Metaverse Design and Attribute Names

Here’s something I wish I’d known at the start: it’s ok to delete all the default objects and attributes from the metaverse, and just create the ones you need.   And here’s something else I wish I’d figured out earlier: you need less object types in the metaverse than you may think.   When I…

Extensible MAs are fab!

Like many people I expect, I approached my first Extensible MA (XMA) with some caution. (On my Advanced MIIS course the other participants didn’t even want to cover the section on Extensible MAs, preferring to see a demo of the, as yet unreleased, password portal.) But once I got one going I was completely taken…

Connecting MIIS to eDirectory

When setting up an eDirectory MA I found I had to install the Netware server certificate as a Trusted Root Authority. This is the way I did it: Open ConsoleOne Browse to the OU of the server you wish to attach to from MIIS (it needs to be one with a copy of all partitions…

How to make SQL Delta tables

As I covered in the SQL efficiency post, I snapshot my SQL views to a table before importing. So while I’m doing that I may as well compare it to the last snapshot, and get myself a nice, quick to import, delta table. Let’s say I have a view called PeopleData. I also need the…

Speeding up Import times from SQL MAs

1. Snapshot Views to Tables If you are using a view to bring data from different tables into one location you may well find that your import times improve dramatically when you first copy the data into a table. Create a Table with the same fields as the view, in the same order. Take care…

Who needs Group Populator when you have Multivalue tables?

Getting members into groups seems to be an early hurdle for many people. Microsoft provide the Group Populator – an obtusely round-about method involving SQL tables, Select queries, input text files and code that must be run outside of MIIS. Once I got the hang of the multivalue aspect of the SQL MA, I couldn’t…

Keep Provisioning Logic out of the Provisioning Code

Early on in my MIIS project I had a consultant in to give me some pointers. He showed me how to create two functions ShouldObjectExist and ReadyForCreation at the top of my MVExtensions, and use them to control provisioning. Private Function ShouldObjectExist(ByVal mventry As MVEntry) As Boolean  << Evaluate mventry to determine if CS object…

What do you mean I have to WRITE CODE???

I first installed MIIS as a way of supporting the Exchange 2003 project I was working on. The environment was an educational institution with both short- and long-term courses, and hence a LOT of user churn. Add to that the large number (over 4000) of mail groups that were to be implemented – many of…