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Using Metaverse Designer

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Metaverse Designer is used to create and configure object types and their attributes in the schema of Microsoft® Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 R2. FIM creates its own metaverse schema when it is installed, defining a set of object types, such as Person or Organization, and defining a set of attributes that are associated with each object type. The schema also describes the data types of attributes, data constraints, and if certain information is mandatory for specific objects. For more information about the metaverse schema, see The Metaverse and the Connector Space.

Note

A schema is also created in FIM for each connected data source. For more information about connected data source schemas, see Configuring Management Agents.

You use Metaverse Designer to configure and analyze attribute flow precedence, configure object deletion rules, and configure the metaverse schema.

Metaverse Designer displays the current object types that are available in the schema and their attributes. Selecting an object type in the top pane displays the object type's current attribute set in the lower pane.

The options available for configuring objects are:

  • Create new object type—Adds a new object type to the metaverse schema. Select the attribute set for the new object from the list of attributes that are currently available in the metaverse schema, or create a new attribute. For more information, see Create an Object Type.

  • Delete an object type—Deletes an object type from the metaverse schema. If the object is being used by a management agent for attribute flow, you cannot delete it. For more information, see Delete an Object Type.

  • Configure object deletion rule—An object deletion rule can be specified for each object type in the metaverse schema, and it determines under what circumstances an object is deleted from the metaverse. It may be configured to:

    • Delete the metaverse object when the last connector space object that links to the metaverse object is disconnected. This is the default behavior.

    • Delete the metaverse object when the last connector space object from a specified management agent is disconnected.

    • Delete the metaverse object according to a rules extension.

      The type of object deletion rule selected is displayed in the Object Deletion column in Metaverse Designer. For more information, see Configure an Object Deletion Rule.

The options available for configuring attributes are:

  • Add attribute—Adds an attribute to the object type that is selected in the Object types pane. You can either add an existing metaverse schema attribute or create a new attribute. For more information, see Add an Attribute.

  • Remove attribute—Removes an attribute from the object type that is selected in the Object types pane. If the attribute is being used by a management agent for attribute flow, you cannot remove it. For more information, see Remove an Attribute.

  • Edit attribute—For an existing attribute, you may select whether or not it is indexed. Indexing an attribute makes searches using that attribute much more efficient. To configure other properties for that attribute, such as name, type, or multivalued, you must delete that attribute and create a new one. For more information, see Edit Indexed Property for an Attribute.

Note

Only the String (indexable) and Binary (indexable) attribute types may be indexed.

  • Configure Attribute Flow Precedence—When two or more connected data sources are synchronizing data to the same metaverse object, you can appoint one data source as being authoritative, or having precedence. This ensures that the data source with lower precedence will never overwrite data that has been contributed by the data source with higher precedence. You can also use Manual Precedence, which allows you to control precedence through a rules extension. For more information, see Configure Attribute Flow Precedence and Attribute Flow Rules.

Importing and exporting the metaverse schema

During the deployment of FIM, you may have configured the server running FIM in a lab environment, to test the configuration. When moving FIM to your production environment, you can export the tested schema to an XML file and then import the schema to your production server. In addition, you can continue to test changes to the metaverse schema in your test environment and update the server schema in the production environment as needed. When you import a metaverse schema, you cannot remove object types from the metaverse schema.