Altiris CMDB Solution 7.1 SP2 from Symantec User Guide

Transcription

1 Altiris CMDB Solution 7.1 SP2 from Symantec User Guide

2 Altiris CMDB Solution 7.1 SP2 from Symantec User Guide The software described in this book is furnished under a license agreement and may be used only in accordance with the terms of the agreement. Legal Notice Copyright 2011 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec and the Symantec Logo Altiris, and any Altiris or Symantec trademarks used in the product are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. The product described in this document is distributed under licenses restricting its use, copying, distribution, and decompilation/reverse engineering. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization of Symantec Corporation and its licensors, if any. THE DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID. SYMANTEC CORPORATION SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH THE FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, OR USE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. The Licensed Software and Documentation are deemed to be commercial computer software as defined in FAR and subject to restricted rights as defined in FAR Section "Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights" and DFARS , "Rights in Commercial Computer Software or Commercial Computer Software Documentation", as applicable, and any successor regulations. Any use, modification, reproduction release, performance, display or disclosure of the Licensed Software and Documentation by the U.S. Government shall be solely in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.

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4 Technical Support Contacting Technical Support Symantec Technical Support maintains support centers globally. Technical Support s primary role is to respond to specific queries about product features and functionality. The Technical Support group also creates content for our online Knowledge Base. The Technical Support group works collaboratively with the other functional areas within Symantec to answer your questions in a timely fashion. For example, the Technical Support group works with Product Engineering and Symantec Security Response to provide alerting services and virus definition updates. Symantec s support offerings include the following: A range of support options that give you the flexibility to select the right amount of service for any size organization Telephone and/or Web-based support that provides rapid response and up-to-the-minute information Upgrade assurance that delivers software upgrades Global support purchased on a regional business hours or 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis Premium service offerings that include Account Management Services For information about Symantec s support offerings, you can visit our Web site at the following URL: All support services will be delivered in accordance with your support agreement and the then-current enterprise technical support policy. Customers with a current support agreement may access Technical Support information at the following URL: Before contacting Technical Support, make sure you have satisfied the system requirements that are listed in your product documentation. Also, you should be at the computer on which the problem occurred, in case it is necessary to replicate the problem. When you contact Technical Support, please have the following information available: Product release level

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7 Contents Technical Support... 4 Chapter 1 Introducing CMDB Solution... 9 About CMDB Solution... 9 What's new in CMDB Solution 7.1 SP What you can do with CMDB Solution Where to get more information Chapter 2 Configuring CMDB Solution About configuring CMDB Solution settings Creating custom status values Configuring default values for configuration item type fields Checking license usage Configuring organizational hierarchy update settings About CMDB configuration tasks About CMDB rules Configuring ownership settings Chapter 3 Managing your organizational structure About organizational configuration item types About the Company configuration item type About the User configuration item type Setting up your organizational structure Creating a location Creating a cost center Creating a department Updating your organizational hierarchy manually Chapter 4 Managing security in Asset Management Suite About managing security in Asset Management Suite Predefined asset management security roles Managing security on an organizational group Assigning an organizational group to a security role... 35

8 8 Contents Configuring security permissions for an organizational group Chapter 5 Managing configuration items About configuration item types About base configuration item types About CMDB data classes About predefined configuration item types About datacenter configuration item types About configuration items About configuration item associations About configuration item association types Tracking the associations of a configuration item Automatically creating configuration items for network devices About importing configuration item data from other systems About merging duplicate configuration items Merging two configuration items Creating and editing a configuration item Managing edit views Specifying ownership percentage of a configuration item About asset life cycle About tracking the total cost of an asset Chapter 6 Managing custom configuration item types About custom configuration item types Creating a custom data class Creating a custom configuration item type Creating a custom configuration item association type About data input masks Index... 61

9 Chapter 1 Introducing CMDB Solution This chapter includes the following topics: About CMDB Solution What's new in CMDB Solution 7.1 SP2 What you can do with CMDB Solution Where to get more information About CMDB Solution CMDB (Configuration Management Database) Solution is a component of Asset Management Suite. This solution lets you model configuration items for any component in your environment and the relationships between them in a centralized database. CMDB Solution lets you identify all components and relationships and to instigate any required changes. The solution actively manages configuration items according to user-specified instructions in jobs, tasks, configuration policies, and custom CMDB rules. See What you can do with CMDB Solution on page 10. What's new in CMDB Solution 7.1 SP2 The 7.1 SP2 release of CMDB Solution includes enhancements to refine product quality. See About CMDB Solution on page 9.

