Active Directory Forest Selection Manager

This feature applies if:

Opening the Forest Selection Manager

Configuring Active Directory Forests in Goverlan is done with the Forest Selection Manager.

To open the Forest Selection Manager, open the main command menu and select the Active Directory Forest Manager from the menu, or, click on the Active Directory Forest Selector button located on the top right corner of the ribbon bar and select Add / Remove Forest.

Configuring an Active Directory Forest

When you start Goverlan, it automatically detects and displays the Active Directory domains available on your network. However, in some cases, active directory information cannot be queried. For instance, if you start Goverlan from a computer which does not belong to an active directory domain. In this case, you need to configure a global catalog server to be used by Goverlan to query Active Directory Information.

  1. Open the Forest Selection Manager.

  2. Click on the Add button.

  3. Enter the name or IP address of a Global Catalog server which belongs to the forest and press the Enter key. Goverlan automatically queries this server and displays the name of the root domain.

    - Make sure you enter a Global Catalog Server. Not all LDAP servers are Global Catalog servers. Even though Goverlan will accept a standard LDAP server, it will not be able to display all Active Directory information. If you are unsure about which LDAP server is a Global Catalog server, ask your Active Directory Infrastructure administrator.

    - An active directory forest may have more than one Global Catalog Server. You should choose the one which is closest to you for better performance.

  4. If prompted, enter the credentials to use in order to connect to the global catalog server. You should enter an account which holds sufficient privileges to at least query active directory information.

  5. Close the Forest Selection Manager.

You now need to set the focus to the configured Active Directory Forest. Click on theActive Directory Forest Selector toolbar and select the newly configured forest. You only need to do this once.

Working in a Multi-Forest Environment

Goverlan supports Active Directory multi-forest environments. If your computer is on a network which has more than one Active Directory forest, you need to configure Goverlan so that all forests can be detected and displayed within the interface.

  1. Open the Forest Selection Manager.

  2. Click on the Add button and enter the name or IP address of a Global Catalog server which belongs to the forest to be added and press the Enter key. Goverlan automatically queries this server and displays the name of the root domain.

  3. If prompted, enter the credentials to use in order to connect to the global catalog server. You should enter an account which holds sufficient privileges to at least query active directory information.

  4. Repeat step 2 for each Forest to be added.

  5. Close the Forest Selection Manager.

Once you have configured the forests in the Forest Manager, use the Active Directory Forest Selector menu to switch from one Forest to another. Please note that switching to a new forest will reset all views.

What is Server-less Binding?

Server-less binding is the act of querying Active Directory without specifying a server. If no server is specified, the registered Active Directory provider of your machine automatically selects a global catalog server from the forest your machine belongs to. This is the default behavior Goverlan adopts.

Once you have configured one or more forests, the Forest Selector toolbar automatically displays the << serverless binding>> entry. Select this entry to resume the original Goverlan behavior. Note: Server-less binding will not work if your machine doesn't belong to an active directory domain.