Updating Active Directory User Information from Sharepoint User Profiles BCS Data

Question

I am investigating the possibility of updating Active Directory user account information from Sharepoint 2010 User Profiles.

I am aware that there is functionality to synchronise data from the User Profiles in Sharepoint back to Active Directory however my query relates to the addition of data from a BCS connection.

Specifically, in a scenario where the User Profile data has been supplemented by data imported from a BCS connection to an HR system database, is it possible to then write that additional data back to the Active Directory user account using the User Profiles synchronisation functionality?

It appears that on a User Profile property it is only possible to have a single data mapping, for example an import connection from Active Directory or the BCS connection, it doesn't seem to be possible to have an import from the BCS connection and an export to the Active Directory connection. Can anyone confirm if this is the case?

If this is not possible in Sharepoint 2010, has the functionality changed at all in Sharepoint 2013 to allow this?

Answer 1

I don't have first hand experience of trying this out, but I've researched it myself and concluded that it isn't possible to import (e.g. from an HR System) and export (to AD) the same User Profile property. This question on an MSDN forum and answer by a SharePoint MVP was the basis for my conclusion - http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/915b2b65-4772-4a19-8386-a43c2030e523/importexport-user-profile-properties

Answer 2

Maybe I'm mis-interpreting the question. But I think you can indeed do this.

Here is an example of Syncing a telephone number from an external system with a profile then using the Profile Sync to write it to AD.

"In addition, all profile properties are Import by default. This is actually entirely reasonable, just think about all those grumpy domain admins – if SharePoint 2010 came along and wrote back to AD by default that would be a bad thing. It also means you can configure the sync on a granular basis for some properties only. If you want to write back changes you must remove the existing property mapping and recreate it using Export as the direction. Then those properties will be written back to AD during a Sync."

harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups.aspx