You can use this article to understand what the Rainbow AD/LDAP/Exchange Connector brings to a Rainbow deployment. It explains how the connector keeps users, business directory contacts and optional Exchange calendar information aligned with your on-premises systems.
The Rainbow AD/LDAP/Exchange Connector is a Windows service installed on a host in your environment. It synchronizes users and business directory contacts from Microsoft Active Directory or another LDAP-compliant directory to Rainbow. The same connector software can also synchronize on-premises Microsoft Exchange calendar information.
What the connector does
| Function | Purpose |
|---|---|
| User synchronization | Create, update and optionally delete Rainbow users from AD/LDAP records. |
| Business directory synchronization | Populate the Rainbow shared contact directory from a selected LDAP subtree. |
| Exchange calendar synchronization | Expose Exchange calendar availability and out-of-office information in Rainbow. |
| Multi-domain | Manage several LDAP domains from one connector instance, with per-domain configuration. |
| Multi-instance | Run several connector services on one Windows host, typically one instance per Rainbow company. |
Architecture overview
The connector runs inside your network. It connects to your AD/LDAP server over LDAP or LDAPS, and to Rainbow Cloud over HTTPS. Synchronization settings are configured centrally in Rainbow Web Admin and downloaded by the connector at startup and when configuration changes.
| Connection | Direction | Typical port | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow Cloud | Connector to Rainbow | HTTPS 443 | OAuth, configuration, synchronization commands, reports and updates. |
| AD/LDAP server | Connector to directory | LDAP 389 or LDAPS 636 | Read users, contacts, groups, photos and attributes. |
| Local console | Administrator to connector host | HTTP 3000-3019 | Local status, proxy, certificate, logs and instance switching. |
| Exchange EWS | Connector to Exchange | HTTPS 443 | Optional calendar and out-of-office synchronization. |
Recommended reading order
- Read the overview and prerequisites.
- Install or upgrade the connector on Windows.
- Activate and register the connector for the correct Rainbow company.
- Configure local host settings from the local connector console.
- Configure LDAP synchronization in Rainbow Web Admin.
- Validate with a dry run, then run the first manual synchronization.
- Enable automatic synchronization only after manual validation.
- Use the operations and troubleshooting articles for day-to-day support.