Overview
The Delegation Via Attributes process will allow departments to manage delegations in Austin Active Directory via attributes on an The Active Directory team has created the Requests By Attribute process (aka REBA) which allows department administrators to programmatically submit specific requests to the Active Directory team via an attribute on a department's administrative organizational unit (OU) . This process is composed of the following parts: a delegation request, the requests attribute, the delegation process, a delegation result, and the results attribute. The delegation request is a JSON string that contains the required properties and values for the delegation. The JSON string is written to the object. These requests are processed automatically and are intended to reduce the need for department administrators to open tickets with the Active Directory team.
Process Overview
The requests attribute on a department's administrative OU (see Organizational Units below). The delegation process is an hourly process managed by the Active Directory team that interprets delegation requests. Thedelegation process will remove the original JSON string from the requests attributes on the department's administrative OU then attempt to fulfill thedelegation request. The delegation process will then write the delegation result as a JSON string to the results attribute on the department's administrative OU. Any errors encountered by the delegation process are reported in the delegation result.
Organizational Units
The Delegation Via Attributes process interacts with both a department's Department OU and Adminstrative OU. Each department's Department OU is the named OU in the Departments container at the root of the domain (ex. "OU=TEST,OU=Departments,DC=austin,DC=utexas,DC=edu" or "austin.utexas.edu/Departments/TEST") and contains resources managed by the department such as computer and group objects. Each department's Administrative OU is the named OU in the Departments container under the Administrative container at the root of the domain (ex. "OU=TEST,OU=Departments,OU=Administrative,DC=austin,DC=utexas,DC=edu" or "austin.utexas.edu/Administrative/Departments/TEST") contains resources managed by the Department User Tools such as department user accounts and membership in the department administrators group (ex. TEST-Administrators).
Requests and Results
Each delegation request is a JSON string that must contain the required properties and values. Each delegation result is a JSON string that contains the result of processing the delegation request and the original delegation request along with any error messages that were generated. The following pages detail the properties and any required values of the JSON strings.
Attributes
The delegation requests and delegation results for a department are stored in attributes on the department's Administrative OU object. The selected attributes are confidential and cannot be accessed by default. The specific attributes and the permissions granted to the attributes are as follows:
...
functions as a queue and holds all pending requests for a department. A scheduled task runs a PowerShell script hourly that evaluates all pending requests in the requests attribute. The PowerShell script will then remove a pending request from the attribute and either perform the requested actions or deny the request. The PowerShell script will then post the results of the request to a separate attribute on the same administrative OU. The results attribute can be reviewed by department administrators to determine if the request was completed or denied. A denied request will include information about why the request was not performed.
Request Types
REBA is designed to be extensible and can support multiple request types. Each of the supported and planned request types are documented in their respective sections below. Examples of how to submit each request type and review results are included in the documentation for the respective request type.
Supported Request Types
The following request types are currently supported by REBA:
Requests By Attribute - Delegation - Department administrators can manage permissions on organizational units within a department. This process has previously been available only via a ServiceNow request.
Planned Request Types
The following request types are expected to be supported by REBA in the future:
DNS - Department administrators can create and manage DNS records associated with the department. This process will be limited to DNS records that begin with a department prefix.
Submit Requests and Review Results
Submitting requests and reviewing results can be performed using any LDAPv3 compliant tools. The Active Directory team provides support for two methods to manage requests via REBA: the provided PowerShell scripts and the OpenLDAP tools. The Active Directory team provides best-effort support for all other methods.
PowerShell Scripts
The Active Directory team has created the following documentation for submitting requests and reviewing the results with PowerShell scripts:
OpenLDAP tools
The Active Directory team has created the following documentation for submitting requests and reviewing the results with OpenLDAP tools:
Questions
Please contact the Active Directory team via ServiceNow for any questions or assistance with this process.