Configure OpenText Directory Services for automatic user provisioning

This article describes the steps you need to perform in both OpenText Directory Services and Microsoft Entra ID to configure automatic user provisioning. When configured, Microsoft Entra ID automatically provisions and de-provisions users and groups to OpenText Directory Services using the Microsoft Entra provisioning service. For important details on what this service does, how it works, and frequently asked questions, see Automate user provisioning and deprovisioning to SaaS applications with Microsoft Entra ID.

Capabilities supported

• Create users in OpenText Directory Services
• Remove users in OpenText Directory Services when they do not require access anymore
• Keep user attributes synchronized between Microsoft Entra ID and OpenText Directory Services
• Provision groups and group memberships in OpenText Directory Services
• Single sign-on to OpenText Directory Services (recommended)

Prerequisites

The scenario outlined in this article assumes that you already have the following prerequisites:

• A Microsoft Entra tenant
• One of the following roles: Application Administrator, Cloud Application Administrator, or Application Owner.
• An OTDS installation accessible by Microsoft Entra ID.

Step 1: Plan your provisioning deployment

1. Learn about how the provisioning service works.
2. Determine who will be in scope for provisioning.
3. Determine what data to map between Microsoft Entra ID and OpenText Directory Services.

Step 2: Configure OpenText Directory Services to support provisioning with Microsoft Entra ID

Note

The below steps apply to an OpenText Directory Services installation. They do not apply for OpenText CoreShare or OpenText OT2 tenants.

1. Create a dedicated confidential OAuth client.

2. Set a long Access token lifetime.

   

3. Do not specify any redirect URLs. They are not required.

4. OTDS will generate and display the client secret. Save the client id and client secret in a secure location.

   

5. Create a partition for the users and groups to be synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID.

   

6. Grant administrative rights to the OAuth client you created on the partition you will use for the Microsoft Entra users and groups being synchronized.

   • Partition -> Actions -> Edit Administrators

   

7. A secret token must be retrieved and configured in Microsoft Entra ID. Any HTTP client application can be used for this. Below are steps to retrieve using the Swagger API application included in OTDS.

   • In a web browser, go to {OTDS URL}/otdsws/oauth2
   • Go to /token and click the lock icon at the top right. Enter the OAuth client ID and secret retrieved earlier as the username and password respectively. Click Authorize.

   

8. Select client_credentials for the grant_type and click Execute.

   

9. The access token in the response should be used in the Secret Token field in Microsoft Entra ID.

   

Step 3: Add OpenText Directory Services from the Microsoft Entra application gallery

Add OpenText Directory Services from the Microsoft Entra application gallery to start managing provisioning to OpenText Directory Services. If you have previously setup OpenText Directory Services for SSO, you can use the same application. However it is recommended that you create a separate app when testing out the integration initially. Learn more about adding an application from the gallery here.

Step 4: Define who will be in scope for provisioning

The Microsoft Entra provisioning service allows you to scope who will be provisioned based on assignment to the application and or based on attributes of the user / group. If you choose to scope who will be provisioned to your app based on assignment, you can use the following steps to assign users and groups to the application. If you choose to scope who will be provisioned based solely on attributes of the user or group, you can use a scoping filter as described here.

• Start small. Test with a small set of users and groups before rolling out to everyone. When scope for provisioning is set to assigned users and groups, you can control this by assigning one or two users or groups to the app. When scope is set to all users and groups, you can specify an attribute based scoping filter.

• If you need additional roles, you can update the application manifest to add new roles.

Step 5: Configure automatic user provisioning to OpenText Directory Services

This section guides you through the steps to configure the Microsoft Entra provisioning service to create, update, and disable users and/or groups in TestApp based on user and/or group assignments in Microsoft Entra ID.

To configure automatic user provisioning for OpenText Directory Services in Microsoft Entra ID:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications

   

3. In the applications list, select OpenText Directory Services.

   

4. Select the Provisioning tab.

   

5. Set the Provisioning Mode to Automatic.

   

6. Under the Admin Credentials section, input your OpenText Directory Services Tenant URL

   • Non-specific tenant URL : {OTDS URL}/scim/{partitionName}
   • Specific tenant URL : {OTDS URL}/otdstenant/{tenantID}/scim/{partitionName}

7. Enter the Secret Token retrieved from Step 2. Click Test Connection to ensure Microsoft Entra ID can connect to OpenText Directory Services. If the connection fails, ensure your OpenText Directory Services account has Admin permissions and try again.

   

8. In the Notification Email field, enter the email address of a person or group who should receive the provisioning error notifications and select the Send an email notification when a failure occurs check box.

   

9. Select Save.

10. Under the Mappings section, select Synchronize Microsoft Entra users to OpenText Directory Services.

11. Review the user attributes that are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID to OpenText Directory Services in the Attribute-Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the user accounts in OpenText Directory Services for update operations. If you choose to change the matching target attribute, you will need to ensure that the OpenText Directory Services API supports filtering users based on that attribute. Select the Save button to commit any changes.

    Attribute	Type
    userName	String
    active	Boolean
    displayName	String
    title	String
    emails[type eq "work"].value	String
    preferredLanguage	String
    name.givenName	String
    name.familyName	String
    name.formatted	String
    addresses[type eq "work"].formatted	String
    addresses[type eq "work"].streetAddress	String
    addresses[type eq "work"].locality	String
    addresses[type eq "work"].region	String
    addresses[type eq "work"].postalCode	String
    addresses[type eq "work"].country	String
    phoneNumbers[type eq "work"].value	String
    phoneNumbers[type eq "mobile"].value	String
    phoneNumbers[type eq "fax"].value	String
    externalId	String
    urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:enterprise:2.0:User:employeeNumber	String
    urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:enterprise:2.0:User:department	String
    urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:enterprise:2.0:User:manager	Reference

12. Under the Mappings section, select Synchronize Microsoft Entra groups to OpenText Directory Services.

13. Review the group attributes that are synchronized from Microsoft Entra ID to OpenText Directory Services in the Attribute-Mapping section. The attributes selected as Matching properties are used to match the groups in OpenText Directory Services for update operations. Select the Save button to commit any changes.

    Attribute	Type
    displayName	String
    externalId	String
    members	Reference

14. To configure scoping filters, refer to the following instructions provided in the Scoping filter article.

15. To enable the Microsoft Entra provisioning service for OpenText Directory Services, change the Provisioning Status to On in the Settings section.

    

16. Define the users and/or groups that you would like to provision to OpenText Directory Services by choosing the desired values in Scope in the Settings section.

    

17. When you are ready to provision, click Save.

    

This operation starts the initial synchronization cycle of all users and groups defined in Scope in the Settings section. The initial cycle takes longer to perform than subsequent cycles, which occur approximately every 40 minutes as long as the Microsoft Entra provisioning service is running.

Step 6: Monitor your deployment

Once you've configured provisioning, use the following resources to monitor your deployment:

1. Use the provisioning logs to determine which users have been provisioned successfully or unsuccessfully
2. Check the progress bar to see the status of the provisioning cycle and how close it is to completion
3. If the provisioning configuration seems to be in an unhealthy state, the application will go into quarantine. Learn more about quarantine states here.

Additional resources

• Managing user account provisioning for Enterprise Apps
• What is application access and single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID?

Related content

• Learn how to review logs and get reports on provisioning activity