NetIQ adds to Active Directory management tools

NetIQ released this week the next version of its Active Directory management tool with controls that let customers track changes and users and delegate tasks among administrators.

Directory and Resource Administrator 8.0 is highlighted by its Temporary Group Assignment feature, which lets administrators set time limits on how long users, such as contractors, can be part of Active Directory groups. The control helps make sure that users are eliminated from a group when their assigned work is done.

NetIQ, which was acquired by Attachmate in April 2006 and operates as a subsidiary, also has added a safety layer to its delete feature and support for integrating custom tools. The company says DRA 8.0 focuses on compliance requirements as they pertain to Active Directory.

Experts say NetIQ is jumping back into a market that it first helped pioneer but lately has been rather quiet.

“I give them credit for getting reengaged with the market,” says John Enck, an analyst with Gartner. “They do have a big install base, and a lot of people who grew up on NT 4 and Windows 2000 adopted DRA. These products are so incredibly sticky that once you roll them out, it is hard to change them.” But Enck says NetIQ and competitors such as Quest and NetPro have a hard time distinguishing their wares, all of which add management features to Active Directory.

“Any one customer will find features to get excited about, but broadly speaking it is hard to differentiate among these products.”

NetIQ’s shot at standing out includes Temporary Group Assignment, a feature that takes away the manual process of tracking transient user accounts.

“What are we doing is managing change in a way that before couldn’t be done with Active Directory,” says Mike Mychalczuk, senior product manager for DRA. “If I am the business information owner, I can manage contractor accounts by saying you will temporarily be in these groups that will give you this access to this data for this period of time and when this project is over it is going to disintegrate.”

In addition, NetIQ added the Extended Recycle Bin, a sort of safety net that allows objects to be retrieved even after they are deleted. Users can set up a workflow that includes a final audit of the recycle bin to ensure needed objects are not discarded permanently. Also new are load balancing capabilities to ensure the DRA is always available and custom tool integration, which allows other NetIQ management tools, third-party applications and custom scripts to be integrated into the context menus within the DRA interface.

“Today change is more than maintaining system availability; it has everything to do with compliance in a way it never did before,” Mychalczuk says.

DRA, which integrates with NetIQ’s other management tools – AppManager, Security Manager and Change Guardian – is designed to function actively as part of a change-management process.

DRA 8.0 is shipping and is priced at $16 per seat.