Policy Server Guides › Policy Server Configuration Guide › User Directories › User Directory Connections Overview › Active Directory Overview

Active Directory Overview

SiteMinder supports user directories on the Microsoft Active Directory platform. Although the configuration for Active Directory (AD) and LDAP namespaces in the Administrative UI is very similar, there are several functional differences.

The advantages of using the AD namespace when configuring an Active Directory user store include:

• SSL connectivity using a native Windows certificate database.

  Note: Both the Policy Server and the systems hosting Active Directory user stores must have an established trust. For information about configuring Windows systems and Active Directory for SSL, see your Windows documentation.

• Support for native Windows SASL which allows for secure LDAP bind operations.

The disadvantages include:

• No support for enhanced LDAP referrals.
• No support for LDAP paging and sorting operations.

Note: For information about using the LDAP namespace for an Active Directory user store, see Configure Active Directory Connections.