10 10 Introducing CMDB Solution What you can do with CMDB Solution What you can do with CMDB Solution See About CMDB Solution on page 9. CMDB Solution has many features and uses, including the following: Define organizational groups and hierarchy. Organizational configuration items such as departments and cost centers mirror the structure and hierarchy of your organization. CMDB Solution hierarchy features and child to parent relationships specify standard settings throughout an organizational hierarchy. For example, a task that is applied to a parent department can be automatically pushed down to child departments. Setting up organizational configuration items should be the first thing you do with CMDB Solution. When you set up associations between configuration items during the CMDB Solution installation, organizational views are automatically created with the same hierarchy and membership. See Setting up your organizational structure on page 26. For more information, see the topics on organizational views and groups in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. Define configuration items. Configuration items such as assets and contracts are entered into the database using predefined templates called configuration item types. The base configuration item types should be used when possible. The base configuration item types leverage other configuration item types. They provide summary data on the created configuration items and include associated reports and functionality that is not available in custom configuration item types. If none of the base configuration item types meet your needs, you can create a new configuration item type. You can specify default configuration item type values so that all configuration items based on a configuration item type are created with predefined values. When you enter data for assets, certain fields have the same value for many assets of a particular asset type. You can populate these fields with a default value. For example, users in a particular location have the same phone number prefix. You can save time by having the prefix already entered into the appropriate field. See Creating and editing a configuration item on page 49.

11 Introducing CMDB Solution What you can do with CMDB Solution 11 Add data to the CMDB. Importing is the easiest and the most efficient method of entering data into the system. You can also enter data manually. As you set up a configuration item management system, there is certain data that makes sense to enter before other data. For example, most configuration items rely on the availability of organizational data. See Automatically creating configuration items for network devices on page 46. See About importing configuration item data from other systems on page 46. See Creating and editing a configuration item on page 49. Track the associations and relationships of configuration items. You can track where an asset is located, who owns an asset, and which assets are associated with each owner. The Resource Association Diagram feature lets you view the relationships of configuration items in a graphical format. You can specify the format, the filter, and the number of levels and nodes to display. To customize and easily recreate the display for your environment, you can save the display options and filters. See Tracking the associations of a configuration item on page 45. Clean up and configure data management with ready-made configuration items. See About CMDB configuration tasks on page 18. Create customized item actions and CMDB rules to manage data. CMDB rules target a group of assets based on their type and properties, and then make changes to these assets. Out of the box configuration items address the most commonly required configuration item management policies. CMDB rules provide the flexibility to create custom policies for individual configuration item management needs. See About CMDB rules on page 19. For more information, see the topics about CMDB rules in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide.

12 12 Introducing CMDB Solution Where to get more information Configure security. If multiple users work with configuration items, for example entering and editing data, then you should configure security. CMDB Solution includes predefined security roles. You can modify predefined security roles or you can create your own roles. You can also restrict or allow access to configuration item types and data classes. Hierarchy features are used to set and enforce security settings throughout a hierarchy. With the role-specific views, you can choose to show or hide menu items depending on a user's security role. For example, you can give a user access to the Reports menu but not to the Manage menu. You can also add menus and customize sub-menus. See Managing security on an organizational group on page 34. For more information, see the topics about organizational views and groups in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. Where to get more information Use the following documentation resources to learn about and use this product. Document Release Notes User Guide Table 1-1 Description Information about new features and important issues. Information about how to use this product, including detailed technical information and instructions for performing common tasks. Documentation resources Location The Supported Products A-Z page, which is available at the following URL: Open your product's support page, and then under Common Topics, click Release Notes. The Documentation Library, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu. The Supported Products A-Z page, which is available at the following URL: Open your product's support page, and then under CommonTopics, click Documentation.

