Managing assignment of principal user for computers

Overview

Assignment of a principal user for computers can be performed both manually and automatically. Having a correctly assigned principal user is essential for computers in terms of such processes as ordering services, creating license requirements, license entitlement, and reporting incidents.

Automatic assignment of principal users

Principal users are assigned automatically if the corresponding settings are configured in the Assets application.

To configure or adjust the settings:

1. Go to the Assets application and open the Settings navigation item for editing.
2. Provide the required information:

• Select the Enable automatic assignment of principal user checkbox if the system should automatically assign the principal user for computers.
• Check that the Asset status relevant for automatic assignment of principal user list contains all relevant status values of computers. Based on the computer's status, the system filters which computers are considered for automatic assignment of the principal user. The system will automatically manage the principal user only for computers in the selected statuses.
• Adjust the Automatically assign if number of subsequent logins is setting if needed. When a person logs in to a computer with the same user account for the specified quantity of times, the system sets this person as a principal user of this computer. The Inventory > Logins dialog page of a relevant computer displays instances of user logins.
• Enter a period of days within which the logins should be counted in the Consider login records not older than (days) field.
• Use the Delete login records older than (days) field to set a time frame when login records should be cleared. When a login is older than the specified number of days, the system deletes it.

3. Save your changes.

When asset settings are configured, the Automatic Principal User Assignment field is set to Yes on previews of all computers. However, you can edit this setting manually for each computer.

Using the Manage Principal User action

This action is used for changing a principal user for the currently selected computer(s) and managing the automatic assignment of a principal user for them.

After you run the Manage Principal User action, the wizard opens and allows you adjusting principal user settings for the selected computer(s).

1. To assign the user manually:

• Select the Change the principal user of computer to checkbox and use the lookup button to choose the user.
• Leave the Change principal user of all related assets checkbox as is if you want to reassign all related peripheral devices to the same principal user.

2. To change the automatic assignment setting:

• Select the Manage automatic assignment of principal user checkbox and one of the option buttons.
  • The Enable automatic assignment option is selected by default and indicates that principal user assignment is managed automatically.
  • Choose the Enable automatic assignment and clear logins inventory option if the system should clear the previous login history and use only succeeding logins for automatic user assignment.
  • Set Disable automatic assignment if the selected computer(s) should be excluded from automatic user assignment.

3. Click Summary to review your changes and then Apply to finish the wizard.