In this module, you learn about Views, which are user-focused versions of Element Groups, and Users.
This module consists of the following exercises:
Exercise | Description | Time required |
---|---|---|
Understand Users, Groups, and Roles | Understand how Uptime Infrastructure Monitor manages users and user access, by examining the two default users. | 1 slice |
Create a New User Group | Create a user group that includes one of the existing default users, and assign it to the Web Servers Element Group you created in the previous module. | 1 slice |
Edit an Existing User's Profile | Edit a user's User Group membership. | 1 slice |
Create a View | Add your first View to Uptime Infrastructure Monitor, and associate it with a User Group. Log in as that end user to see what that user can see when using Uptime Infrastructure Monitor. | 1 slice |
As mentioned previously, user management in Uptime Infrastructure Monitor is the intersection of individual user profiles, user roles, and user groups. this arrangement of user-related objects is particularly useful for larger deployments, where a diverse and large set of users want to access Uptime Infrastructure Monitor for different reasons. For this exercise and module, we keep the steps simple, but explain what could be done with a larger deployment.
Click the Users panel, which displays the Users page.
In this list, you can see that Uptime Infrastructure Monitor has two default users (admin, or "Uptime Infrastructure Monitor Administrator" and sample, or "Sample User"). Each one is assigned to its own user role (superadmin, and user), but both belong the same SysAdmin User Group:
To get an idea of which activities in Uptime Infrastructure Monitor are determined by user role, view the permissions for the user role by clicking its name in the User Role column:
This user role is, for the most part, a "read-only" role, which is appropriate for the non-administrator sample user that is associated with it.
User roles imply access privileges, while user groups imply domain of use. The way users are managed, with the combination of user role and user group, is useful because it accommodates, for example, Linux admins of varying access levels.
Let's work with this pair of default Uptime Infrastructure Monitor users, and make them match completely unique personas. They already each are associated with their own role; let's put them in unique user groups.
In the previous module, you created a top-level Production Element Group, along with Linux Servers and Windows Servers child Element Groups (in other words, you organized your servers first by function, then platform). Let's continue with this example, and turn the default sample user into a Linux server admin.
Linux Admins
as the User Group Name.Select the sample user from the Available Users list, then click Add.
Select Linux Servers from the Available Element Groups, then click Add.
Your user group configuration should look similar to the following:
Due to an object-based approach, you can associate Elements, Element Groups, and Views with user groups, and vice versa. Later in this module, we create a View, and associate it with the user group we are currently creating. If we created that View first, we could make that association now. Also note the Elements and Element Groups in the user group definition determine which Elements members of the group have "access" to. This is one way that user groups imply domain of use. This property works in conjunction with user roles: a user group determines what a user has access to, while the user role determines what they can do with the things they can access. |
Click Save, then click Close Window. In the main UI window, the Users panel is displayed.
Validation: The user group you have just created includes the sample user. Conversely, from the user profile (and UI) perspective, the sample user is now a member of the newly created user group. Also note the double group membership for this user; this is a basic example of user-related objects.
You now want to make this sample user an exclusive member of the Linux Admins user group. This means removing it from the default SysAdmin User Group.
Validation: View the users list again, and note that the sample user's group membership is now back to a single user group: Linux Admins. This sample user is ready to administer some Linux servers!
Linux Servers
as the View Name.Validation Step (Infrastructure): In the main UI window, the Infrastructure view updates with your newly created Web Servers view. Expand it to see that its contents match what you added from the Web Servers Element Group.
Even though this created View is strictly for users that are members of the Linux Admins user group, and you are currently logged in as an administrator that is not a member, the View is still visible. An Uptime Infrastructure Monitor administrator, who has the superadmin user role, is still able to view everything. |
sample
and sample
.Consider the following:
Using Views in conjunction with user roles and user groups can accommodate a diverse set of end users that have access to view, add, edit, or delete the correct Elements or Uptime Infrastructure Monitor objects.
Before moving to the next module, log in as the admin user (the ID and password were set when the Monitoring Station was first run after installation).
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