13 Introducing CMDB Solution Where to get more information 13 Document Table 1-1 Description Documentation resources (continued) Location Help Information about how to use this product, including detailed technical information and instructions for performing common tasks. Help is available at the solution level and at the suite level. The Documentation Library, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu. Context-sensitive help is available for most screens in the Symantec Management Console. You can open context-sensitive help in the following ways: The F1 key when the page is active. The Context command, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu. This information is available in HTML help format. In addition to the product documentation, you can use the following resources to learn about Symantec products. Resource SymWISE Support Knowledgebase Symantec Connect Table 1-2 Description Articles, incidents, and issues about Symantec products. An online resource that contains forums, articles, blogs, downloads, events, videos, groups, and ideas for users of Symantec products. Symantec product information resources Location

14 14 Introducing CMDB Solution Where to get more information

15 Chapter 2 Configuring CMDB Solution This chapter includes the following topics: About configuring CMDB Solution settings About CMDB configuration tasks About CMDB rules Configuring ownership settings About configuring CMDB Solution settings The CMDB Solution settings let you set up an environment for managing configuration items in your system. For example, you can specify default values for configuration item type fields, configure organizational hierarchy update settings, and configure ownership settings. You can also specify custom status values for configuration items. See Creating custom status values on page 15. See Configuring default values for configuration item type fields on page 16. See Checking license usage on page 16. See Configuring organizational hierarchy update settings on page 17. See Configuring ownership settings on page 20. Creating custom status values For some resources, your company might need to use a status that is not one of the predefined values. In this situation, you can create a custom status value.

16 16 Configuring CMDB Solution About configuring CMDB Solution settings Warning: If you assign a custom status to an asset, it becomes inactive and does not appear in the reports. Instead of using custom statuses, Symantec recommends that you create a custom status as a Location and assign the asset to this location. See About configuring CMDB Solution settings on page 15. To create custom status values 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Settings menu, click All Settings. 2 In the left pane, expand Service and Asset Management > CMDB Solution, and then click CMDB Global Settings. 3 In the right pane, in the Custom Status box, type the name of the custom status value, and then click Add. Configuring default values for configuration item type fields The default values automatically populate the fields on the configuration item creation page and let you save data entry time. For example, if most of the contracts in your company are assigned to the same user, you can set that user as the default. Then you only need to change the default value when the contract is assigned to a different user. Note: When you import data, the default values are not applicable. Checking license usage See About configuring CMDB Solution settings on page 15. To configure default values for configuration item type fields 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Settings menu, click All Settings. 2 In the left pane, expand Service and Asset Management > CMDB Solution, and then click Default Values. 3 In the right pane, click the item for which you want to set the default values. 4 In the Data Entry default values dialog box, specify the default values, and then click OK. The License Usage page lets you monitor the number of CMDB Solution licenses that you own and that are in use.

17 Configuring CMDB Solution About configuring CMDB Solution settings 17 A license is consumed each time you log in to the Symantec Management Console and use Asset Management Solution functions or CMDB Solution functions. Asset Management Solution functions include software licensing, viewing or editing a contract, and viewing or editing a purchase order. CMDB Solution functions include viewing and editing a configuration item. A single console instance only consumes one Asset Management Solution or one CMDB Solution license. When you work with a software licensing feature, or you edit a configuration item that has cost items attached to it, you only consume an Asset Management Solution license. When you edit a configuration item that does not have any cost items attached to it, you only consume a CMDB Solution license. Reporting does not use either type of license. Asset Management Solution and CMDB Solution are licensed per concurrent connection. For example, if you simultaneously log in to the Symantec Management Console on two different computers and use Asset Management Solution functions or CMDB Solution functions on both computers, two licenses are consumed. Note: If you have only one CMDB license and you access the Edit Configuration Item page, then any subsequent users get the ThelicensecountforCMDBSolution has been exceeded message. After you access the Edit Configuration Item page, the license is held for 5 minutes, and then is released. See About CMDB Solution on page 9. See About configuring CMDB Solution settings on page 15. To check license usage 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Settings menu, click All Settings. 2 In the left pane, expand Service and Asset Management > CMDB Solution, and then click License Usage. Configuring organizational hierarchy update settings When you add new locations, cost centers, or departments into your database, the items do not appear in the Organizational Views and Groups list until the organizational hierarchy gets updated. The Organizational Hierarchy Settings page lets you define how often you want to update the organizational hierarchy. The default update interval is 30 seconds. In large environments, Symantec recommends that you disable the automatic update task to improve the performance. If you disable the automatic update, you

