Integrate Active Directory Data in Your Informatica Cloud Instance

Informatica Cloud allows you to perform extract, transform, and load (ETL) tasks in the cloud. With the Cloud Secure Agent and the CData JDBC Driver for Active Directory, you get live access to Active Directory data, directly within Informatica Cloud. In this article, we will walk through downloading and registering the Cloud Secure Agent, connecting to Active Directory through the JDBC Driver and generating a mapping that can be used in any Informatica Cloud process.

Informatica Cloud Secure Agent

To work with the Active Directory data through the JDBC Driver, install the Cloud Secure Agent.

1. Navigate to the Administrator page in Informatica Cloud 👁 Image
   
2. Select the Runtime Environments tab
3. Click "Download Secure Agent" 👁 Image
   
4. Make note of the Install Token 👁 Image
   
5. Run the installer on the client machine and register the Cloud Secure Agent with your username and install token 👁 Image
   

NOTE: It may take some time for all of the Cloud Secure Agent services to get up and running.

Connecting to the Active Directory JDBC Driver

With the Cloud Secure Agent installed and running, you are ready to connect to Active Directory through the JDBC Driver.

Adding the JDBC Driver to the Secure Agent Machine

1. Navigate to the following directory on the Secure Agent machine:

   %Secure Agent installation directory%/ext/connectors/thirdparty/

2. Create a folder and add the driver JAR file (cdata.jdbc.activedirectory.jar) based on the type of mapping that you want to configure.

   For mappings, create the following folder and add the driver JAR file:

   informatica.jdbc_v2/common

   For mappings in advanced mode, also create the following folder and add the driver JAR file:

   informatica.jdbc_v2/spark

3. Restart the Secure Agent.

Connecting to Active Directory in Informatica Cloud

After installing the driver JAR file, you are ready to configure your connection to Active Directory in Informatica Cloud. Start by clicking the Connections tab and clicking New Connection. Fill in the following properties for the connection:

• Connection Name: Name your connection (i.e.: CData Active Directory Connection)
• Type: Select "JDBC_V2"
• Runtime Environment: Select the runtime environment where you installed the Secure Agent
• JDBC Driver Class Name: The name of the JDBC driver class: cdata.jdbc.activedirectory.ActiveDirectoryDriver
• JDBC Connection URL: Set this to the JDBC URL for Active Directory. Your URL will look similar to the following:
  
  

  jdbc:activedirectory:User=cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain;Password=bob123;Server=10.0.1.2;Port=389;

  To establish a connection, set the following properties:

  • Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
  • Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

  • BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

    Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

  Built-In Connection String Designer

  For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Active Directory JDBC Driver. Either double-click the .jar file or execute the .jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.activedirectory.jar
   

  Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

  👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Google Sheets is shown.)
  
• Username: Set this to the username for Active Directory
• Password: Set this to the password for Active Directory

👁 Configuring the Connection (Google Sheets is shown.

Create a Mapping for Active Directory Data

With the connection to Active Directory configured, we can now access Active Directory data in any Informatica process. The steps below walk through creating a mapping for Active Directory to another data target.

1. Navigate to the Data Integration page 👁 Image
   
2. Click New.. and select Mapping from the Mappings tab 👁 Image
   
3. Click the Source Object and in the Source tab, select the Connection and set the Source Type 👁 Selecting the Source Connection and Source Type
   
4. Click "Select" to choose the table to map 👁 Selecting the Source Object
   
5. In the Fields tab, select the fields from the Active Directory table to map 👁 Selecting Source Fields to map
   
6. Click the Target object and configure the Target source, table and fields. In the Field Mapping tab, map the source fields to the target fields. 👁 Selecting the Target Field Mappings
   

With the mapping configured, you are ready to start integrating live Active Directory data with any of the supported connections in Informatica Cloud. Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Active Directory and start working with your live Active Directory data in Informatica Cloud today.