Maintaining Users


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Service Desk

Overview

Users

System administrators, help desk analysts, and any one else who logs on to Tivoli Service Desk are users. For security purposes, you must assign each user a user ID. In addition, you can assign skills, groups, and security rights.

Database rights

In addition to the rights you grant to users inside Tivoli Service Desk, users must also be able to access the Tivoli Service Desk database.

If Tivoli Service Desk was installed with a Type 2 Logon option, the database administrator must use the Tivoli Service Desk Table Builder utility to grant permission allowing users to access the Tivoli Service Desk database. Permission must be granted for each new user who is added after the initial installation.

For more information about Type 2 logons and granting database rights, refer to the Tivoli Service Desk Installation Guide.

Dialog boxes

You maintain users in the Add Person dialog box, Edit Person dialog box, or the View Person dialog box. See Person dialog boxes for more details.

Tasks

Adding a user

When you add new users, at a minimum, you must specify a user ID, last name, and alarm polling interval.

The user ID and password you specify here are the ones your users type when they log on to Tivoli Service Desk. Each user needs a user ID, but passwords are optional. If you do not specify a password for a user, then that user does not need to type one to log on. The alarm polling interval controls how often the Alarm Monitor checks the database for new alarms for the user. You can also specify user skills, rights, and groups at the time you create the new user or when you edit an existing user.

Note: You need USER ADMINISTRATION rights to add user information. See Tivoli Service Desk Rights.

To add a user:

  1. In the People dialog box, choose Add.
  2. In the General tab of the Add Person dialog box, record the information required for all people. For more information, see Adding a person.
  3. Choose the User tab.
  4. In the User ID box, type the Tivoli Service Desk user ID for this user.
    Note: The user types this user ID when they log on to Tivoli Service Desk.
    Distributed Data Manager: User IDs must be unique across your entire enterprise. If you are using TPM Distributed Data Manager, you cannot assign the same user ID to users at different sites. User IDs that originate at your site can be used only to log on to Tivoli Problem Management at your site.
  5. To require this user to type a password when logging on to Tivoli Service Desk, in the Password box, type the password for this user.
    Note: Passwords are optional. When required by the system administrator, Tivoli Service Desk uses the password to verify the identity of the user when the user logs on. For added security, asterisks appear in place of the characters you type.
  6. Do one of the following:
    • To assign a profile to the user, from the Profile list, select a profile.
    • To assign the group profile to the user, clear the Profile list selection.
      Note: If you assign a group profile to the user, you must also assign a default group to the user. The default group must be assigned to a profile. See Configuring user groups and Editing a profile.
    • To use the default system profile, clear the Profile list selection.
  7. From the Alarm Poll Period list, select the interval for the Alarm Monitor.
    Note: The Alarm Monitor checks the database at the selected interval, looking for alarms for this user. For more information on the Alarm Monitor, see Configuring Notifications.
  8. If your Tivoli Service Desk installation shares data with other installations using different databases, in the Site box, select the appropriate site ID for this user. See also Configuring Distributed Data Manager.
  9. Do one of the following:
    • To allow the user to log on to Tivoli Service Desk, select the Active check box.
    • To block the user from logging on to Tivoli Service Desk, clear the Active check box. See also, Deactivating a user.
  10. Do any of the following:
  11. Choose OK.

Configuring user groups

If a person is a user of more than one application in the Tivoli Service Desk suite, you might want to assign the user to one or more groups. Groups are used to assign security rights and user skills to multiple users at once. You can add users to groups when you add or edit user information.

Tip: You can also add a user to a group from the Add Group dialog box or Edit Group dialog box. Adding users to groups can be faster than assigning rights and defining skills for individual users. See Configuring group membership.

To add a user to a group:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. If not present already, in the User ID box, type the Tivoli Service Desk user ID for this user.
    Note: Because you can assign only users to groups, the person must have a user ID assigned on User tab before you can add a user to a group. The buttons under Groups are unavailable until you assign this person a user ID.
  3. Below Groups, choose Add.
  4. In the Pick Group dialog box, select one or more groups and choose OK.
    Note: Only groups at the same site as the user appear in this dialog box. You cannot assign a user to a group at a different site.
    Tip: See Selecting from a list for information on selecting multiple groups.
    Result: In the Add Person dialog box or the Edit Person dialog box, the selected groups appear in the Groups table.
  5. Choose OK.

Removing a user from a group also takes the skills and rights belonging to the group away from the user.

To remove a user from a group:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. From the Groups list, select the group you want to remove by doing one of the following:
    • To select one group, select the name of the group.
      Result: One group is highlighted.
    • To select several groups, hold down the Ctrl key, then select individual groups one at a time.
      Result: Individually selected groups are highlighted.
    • To select several groups that are next to each other in the list, hold down the Shift key, select the first group, then select the last group.
      Result: The first, last, and all the groups in between are highlighted.
  3. Below Groups, choose Remove.
    Result: The selected groups are removed from the Groups list.
  4. Choose OK.

The profile assigned to the user's default group is used when the user logs in if you do not select one specifically for this user. Only one group can be selected as the default for a user. Default is set to TRUE in the Groups list for the default group.

To designate a default user group:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • If all the groups in the Groups table have Default set to FALSE, go to the next step.
    • If any group is in the Groups table has Default set to TRUE, select that group, then choose Default.
      Result: Default is set to FALSE for the selected group.
      Note: All Groups must have Default set to FALSE before you can designate a new default user group.
  3. From the Groups table, select the group you want to make the default.
  4. Below Groups, choose Default.
    Result: Default is set to TRUE for the selected group.
  5. Choose OK.