18 18 Configuring CMDB Solution About CMDB configuration tasks can manually run the Update Organizational Hierarchy task to update the organizational hierarchy. See About configuring CMDB Solution settings on page 15. See Updating your organizational hierarchy manually on page 30. To configure organizational hierarchy update settings 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Settings menu, click All Settings. 2 In the left pane, expand Service and Asset Management > CMDB Solution, and then click Organizational Hierarchy Settings. 3 In the right pane, configure the update interval. 4 Click Save changes. About CMDB configuration tasks CMDB Solution lets you model configuration items for any component in your environment and the relationships between them in a centralized database. It lets you identify all components and relationships and to instigate any required changes. The solution actively manages configuration items according to user-specified instructions in jobs, tasks, configuration policies, and custom CMDB rules. When you as administrator initially set up your configuration item management system, you perform several configuration tasks. You can access CMDB configuration tasks from the Manage menu, at Jobs and Tasks > System Jobs and Tasks > Service and Asset Management > CMDB. Table 2-1 Task Common CMDB configuration tasks Description Assign Computer's Ownership to be theprimaryuser The settings to assign Computer's Ownership to be the Primary User. Recommended schedule is daily during off peak hours. CleanOwnership A task to clean the data for ownership relationships. Recommended schedule is every 12 hours.

19 Configuring CMDB Solution About CMDB rules 19 Table 2-1 Task Common CMDB configuration tasks (continued) Description Duplicate ComputerMerge The settings for the automatic merging of Asset Computer and Inventory Computer configuration items that is based on a duplicate key. Recommended schedule is daily during off peak hours. See About merging duplicate configuration items on page 47. See Merging two configuration items on page 48. Duplicate User Merge The settings for the automatic merging of duplicate users that is based on a key. Recommended schedule is daily during off peak hours. See About merging duplicate configuration items on page 47. See Merging two configuration items on page 48. Inventory Clean Up The settings to clean up inventory data for computers with the selected asset status. Recommended schedule is daily during off peak hours. Inventory To Asset Synchronization The settings to control the synchronization of inventory and asset information. Recommended schedule is daily during off peak hours. Resource Merge Rule Automatic merging of duplicate configuration items that is based on a key. Recommended schedule is daily during off peak hours. See About merging duplicate configuration items on page 47. See Merging two configuration items on page 48. Update Network Resource Location Update Organizational Hierarchy The settings to control the automatic update of the location of network resources. Recommended schedule is daily during off peak hours. A task to update the Organizational Hierarchy groups to match the associations in the database. About CMDB rules CMDB rules are the custom rules that users create for managing data and tasks. CMDB rules let you manipulate the data that is already in the CMDB. These rules let you normalize data or fix other consistency problems with your CMDB data. You can create your own CMDB rules. You can target a group of assets based on their type and properties and then make changes to them. To create a rule, you must define the criteria for the targeted assets, the changes that occur, and the

