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DMA Operations Guide Connect to Microsoft Active Directory
32 Polycom, Inc.
Connect to Microsoft Active Directory
Connecting to Microsoft® Active Directory® simplifies the task of deploying
conferencing to a large organization. All Polycom DMA system access to the
Active Directory server is read-only and minimally impacts the directory
performance. See “Microsoft Active Directory Integration” on page 163.
Before integrating with Active Directory, be sure that one or more DNS servers
are specified (this should have been done during installation and initial setup).
See “Network Settings” on page 64.
If you’re deploying a supercluster of multiple geographically distributed
Polycom DMA clusters, verify that you’ve assigned clusters to the territories
in your site topology (see “Configure the Call Server and Optionally Create a
Supercluster” on page 28) and decide which cluster is to be responsible for
Active Directory integration.
Active Directory integration automatically makes the enterprise users
(directory members) into Conferencing Users in the Polycom DMA system,
and can assign each of them a conference room (virtual meeting room, or
VMR). The conference room IDs are typically generated from the enterprise
users’ phone numbers.
Once the Polycom DMA system is integrated with Active Directory, it reads
the directory information nightly, so that user and group information is
updated automatically as people join and leave the organization. The system
caches certain data from Active Directory. In a superclustered system, one
cluster is responsible for updating the cache, which is shared with all the
clusters.
Between updates, clusters access the directory only to authenticate passwords
(for instance, for management interface login); all other user information (such
as user search results) comes from the cache. You can manually update the
cache at any time.
Note
If you’re not knowledgeable about enterprise directories in general and your specific
implementation in particular, please consult with someone who is. Active Directory
integration is a non-trivial matter.
Note
Creating conference rooms for enterprise users is optional. If you want to integrate
with Active Directory to load user and group information into the Polycom DMA
system, but don’t want to give all users the ability to host conferences, you can do
so. You can manually add conference rooms for selected users at any time. See
“Conference Rooms Procedures” on page 335.