External user store synchronization tasks

There are five external user store synchronization tasks available:

• Bulk create users: This synchronizes the ThoughtFarmer user list with the external user store group it is configured to sync with. When a sync occurs, users that are in the external group but not in ThoughtFarmer have profiles created and field mappings populated.
• Bulk update users: This overwrites mapped user fields with the values from the synced external user store, when the data owner is the external store.
• Update group page membership from external store groups: This synchronizes the group page memberships in ThoughtFarmer with their mapped groups in the external user store.
• Update security group membership from external store groups: This synchronizes the security group memberships in ThoughtFarmer with their mapped groups in the external user store.
• Bulk deactivate users: This synchronizes the ThoughtFarmer user list with the external user store group it is configured to sync with. When a sync occurs, users that are not in the external group, or whose accounts are disabled in the external store, will be marked as inactive in ThoughtFarmer.

It is important that you verify the membership of the synced with external group that is configured on the individual external user store page found on the Admin panel: Users & security > Employee directory connector page. If this group is not completely up-to-date in the external store then the Bulk create and Bulk deactivate tasks may add or disable users unintendedly.

If you wish to see which TF groups will have their membership updated using the above sync tasks:

1. Go to the Admin panel: Users & security > Group sync page to view group pages that have their membership synced with external user store groups.
2. Go to the Admin panel: Users & security > Security groups page to view ThoughtFarmer security groups that have their membership synced with external user store groups.

Photo sync

Profile photos can be synced between ThoughtFarmer and many supported external user stores. There are various restrictions and configuration requirements for the different providers (e.g. Active Directory, Okta, Entra ID, GSuite). When configuring this, our support team can assist with the details depending on your provider.

Daily synchronization

The synchronization tasks can be configured to run daily at a specified time. It is recommended to set this to run at a time when users will not be accessing the intranet. The daily synchronization tasks are set to disabled by default.

Configure daily synchronization with external user store

1. Go to the ThoughtFarmer Admin Panel: Users & security section > Employee directory connector page.
2. Click on the name of the external user store for which you want to change the synchronization tasks.
3. Click on the Synchronization Settings tab.
4. In the Daily synchronization section, click Create one now (or edit if there is a sync already setup).
5. Set the synchronization Run time in 24 hour format (local web server time) using the dropdown menus.
6. Set the synchronization Frequency by entering the number of hours between synchronizations.
7. Select the checkboxes for the tasks you want to run in the daily synchronization.
8. Click Save.

If daily sync is enabled then an additional log trimming task will run by default. This will occur even if no other sync tasks are enabled. This task will clean out all system log entries older than a certain age depending on the type of log entry. This task will delete:

• ERROR messages older than 6 months
• WARNING messages older than 2 months
• INFO and DEBUG messages older than 1 month

On-Demand synchronization

Any of the external store synchronization tasks can be triggered at any time using the On-Demand synchronization section from the Admin panel > Users & security section > Employee directory connector page. Click on the name of the external store you want to edit and select the Synchronization Settings tab.

Simply check the box beside the task(s) you wish to run and click Synchronize now. The ThoughtFarmer Service will log all information about the tasks in the System logs. You can examine the log to check on task progress and completion.

Tip: User name changes

If you change a user's name in the external user store and don't change it in ThoughtFarmer, a new user profile will be created in ThoughtFarmer when the sync tasks Bulk create users and Bulk update users are run. To prevent this, make sure to change the user's name in the external user store and ThoughtFarmer, and then run the sync tasks Bulk create users and Bulk update users before the user tries to log in with their new username.

For more detailed instructions, see Change a user's name and username.

Turn on EDC sync failure alert emails

If the EDC sync fails, you may wish to be notified that this has happened. To turn on EDC sync failure alert emails, turn the config setting edc.syncFailure.alert.enabled to true, and add a comma-separated list of emails that should receive alerts to the config setting edc.syncFailure.alert.recipients.

1. Go to the ThoughtFarmer Admin panel: Advanced section > Configuration settings page.
2. Search sync to narrow the list of config settings.
3. Find the config setting edc.syncFailure.alert.enabled.
   1. Click the edit icon to the right of the config setting.
   2. In the Edit configuration setting window, under Value, select the True radio button.
   3. Click Save.
4. Find the config setting edc.syncFailure.alert.recipients.
   1. Click the edit icon to the right of the config setting.
   2. In the Edit configuration setting window, in the Value field, enter a comma-separated list of email addresses that should receive emails if the EDC sync fails.
   3. Click Save.