Ivanti Connector for Simpplr Enterprise Search

Introduction

The Ivanti connector allows Simpplr Enterprise Search to index your Ivanti Knowledge Base content, making it easily discoverable and searchable directly within Simpplr.

With this connector, you can:

• Unify search across systems — Search Ivanti Knowledge Base articles alongside other enterprise content within Simpplr, eliminating the need to switch between applications.

• Improve employee experience — Surface relevant answers faster with semantic search, keyword matching, and Smart Answers powered by indexed Ivanti content.

Indexed content from Ivanti is available in:

• Main search listing

• Smart Answers

Capabilities at a Glance

Objects and Content Supported

Objects

The Ivanti connector indexes a single object type:

• Knowledge Base Articles (knowledge_article) — Employee-facing articles from the "Employee Knowledge" collection, including:

  • Issue Resolution articles

  • Q&A articles

  • Reference articles

Not Indexed

• Incidents, service requests, and change requests (ticket data)

• Service catalog items and requestable services

• Binary attachments or embedded files within Knowledge Base articles

• User comments and feedback threads on articles

• Knowledge articles outside the "Employee Knowledge" collection

• Articles in Draft, Retired, or Archived status

Metadata

For each indexed Knowledge Base article, the Ivanti connector captures:

Permissions Model

The Ivanti connector implements a simplified access control model designed for employee-facing knowledge content.

Versions and Editions Supported

Minimum Requirements

• Ivanti instance must expose the OData REST API at /api/odata/businessobject/

• The Knowledge Management module must be configured with an "Employee Knowledge" collection

• REST API key authentication must be enabled

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure the following:

Source System Permissions

• You have Ivanti Administrator access to the Ivanti instance.

• You can generate and manage API tokens with appropriate permissions.

• The Knowledge Base module is configured with an "Employee Knowledge" collection containing published articles.

API Token

• Ability to create a REST API key in the Ivanti admin portal.

• The API token must have permissions to:

  • Read Knowledge Base articles from the Employee Knowledge collection

  • Read employee records for access control sync

  • Access OData endpoints (/api/odata/businessobject/)

Network and Firewall

• Outbound HTTPS (port 443) access must be allowed from the Simpplr connector runtime to your Ivanti instance URL.

• If your Ivanti instance is behind a firewall or VPN, ensure the Simpplr connector IP ranges are allowlisted.

Authentication and Security

Authentication Mechanism

The Ivanti connector uses REST API Key authentication to connect to the Ivanti OData API.

Required Credentials

Data Security

• Data storage and residency: Indexed content from Ivanti are stored within your Simpplr Enterprise Search environment, in the same region as your Simpplr tenant.

• Encryption in transit: Server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed keys (SSE-S3), TLS encryption in Kafka.

• Encryption at rest: SSL (TLS 1.2 or higher), Auth: OAuth 2.0 Bearer tokens (client-credential).

Setup and Configuration

Step 1 — Prepare Ivanti

Creating an API Key for Ivanti Integration

1. Sign in to your Ivanti instance with administrator privileges.  

2. Go to Settings.  

3. Navigate to Security Controls → API Keys.  

4. Click Add Key Group. 

5. Enter the following details:  

   - Name: Simpplr Integrations Enterprise Search  

   - Description: (optional, but recommended for clarity)  

6. Save the key group.

7. Select the newly created key group and click Add API Key.  

8. Configure the API key with:  

   - On Behalf Of: An administrator user  

   - In Role: Administrator

9. Copy and securely store the generated API token.

Step 2 — Create the Connector in Simpplr

1. In Simpplr, go to: Enterprise Search > Connectors > Add connector.

2. Select "Ivanti" from the connector list.

3. Enter the connection name (e.g., "Ivanti - Production KB").

4. Provide authentication details: Ivanti Base URL and API Token.

5. Click Save to store the configuration.

Step 3 — Filters (Optional)

1. Configure Audience based filtering.

   • Include audiences

   • Exclude audiences

Articles in other collections and non-published articles are excluded automatically. No additional filter configuration is needed.

Step 4 — Monitor

1. After saving the connector configuration, the initial sync starts automatically.

2. Monitor sync status at: Enterprise Search > Connectors > Ivanti > Health.

3. Available sync schedule:

If the initial sync fails, check the error details in the dashboard and refer to the Monitoring and Troubleshooting section.

Crawling and Sync Behavior

Initial Full Crawl

Incremental Updates

Mechanism: Timestamp-based cursor using the LastModDateTime field. 

Frequency: Hourly.

User Sync

Deletion and Permission Changes

Expected Latency

Field Mapping and Search Experience

Default Field Mapping

Search Experience

Search results from the Ivanti connector appear with:

• Icon: Ivanti source icon

• Source label: "Ivanti"

• Title: Article title as a clickable link to the original article in Ivanti

• Snippet: Excerpt from the article body

• Author: Author name

• Last modified date: When the article was last updated

Available Filters and Facets

Advanced Search Features

• Smart Answers / Q&A: Yes

• Autocomplete: Yes

• Recommendations / “Suggested for you”: N/A

• Trending / popular results: N/A

• Semantic / hybrid ranking: Yes

Known Limitations

Rate Limits

The Ivanti platform has a rate limit of 100,000 API calls per 24-hour duration.This is a global platform cap, not specific to the Knowledge API.