20 20 Configuring CMDB Solution Configuring ownership settings type of action to be taken. You can test custom CMDB rules before you run them, create schedules, and notify relevant personnel. Warning: CMDB rules are powerful and can alter vast amounts of data. Before you use a custom CMDB rule in a production environment, Symantec highly recommends that you test the rule by clicking the Test rule option on the CMDB Rule page. You can also run CMDB rules using tasks and jobs. For more information, see the topics about editing CMDB data and about running a CMDB rule as a task in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. See About CMDB Solution on page 9. Configuring ownership settings Multiple users, departments, and cost centers can partly own the same configuration item. CMDB Solution lets you assign ownership percentage to a configuration item so that you can define the percentage that each of the multiple users, departments, or cost centers owns. To allow a configuration item to have multiple owners you must configure ownership settings. See Specifying ownership percentage of a configuration item on page 50. See About configuring CMDB Solution settings on page 15. To configure ownership settings 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Settings menu, click All Settings. 2 In the left pane, expand Service and Asset Management > CMDB Solution, and then click Ownership Settings. 3 In the right pane, under Ownership Style, in the drop-down list, click one of the following options to allow a configuration item to have multiple owners: Multiple Warning: Once you set multiple ownership, you can no longer go back to single association. Multiple With Warning Once you set multiple with warning ownership, you receive a notification when you assign ownership to a currently owned asset.

21 Configuring CMDB Solution Configuring ownership settings 21 4 To specify what type of owners to keep in the event of a conflict of ownership, in the right pane, under Ownership Rule, in the drop-down list, click one of the following options: User Precedence Department Precedence 5 Click Save changes.

22 22 Configuring CMDB Solution Configuring ownership settings

23 Chapter 3 Managing your organizational structure This chapter includes the following topics: About organizational configuration item types About the Company configuration item type About the User configuration item type Setting up your organizational structure Creating a location Creating a cost center Creating a department Updating your organizational hierarchy manually About organizational configuration item types One of the main purposes of Asset Management Suite is to enable you to create and maintain associations among organizations, assets, and resources. For example, you can associate a computer with a user, a department, and a location. You can also associate a department with a specific cost center. After you specify these logical groups and associations, you can keep track of an asset. You can track where an asset is located, who has it, and which department or cost center has responsibility for it. Before you can make the associations, you must add organizational configuration items into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). The organizational configuration item types let you enter organizational data and define the structure

24 24 Managing your organizational structure About organizational configuration item types of your organization. Organizational configuration item types are the essential building blocks upon which all of your other asset and contract data is based. See Setting up your organizational structure on page 26. Organizational configuration item types are unique because they support a hierarchy for organizing resources. Organizing information in a hierarchy simplifies management and access to the data. You can view information at different levels of detail. For example, you can look at the reports for all computers at a building, site, geographical region, or company level. You must define these groups to meet the needs of your company. For each organizational configuration item type, decide what groups you want to use and enter the corresponding data into the CMDB. You can use the groups that your company already has for departments and cost centers, unless these groupings are too broad or too granular. Before you enter any data, consider your organizational needs and the relationships that the resources have with each other. Symantec recommends that you plan and set up organizational configuration items correctly at the beginning. However, you can update and edit the organizational configuration items later. You can use the following predefined organizational configuration item types to enter your organizational data: Company Cost Center Department Location User After you enter your organizational data and associate it with assets, contracts, and users, the system automatically creates organizational groups under the organizational views. Organizational groups offer a great benefit when you want to manage your assets by location or department. For example, you can apply policies and tasks separately to the different resource targets that you create from the organizational groups. You can also create and configure site-specific security roles to restrict each asset management team, so that they can only view and manage assets of their own site. See Managing security on an organizational group on page 34. For more information, see the topics about organizational views and groups, and configuring resource security in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide.

25 Managing your organizational structure About the Company configuration item type 25 About the Company configuration item type The Company configuration item type lets you specify data for the internal or the external companies in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). See About organizational configuration item types on page 23. For internal companies, the Company configuration item lets you create the top level of your company's organizational hierarchy, if you have subsidiaries. In some situations, a single company consists of multiple smaller companies. The Company configuration item type lets you record data about these companies. If you have structured your configuration item management system as a single company, this configuration item type might not be needed for internal company data. For external companies, you can use the Company configuration item type to insert data of the companies from whom you purchase assets. In the procurement feature of Asset Management Suite, these companies are called suppliers. Additionally, the Company configuration item type gets populated by the Software Management Framework. The Software Discovery scan collects data about the installed software and creates the software resources with the minimum metadata: the company (vendor) name, software name, and version. For more information, see the topics about discovering software on managed computers in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. Note that the Company configuration item type does not let you create a hierarchical structure of companies. About the User configuration item type The User configuration item type lets you enter data about people of your company into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). The User configuration item type is associated with the Company and the Department configuration item types. You can also specify a manager for a user. When you use Asset Management Suite for the first time, you do not have to insert user data manually. Symantec recommends that you use Microsoft Active Directory Import to enter all your company's existing users into the CMDB. If the user data that you import also contains department data, you can use it to automatically assign users to the departments. To accomplish this task, you must enter the department data before you import the user data. See About importing configuration item data from other systems on page 46.

