# General IDS Guidelines and Limitations

The IDS feature synchronizes telephone directory entries in the system database with the directory entries in a central corporate directory server. The following guidelines and limitations apply:

- The MiVoice Business IDS application is restricted to networks that use System Data Synchronization (SDS).

- When MiCollab is part of your solution, you must disable the MiVoice Business IDS application and use MiCollab IDS. IDS must not be running separately on any of the MiVoice Business platform(s) that are managed by MiCollab.

- To take full advantage of the MiVoice Business IDS application, the MiVoice Business element must be part of an SDS network and have Release 5.0 or later software. Elements with R4.0 or R4.1 can be present in the network, but they cannot host directory numbers managed by the corporate directory server. They can only host locally added records.

- Move operations are not supported.

- Currently, user service data is synchronized only in one direction, from the corporate directory server to MiVoice Business IDS.

- Currently, only one type of directory server is supported: Microsoft Active Directory Server.

- In the default configuration, not all user service data is mapped to the Partial Attribute Set (PAS) in the Global Catalog. If you intend to synchronize with the Global Catalog for all domains in your network, you may choose to do the following:

- Ensure that the most important user service data is mapped to the Global Catalog PAS. For example, if your users frequently change departments, include the "department" attribute.

- If necessary, amend the schema where it applies the Global Catalog PAS. Add attributes for important data and delete attributes for unimportant data.

- If all of the standard Global attributes have been used, extend the user class with new attributes that are appropriate to the MiVoice Business IDS.

- When an IDS synchronization event is performed, the system searches for LDAP updates from a global catalog server or directory server(s) connected to the MiVoice Business contact point. If the connection attempt is unsuccessful, a log message is issued. To resolve the problem, check the Maintenance and Software Logs.

- The following user service data is IDS-manageable:

- First Name

- Last Name

- User ID

- Department

- Location

- Language

- Role

- Directory Number

- Home Element

- Secondary Element

- Email

- Non-IDS-manageable user service data is derived from a template linked to the Role field. If no Role is provided, default template data is used.

- A template is applied when a new user and device record is added, and when phone service information to added to a record that lacks it. A template is not applied when an existing record that already contains user and phone service information is modified.

- LDAP attributes mapped to user service data should:

- belong to the "user" object class - different objects cannot be described by the same set of attributes; otherwise, updates will fail.

- be programmable from an administrative tool - examples include the Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) console and the LDIFDE command line tool.

- be included in the Global Catalog - where necessary, modify the schema to mark attributes for replication to the GC partial attribute set.

- use the same syntax as the user service data - for example, "User ID" and "ObjectGUID" both contain GUID.

- be single-valued - since the MDS IDS normalizes data, using the first value it receives, you should avoid using LDAP attributes with multiple values (this may not be feasible with some attributes, such as the directory number).

- be available - when selecting an LDAP attribute to map to user service data, make sure it is not in use for some other purpose.

Related Topics

- IDS in a Mixed Network

- Support for Multiple Active Directory Domains