Microsoft Active Directory Connector

You can use the Microsoft Active Directory connector to index user information stored in Active Directory. The connector uses incremental refresh to periodically query Active Directory for the latest content modifications and keep the index up-to-date.

Deployment overview

1. Create a user identity for your Active Directory source

   The Active Directory content is accessible in read-only to any user from the domain or from a trusted domain. The Active Directory connector can therefore use any Active Directory user to crawl and index the Active Directory content. You must configure a CES user identity that contains information about the user you choose to use (see Adding a User Identity). You will later assign this user identity to your Active Directory source and security provider.

   Note: A best practice is to create an Active Directory user dedicated to the CES connector and for which the password never changes.

2. (Optional) Modify the default Active Directory security provider or create a new one

   Coveo Enterprise Search (CES) comes with a default Active Directory security provider. You can modify this security provider or create new ones to connect to a specific Active Directory domain (see Configuring an Active Directory Security Provider).

   Example: In your organization, there are several Microsoft Windows domains. You want to index the Active Directory content of Domain A while CES is running in DomainC. You can create a Domain A security provider and assign it to a Domain A Active Directory source to index only the Active Directory content of this domain.

3. Configure and index a Microsoft Active Directory source (see Configuring and Indexing an Active Directory Source).