Description of Management Agent Modes in Microsoft Metadirectory Services (250391)

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In MMS, Management Agent modes control the direction of object entry flow for each Management Agent. Before you create a Management Agent, understand the repercussions of each mode in relationship to the purpose of the Management Agent. There are instances where a Management Agent needs to be running in a certain mode in order to perform a particular task.

For example, to connect only objects that meet your join criteria, run the management agent in Association mode. To reflect an object in the Metaverse, use Reflector Mode.

Management Agent Modes

• Reflector mode
  
  This mode reflects information into the metaverse namespace. This is the default mode for every new Management Agent that you create. This mode specifies that the connected directory is the primary source of information, and it ensures that you do not overwrite an authority. The default action is to not update object attributes in the connected directory. In identity management scenarios, there is generally one reflector Management Agent, and all of the other Management Agents run in Association mode with join rules configured.
• Association mode
  
  This mode brings data into the connector namespace only, allowing you to create join rules so only objects that comply with the join rules can be joined to metadirectory objects.
• Creator mode
  
  This mode establishes the metaverse as the primary source for information. In this mode, only the Metaverse determines object existence. The connected directory does not determine object existence. If an object exists in the connected directory and not in the Metaverse, it is deleted.
  
  NOTE: If you misconfigure or misuse a Management Agent in this mode, you can lose data in your connected directories. Microsoft does not recommend that you use this mode. If you need the Metaverse to control object existence, use the Together Administration Management Agent (TAMA) to provision the objects into the corresponding connector space. When you do this, the msMMS-managedbyprofile value for each object is set as TRUE.
  
  Provisioned objects can be created in any Management Agent regardless of mode. For additional information about how to create a Together Administration Management Agent, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  303031 Understanding the Together Administration Management Agent (TAMA)

A management agent mode is first established when you create the Management Agent. You can change the modes on the specific Management Agent as you need to. This change does not truly take effect until the Management Agent is run again after you make the change.

Viewing and Changing Modes on a Management Agent

1. Connect to your MMS Server using the Compass Utility.
2. Click Bookmarks, and then click Management Agents.
3. Click the Management Agent you want to change.
4. Click Configure MA.
5. Click the Mode and Namespace Management tab.
6. In the Management Agent Mode box, click the mode you want, and then click OK.

NOTE: The changes do not take affect until you run the Management Agent. To run the Management Agent, click Operate MA.