Container is the HCL Connections-specific integration of the Common Rendering Engine, also known as the CRE.
    - Managing access
      Manage roles, credentials, users, and directories, and allow third-party access to HCL Connections data.
      - Roles
        Roles that you can define for users and groups on IBM® WebSphere® Application Server.
      - Managing stored credentials
        HCL Connections does not create nor store user names and passwords. Instead, it uses the user credentials that already exist in your LDAP directory for authentication. HCL Connections does not store administrative user IDs and passwords either. It does, however, create and store references to existing administrative user credentials. You can make changes to those references.
      - Managing users
        As employees come and go from your organization, the corporate directory changes, and there are some steps that you, as the administrator, must take to make sure that those changes are reflected in the product by keeping the HCL Connections membership tables up-to-date with the changes that occur in your corporate directory.
        User life cycle details
        HCL Connections can identify whether people in the directory are active, meaning current employees or inactive, meaning were once listed in the directory, but have since left the company. Users who are inactive can be kept in the product membership and login tables, rather than being removed from the product databases entirely.
        Managing users when the Profiles application is installed
        Managing users is easier if the Profiles application is installed and you accept the default configuration in which the Profiles directory service extension is used to retrieve data from the Profiles database instead of retrieving it from the LDAP directory. Starting with version 3, when you make changes to user status and data in the Profiles database, the changes are automatically propagated to the other application databases.
        Managing user data using Tivoli® Directory Integrator Solution scripts
        There are a number of scenarios in which you might want to synchronize changes between the Profiles database and the LDAP directory, using IBM® Tivoli® Directory Integrator.
        Synchronizing the Profiles database with your organization's user data
        To keep your organization's user data up-to-date, regularly synchronize the IBM® Connections Profiles database with your data source, such as an LDAP directory or an employee database.
        Updating Profiles when changing LDAP directory
        When you change to a new LDAP directory with the same users, you must synchronize the user data in Profiles with the user data in your new LDAP directory. You can use the sync_all_dns command, provided that certain criteria are met.
        Deleting or inactivating users in the Profiles database
        You can use an IBM® Tivoli® Directory Integrator command to delete or inactivate users in the Connections Profiles database.
        Customizing the logic used for the delete operation
        You can customize the delete logic to use when deleting users from the Profiles database.
        Managing user data using the Profiles Administration APIs
        Use the Profiles Administration APIs to synchronize data between the Profiles database and the corporate directory. You can use the APIs as an alternative to running IBM® Tivoli® Directory Integrator scripts to initiate changes.
        Managing user data using Profiles administrative commands
        Use administrative commands to manage Profiles users by setting their status to inactive.
        Managing users when the Profiles application is not installed
        If the Profiles application is not installed, you must manage changes to user status and data in each application database independently. The only way to update user data in the databases for the other applications is through a set of administrative synchronization commands.
        Sample user management scenarios
        The following scenarios address some of the common tasks involved in managing user data within an organization.
      - Managing personal information in accordance with GDPR
        As an administrator, you might experience users asking that their personal information (PI) be erased or corrected in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This section describes the most common scenarios that you might encounter and the actions that you need to take to satisfy the user requests.
      - Using the LDAP directory as the user directory
        Edit configuration property settings to disable HCL Connections directory service extensions.
      - Groups
        Content owners can use LDAP groups to control access to resources in the Communities, Activities, Files, and Wikis applications. For this reason, it is important to consider the effect that updating LDAP groups has on the existing membership of these resources.
    - Managing external user access
      Manage the access that people from outside your organization (external users) have to your HCL Connections implementation.
    - Customizing the deployment
      Perform optional tasks to customize your HCL Connections deployment.
    - URL Preview
      URL preview allows users decide quickly whether to follow a link by displaying a thumbnail preview for URLs.
  - Administering Activities
    Configure Activities to best meet the needs of your environment.
  - Administering Blogs
    Administer site-wide settings for Blogs from either the Blogs user interface or via the wsadmin client.
  - Administering Bookmarks
    You configure and administer Bookmarks using scripts accessed using the wsadmin client. Changes to Bookmarks configuration settings require a restart of the Bookmarks server before they take effect. Changes made using administrative commands take effect immediately.
  - Administering Communities
    Configure and administer Communities using scripts accessed using the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server wsadmin client.
  - Administering Files
    You administer Files using the wsadmin client to specify properties in a configuration file, or run administrative commands.
  - Administering Forums
    Administer Forums by specifying properties in a configuration file or running administrative commands.
  - Administering the Home page
    You can administer site-wide settings for the Home page from the Home page administration user interface or using the wsadmin client.
  - Administering Libraries
    A Library provides the services of an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system to Communities. To enable the use of Libraries, you must make some configuration changes to Connections and to each ECM system that you plan to use.
  - Administering Metrics
    Administer metrics in HCL Connections by modifying configuration settings, backing up data, and running commands to perform maintenance tasks.
  - Administering the News repository
    You administer the News repository using scripts accessed using the wsadmin client. Changes to News configuration settings require node synchronization and a restart of the Home page server before they take effect.
  - Administering Profiles
    Profiles provides two types of administrative capabilities: configuration settings and administrative commands. You change configuration settings and execute administrative commands by running scripts from the wsadmin command line.
  - Administering Search
    The Search service provides a point for performing full text and tag searches across all the deployed HCL Connections applications. Search is a required application for all HCL Connections applications, and it must be running to prevent unexpected behaviors in the other applications.
  - Administering Wikis
    Configure and administer Wikis by using the wsadmin client to run administrative commands or by editing the configuration file directly.
  - Administering Component Pack for Connections
    Monitor the services for Component Pack for HCL Connections™ and troubleshoot issues.
- Customizing
  Customize HCL Connections™ to fit your environment.
- Security
  HCL Connections™ provides a flexible security infrastructure that supports an open, easily shareable data model.
- Mobile
  See the HCL Connections™ Mobile documentation for Connections Cloud and Connections on-premises.
- Developing
  Get information about how to use the APIs provided with HCL Connections™ and how to use Connections Customizer to modify the Connections pages that are returned to users.
- Troubleshooting and support
  To isolate and resolve problems with your HCL products, you can use the troubleshooting and support information. This information contains instructions for using the problem-determination resources that are provided with your IBM® products, including HCL Connections™.

