Active Directory Integration Manual

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Fast and easy roll-out of BackupAgent platforms using Active Directory

and web-panels

1. Online Backup for hosters

This whitepaper describes the unique and valuable features of combining BackupAgent’s

software with the Active Directory in a hosted environment. Worldwide hosting companies are

adopting Microsoft platforms and technologies for their services. For provisioning purposes

many hosters utilize the Active Directory and combine this with a web shop/panel software of

Microsoft partners (e.g. Citrix CPSM v10).

The Hosting Community is adopting new value-add services on a global scale. One of the most

popular services adopted is online backup. BackupAgent offers BackupAgent Server, which is a

software platform for hosting online backup services based on Microsoft technology. This

whitepaper will explicitly explain the possibilities of provisioning online backup services by

using the Active Directory.

For general information about BackupAgent Server the following documents serve as

recommended reading material to complement this whitepaper:

 BackupAgent Server Product Sheet

 BackupAgent Server Installation & Requirements

 BackupAgent Scalability Reference

 BackupAgent Provisioning Reference

Links to these documents can be found on the last page of this document.

1.1 Web Services

Summary of content (14 pages)

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Active Directory Integration Manual Fast and easy roll-out of BackupAgent platforms using Active Directory and web-panels 1. Online Backup for hosters This whitepaper describes the unique and valuable features of combining BackupAgent’s software with the Active Directory in a hosted environment. Worldwide hosting companies are adopting Microsoft platforms and technologies for their services.
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BackupAgent’s server software architecture is based on web services, which allows the software to run on multiple load-balanced machines acting as a single instance. These web services run in IIS 7.0 and ASP.Net. BackupAgent Server runs in BackupAgent’s web servers will connect to one or more NAS’s to store all backed up data coming in from BackupAgent’s clients.
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provisioning. This shortens the return on investment for adopting to a level where the hosting providers purchases and installs the BackupAgent Server software. 2.1 Scalability BackupAgent allows system administrators to automatically provision backup accounts using their AD without involving any web shop or panel software. Best practice within hosting providers is to control authentication for various applications using the AD. Web shops and provisioning systems add or delete users in the AD.
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BackupAgent Server can store data of users on multiple storage locations which can be 2 uniquely identified by a numerical ID The fields are separated by an underscore. For a 10 GB Workstation plan on a storage location with ID 1003 this will result in a group name ‘CloudBackup_Workstation_10GB_1003’. Both new accounts and upgrades can take place by creating groups in AD and assign a single group membership to an appropriate group.
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A subgroup in BackupAgent Server can also be fully private label. A reseller can then fully customize these private label settings for the Management Console as would be the case when BackupAgent Server is running in a stand-alone environment. Users that are part of the OU and have a group membership for a backup plan can be monitored by the administrator of the OU from the BackupAgent Server Management Console. 3.
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You then need to create a password for this user. After this has been done, the user has been created. The next step is to add an e-mail address for this user. You can do this by selecting the properties of the trial user you just created.
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After these steps you are ready to log on to the Management Console with this user and start using the account. 3.1.2 Active users Active users are created the same way as a trial user. The only difference is that they are a member of a specified group. This group determines the size of the account and whether the account is a server or a workstation account. You can make this user a member of a group by selecting the properties of the user and make it a member of the group you prefer.
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An explanation on how to create groups can be found from chapter 3 onward. 3.2 Creating groups This section explains how to create reseller groups and group accounts in Active Directory. 3.2.1 Reseller groups In order to create a reseller group, you first need to create an Organizational Unit and give it a name.
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Having done this, you will need to create a Container called _Private using ADSI Edit. You create this container in the reseller OU you have created before. You are now ready to determine whether this group will be a default group or a private labeled group. Go to Active Directory again and create a group in the container called _Private you just created with ADSI Edit, belonging to the reseller group.
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you name it CloudBackup_Group@OU and if you want to create a private labeled group you name it CloudBackup_PrivateLabelGroup@OU . In this case we made a reseller group called Reseller1, so this would result in CloudBackup_Group@Reseller1 or CloudBackup_PrivateLabelGroup@Reseller1 . Having done this, you need to create an administrative user for this group account within this OU in Active Directory.
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Do not forget to set an e-mail address of for this administrative user after you are done creating it. You can do this by selecting the properties of this user. When you are finished, go to properties of the default or private labeled group you created and at the tab ‘Managed By’ set the administrative user you just created.
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You are now ready to log on with this administrative user to the Management Console. Note: If an OU is configured as such and has a parent OU in the Active Directory that is also configured as a group in BackupAgent that hierarchy will be inherited and visualized in the BackupAgent system. Also: Any user in a child OU of an OU which is set up to be a CloudBackup group will end up being a user in the Administrator group, due to limitations in the security model of Active Directory. 3.
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For each account type you want, you need to make a new group. It is possible to create additional OU’s to maintain the different account types. To create a group that determines the size and type of the account, it needs to contain the types and sizes, as well as the ID of the storage location you want the user to be a part of. Say you want to create a workstation user account, with a size of 10 GB, where the storage ID is 1002.
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After having created a group, you can now make a user a member of this group. After having done this, you can now log on to the Management Console with this user. Do not forget to assign an e-mail address to this user, or you will not be able to log on.