Accessing the application using a browser

To connect to the RUM application, Helpers will navigate to the URL that specifies the website and virtual directory as configured by the RUM installation/Control Panel. The default for this URL is shown in the Access URL section of the IIS Settings screen on the Control Panel.

Note to Helpers: Your administrator will tell you the exact URL to use. It may not always be possible to access RUM using the machine name and virtual directory as shown. There are thousands of ways to set up IIS, and only your administrator knows the proper DNS name, IP address, or NetBIOS name you should use.


Section of IIS Settings screen of the Control Panel Applet,
showing the Default Access URL

For example, if your administrator has configured the RUM application to be part of a website name www.rumdemo.com, the URL that Helpers would enter would be http://www.rumdemo.com/RUM. (If the website the administrator selected uses HTTPS for secure connections, Helpers would enter https://www.rumdemo.com/RUM).

If Basic authentication is selected, or if Challenge/Response is selected but fails, the user will be asked for her username/password when connecting to the website.

Performing a Lookup

Once sucessfully connected, Helpers will be presented with the main application screen:

The Main RUM Application Screen

The web application will only present options and listing for users and groups for which they have been granted permissions to modify by the administrator. There are two options to help the Helper find the correct account in order to modify it.

• If the Helper knows the username, she may enter the user account or any portion of the user's name to pull up the User Details screen for that user.

• Alternately, the Helper can select an NT group name from the drop-down list, and then click on the View Members button. This will bring up a list of all members of the selected group.
  
  Results of a lookup of Group Members

  Any usernames that match the Lookup (or are part of the Group specified) will be displayed on the Lookup Results screen. The Helper will then click on the username of the user he wishes to modify.

  If the group that you are looking up is a Local Group that contains other Global Groups, you will see the listings of those global groups:

  
  Results of a lookup of Local Group that contains users and Global Groups

  As a Helper, you may click on the Global Group to display its members, however, you will only be able to modify those individual users for which the administrator has given you permissions. You will not be able to modify the Global Group membership unless you have specifically been granted that privilege by the Administrator.

Changing User Settings

The User Details screen is where all changes to the selected user account are made. Each user option is listed, however, if the option has not been granted by an administrator, the corresponding button for that option will display N/A.

Options for which the Helper has rights to modify will have an action button and (depending on the right) an entry box for entering specific details. For example, if the Helper has the rights to change passwords for a user, she will have a box in which to enter the new password and a Change button to complete the modification.


The User Details Screen

If the change is successful, you'll receive a confirmation dialog box explaining that the change may not take place immediately due to the time it takes changes to propogate to all the domain controllers on the domain. Administrators have the option of accelerating this process (see Administrative Options below for domain synchronization options available to administrators).


Change Confirmation Dialog Box

Administrator Options

The Remote User Manager web application has several options that will appear for administrators and for those Helpers the administrator has designated to use these functions. The links for these options will appear at the bottom of the main RUM web application screen.

The RUM Administrator Options links
• Statistics
  Clicking the Statistics link will bring up extensive information on the operation and status of the Remote User Manager system. An administrator may review these periodically to get a quick "snapshot" overview of the application. Statistics are reset when the application is started (rebooting the machine, or stopping and restarting the web server).

• Event Log Extract
  Clicking the Event Log link will show the administrator all of the Remote User Manager events logged in the Event Logs. This gives the administrator a simple way to see RUM-related events without searching through the main Event Viewer logs.

  Note that this display is only an extract of RUM-related events from the full event logs. You will still need to pull up the normal Windows NT4/2K/XP/2003/Vista/2008 Event Viewer to see other system events.

  
  Event Viewer Extract Screen

• Domain Synchronization Options
  The Sync This Machine and Sync Entire Domain options allow the administrator to immediately trigger a NT User Database synchronization without having to pull up Server Manager or wait for the changes to propogate on the normal domain pulse.

  You will receive a confirmation dialog box to indicate that the synchronization has been triggered.

  
  Domain Synchronization Confirmation Dialog Box