Tivoli Directory Integrator (TDI) is a pretty neat tool that comes packaged with IBM Tivoli Identity Manager (ITIM).  TDI comes out to the box with a multitude of connectors that are used to as the name says, connect to different sources.  One of the most common business processes where TDI is used is to extract data, transform the data and then load the data into different data source (ETL).  For an example, it is common to use TDI to extract Human Resources data and using a DMSL connector, send the data over to the ITIM Application for processing.

One of the main considerations in extracting data from different sources is the data.  The data values, the data relationships and attributes do not always exist as advertised.

For example:  The process pulls the employee information from SAP and then does a lookup to Active Directory using the employee number.  Active Directory is only supposed to have one entry for each employee.  “Supposed to” is the key word.  In some cases, there are multiple AD accounts for one employee. Read more