HR-connector is using Generic Python Script connector for reading data from the file. The connector is designed to be used in IGA solutions user lifecycle management use cases. Using it for other purpose needs script to be exported from the host machine and modified according to customer requirements, notice that it is also possible to create new script from the beginning and use custom script connector to validate and import it.

HR connector supports one or several work periods, as long as work periods are generated as described in “generate file from HR solution” chapter.  

Basic principles for HR connector,

1. Connector uses extra arguments, defined in the scheduled-based provisioning task, for finding the file from the path (if extra argument is missing, process stops)

2. Files are transformed to JSON format (dict) and stored as JSON

3. Each file can be run as full or partial run

4. Partial run always compares data to the archived file (if archive file is missing, process stops)

5. In Json formatted file, all mapped attributes are mandatory field and task stops import if there are mandatory attributes missing from any of imported objects. CSV format works differently, it is enough for it that all mapped attributes are found from header row as a columns. 

6. Connector will import IGA admin task to IGA solution including errors and JSON files containing archived and imported rows, after import has been executed.

Connector files, 

HR connector expects that file is generated from the HR solution based on following logic and the file is stored to customer's SFTP-server, where the connector can fetch the file(s). Note that encoding needs to be UTF-8.

If you use csv file format, default field separator used by HR connector script is ; (semicolon).

Generating the file varies according to the HR solution which customer is using, for example especially IGA solution requires that information is received from the past and from the future.

For Workday HR solutions, it is recommended to create custom report to Workday, which reports needed information, and use json format for that report to format the data.

Examples what information is used for generating the required file, 

If customer want's to use HR connector to import many different type of data, it is recommended to have one HR Connector per data type. 

For example if customer wants to import Organizations and Users, they should have 2 connector like "HR connector Organizations" and "HR connector Users".

And having those two connectors files on same ftp server, it's folder structure could be for example:

/sftp/iga/in/organisation

/sftp/iga/in/organization/archive

/sftp/iga/in/user

/sftp/iga/in/user/archive

Data folder should contain only one file at a time.

With that folder structure, you can use these script parameters for HR connector Organizations:

“sftp_remote_path_data”:"/sftp/iga/in/organization",

“sftp_remote_path_archive”:"/sftp/iga/in/organization/archive", 

“file_path”:"./organization/*.csv"

And similarly different script parameters for HR connector Users.

Parameters

Are used for defining settings for HR connector, which are validated when the script is run. 
Remember to store password in secure place, in case you need to review parameters after you have saved the scheduled task.

HR connector uses following parameters,

Validation

Validation means that HR connector validates that all mandatory information related to users are received from the HR solution and in case it is missing, HR connector creates as default IGA admin task.

Customer can define more attributes to be read, out side of list below, but it requires HR connectors script to be modified (read more from expansion possibilities chapter).

Exceptions

Customer can define in which template, folder and attribute HR connector generates following exceptions,

These instructions are guiding how to take pre-configured HR connector in to use or how to create one from the beginning, notice that modifying the script requires Python scripting skills. 

General guidance for scheduled tasks

General guidance for scheduled tasks

How to Create New Scheduled Task to import data

For configuring scheduled-based provisioning task, you will need access to Administration / Connectors tab.

1. Open the Administration area (a cogwheel symbol).

2. Open Connectors view.

3. Choose Connector for Scheduled-based task and select New Task
   Note! If connector is not created, you have to choose first New connector and after that New task.

 

4. Continue with connector specific instructions: Native Connectors

 

 

Should I use Incremental, Full or Both?

Scheduled task can be either Incremental or Full -type.

Do not import permissions with AD and LDAP incremental task

Incremental task has issue with permissions importing. At the moment it is recommended not to import group memberships with incremental scheduled task.

On Microsoft Active Directory and OpenLDAP connectors, remove this mapping on incremental task:
 

 

 

Setting on Scheduled tasks:

Incremental type is supported only for Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP and Microsoft Graph API (formerly known as Entra ID) Connectors.

