Automating account provisioning

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Joe O'Toole
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    We are preparing for our 803 to LSF9 migration and will need to engineer a new solution to replace our Processflow Professional flows that automatically create and remove RD30 records. Currently all our users defined in RD30 are there because they need access to ESS/MSS - except for one portal / lid user who I have a second id set up for so I can manage her portal security rights seperately from the rights inherently granted to ESS/MSS users. The balance of the application users utilize LID and get their access based on LAUA security. Moving ahead we gradually transition our appplication users to the new Portal and security model since 2 id's will no longer be required. Now back to the problem - I understand that there is a new LOADUSERS utility that can be used to populate the new RM info and see 2 different approaches were offered in the 6/07 and 10/07 editions of the Lawson Guru Newsletter. It sounds like the pieces used are included in BCI and or Process Flow Integrator - neither of which we have or are likely to buy just for this purpose. I would appreciate insight from anyone who has had success creating a solution.
    John Henley
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      Joseph, while you can ADD users via an XML file and loadusers, the only reasonable/supported way to remove/disable them is via ProcessFlow Integrator and the ResourceUpdate node.
      Thanks for using the LawsonGuru.com forums!
      John
      Joe O'Toole
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        Thanks John, that's what I was afraid of. Do you know what Lawson products come with the Mercator tools? I thought I read it came with BCI, but does it come with the Websphere bundle as well? Is there another tool you know of that could accomplish the necessary XML reformatting short of us writing a program? It is unfortunate that Processflow Proferssional cannot do this. We are still tring to digest the extra expense of LSF9 and it will be difficult to justify the expense of PF Integrator and it's ongoing maintenance just ot maintain existing functionality.
        Greg Moeller
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          Just to let you know you are not alone, Joseph. We are experiencing the same difficulty. But we will most like buy the PFI tool just for this purpose. I've heard that there is another benefit to this as well. Back in the 8.0.3 and RD30 days, I had a report that listed all of the groups that user(s) belong to. I am told that with PFI, we can make this Crystal Report work again.
          Isn't that true, John?
          Joe O'Toole
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            Greg - Do you currently have PF Pro like we do? I'm wondering if an "upgrade" is available rather than purchasing PFI outright at full cost. Thanks, Joe
            Greg Moeller
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              Yes, we currently have PF Pro just like you do. But I think it was John that told me that Lawson wants everyone moving to LSF9 to purchase PFI as well.
              k-rock
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                PF is included in LBI, but PFI is sold stand alone. I don't think that there is an "upgrade" option. But you can always negotiate with your account rep.
                Joe O'Toole
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                  We are not on LSF9 yet but I wanted to get a head start on creating the formatted XML file for the Loadusers utility. Does anyone know where I can get the file layout?
                  John Henley
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                    Joseph, the loadusers XML format is documented in the LSF9 'Resources & Security' documentation. You can also see https://www.danalytics.co.../archive/2007-06.htm for some examples. Greg, your Crystal report will not be able to report from the resources, which are stored in LDAP. You might be able to do a report against the LDAP repository, but I honestly haven't tried it...
                    Thanks for using the LawsonGuru.com forums!
                    John
                    Joe O'Toole
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                      During the migration process, I'm told there are 2 Lawson supplied utilities called RMCONVERT (to unload and reformat RD info) and SSOCONFIG (to load this info to LDAP). Can anyone explain how the SSOCONFIG utility differs from LOADUSERS? Thanks.
                      John Henley
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                        ssoconfig is the administration utility for SSO, and provides capability to define/manage services, users, and much more, etc. etc.
                        loadusers is a small subset utility that creates/updates users from an XML file.
                        Thanks for using the LawsonGuru.com forums!
                        John
                        Joe O'Toole
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                          Thanks, the person I spoke to implied Ssoconfig could be run as a load script. Is this a script or a screen and if a script can it accept CSV rather than XML input file?
                          John Henley
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                            Neither ssoconfig nor loadusers can accept a CSV file--just XML. If you have BCI/Mercator or ProcessFlow Integrator, both of those tools have the ability to transform a CSV file into the required XML format. There are other ways, including the Java example posted here: https://www.danalytics.co...archive/2007-06.htm. Both ssoconfig and loadusers are command-line utilities, which have arguments / menu options for loading the XML files. I would assume that they can be script-driven, but honestly haven't attempted to do so.
                            Thanks for using the LawsonGuru.com forums!
                            John
                            Xin Li
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                              We use Finance and Supply Chain module, no HR. Lawson user provisioning is tedious and time consuming for us. I wonder anyone have better solutions to do Lawson user provisioning.