User Groups

User Groups are special items that can be used to form collections of User Accounts. This is useful when several user accounts need to have the same security permissions—the security permissions can be allocated to the User Group instead of each individual user account (when a person logs on, they are given the permissions of the 'Everyone' User Group, the permissions of their user account, and the permissions of any User Groups of which their user account is a member). By enabling you to allocate security permissions to multiple user accounts simultaneously, User Groups significantly reduce the amount of time and effort required to set up your system security.

For more information on how User Groups affect system security, see Understanding User Groups.

The topics in this section explain how to create and configure User Groups. For more information, see the topics that are listed in the gray footer section at the bottom of this topic. Select the relevant entry to display the topic that you require.

For information about other tasks associated with User Groups, see the following sections:

Once a User Group has been created, you can manage that User Group directly in Geo SCADA Expert, or you can associate the User Group with a Microsoft Windows or LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) user group so that you can manage the User Group remotely, outside of Geo SCADA Expert.

NOTICE

Security threat

On systems on which the 'Everyone' User Group is enabled, all User Accounts on the system automatically inherit the security permissions that are assigned to the 'Everyone' User Group, including the Guest user (which does not require a logon). Each user's security permissions comprise: Everyone permissions + User Group permissions + User Account permissions. To help avoid providing all users with unintended access to features and functionality that should be restricted, use configured User Groups rather than the 'Everyone' User Group. If the 'Everyone' User Group has to be used, it MUST be assigned the minimum permissions required, with access restricted where possible to just the relevant parts of the database. (On new installations, the built-in 'Everyone' User Group is inactive and is not assigned any security permissions by default.)

Failure to follow these instructions can result in equipment damage and a breach in system security.

You can modify, move, rename or delete a User Group in the same way as you can alter or remove any other database item. For more information, see Organizing and Configuring Your Database in the Geo SCADA Expert Guide to Core Configuration.

To create, modify, copy, move, import, rename or delete a User Group, you have to be logged on via a user account that has the Configure and Security permission for the User Group or Group that will contain the User Group (see Permissions for Working with User Accounts and User Groups).