Incremental type means, that Native Connectors (EPE) fetches data from source system, using changed timestamp information, so it fetches only data which is changed or added after previous incremental task run.

When Incremental type task is run for very first time, it does a full fetch (and it marks the current timestamp to EPE database),  thereafter, task uses that timestamp to ask the data source for data that changed since that timestamp (and then EPE updates the timestamp to EPE database for next task run). Clearing task cache doesn't affect this timestamp, so Incremental task is always incremental after first run.
 

Full type is supported for all Connectors.

Full type import fetches always all data (it's configured to fetch) from source system, on every run. 
 

Both Full and Incremental type tasks use also Task cache in EPE, which makes certain imports faster and lighter for M42 system.

By default that task cache is cleared ad midnight UTC time. When cache is cleared, next import after that is run without caching used to reason if data fetched should be pushed to ESM, all fetched data is pushed to ESM. But after that, next task runs until next time cache is cleared, are using EPE cache to determine if fetched data needs to be pushed to ESM or not.

You can configure at what time of day task cache is emptied, by changing global setting in EPE datapump configuration: 

/opt/epe/datapump-itsm/config/custom.properties

which is by default set to: clearCacheHours24HourFormat=0

You can also clear cache many times a day, but that needs to be thinked carefully, as it has impact on overall performance as EPE will push changes to ESM, that probably are already there, example(do not add spaces to attribute value): clearCacheHours24HourFormat=6,12

After changing this value, reboot EPE datapump container to take change into use.

Recommendations:

Have always by default Full type scheduled task.

If you want to fetch changes to data fetched already by full task, more frequently than you can run full task, add also incremental task. Usually incremental task is not needed.

 

 

Recommended Scheduling Sequence

Recommended scheduling sequence, depends how much data is read from Customers system/directory to the Matrix42 Core, Pro or IGA solution and is import Incremental or Full. 

Examples for scheduling, 

Total amount of users	Total amount of groups	Full load sequence	Incremental load sequence
< 500	< 1000	Every 30 minutes if partial load is not used Four (4) times a day if partial load is used	Every 10 minutes
< 2000	< 2000	Every 60 minutes, if partial load is not used Four (4) times a day if partial load is used	Every 15 minutes
< 5000	< 3000	Every four (4) hours, if partial load is not used Twice a day if partial load is used	Every 15 minutes
< 10 000	< 5000	Maximum imports twice a day, no matter if partial load is or is not used	Every 30 minutes
< 50 000	< 7000	Maximum import once a day, no matter if partial load is or is not used	Every 60 minutes
Over 50 000	Over 7000	There might be a need for another EPE-worker, please contact Product Owner	Separately evaluated

Please note that if there are several tasks running at the same time you may need more EPE-workers. The tasks should be scheduled at different times and can be completed according to the table above. However, if there are more than 6 tasks running at the same time, the number of epeworkers should be increased. It's best practice not to schedule tasks to run at same time, if possible.

Recommendations related to performance
If the amount fo data to be imported is over 10000 concider these things:
Adjust log level of ESM and DATAPUMP to ERROR-level, to lowe the amount of logging during task run
Have as few as possible automations starting immediately for imported datacards (listeners, handlers, workflows), as those make ESM to take longer time handling new datacards.

 

 

Set removed accounts and entitlements status removed/disabled

With this functionality, you can mark account and entitlement status to e.g. Deleted or Disabled, when account or entitlement is removed from source system. Starting from version 2025.3 you can also set status to generic objects (not only to accounts/identities and entitlements/groups). 

For version 2025.3 and newer

In version 2025.3 these settings are moved from properties files to Task UI. Also you can now set these settings for Generic objects, which have not been possible before this version.

There is separate configuration for each scheduled task, and for all mapping types. Here is example of this config on task:

For version 2025.2 and older

This functionality is available for “full” type scheduled tasks.

