PowerShell
The HelloID Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution from Tools4ever integrates with a broad range of source and target systems. PowerShell plays an indispensable role in enabling these integrations. This article provides more information about how HelloID uses PowerShell, the role it plays in the connectors we offer, and the benefits of PowerShell.
What is PowerShell?
PowerShell is a cross-platform solution for task automation and configuration management. It consists of a command-line shell, a scripting language, and a configuration management framework. Developed by Microsoft, PowerShell is widely used as a scripting language for automating system management.
Many IT professionals are familiar with PowerShell for its capabilities in automating a wide range of tasks. PowerShell is not limited to the Microsoft infrastructure and operates cross-platform. PowerShell Core 7 and higher, for example, supports Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Easy Integration via GitHub
PowerShell enables a wide variety of system integrations. Working with PowerShell requires specific knowledge that many HelloID functional administrators do not have, which makes realizing these integrations a challenge.
Tools4ever addresses this challenge by making a large number of connectors freely available through our GitHub repository. In particular, our PowerShell V2 connectors make it very easy to create integrations, with information field mapping configurable through a graphical interface.
We are also working on a GitHub integration for target systems, which will further simplify the management of target systems. Administrators will be able to add, manage, or remove a new target system with a single action through this integration.
How HelloID Uses PowerShell
HelloID uses PowerShell in both its source and target connectors. Depending on the requirements of the system HelloID is connecting to, the version of PowerShell used may vary. For our cloud agents, we use PowerShell Core 7 or higher, while for our on-premises HelloID agents we use PowerShell 5.1.
While PowerShell enables automation of a wide range of functionality in HelloID, not all PowerShell capabilities are available in the IAM solution. This is a deliberate design decision. For example, support for 'Invoke-Expression' is not provided for security reasons.
To ensure transparency and simplicity, HelloID uses performance limits. Target systems in HelloID have various account lifecycle events: creating, activating, updating, deactivating, and deleting accounts. Each action within this lifecycle must be completed within 30 seconds. For changes to source systems, all changes must be completed within 60 minutes.
Benefits of Using HelloID with PowerShell
HelloID offers very broad integration capabilities with a wide range of systems. When realizing these integrations, we depend on the capabilities that a vendor provides. However, with PowerShell we can support virtually any scenario, including APIs, web services, SQL databases, and CSV files.
The physical location of systems is also not a barrier. For cloud-based systems, HelloID establishes a cloud-to-cloud connection using a cloud agent based on PowerShell Core 7 or higher. For on-premises systems running on your own infrastructure, a connection can be established using the on-premises HelloID agent based on PowerShell 5.1.
HelloID offers approximately 200 connectors in total. View a complete overview of all available connectors here.