26 26 Managing your organizational structure Setting up your organizational structure You can add users manually in the Symantec Management Console when you need to add a few users at a time. For example, when you add information about new hires. See Creating and editing a configuration item on page 49. Setting up your organizational structure Organizational configuration item types help you organize assets and configuration items into logical groups, associations, and relationships. You use the organizational configuration item types to create the structure of your organization. See About organizational configuration item types on page 23. Symantec recommends that you add organizational configuration items first because many other configuration items are associated to them. When you create entries for assets and other configuration items, you can then associate these items with the organizational information that already exists. Note that ideally you would enter all data for a configuration item at once and then move on to the next configuration item. However, when you create an organizational configuration item, it is often not possible. Organizational configuration items have associations with each other. When you create an organizational configuration item, you can specify all data, except the association data. You must create the associated configuration item, and then you can go back to the original configuration item and specify the association data. For example, if you have not created a cost center, you cannot specify a cost center for a department. Table 3-1 Process for setting up your organizational structure Step Step 1 Step 2 Action Create locations Create cost centers Description When you set up your organizational structure in the Asset Management Suite, the first step is to create locations. The location organizational type lets you add geographical or physical locations into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). See Creating a location on page 27. The cost center organizational type lets you add your company's cost centers into the CMDB. Note that if you enter cost center data, and have not created a location, you cannot specify a location for a cost center. See Creating a cost center on page 28.

27 Managing your organizational structure Creating a location 27 Table 3-1 Process for setting up your organizational structure (continued) Step Step 3 Step 4 Action Create departments (Optional) Update the organizational hierarchy manually Description The department organizational type lets you add your company's departments into the CMDB. If you enter department data, and have not created a location and a cost center, you cannot create according associations for a department. See Creating a department on page 29. When you set up your organizational structure in the Symantec Management Console, the organizational items do not appear in the Organizational Views and Groups list until the organizational hierarchy gets updated. By default, the automatic update runs every 30 seconds and updates the organizational hierarchy. If you have disabled the automatic updating of organizational hierarchy, you must use the Update Organizational Hierarchy task to manually refresh the hierarchy. See Updating your organizational hierarchy manually on page 30. Creating a location The Location organizational type lets you add geographical or physical locations into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). If your company has multiple sites around the world, you can use the geographical locations, such as country, state, and city, to create a location for each site. You can then associate the assets of each site with the locations that you define. Physical locations, such as building, floor, and cubicle, let you create separate locations at a single site. You can then associate assets of each building, floor, or cubicle to its corresponding location. You can associate each location with its manager and with a cost center. When you enter data for a location, you can also specify the hierarchy for it. For example, you can create a location for the United States, and then create sub-locations for the states, such as California, Utah, and Texas. Note that on the Location page, all location items are displayed in the flat list. You can see the hierarchy of the locations on the Organizational Views and Groups page. For more information, see the topics about organizational views and groups in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. This task is a step in the process for setting up your organizational structure.

