[Freeipa-users] Syncing with AD

[Rob Crittenden]

James A wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I have been playing with trying to set up synchronization between
> windows AD --> IPA  following the instructions at
> https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Identity_Management_Guide/index.html
>
> A few questions arise;
>
> 1.) The documentation (specifically on
> https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Identity_Management_Guide/managing-sync-agmt.html),
> (under table 9.2) talks about options to the "ipa-replica-manage
> connect" command. Among others, --bindpw and --passsync.  With --binddn
> we specify the "full user DN of the synchronization identity" (and it's
> password with --bindpw ... but I fail to understand which users password
> should be used for "--passsync"??  Is it the same user?

No, a special IPA system account user is needed so the PassSync service 
running in AD can bind to the IPA LDAP server to make password changes. 
This entry needs to be created in IPA regardless of whether you are 
using the PassSync service or not.

So binddn/bindpw is for the AD user we use to bind from IPA to AD, and 
passsync is the password set on the IPA passsync account.

> 2.) The documentation says that the "synchronization identity" (see also
> above) must exist in the AD domain and "must have replicator, read,
> search and write permissions on the AD subtree.  What I am trying to do
> is create a one way sync from AD --> IPA  and I would really like to
> avoid using a user (for synching) that has write permissions (in the
> AD).  All my tries in setting up synchronization fails unless I add the
> synch-user to the group "Administrators". I have tried (and failed)
> using "account admins" etc.   Any pointers here would be great. Sorry
> for my ignorance when it comes to Windows. I am sure I am missing
> something obvious.
>
> 3.) I follow the instructions under "9.4.5"
> (https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Identity_Management_Guide/managing-sync-agmt.html#unidirectional-sync)
> to setup Uni-directional sync. (only AD --> IPA), and yet, when I go to
> remove an account in IPA it gets removed also in the AD.  (This I really
> want to avoid, thus the need for a read-only user to do the
> synchronization - see question 2).

I'm not really sure about #2 or #3. Hopefully one of the 389-ds devs 
will chime in with some suggestions.


> All in all I think the FreeIPA project is amazing and it really gives us
> in the Linux community something we haven't had before.   If I can iron
> out the problems above I am sure it will become a great tool for me and
> my client.

Glad you like it!

cheers

rob