How to Populate the Assigned User, Calculated User and Last Logged on User Fields in FlexNet Manager Suite On-Premises

[#1]

Summary

This KB article addresses the question of how to populate the fields Assigned User, Calculated User and Last Logged on User and what the difference is between them.

Synopsis

This article will discuss three aspects in particular in FlexNet Manager Suite On-Premises:

1. the difference between the fields Assigned User, Calculated User and Last Logged on User;
2. how to populate these fields; and lastly
3. how to synchronise the assigned users between inventories and assets.

Discussion

There are "Last logged on User", "Calculated User" and "Assigned User" properties for inventories and "Assigned User" properties for assets.

The "Last logged on User", as its name indicates, is the logged on user when the inventory was gathered either through FNMS, Citrix, SCCM or any other compliance data source.

The "Calculated User" is the user whose account appeared the most for the last 10 "last logged on user".

The "Assigned User" field will not be automatically populated unless you are either synchronizing with Calculated User or have a customization such as a Business Adapter to do this. If neither of these are the case you have to assign this field manually for each inventory or asset. It is common to choose the calculated user as the assigned user, but it is not always the case. Assigned user will override Calculated User.

It is important to understand that each property being populated is dependent on the other in this order:

1. Last Logged on User needs to be populated first
2. Calculated User will then appear if there are at least 10 Last Logged on Users
3. Assigned User will be populated if the Calculated User is present and the synchronisation is enabled between the two. Note: as above, if you're using a business adapter to pull in the Assigned User, then this does not apply.

Workaround

You can either use a Business Adapter (classed as a customization) or you have a choice to synchronize "Assigned User" field for asset from that of the linked inventory.

To do so:

1. Open System Settings in the Web UI
2. Click on the Inventory tab
3. Under the "Change Management" section, locate "Synchronize assigned user with calculated user" and ensure it is checked.
4. Click the "Save" button in the bottom right of the page.

Now when the calculated user is updated for a device, the assigned user is also updated. Changes to the assigned user do not affect the calculated user. Note that the first inventory import after the check box is turned on sets the assigned user to the calculated user for every device. If you turn this check box on and save the dialog, a warning message will advise you that this is going to happen.

Additional Information

Notes on Last Logged on User:
In Windows the Last Logged On user value is obtained using the WMI key of Win32_ComputerSystem.UserName. If the logged on user is running ndtrack manually and does not have administrative privileges then this may appear as NULL in which case you should also use: [Win32_LoggedOnUser].Antecedent.

These settings only work if a user is logged on when inventory is collected. If no user is logged on (common for servers) then you won't get a LastLoggedOnUser value. Therefore if Calculated and Last Logon data is not available for Windows System and Servers, you should first check if a user was logged on during inventory collection.

There is a known issue that can prevent the synchronization of calculated and assigned users - FNMS-19365: Synchronize assigned user with calculated user does not work as setting is moved to SettingName and ComplianceTenantSetting.

You can work around this using the following SQL:

UPDATE dbo.ComplianceTenantSetting SET SettingValue = '1' WHERE SettingNameID = 66

[christopher_3]

According to Microsoft documentation the reference is Antecedent not Antecendent: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/cimwin32prov/win32-loggedonuser

[kathy_allen]

once an asset is marked as disposed or inventory devices as ignored, does the calculated user get removed after a certain timeframe?  We are seeing some disposed assets that still have a calculated user assigned

[kclausen]

@kathy_allen  - The Assigned User, Last Logged On User and the Calculated User would remain as of the last update.  I would not expect them to get automatically blanked out once the asset is retired/disposed by FlexNet Manager.

[raghuvaran_ram]

Assigned user, Calculated user or Last logged on user is not showing for any of the Linux or Unix devices however we have these details available on windows servers and end user machines, we are currently using FNMS 2018 R1 and most of the agent used for inventory collection in FNMS agent version 13

[mengmeng_ge]

Find another tricky point.

1. Make sure UserName is populated in the NDI file.

<Hardware Class="Win32_ComputerSystem" Name="SQLSVR" Evidence="WMI">
<Property Name="Manufacturer" Value="innotek GmbH"/>
<Property Name="Model" Value="VirtualBox"/>
<Property Name="Domain" Value="softwaretwo.com"/>
<Property Name="DomainRole" Value="3"/>
<Property Name="NumberOfProcessors" Value="1"/>
<Property Name="NumberOfLogicalProcessors" Value="2"/>
<Property Name="TotalPhysicalMemory" Value="6290984960"/>
<Property Name="Status" Value="OK"/>
<Property Name="UserName" Value="softwaretwo\XXadmin"/>
</Hardware>

2-1. If the UserName in the NDI file is already imported from AD (searchable under the User object), then the 'Last logged on' will be populated.

2-2. If the UserName in the NDI file does not exist in FNMS (NOT searchable under the User object), then the 'Last logged on' will not be populated.

Not sure if the behavior observed in 2-2 is as expected or not.
I feel that it will be much friendly if FNMS could import the UserName part in the NDI file into ComplianceUser table if there is no existing match.

Lesson learned is that for all customers who need the 'Last logged on', please make sure to import all users from AD or whatever HR systems. Or else, you will not get 'Last logged on' populated by FNMS agent.