28 28 Managing your organizational structure Creating a cost center See Setting up your organizational structure on page 26. To create a location 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Home menu, click Service and Asset Management > Manage Configuration Items. 2 In the left pane, expand Organizational Types. 3 Right-click Location and click Create Location. 4 In the Create configuration item dialog box, give the location a name. 5 (Optional) To create a hierarchy, under Location Hierarchy, specify the parent location for the item that you currently edit. You can also first insert all locations and then use the bulk edit function to add a parent location to a group of locations at once. To add a parent location to a group of locations, do the following: Select the locations to which you want to add the parent location. Right-click one of the locations, and then click CMDB Functions > Assignment Functions > Assign Parent Location. In the Select a Resource dialog box, select the parent location, and then click OK. 6 (Optional) If you enter the Location To Subnet parameter and then enable the Update Network Resource Location task, the task automatically assigns this location to the network devices that belong to the entered subnet. 7 Click OK. Creating a cost center The Cost Center organizational type lets you add your company's cost centers into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Cost centers are associated with the departments or other sections of the company that create costs. For example, an engineering department, IT department, or services department can each include one or more cost centers. The managers of these cost centers are responsible for approving all asset purchases and ensuring that the expenditures are kept within budgets. With each cost center, you can associate a location and a manager of a cost center. However, if your organization has a single cost center that spans multiple locations, you do not use this field. You can then only specify a cost center for each location. See Creating a location on page 27.

29 Managing your organizational structure Creating a department 29 The Cost Center configuration item type lets you create a hierarchical structure of the cost centers in your company. Note that on the Cost Center page, all cost center items are displayed in the flat list. You can see the hierarchy of the cost centers on the Organizational Views and Groups page. For more information, see the topics about organizational views and groups in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. This task is a step in the process for setting up your organizational structure. See Setting up your organizational structure on page 26. To create a cost center 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Home menu, click Service and Asset Management > Manage Configuration Items. 2 In the left pane, expand Organizational Types. 3 Right-click Cost Center and click Create Cost Center. 4 In the Create configuration item dialog box, give the cost center a name and specify the Cost Center Code. You use Cost Center Code value for accounting related data. 5 To create a child cost center, under Cost Center Hierarchy, select a parent cost center. 6 Click OK. Creating a department The Department organizational type lets you add your company's departments into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). You associate each department with a location, cost center, and a barcode that is used for physical audits. The Department configuration item type also lets you specify a manager for the department. When you enter data for a department, you can specify its hierarchical position within the company. Note that on the Department page, all departments are displayed in the flat list. You can see the hierarchy of the departments on the Organizational Views and Groups page. For more information, see the topics about organizational views and groups in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. This task is a step in the process for setting up your organizational structure. See Setting up your organizational structure on page 26.

30 30 Managing your organizational structure Updating your organizational hierarchy manually To create a department 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Home menu, click Service and Asset Management > Manage Configuration Items. 2 In the left pane, expand Organizational Types. 3 Right-click Department and click Create Department. 4 In the Create configuration item dialog box, give the department a name. 5 To create a child department, under Department Hierarchy, select a parent department. 6 Click OK. Updating your organizational hierarchy manually When you add new locations, cost centers, or departments in the Symantec Management Console, the items do not appear in the Organizational Views and Groups list until the organizational hierarchy gets updated. By default, the automatic update runs every 30 seconds and updates the organizational hierarchy. In large environments, Symantec recommends that you disable the automatic update task to improve the performance. You can disable it on the Organizational Hierarchy Settings page that you access from the Settings menu, at All Settings > Service and Asset Management > CMDB Solution. If you have disabled the automatic updating of the organizational hierarchy, you can use the Update Organizational Hierarchy task to manually refresh the hierarchy on demand. You can run this task immediately or on a specified schedule. For example, you need to run the task after every import of your organizational data. This task is an optional step in the process for setting up your organizational structure. See Setting up your organizational structure on page 26. To update organizational hierarchy manually 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Manage menu, click Jobs and Tasks. 2 In the left pane, expand System Jobs and Tasks > Service and Asset Management > CMDB, and then click Update Organizational Hierarchy. 3 On the Update Organizational Hierarchy page, add the organizational hierarchies that you want to update.

31 Managing your organizational structure Updating your organizational hierarchy manually 31 4 (Optional) Under Task Status, schedule the task. For more information, see the topics about running a task in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. 5 Click Save changes.

