Deploy and Configure Qlik Sense

When Qlik Sense is installed initially, it only has a handful of internal user accounts that are designed to run and manage Qlik Sense as well as the service account which was used to install Qlik Sense. In this guide you will learn how to create something called a User Directory Connector that will enable you to import users and user details into your Qlik Sense site.

In this guide I will show you how to create a User Directory Connector and use it to bring in user details, like name and different security groups that a user is part of, for existing users. In the next couple of guide, you will learn how to configure User Directory Connector and how to create something called an LDAP filter to bring in additional, specific users into your Qlik Sense environment.

Reactive vs. Proactive User Import

Purpose of a User Directory Connector is to bring in users and details about users. User details are then used to do things like grant users license and give them access to streams and apps. When user logs in to Qlik Sense Hub, if that user doesn't yet exist in Qlik Sense, a user record is automatically created in Users section of QMC for that user. When a task for User Directory Connector is run, details about users are brought in from Active Directory. I refer to this process as Reactive User Import because Qlik Sense waits for users to log in to the Hub and then it pulls details about those users from Active Directory.

Implication is that if you have security rules that automatically allocate a license to members of certain security group or allow members of certain security group access to streams and apps, Qlik sense will need to know whether or not a user is part of the security group. For example, you may have Qlik Sense security rule that automatically allocates an Analyzer license to members of HR security group and grants them access to HR stream and apps within that stream. If user logs in to the Hub but the task for User Directory Connector hasn't ran yet, then that user will not get a license or access to HR stream and apps within it even if that user is part of HR security group. Until User Directory Connector runs and gets user details from Active Directory, Qlik Sense won't know what groups the user belongs to and none of the security rules that are based on Active Directory security group will be applied to the user.

Proactive User Import is when either an LDAP filter is created to import specific users or users from an entire Active Directory are imported to Qlik Sense with the help of User Directory Connector. This way user accounts, and all corresponding details will be available within Qlik Sense before a user logs in to Qlik Sense Hub. There's still a chance that a user is added to a security group and tries to access Qlik Sense before User Directory Connector is run, resulting in user not getting a license or access to Streams and apps. However, the chance of that happening is greatly reduced with Proactive User Import method. With Proactive User Import method, you can setup tasks to have list of users pulled from Active Directory on a regular basis ensuring that users will experience a more streamlined access to apps they need.

Generally speaking, it makes sense to bring in users ahead of time and set up Qlik Sense security rules to automate user management and improve user's experience accessing Qlik Sense apps. That's what we'll do in this and the next two lessons.

With all that said, let's set up a User Directory Connector to pull in details for existing users first.