1<a id="Import-and-Sync"></a>Import and Synchronization 2====================================================== 3 4Icinga Director offers very powerful mechanisms when it comes to fetching data 5from external data sources. 6 7The following examples should give you a quick idea of what you might want to 8use this feature for. Please note that Import Data Sources are implemented as 9hooks in Director. This means that it is absolutely possible and probably very 10easy to create custom data sources for whatever kind of data you have. And you 11do not need to modify the Director source code for this, you can ship your very 12own importer in your very own Icinga Web 2 module. 13 14Examples 15-------- 16 17### Import Servers from MS Active Directory 18 19#### Create a new import source 20 21Importing data from LDAP sources is pretty easy. We use MS Active Directory 22as an example source: 23 24 25 26You must formerly have configured a corresponding LDAP resource in your Icinga Web. 27Then you choose your preferred object class, you might add custom filters, a search 28base should always be set. 29 30The only tricky part here are the chosen Properties. You must know them and you 31are required to fill them in, no way around this right now. Also please choose one 32column as your key column. 33 34In case you want to avoid trouble please make this the column that corresponds to 35your desired object name for the objects you are going to import. Rows duplicating 36this property will be considered erroneous, the Import would fail. 37 38#### Property modifiers 39 40Data sources like SQL databases provide very powerful modifiers themselves. With a 41handcrafted query you can solve lots of data conversion problems. Sometimes this is 42not possible, and some sources (like LDAP) do not even have such features. 43 44This is where property modifiers jump in to the rescue. Your computer names are 45uppercase and you hate this? Use the lowercase modifier: 46 47 48 49You want to have the object SID as a custom variable, but the data is stored 50binary in your AD? There is a dedicated modifier: 51 52 53 54You do not agree with the way Microsoft represents its version numbers? Regular 55expressions are able to fix everything: 56 57 58 59#### Preview 60 61A quick look at the preview confirms that we reached a good point, that's the data 62we want: 63 64 65 66#### Synchronization 67 68The Import itself just fetches raw data, it does not yet try to modify any of your 69Icinga objects. That's what the Sync rules have been designed for. This distinction 70has a lot of advantages when it goes to automatic scheduling for various import and 71sync jobs. 72 73When creating a Synchronization rule, you must decide which Icinga objects you want 74to work with. You could decide to use the same import source in various rules with 75different filters and properties. 76 77 78 79For every property you must decide whether and how it should be synchronized. You 80can also define custom expressions, combine multiple source fields, set custom 81properties based on custom conditions and so on. 82 83 84 85Now you are all done and ready to a) launch the Import and b) trigger your synchronization 86run. 87 88 89