Other Known Limitations

Permanent deletions : The Ivanti OData API does not provide explicit deletion events. Hence, permanent deletions are only detected during the weekly full sync.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Connector Health and Monitoring

Navigate to: Enterprise Search > Connectors > Ivanti 

Common Issues and Resolutions

Authentication failed (invalid credentials or missing permissions)

Possible causes:

• Incorrect API token or Base URL

• API token has expired or been revoked

• API token does not have read permissions for Knowledge Base or employee business objects

Resolution:

1. Verify the Base URL matches your Ivanti instance (e.g., https://company.ivanticloud.com).

2. Confirm the API token is valid and has not expired.

3. Ensure the API token has read access to FRS_Knowledges and employees OData endpoints.

4. Re-enter the credentials in the connector configuration and test the connection.

Rate limit or quota exceeded

Possible causes:

• Too many API requests to Ivanti in a short period

• Other integrations or services consuming API quota on the same Ivanti instance

Resolution:

1. Narrow the sync scope or exclude low-value content if possible.

2. Check the Ivanti admin console for API quota or rate limit settings.

3. Ensure the app/service account has at least read access to the required endpoints.

4. Re-run sync after correcting any permission or quota issues.

No articles being indexed

Possible causes:

• No articles exist in the "Employee Knowledge" collection with "Published" status

• The Knowledge Base module is not configured or enabled in Ivanti

Resolution:

1. Log in to Ivanti and verify that the "Employee Knowledge" collection contains published articles.

2. Ensure the Knowledge Management module is active and configured.

3. Run a test connection to verify API access.

Incremental sync fails with "sync cursor empty" error

Possible causes:

• No full sync has been completed successfully prior to running incremental sync

Resolution:

1. Run a full sync first to establish the initial sync cursor.

2. Once the full sync completes successfully, incremental syncs will work automatically.

Users cannot see Ivanti content in search results

Possible causes:

• The user is not an active employee in Ivanti

• The user's PrimaryEmail in Ivanti does not match their Simpplr identity

• User sync has not yet completed

Resolution:

1. Verify the user exists as an active employee in Ivanti with a valid PrimaryEmail.

2. Ensure the user's email in Ivanti matches their Simpplr account email.

3. Wait for the next daily user sync to complete, or trigger a manual user sync.

When to Contact Support

Contact Simpplr Support if:

• Authentication errors persist even after verifying credentials and permissions

• Sync is stuck and has not progressed for several hours

• Sync fails repeatedly despite following the troubleshooting steps

• Incomplete or partial sync — only some articles are indexed when more are expected

When contacting Support, include:

• Connector name and instance ID (if available)

• Organization URL

• Approximate time and date of the issue

• Error messages or screenshots from the connector health dashboard

• Steps you have already tried

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I connect multiple Ivanti tenants or domains?

Ans: Yes. Each Ivanti instance is configured as a separate connector in Simpplr. Go to Enterprise Search > Connectors > Add connector, and create a new Ivanti connector for each tenant with its own Base URL and API token.

Q: How often does the Ivanti connector sync data?

Ans: The connector runs three types of syncs:

• Incremental sync: Hourly — picks up new and modified articles since the last sync.

• User sync: Daily — synchronizes active employee records for access control.

• Full sync with delta: Weekly — performs a complete crawl to catch any deletions not detected incrementally.

Q: Are comments, revisions, or version history indexed?

Ans: No. The connector indexes only the current published version of each Knowledge Base article. Comment threads, revision history, and prior versions are not indexed.

Q: Does the connector index content from external guests or shared links?

Ans: No. The connector only indexes articles from the "Employee Knowledge" collection. Only published articles in that collection are indexed, and only active Ivanti employees (synced via user sync) can view them in Simpplr search.

Q: What happens when a user loses access to an item in Ivanti?

Ans: Since the Ivanti connector uses a simplified access model, individual item-level access changes do not apply. However:

• If an employee is deactivated in Ivanti, they are removed from the user index during the next daily user sync and can no longer see Ivanti content in Simpplr search.

• If an article is unpublished or retired, it is removed from the search index during the next hourly incremental sync.

Q: Can I exclude certain articles or categories from being indexed?

Ans: The connector indexes all published articles in the "Employee Knowledge" collection. Filtering by category, subcategory, or knowledge type is not currently configurable. To exclude specific content, manage article visibility within Ivanti by moving articles to a different collection or changing their status to Draft/Retired.

Q: How are deletions handled?

Ans: The deletions are handled by:

• Status changes (Published to Draft/Retired/Archived): Detected during the hourly incremental sync and removed from the index automatically.

• Collection changes (moved out of Employee Knowledge): Detected during the hourly incremental sync and removed from the index.

• Permanent deletions (article deleted from Ivanti): The Ivanti OData API does not provide explicit deletion events. Permanent deletions are detected during the weekly full sync, which compares the complete set of published articles against the current index.