Getting Started
Activate Privileged Access Management (PAM) allows organisations to securely manage, control and audit access to privileged accounts across their environment.
This guide outlines the initial configuration process for importing existing privileged accounts (such as administrator accounts) into Activate and assigning ownership for ongoing management.
Initial Configuration
Before configuring PAM, ensure your Activate Licence includes the PAM Licence.
The following example provides an overview of configuring Activate Privileged Account Resources and importing existing privileged accounts into Activate.
Activate caches information for privileged accounts in its database. Accounts created outside Activate PAM will not appear immediately — a background task synchronises privileged accounts from Active Directory into Activate at regular intervals.
In this example, we’ll configure Administrator Accounts (ADM).
Configure Privileged Accounts
- Open Activate Studio
- Navigate to Resources > Privileged Accounts > Administrator Account.
- In the Parameters panel, right-click the blank area and select New Parameter → Blank.
- Rename the new parameter to Members.
- Change the Type to OU Reference.
- Double-click the Members parameter to edit its value.
- Enter the name of the OU that contains the Administrator Accounts, then click Find.
- Select the required OU and click OK.
You will now have a single parameter named Members, with the value set to the OU you selected.
- In the Explorer pane, right-click the Administrator Account resource and select PrivilegedAccount Tasks > Reset Cache From AD. This imports all user accounts stored in the OU configured in Step 8.
- Once completed, you should see your existing Administrator Accounts listed in both the Activate Web Portal and Activate Studio.
Assign Account Owners
To assign owners to the synchronised accounts:
- Log in to the Activate Web Portal as a user with the Activate Service Desk role.
- Select the Privileged Accounts icon on the home page.
- Click on the account type you want to manage (e.g., Administrator Account).
- Select the account (e.g., ADM_WEvans).
- Click the Add Owner icon on the ribbon bar.
If the Add Owner or Remove Owner icons are not visible, ensure the System Role / Service Desk Users role has appropriate security rights on the Privileged Accounts Resources node.
- Search for or select the user who will be the owner of the account.
- Click Submit to start the workflow.
If no owner is assigned, approval requests for the privileged account default to the Activate Service Desk Role. When logged in as a Service Desk user, these requests may auto-approve.
Once the job has completed, return to the account record — the Owner will now be displayed.