32 32 Managing your organizational structure Updating your organizational hierarchy manually

33 Chapter 4 Managing security in Asset Management Suite This chapter includes the following topics: About managing security in Asset Management Suite Predefined asset management security roles Managing security on an organizational group Assigning an organizational group to a security role Configuring security permissions for an organizational group About managing security in Asset Management Suite Managing security is an important part of asset management. Setting up the security properly ensures that your data is secure while permitting users to have the access they need. In most environments, you have different users who need various degrees of access to the Asset Management Suite features. These users might be data input workers, managers, or administrators. Each type of user has different access needs. For example, a supervisor user needs the rights to verify and update resource entries. A manager user needs to access the reports. An administrator user needs the rights to do everything. To set up security roles for all types of users, you can modify the predefined asset management security roles, or you can create new security roles. In a large and a complex organization that has offices in several countries, additional security management might be necessary. For example, you might want to restrict each asset management team, so that they can only view and

34 34 Managing security in Asset Management Suite Predefined asset management security roles manage the assets for their own site. To accomplish this task, you need to create and configure site-specific security roles. See Managing security on an organizational group on page 34. For more information, see the topics about creating and configuring a security role in the Symantec Management Platform Guide. Predefined asset management security roles When you install Asset Management Suite, the system automatically adds the predefined asset management security roles to the Symantec Management Console. The predefined security roles get automatically assigned the privileges and the permissions that their respective jobs and tasks require. See About managing security in Asset Management Suite on page 33. Table 4-1 Security role Asset Managers Barcode User CMDB Managers Predefined asset management security roles Description This security role has privileges for managing the basic configuration item types. The security role also has privileges for the managing functions that are related to special contract types, software licensing, and procurement. This security role is a restricted data entry user role. This security role has privileges for managing basic configuration item types, such as hardware and the base contract configuration item type. Managing security on an organizational group Managing security is an important part of asset management. You can grant different levels of access according to the responsibilities and location of the users. These settings ensure that only authorized users can access and modify the data. See About managing security in Asset Management Suite on page 33. Managing security on an organizational group involves two main steps. You assign an organizational group to a security role, and then you set the security permissions for the organizational group.

35 Managing security in Asset Management Suite Assigning an organizational group to a security role 35 Table 4-2 Process for managing security on an organizational group Step Step 1 Action (Optional) Create a custom security role Description When you want to manage security on an organizational group, the first step is to create the custom security roles. Custom security roles can help you better manage the assets that are dispersed over multiple sites or organizational units. For more information, see the topics about creating and configuring a security role in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. Step 2 Assign an organizational group to a security role After you create a security role, you can assign an organizational group to it. Only users who are assigned to this security role can view and manage the assets of this organizational group. Step 3 Configure security permissions for an organizational group See Assigning an organizational group to a security role on page 35. To control what a security role can do with asset records of an organizational group, you must configure its security settings. See Configuring security permissions for an organizational group on page 36. Assigning an organizational group to a security role Assigning an organizational group to a security role lets you specify the users who can view and manage the assets in this organizational group. You can assign an organizational group to a predefined or to a custom security role. If you want to assign the organizational group to a custom security role, you must create the custom security role first. For more information, see the topics about creating and configuring a security role in the Symantec Management Platform User Guide. This task is a step in the process for managing security on an organizational group. See Managing security on an organizational group on page 34. To assign an organizational group to a security role 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Manage menu, click All Resources. 2 In the left pane, expand any organizational view, right-click an organizational group that you want to assign to a security role, and then click Manage Security > Assign Management Rights. 3 In the Assign Management Rights dialog box, select the security role. 4 Click OK.

36 36 Managing security in Asset Management Suite Configuring security permissions for an organizational group Configuring security permissions for an organizational group Security permissions let you control the actions that the users of a security role can perform with asset records in an organizational group. This task is a step in the process for managing security on an organizational group. See Managing security on an organizational group on page 34. To configure security permissions for an organizational group 1 In the Symantec Management Console, on the Manage menu, click All Resources. 2 In the left pane, expand any organizational view, right-click an organizational group for which you want to configure the security permissions, and then click Security. 3 In the Security Role Manager dialog box, in the Role list, click the security role that you want to configure. 4 Configure the security permissions. 5 Click Save changes.