Creating, modifying, and archiving custom chargeback groups

You can run departmental chargeback reports based on a customized file that you create. Follow these steps to create, modify, and archive your custom chargeback groups.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you configured your License Key Server Administration and Reporting Tool to use the LDAP user management.
  • Only the person who created the group can modify or archive it.
  • You must be a user with the admin role or the chargeback role.
  • Configure the rate per unit for your product licenses.
  • Reports that are run after you create or modify groups contain all of the data that has been created since you created or modified the groups. For example, if you create a group on January 1 at 9:00 am, the report contains license usage data starting January 1 at 9:00 am and onwards. For more information, see the technical note.

Creating custom chargeback group files

Procedure

  1. Create one file that contains a list of user names and the actions that you want to perform, such as adding users, removing users, or both. You must use a text editor that saves the file with UTF-8 encoding.
    Example: adding users
    [ADD]
user1
user2
user3
user4
    Example: removing users
    [REMOVE]
user1
user2
    Example: adding and removing users
    [ADD] 
user5
user6

[REMOVE]
user3
user4

    The user name is the name that the product license is checked out to. The license server log file contains the check-out and check-in information for every user. The user name that you enter in your file must match the user name in the license server log file. Ensure that you save the file with UTF-8 encoding.

    The maximum length for each user name is 254 characters. The maximum file size is 3 MB.

    If you are entering non-English-language user names into your custom chargeback group file, you must use a text editor that saves the file with UTF-8. UTF-8 encoding supports all non-ASCII characters, so you can type the user names that contain non-ASCII characters as-is.

  2. Save the file with the .conf extension. For example, rcl_testers.conf.

Creating custom chargeback groups

To create a custom chargeback group, your file must contain only a list of users that you want to add to the group.

Procedure

  1. Log on to the web client as a user with the admin role or the chargeback role.
  2. Go to the Settings page.
  3. Click the Chargeback tab, and then click Create a chargeback group.
  4. Click Custom.
  5. In the Name field, type a unique name to identify the group. This name must be unique across all of your existing LDAP-based groups and custom groups.

    The maximum length is 50 characters, and the name cannot contain any of these special characters:

    # ? = + $ % , & | " * < > : /

  6. In the Description field, type a description of the group.
  7. In the Upload file section, click Browse to locate the custom chargeback group file that you created. For example, rcl_testers.conf.
    • If your group was successfully created, a message that states that the group was saved displays. Click the more details link to view details about how the system processed your request.
    • If your file contains any errors, a message displays describing the error. Fix the error, save the file, and then upload the file again until the process is successful.
  8. Click Save.
  9. Optionally, click Export Users, and then verify the read only list of users that were added to the group.

    You can click Actions > View to view the read only details about an active group.

  10. Now you are ready to create a report definition so that you can run your reports.

Modifying custom chargeback groups

Use your custom chargeback group .conf file to add new users to and delete existing users from your custom chargeback group.

Procedure

  1. Log on to the web client as a user with the admin role or the chargeback role.
  2. Go to the Settings page.
  3. Click the Chargeback tab, and then click View chargeback groups.
  4. Select the group that you want to modify, and then select Actions > View/Edit.

    You can change the group description, but you cannot change the group name.

  5. In the Upload file section, click Browse to locate the custom chargeback group file that you created. For example, rcl_testers.conf.
    • If your group was successfully modified, a message that states that the group was saved displays. Click the more details link to view details about how the system processed your request.
    • If your file contains any errors, a message displays describing the error. Fix the error, save the file, and then upload the file again until the process is successful.
  6. Click Save.
  7. Optionally, click Export Users, and then verify the read only list of users that were added to the group.

    You can click Actions > View to view the read only details about an active group.

Archiving custom chargeback groups

Procedure

  1. Log on to the web client as a user with the admin role or the chargeback role.
  2. Go to the Settings page.
  3. Click the Chargeback tab, and then click View chargeback groups.
    Attention: There is no undo option. When a group is archived, it cannot be restored.
  4. Select the group that you want to archive, and then select Actions > Archive.
  5. Click Yes to confirm that you want to archive the group.

    You can click Actions > View to view the read only details about an archived group.

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