Managing user data using Tivoli® Directory Integrator Solution scripts

There are a number of scenarios in which you might want to synchronize changes between the Profiles database and the LDAP directory, using IBM® Tivoli® Directory Integrator.

Note: Before running any of the SDI Solutions (tdisol) scripts,ensure you have Set up the Security Directory Integrator Solutions directory (tdisol).

When you want to update user information in the Profiles database, the model typically used is to update the information in the LDAP directory and then synchronize the changes back to the Profiles database. For example, if your organization has taken over a new division, you can add new employees to Profiles by importing their details into the LDAP directory and then synchronizing the changes to the Profiles database. One way to keep your profiles data synchronized with changes to the LDAP directory is to use the sync_all_dns task. For more information, see Synchronizing source changes such as LDAP with Profiles.

However, there might be instances in which your organization wants to allow users to update their information directly in the Profiles database. For example, if users want to update their personal cell phone details, as administrator, you might allow them to make the changes in Profiles themselves. These changes must be synchronized back to the LDAP directory from Profiles. To start the synchronization process, you need to define values for the DSML server-related properties in the profiles_tdi.properties file and then run the appropriate process_draft_updates script. For more information, see Synchronizing user data between Profiles and LDAP.

Although it is not expected to be a frequent occurrence, there might also be instances in which you want to change your LDAP directory. In this scenario, you can run scripts that are provided with HCL Connections to synchronize the user information used in Profiles with the user information stored in your new LDAP directory. For more information, see Updating Profiles when changing LDAP directory.

Related information is available in the IBM Security Directory Integrator solutions for HCL Connections real-world scenarios wiki article.

Rate this topic

5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star

Comment on this topic.

By clicking this box, you acknowledge that you are NOT a U.S. Federal Government employee or agency, nor are you submitting information with respect to or on behalf of one. HCL provides software and services to U.S. Federal Government customers through its partners immixGroup, Inc. Contact this team at https://hcltechsw.com/resources/us-government-contact. Do not include any personal data in this Comment box. Note: To report a problem or question about the product software, do not use this form. Instead, go to the HCL Software Support site.