Connector Guides › Connectors Guide › Connectors › Connector Types

Connector Types

The following types of connectors are available:

• Flat Connectors—A flat connector has a single set of containers (folders) beneath an endpoint object that each contain all objects of the same type (for example, all accounts or all groups).

  The majority of connectors are considered flat connectors. Examples include:

  • Windows NT
  • UNIX
  • Oracle
• Hierarchical Connectors—Hierarchical connectors manage large enterprise solutions. Their endpoints have a series of containers beneath where their managed objects are stored. These containers act logically as a series of nested flat endpoint containers. The endpoint itself is also a container.

  Some examples of hierarchical connectors include:

  • Active Directory Services
  • NDS
• Static Connectors—Static connectors are designed to work in a fixed way and their behavior is largely dictated by their implementation and frozen at the time of release, rather than by the user of the connector.

  Examples of static connectors include:

  • ADS
  • Windows NT
  • RSA
• Dynamic Connectors—You can configure dynamic connectors using CA Identity Manager Connector Xpress. You define their behavior and the way they are mapped to the target endpoint system.

  Dynamic connectors are flexible and configurable. You do not have to have significant coding knowledge to define the behavior of a dynamic connector.

  Some examples of dynamic connectors include:

  • JDBC versions of Oracle
  • JNDI/LDAP

Note: For more information about Dynamic Connectors, see the Connector Xpress Guide and help system.