IN FIM, I am in the process of importing groups from or Lotus Notes system. I know there is a Domino MA available in FIM, but I have to migrate/manipulate the data and I don't want FIM to do the processing. I am going to stage the data in a SQL table prior to loading in FIM. I am storing the ListOwner in a multi-value string field. I want to be able to import this into FIM. However, the current FIM environment has been setup to work with AD groups and the owners field in FIM is a reference data type. I am getting a data type mismatch. Is there any code available that will allow me to convert the string into a reference?

Do I take it that you're using the SQL MA? If so then you should be able to simply define the "groups" attribute as a multi-value reference type in the MA attributes configuration. In order to do this, the (string) values in your groups attribute must match exactly with the anchor values of the group objects in the same SQL MA. This is usually the tricky bit ... best explained here. Note that the key here is that you need to have more than just the one object class declared in your SQL MA, as reference values will only "flow" from one connector space to another if they can be "uniquely resolved" in each of the connector spaces and the metaverse. Have a read of the article and the light should come on for you.Bob Bradley (FIMBob!) ... now using Event Broker 3.0 @ http://www.unifysolutions.net/ourSolutions.cfm?solution=event for just-in-time delivery of FIM 2010 policy via the sync engine

adding to what bob said: in SQL MA -> Configure Columns -> Multi-value, when you configure the attribute, you can configure it as reference (DN) ... however unless your person objects (owners) are in the same connector space for your SQL MA, the referencing will not work, see this: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/understanding-reference-attributes-processing-in-fim.aspx so you need to have both object types exists - or you can run one-time group migration: using powershell script to create the groups directly into FIM maybe using CSV file, then start managing the groups using FIM portal It's never too late in life ... to start living

Bob, Thanks! That article did help because I was not real certain how to setup the SQL design.aldean69

Thanks Amer! Since that data needs a lot of TLC before importing into FIM, I will take a look at the Powershell option as well. aldean69

This addresses the import but what about exporting a reference type to a SQL table. I seem to be having the same issue on export. aldean69

OK - so now you're probably using views to load reference attributes into FIM via the SQL MA, which means that you're almost always going to need another SQL MA (or several) to perform exports ... one per object class. Have a look at this article I wrote about ref atts, because this might get you thinking about what you are doing and why you are doing it ... but it also explains what is required on the sync engine side. In particular look at the note there ... you're going to either need to venture down the extensible connectivity MA (ECMA) direction, or use something pre-fabricated from a 3rd party ;). Effectively you need a "broker" to "connect" to multiple SQL tables/views (RDBMS format) but to "adapt" to the way the FIM sync engine needs your data presented in order to work with it (i.e. directory format ... think LDAP).Bob Bradley (FIMBob!) ... now using Event Broker 3.0 @ http://www.unifysolutions.net/ourSolutions.cfm?solution=event for just-in-time delivery of FIM 2010 policy via the sync engine