RF500A QSG – Gateway User Setup Administration for Comark RF500A Issue M9

User Administration

The RF500 has two types of user, each with different levels of user permissions:

AdministratorHas unrestricted access to all Gateway functions.
Restricted UserDoes not have unrestricted access to all Gateway functions and must be granted permission to access each major Gateway function.

There are no defined limits to the number of users that can exist. Any number of Administrators and Restricted Users can be created.


Password Format

When choosing a password the Gateway enforces a minimum password length of 6 characters and allows a maximum of 31 characters. These characters can be any mixture of the following:

Alpha-numeric   A-Z, a-z or 0-9 and space

Special characters  ! @ $ % * ( ) – _ ‘ and full stop

This scheme allows companies that require the use of strong passwords to implement them.


InformationIconNote: The Gateway will not validate that an entered password is strong, this check must be performed by the person entering it.

Account Expiry

All Restricted User accounts will expire 180 days after they are created or renewed. Administrator accounts do not expire. When an account is due to expire within 14 days, a warning message such as ‘Warning: Your account will expire on Sat Jun 16 11:59:53 2007’ will show on the Login Screen. After an account has expired the user will not be able to login to the Gateway until renewed by an Administrator using the ‘Renew User’ option in ‘Editing User Options’.


Add New User

Navigate to Administration Users to bring up this dialogue, and click AddNewUser.

AddNewUserDialogue

Figure 1 – Add New User

The following parameters must be completed:

UsernameEnter a unique username of your choice to identify the new user.
PasswordEnter the login password for the new user
Verify PasswordRe-enter the login password for the new user
Make User AdministratorIf not ticked, the user will be a Restricted User

The following self-explanatory fields are only applicable for a Restricted User

… Acknowledge AlarmsSee Alarm Acknowledge
… Sign DataSee Signing Data
… Start / Stop LoggingSee Start / Stop Logging
… TaskingSee Tasking
… Add / Remove TxSee Transmitter Management

Restricting Locations

Any user whether an Administrator or a Restricted User can have access limited to a sub-set of the Alarm Groups. In this way several systems can co-exist on the one Gateway, but other users will not be able to see transmitters from other users’ Alarm Groups. To restrict users from some or all Locations un-tick the appropriate boxes.


Changing Passwords

Users are able to change their own password, enabling the system Administrators to add a new user with a ‘temporary’ password which the user can then change themselves. Note that the Gateway will not force a user to change his/her password on first login. Click on ‘Username’ and select ‘Change My Password’ from the drop down.

MyFilterOpen

Figure 2 – Select Change My Password

That will bring up the following dialogue.

ChangeMyPassword

Figure 3 – Change My Password

Enter the current password, followed by the new password, and then verify the new password, before clicking Save to save and close, or Close to close and exit without saving.


Edit Users

Navigate to Administration Users to bring up this dialogue:

EditUser

Figure 4 – Edit User


InformationIconNote: You cannot edit your own preferences as an Administrator aside from changing the Alarm Gropus that you have access too. This is to ensure that at least one Administrator is active on the Gateway at all times.

By selecting another User from the list on the left hand pane, you can now edit that user as you see fit. If the user has expired (password expiry) or has been previously disabled, clicking the relevant boxes it is possible to re-enable them. Do not forget to click  to Save changes, and  to Save and Close.


InformationIconNote: Users cannot be deleted, only disabled. This is because the Gateway keeps a record in the Audit Trail of all users actions such as creating a Transmitter Task, Signing Data, or each Alarm Acknowledge for auditing purposes. If a user were to be deleted these records would also be deleted.

User Login Expiry (Date Showing)

Restricted users will expire automatically after 90 days. This upcoming date will be shown when the user is selected. After this date the user will need to be renewed in order to continue using the Gateway. Administrators do not expire.