User management

General introduction

User right management plays a major role whenever it comes to the monitoring and control of larger networks. For example, for each subnet in a network setup a specific person or group of persons may be responsible, who should be notified if an alarm is issued by one of the modules representing a part of this subnet.

Basically, Trimble 4D Control Server offers three access levels for users with different privileges to each user: Administrators, operators, and guests. When logging in, users specify their user name and, if required, password. These inputs are compared with the entries in the user-management related tables of the Trimble 4D Control Server database.

Second: While no restrictions exist for them, Trimble 4D Control Server administrators can assign or limit specific rights to operators. Per default all operators have control rights for all running modules. Those rights can be limited to the access level "guest" for specific modules using operator teams and module groups. For performing this task, administrators do the following:

• Set up the system with all necessary modules.
• Create logins. Each login gets assigned one of the three access levels. More information on the login can be edited. Assigning a password to the login is also possible, but not required.
• Create operator teams. By default, the operator team All exists and cannot be deleted, which contains all operators known by the system. For creating more operator teams, add a new item to the list which has a unique name. From the list of all operators known to the system, one selects those that should be members of that team. For example, a team of operators (Team A) may be responsible for sub-network 01, while a different team (Team B) will be able to control the sub-networks 02 and 03 by modifying its module properties. Members of Team B will have read-only rights for the sub-network 01, while a member of Team A can only view the properties and status of subnetwork 02.
• Specify module groups. Module groups are a collection of instances of modules. By default, the module group All exists and cannot be deleted, which contains all modules added to the current system configuration. For example, all modules representing a specific VRS sub-network may be collected in one module group.
• For each module group, specify the primary and, optionally, the secondary operator team. While members of the primary operator team always have operator rights for controlling the modules collected in this group, a member of the secondary operator team will get full operator rights only, if no member of the primary operator team is logged on.
• Optionally, specify the duration of user inactivity (timeout), after which operators will be automatically logged out. Thus, administrators can ensure that the system always knows which operator is "on duty" and, therefore, control rights can be assigned accordingly.

When using the Alarm Manager: When specifying alarm jobs, set module group dependent alarm settings. For example, for the E-mail alarm action, different e-mail recipients can be specified for each module group. On the other hand, the Connect to a TCP/IP server action may be equal for all modules; in this case you would select the default group All, which contains all modules added to the Trimble 4D Control Server system.

Performing the tasks

For specifying logins and operator teams, do one of the following:

• Select the File > User Management main menu command.
• At the toolbar, click the User Management button.

The User Management dialog appears.

For creating module groups and assigning the primary and secondary operator teams to them, select the File > System Properties main menu command (or click the toolbar button), which opens the System Properties dialog. There, edit the Module groups property. Using the System Properties dialog you can also set the timeout for automatic user logout.

Storage of user information in the database

The main Trimble 4D Control Server database contains the following tables, which can be filled in by user edits using the User Management UI controls as well as by the Trimble 4D Control Server framework (login events):