Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

I've been reading the document associated to article http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO7796, related to Primary User calculations, in Altiris NS 6.0 SP3, but it is not clear for me when the Primary User for a month is calculated.

It is clear that it takes into account the data from the lat 28 days(by default), but I have doubts about when this information is "consolidated"

Consider the following example:

User A has been logged in for 30 hours in January and User B has been logged for 28 hours. It is clear that the user A is the primary user for January. But if this is the data for 15th of January, and on 16th, user B is logged in for 8 hours, user B will be logged on for 36 hours in January, and will become the Primary User for January.

If you run a report on 15th of January you'll get User A as Primary Use, but if you run this same report on 16th, you'll get User B as Primary User. I don't think this is consistent.

I guess that this should be calculated once the month is ended, but I'm not sure if this is the case.

Could someone clarify this to me?.

Thanks:

         Falquian

My understanding is that, using the information in AeXUserMonitorLog.xml (which, as you stated contains the last 28 days of logon/logoff information), the Agent itself calculates the computer's Primary User and communicates the result every time a Basic Inventory is run.  So, on February 1st, the Primary User for the month of February will be the User who used the computer most in January (call her UserA), but a different user (UserB) begins using the machine, at whatever point UserB has used the computer more than UserA for a rolling 28day period, the Agent will calculate this, send a new Primary User to NS and it will be reflected in the Inv_AeX_AC_Primary_User table.

If no one has logged onto a given computer in a given month, the first user to have a logon/logoff event will become the Primary User for that month when the next Basic Inventory runs.

Joe

That's also my understanding, but I've never proven it and I have no links.

Hi, Joe:

Thanks for your comments. So according to your thoughts, a Primary User can be changing between several users on the current month, is this right?

That can be annoying when printing (or saving) reports and comparing them.

Again, thanks:

        Falquian

Falquian,

Yes, that is correct.  If you can find a computer that no one has logged onto in current month you can prove this very easily.  Logon as UserA, then immediately logoff.  Logon again as UserB and 'Send Basic Inventory.'  Within a few minutes, you should see a row populated in Inv_AeX_AC_Primary_User showing UserA as the Primary User for the machine.  Now wait a few minutes (just ensure you are logged in as UserB longer than you were logged on as UserA), logoff again.  Logon again as UserB, 'Send Basic Inventory' and within a few minutes you should see the Inv_AeX_AC_Primary_User update with UserB as the Primary User for the current month.

Hope this helps.

Joe

Hi for this clarification, Joe.

Regards:

        Falquian