Settings are on datapump dockers configuration file. To change those parameter values, you need to set those in /opt/epe/datapump-itsm/config/custom.properties file.

Configuration

To enable disabling functionality, datapump config should have these parameters set to true:

disable.unknown.esm.users=true
disable.unknown.esm.groups=true

Those 2 parameters are false by default in 2024.2 and 2025.1 versions. In 2025.2 and newer version those are true by default.

 

Next are these parameters:

personTemplateStatusCodeAttributeKey=accountStatus
personTemplateStatusAttributeDisabledValueKey=Deleted
groupTemplateStatusCodeAttributeKey=status
groupTemplateStatusAttributeDisabledValueKey=5 - Removed

First two attributes should point to the DatacardHiddenState attribute in the User template, and tell which value should be send there when the user is deleted.

By default its accountStatus and Value 5 - Removed on IGA Account template.

All these needs to match with the attribute configuration:

 

Open 1.PNG

Same thing applies for the next two paramaters, but its for Groups.'

If you need to change those parameters in properties file, do changes in Datapump container to file: /opt/epe/datapump-itsm/config/custom.properties and those changes will then survive over container reboot and will be copied on reboot to /opt/epe/datapump-itsm/config/application.properties.

Description

Tasks save their __taskid__ shown as Task Id mapping in the UI to the datacards, its then used to determine if the datacard was added by this task. In case there are multiple tasks with different sets of users.

This field was previously used as datasourceid, but since we moved to the model where connector can have multiple tasks its identifier cannot be used anymore, thats why the field was repurposed as taskid instead.

 

Taking users as an example, when task runs ESM is asked for the list of users that have its taskid in Task Id mapping field, and doesn't have a personTemplateStatusAttributeDisabledValueKey value in the personTemplateStatusCodeAttributeKey

This result is then compared to what the task fetched, and the datacards of users that were not fetched have their personTemplateStatusattribute set to value specified in the config - 5 - Removedby default.

Example log below shows described process and informs that one user was removed.

 

Open 2.PNG

Same thing applies to groups but groupTemplateStatusattributes are used instead.

Notes

• Feature works only with full fetch scheduled tasks..
• No support for generic templates yet, only identity and access
• When migrating from the previous versions where datasourceid was still used it needs to run at least once to set its taskid’s in the datacards first.
• EPE identifies Disabled users or groups as the ones that were removed from the AD, at the present we do not support statuses related to the entity beign active or not.
• EPE does not enable users back on its own.
• If more than one tasks fetches the same users or groups it may overwrite the taskid in the datacard depending on which task ran last. It is suggested that many full type tasks are not fetching same user or group.
• Always do configuration file changes to custom.properties, do not change only application.properties as those changes are lost on container reboot if you have not done same changes to custom.properties.

 

 

 

 

 

Configuring HR connector and scheduled task

For accessing connector management, user needs to have permissions to Platform configuration.

1. Open the solution administration area (a gear symbol).
2. Open connectors view.
3. Choose new connector 

2. Select Data Source type to be Custom Backend

3. Fulfill information 

• Fill in unique connector name for the connector, notice that name cannot be changed afterwards.
• Select IGAConnector.py script from provisioning script field
• Parameters encryption password is needed for hiding / revealing parameters, after the connector has been saved
• WebAPI user is needed when HR connector is writing data to customers Pro/IGA solution
• WebAPI password is needed when HR connector is writing data to customers Pro/IGA solution

4. Reveal & modify parameters according to customer definitions

• Save encryption password in secure place, you will need it later on if there is a need to adjust the parameters
  
