Bug in people directory when manager is in a differed OU to staff?

[Gregg]

Let me start by saying I'm not an admin, just a user. We have a local Confluence installation hooked into our MS AD, which works a treat *except* when viewing the org chart.  Managers often have a few staff missing, and if you pull up those staff they are displayed as orphans with no manager.  I'm *told* the issue is that when staff are in a different OU to the manager, Confluence cannot link the two.  This appears to be accurate because the missing staff are usually in another office or on a roaming profile.  In addition, if you look at the organisation chart in Outlook, it's fine, so the problem isn't with the AD.

*But* I can't find anyone else complaining about this.  I would imagine any organisation large enough to have two OUs would have this issue.  This makes me think it's a configuration issue on our part, rather than a Confluence bug.

If anyone can find an open ticket for this, I'd really appreciate it.  Alternately, if anyone has any idea what we're doing wrong, I'd really like to hear from you.

Thanks in advance.

[Stephen Sifers]

Hello Gregg,

This seems rather frustrating that you have everything setup and integrated yet a few people not matching properly cause problems. We do need some additional information to figure out where the disconnect and issue is actually happening.

Where are you seeing Managers and their staff being displayed? If possible, can you include a screenshot (Removing any names or photos)?

Are you building your Org Charts using a add-on? If so, what is the name of the add-on?

You mentioned you are on Confluence server, which version? (this will allow us to attempt to recreate if possible).

We look forward to your response so we can find a solution for you.

Regards,
Stephen Sifers

[Gregg]

Thanks, Stephen.  It's good to know this isn't a known problem. We're using Confluence 6.3.2 - not the latest version, but still under active support.  (Please note I'm not an admin, I can't just update this, but if someone says upgrading will definitely fix this issue then maybe I can argue it with management.)

The first screenshot from AD shows Ramon has two direct reports, Chris N and Marcel.  The second screenshot is from the org chart in People Directory showing Marcel is missing.

What you don't see is that in AD, Ramon and Chris N are set up as "Standard" users in Kelburn, whilst Marcel is set up as a "Roaming" user in Kelburn.

I can also say that if Marcel was set up in any other office (Auckland, Christchurch) he wouldn't show up, so the issue isn't that he's a roaming user, but that he's in a different OU at all.  We also have the exact opposite scenario - the manager is roaming and the employee is standard - with the same result.

[Gregg]

The infra team just told me they suspect the problem is with the way AD OUs are synchronized.  They don't sync at the top-level because that makes system/admin accounts visible.  Instead they synchronize by OU, which may be why Confluence can't connect a user in one OU with its manager in another OU.  (Though Exchange has no problem.)  We could sync at the first level (e.g. "Kelburn" which might help, but we still have the issue of managers in one division with reports in another office.

I also asked about upgrading Confluence to the latest version (6.3.2 -> 6.12) but was told there was an existing project to update the Confluence theme which was going to take several months, and this would have to take second priority. 

[Stephen Sifers]

Hello Gregg,

Thank you for providing a very detailed response. This provides a lot of information as to how you have Confluence configured and how your user profiles are being displayed.

With this said, the organizational charts you are using is a marketplace add-on which is supported by a vendor. In order to figure out what is going on we will need to contact the vendor for further support. I have tagged the vendor of the add-on within this post. Along with doing this we would suggest you reach out to the vendor directly to get this resolve. You may submit a case to the vendor by Submitting a support Request. You also have the option to email the vendor at: products@communardo.de

There is also additional information within the documentation for the plugin which can be found here for the Administrator's Guide (v 2.1) and for the Organization Charts (v 2.1).

Our best course of action in this case is to contact the vendor of the add-on you are using for organizational charts.

Regards,
Stephen Sifers

[Communardo Support]

Hello Gregg,

thank you for your very detailed question.

If users from the same LDAP directory are synchronized via separate directory configurations, references between them (by using the DN for a userfield) currently do not work.

We already have a feature request for this:

https://jira.communardo.de/browse/UPJ-151

Kind regards

Franz
Communardo Support

[Franz Reichard _Communardo_]

Hello,

as we moved our documentation the current documentation for the app can be found here for the Administrator's Guide and for the Organization Charts.

If you have further questions or support requests you can always contact our support.

Kind regards

Franz
Communardo Support