After Installing the Connector you can connect and create a Data Source for data in Microsoft Active Directory.

Setting Up a Data Source

Complete the following steps to connect to the data:

1. Under Connect | To a Server, click More....
2. Select the data source called Microsoft Active Directory by CData.
3. Enter the information required for the connection.
4. Click Sign In.
5. If necessary, select a Database and Schema to discover what tables and views are available.

Using the Connection Builder

The connector makes the most common connection properties available directly in Tableau. However, it can be difficult to use if you need to use more advanced settings or need to troubleshoot connection issues. The connector includes a separate connection builder that allows you to create and test connections outside of Tableau.

There are two ways to access the connection builder:

• On Windows, use a shortcut called Connection Builder in the Start menu, under the CData Tableau Connector for Microsoft Active Directory folder.
• You can also start the connection builder by going to the driver install directory and running the .jar file in the lib directory.

In the connection builder, you can set values for connection properties and click Test Connection to validate that they work. You can also use the Copy to Clipboard button to save the connection string. This connection string can be given to the Connection String option included in the connector connection window in Tableau.

Connecting to Microsoft Active Directory

Set Server and Port for basic connectivity. Additionally, you can fine-tune the connection with the following:

• FollowReferrals: When set, the connector surfaces data as views from only referral servers. To modify data on a referral server, you must specify this server with Server and Port.
• LDAPVersion: Set this to the version of the protocol your server implements; by default, the connector uses version 2.

Authenticating to Microsoft Active Directory

To authenticate requests, set the User and Password properties to valid Microsoft Active Directory credentials (e.g., set User to Domain\\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).

The connector uses plaintext authentication by default, since the connector attempts to negotiate TLS/SSL with the server. You can specify another authentication method with AuthMechanism.

See SSL Configuration for more information on TLS/SSL configuration.

Fine Tuning Data Access

The following properties control the scope of data returned:

• BaseDN will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided. Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, a value of cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.
• Scope: This property enables more granular control over the data to return from a subtree.

Customizing Tables

The connector surfaces the columns most often needed from Microsoft Active Directory entities. However, if you need to work with other data, the tables are easy to modify. Tables are defined in schema files, which have a simple format.

See Working with Active Directory Tables for a guide to extending the default schemas or writing your own. To use custom schemas, set the Location property to the folder containing the schema files.

Next Step

See Using the Connector to create data visualizations.