Google Search Appliance Connectors Deploying the Connector for Active Directory - Manual (Page 4)

Overview of the GSA Connector for Active Directory
The Connector for Active Directory feeds group information from an Active Directory
network to the search appliance’s onboard group database.
The Connector for Active Directory creates an XML groups feed for pushing the information
to the search appliance. For detailed information about XML groups feeds and onboard
group resolution, see
Feeding Groups to the Search Appliance in the Feeds Protocol
Developer’s Guide . Take note that the cumulative number of group members on the search
appliance cannot exceed the maximum for your search appliance model. For more
information, see the
Feeds Protocol Developer’s Guide .
The following diagram provides an overview of how the search appliance gets group
information from an Active Directory network through the Connector for Active Directory.
For explanations of the numbers in the process, see the steps following the diagram.
1. The Connector for Active Directory starts communicating with Active Directory by
presenting authentication credentials.
2. Active Directory gets group and member information from the Active Directory
servers in the network and sends them to the connector.
3. The connector resolves group memberships and sends group definitions to the
search appliance.
4. The search appliance gets the XML groups feed from the connector for Active
Directory.
5. The search appliance adds them to the onboard groups database in the security
manager.