FIM 2010 R2 Lab on Windows 7

I recently went about building out a FIM Lab on Windows 7 (64 bit).  Its completely unsupported, but in case it helps anyone, here is what I had to do.

With the basic FIM 2010 R2 installation instructions in mind, I began by installing IIS and SQL Server 2008 R2 on my Windows 7 machine.  Since this environment is just for my own personal lab use, I created all of the needed users and groups locally on the box.  Now comes the first challenge, getting SharePoint installed which requires a Server OS.  In order to install WSS, I downloaded and installed a neat little application called WSSOnVista from Bamboo Nation. This application uses API hooking to intercept the GetVersionEx call, fooling the install into believing its running on Windows Server. I used WSSOnVista to install WSS 3.0 with SP2.  Be sure to follow the instructions listed on the Bamboo Nation site, including using the WSS Advanced install option and selecting the Web Front End server type.

You will then need to download and install Orca.  You can use Orca to edit the FIM MSI packages, removing the server version checking requirements. You will need to copy the FIM install bits to some media that they can be edited (like a local drive).  Begin by right clicking the Synchronization Service.msi file and then selecting the “Edit with Orca” option.  You will then need to locate and remove the server OS version Launch Condition.  Right click the appropriate Row and click on the Cut Row(s) or Drop Row option:

Save your changes and launch the Synchronization Service.msi and install as you normally would.  You will need to perform a similar action on the Service and Portal.msi file, however, this time you are looking for the OSCheck under the CustomAction table.

Again, save the changes made to the msi file and then use it to install the FIM Service and Portal as you normally would.

I haven’t encountered any issues running on Windows 7 yet, but will update this article if any come up.

FIM PCNS And A Lack of Trust

If you read through the FIM documentation for setting up PCNS, you will find that either FIM and PCNS need to be in the same forest or be part of a forest trust. From http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc720594(v=ws.10).aspx:

Forest trusts are only required if PCNS and ILM 2007 are located in different forests. If this is the case, a forest-level trust must be established. This is required for Kerberos mutual authentication for the ILM 2007 server to accept the request from a remote forest host.

This can become extremely limiting, especially if both forests do not have the proper forest and domain levels.  Theoretically, however, it’s possible to make Kerberos work over an External Trust (http://blogs.technet.com/b/activedirectoryua/archive/2010/08/04/conditions-for-kerberos-to-be-used-over-an-external-trust.aspx).  With an External Trust, we don’t have any of the same forest functional level restrictions, opening up PCNS as a viable option for more customers.  I would love to know if anyone has been able to get PCNS working in this configuration.  In the mean time, I will have to set up a lab and try it out.  I will report back on the results and let you know!

The Last FIM Workflow You Will Ever Need

Okay, probably not, but its still pretty cool.  I recently built a Workflow in FIM that will allow a user to define the code they want executed at run time.  The Workflow will compile the code and run it in a separate app domain when its initiated (http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/dynamicCode/DynamicCode.htm).  The UI will allow you to specify the input parameters and where the result of the code execution will go.  Here is a simple example, I am passing in the first and last name from the target of the request, I am also passing the the mail host that I have calculated in a previous step and saved to WorkflowData.  I am then using the code to calculate the user’s email address and save it to the email parameter on the target:

You can add and remove input parameters as needed during design time and then refer to them in the code using their specified index. I expect in future releases to be allow the user to specify additional namespaces and code references to import. It currently won’t do any syntax checking or formatting at design time, but otherwise its extremely versatile and flexible! 

UPDATE: Check out Part 2 of this article for the latest information and download instructions!