Configuring user rights

You assign the appropriate security rights to users to grant access to system actions and dialog box buttons.

Help desk analysts could need rights as individual users that you do not want to grant to every member of a group. You assign individual rights to users from the Add Person dialog box or the Edit Person dialog box as described in the following procedure.

Tip: You can assign rights to one user at a time; but in most cases, it is easier to create groups of users and assign rights at the group level. See Configuring Groups.

To assign a system right to a user:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. If not present already, in the User ID box, type the Tivoli Service Desk user ID for this user.
    Note: Because you can assign rights only to people who are users, the person must have a user ID assigned on the User tab of the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box.
  3. Below Rights, choose Add.
  4. In the Rights dialog box, select one or more rights and choose Select.
    Tip: See Choosing a right for information on selecting multiple rights.
    Result: The selected rights appear in the Rights list.
    Note: Only individual user rights appear in the Rights list in the User tab of the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box. The rights a user gains as a member of a group do not appear in this list. You can check which users and groups have a specific right from the Edit Right dialog box. See Maintaining Rights for Users and Groups.
  5. Choose OK.

To remove a system right from a user:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. From the Rights list, select rights by doing one of the following:
    • To select one right, select the name of the right.
      Result: One right is highlighted.
    • To select several rights, hold down the Ctrl key, then select individual rights one at a time.
      Result: Individually selected rights are highlighted.
    • To select several rights that are next to each other in the list, hold down the Shift key, select the first right, then select the last right.
      Result: The first, last, and all the rights in between are highlighted.
  3. Under Rights, choose Remove.
    Result: The selected right no longer appears in the Right list.
  4. Choose OK.

Configuring user skills

Configure user skills to enable help desk analysts to transfer problems to other help desk analysts with skills that match the problem SCIM. For more information, see Skill-based problem transfer.

To add a skill for a user:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. If not present already, in the User ID box, type the Tivoli Service Desk user ID for this user.
    Note: Because you can identify skills only for people who are users, the person much have a user ID assigned on the User tab of the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box.
  3. Below Skills, choose Add.
  4. In the Add Skill dialog box, from the System, Component, Item, Module, and Problem Type lists, make selections that describe the skills of the help desk analyst. For more information, see Defining Skills.
  5. In the Add Skill dialog box, choose OK.
    Result: The skill is added to the Skills list in the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box.
  6. Choose OK.

To remove a user skill:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. From the Skills list, select the skill you want to remove.
  3. Below Skills, choose Remove.
    Result: The skill no longer appears in the User Skills list.
  4. Choose OK.

Configuring supported organizations

If you implement Multi-Customer Data Support in your Tivoli Service Desk system, help desk analysts can access only the data belonging to the organizations they support. In order to see organization-specific data, a user must be associated with that organization. If TSD is running in secure mode, each user must be assigned at least one supported organization.

To enable a help desk analyst to access data belonging to an organization:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. Choose the Support tab.
  3. Below Supported Organizations, choose Add.
  4. In the Organizations window, from the Organization Hierarchy list, select an organization.
    Tip: For help in locating a specific organization in a hierarchy, see Navigating a hierarchy.
  5. Choose Select.
    Result: The selected organization appears in the Organizations list in the Add Person dialog box or the Edit Person dialog box.
  6. Choose Close.

To view the membership of an organization assigned to a help desk analyst:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. Choose the Support tab.
  3. Below Supported Organizations, choose View.
  4. In the View Organization dialog box, view the list of members belonging to the selected organization.
  5. Choose Close.

To remove a help desk analyst's access to data belonging to an organization:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  2. Choose the Support tab.
  3. From the Supported Organizations table, select an organization.
  4. Below Supported Organizations, choose Remove.
    Result: the organization is immediately removed from the table of organizations this user can support.
  5. Choose OK.

Editing a user

You can change user information at any time from the Edit Person dialog box.

Note: You need USER ADMINISTRATION rights to edit user information. See Tivoli Service Desk Rights.

To edit a user:

  1. From the People List in the People dialog box, select the user to edit.
    Tip: If you need help locating the user, see Finding a person.
  2. Choose Edit.
  3. In the Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  4. Make any necessary changes.
    Tip: For a description of each box, see Adding a user.
  5. Choose OK.

Viewing a user

You can review information on any user from the View Person dialog box. You cannot make changes when you are viewing a user.

To view a user:

  1. From the People List in the People dialog box, select the user to view.
  2. Choose View.
  3. In the View Person dialog box, choose the User tab to view the user data.
    Tip: For a description of each box, see Adding a user.
  4. Choose Close.

Deleting a user

You can delete users when they no longer need access to Tivoli Service Desk, provided that they are not assigned to calls or problems. See Deleting a person.

Note: You need USER ADMINISTRATION rights to delete user information. See Tivoli Service Desk Rights.

Deactivating a user

If you cannot delete users because their user IDs are assigned to calls or problems, you can deactivate these users. When users leave your company or stop using Tivoli Service Desk, you should deactivate their user IDs. Inactive users cannot log on to Tivoli Service Desk or access any of its functions.

To deactivate a user:

  1. From the People List in the People dialog box, select the user to inactivate.
  2. Choose Edit.
  3. In the Edit Person dialog box, choose the User tab.
  4. Clear the Active check box.
  5. Choose OK.

Printing user information

See Printing people information.