  Example about parameters:
  {"objectGUID_field_name":"objectGUID", "sftp_server_fqdn":"transfer.xx.com", "sftp_server_ssh_port_number":"22", "sftp_username":"username_here", "sftp_password":"username_here", "sftp_remote_path_data":"/sftp/data", "sftp_remote_path_archive":"/sftp/archive", 
"file_path":"./data/workperiod*.csv", // Path and file pattern where file is located. Mandatory value
   "data_type":"workperiod", // Values: costcenter, organization, title or workperiod. Mandatory value
   "run_type":"partial", // Run type specifies if comparison to previous file will be done. Values: full or partial. Optional value, default is 'partial'
   "update_limit": 100, // How many updates are allowed to IGA System. Mandatory value
   "override_update_limit":false, // overrides update limit, if amoun of updates is more than given limit. Values: true or false. Optional value, defaul is 'false'
   "minimum_row_count": 10, // What is the minimum amount of rows, that should exist in the file. Optional value
   "webapi_user": "IGA.WebAPI", // Web API user for report creation. Requires Create and Read permissions to IGA Adminisitration task. Mandatory value
   "webapi_password": "aeiou", // Web API user's password. Mandatory value
   "webapi_url":"https://eisdemo.efectecloud-demo.com", // URL to ESM environment. Mandatory value
   "report_template_code":"IGAWorkflowTaskInformation", // Target template code. Mandatory value
   "report_folder_code":"iga_tasks", // Target folder code. Mandatory value
   "debug": false, // Enables debug logging. Values: true of false. Optional value, default is 'false'
   "language": "en" // Sets IGA Administration Task report language. Optional value, default is 'en'
}

5. Create new scheduled task for the HR connector

6. Fill in Task Details

• Unique task name for the connector, notice that name cannot be changed afterwards.
• Task usage is set to scheduled
• Mappings type is set to generic (one template)

• Attribute name for Objectguid. Wrote name of your input data column/attribute, which contains unique identifier for row. For example: objectGUID

7. Fill in failure information

Optional settings for failure handling, if scheduled task fails it can create data card that displays the error. If failure settings are defined , the administrator does not need to manually check the status of scheduled tasks.

• Failure template - Select a Template of datacard which will be created in case of any errors during provisioning (connection to data sources,timeouts,etc.)
• Failure folder - Select folder where failure data card is stored.
• Failure attribute - Select an attribute where in the Failure Template should the error information be stored in.

8. Fill in mappings for generic template

Generic data are read to any template user want's and it is mandatory to set target folder, datasourceid and unique values which are used for identifying data between customers HR and Matrix42 Pro/IGA solution.

• Target template - Select a template to define attribute mappings
  Select a template to define attribute mappings
• Target folder - Select a folder from a list of folders. The list is narrowed down to match compatibility with selected Template.
• Data Source Type mapping - optional. Contains constant string of Generic Python Script connector type
• Task Id mapping - mandatory to map for example to datasourceid or taskid attribute. This is used by “Set value to datacard for objects deleted from source system”-feature. This same attribute must be also on mappings table.
• Attribute mappings
  1. HR attribute (External attribute) - which attribute from the file is mapped to Pro/IGA
  2. Local attribute - to which attribute in Pro/IGA data is mapped to

9. In case you need to modify the actual script, it needs to be downloaded from the customers host machine, modified and uploaded again.

• If you don't have accesses to the host machine, please contact Matrix42 Service Desk for assistance.

10. Save your changes

11. Before running the scheduled task for HR connector, 

• Check that all configuration related to workflows and settings in data cards are in place.
• When running for the first time, make sure that provisioning is disabled towards directories & applications

12. Run task manually or wait until scheduled run is started. 

13. Validate that data has been read to correct data cards and correct attributes are in place.

14. Troubleshooting

• In case failure template is used, check correct data card
• Check scheduled task history from connector management
• Check logs

Choose HR connector if:

• HR file is in flat XML, CSV or JSON format
• Customer has a SFTP server
• HR Information is received from the past and from the future
• Datatype is cost center, organization, title or work period
• Data contains at least Last name, First name, Employment start date, Title ID, Manager ID, Organizational unit ID
• Data contains at least one of these unique values: Social security number / national ID / Employee number