Active Directory Integration - LDAP

Integrating Third Light IMS into the Enterprise

As enterprises are often built on Microsoft solutions, many organisations use Active Directory user directories to centrally authenticate staff and their working environments on the desktop.

Active Directory is an implementation of LDAP directory services often used to centralise staff logins. Active Directory allows enterprise-wide authentication directories to be managed. Active Directory stores in formation about its users and can act in a similar manner to a phone book. IMS can integrate with Active Directory using LDAP interfaces over the network.

For IMS Corporate Appliance users, this means seamless integration of the authentication of potentially large user directories - and a single sign on solution for your Third Light image library.

  • When a user logs in, IMS checks its own database, then if required queries LDAP
  • If a valid record is found in LDAP, IMS creates a permanent user in its own database and flags it as an LDAP user
  • When the user logs in, their password is revalidated against LDAP each time
  • Deleting the LDAP account automatically disables the IMS account; changing the password automatically updates IMS.
  • IMS uses a single LDAP, low-privilege account to attach to the directory and perform these functions.
  • Active Directory groups can be associated with IMS groups for convenient translation of organisational units.
  • Works with Windows 2003 Server and later

For more details on the Active Directory module for IMS, please contact us and we will be pleased to help. If you would like technical details on how to configure Third Light IMS, click here to open the documentation. Click on 'External Authentication' for the instructions for Active Directory and OpenID.

Note: IMS offers its own, internal, user database based on a UNIX architecture. The internal database is based MySQL and is often used in isolation to achieve a simple, self-contained installation. Neither Active Directory nor MSSQL Server are pre-requisites to run IMS.