Importing user names from your network

User names in your log files may be in an unfriendly format, such as MYDOMAIN\user007. You may wish to translate these into more readable names, and you may have the information to do this already on your network. So, how can you import this information into Vantage Ultimate ?

There are two main ways to import user names into Vantage Ultimate :

Using the simple Import from Windows domain dialog

Using the more flexible Import from LDAP dialog.

Note : The Import from LDAP functionality is complex, and will require some experimentation. An LDAP browsing tool, such as Microsoft�s ® ADSIEdit, may be useful.

If neither of these methods suits the data in your log file, you may be able to get data from your network into a CSV file, and open this file using the Open button on the Aliases dock. For information on the format of this CSV file, export one of your current aliases to a CSV file using the Export to CSV button and examine it's contents.

To import user data from a Windows domain:

Select the Aliases tab from the top of the screen.
Click the Import from Windows domain button in the toolbar at the top of the left Navigation bar. This launches the Import Windows Users dialog.
Select a domain controller.

Usually, you can choose the 'Use the primary domain controller' option.

Select an alias to import user names to. If you have an alias called Usernames, this would be a good choice.
Select an alias to import user groups to. If you have an alias called Departments, this would be a good choice. Note: only aliases that are based on the user names alias you selected will appear in this list. If there are no aliases in this list, and you want to import departments, then click Cancel , double-click your desired departments alias, click 'Use alias relationship', and select your user names alias in the drop-down.
Click OK .

Your user names alias should now contain a list of friendly user names, and their corresponding unfriendly names and email addresses. Your departments alias should contain a list of all the groups on your Windows domain, and a list of users belonging to those groups.

Note: When you use your departments alias, Vantage Ultimate can show each user as being in at most one group, so you may wish to delete some of the items that have been imported into your departments alias, leaving only the genuinely useful ones. For example, if you have a group called 'All Users', containing a list of all users, this is unlikely to be useful so you should delete it.

You may also need to ensure that your Usernames alias is bound to the appropriate summaries. To do this, double-click your Usernames alias, and check the list of summaries it applies to. Add and remove summaries as necessary.

To import data from an LDAP directory:

Select the Aliases tab from the top of the screen.
Click the Import from LDAP button in the right pane. This launches the import from LDAP dialog.
On the Aliase Selection page, select the alias that you would like to import to. Click Next .
The Object Selectio page enables you to choose what you want to import from your LDAP directory. You can either select Import Windows Users, which uses a pre-defined LDAP query, or you can set up your own LDAP query (this requires a knowledge of LDAP query syntax, which is beyond the scope of this document.)

Click Next .

The Group Creation page controls how items in your alias will be named.

Click Next once you have made your selection on the Group Creation page.

On the Alias Items page, select what you would like to be imported within each alias item. If you would like the account name and email address for each object imported, then check the 'Import the object�s Windows account and mail attributes' (these are the same values you get in the simpler Import from Windows domain dialog explained above).

If your logs have user account names prefixed with a domain name, then check 'Prefix the account name with the default domain'. If you would like other values from the LDAP object imported (such as sn, userPrincipalName, etc.) add them to the list.

Note: If you haven't checked Import the object�s Windows account and mail attributes and you haven't added anything to the list, nothing will be imported into your alias items. Click Next .

On the Advanced page, you can specify a server to be queried or use the default. You can specify a sub-part of the LDAP tree to search, or use the whole tree. For the sub-tree (or whole tree) that you�ve selected, you can specify that the search should go all the way to the leaves of the tree, or only to immediate children.
Click OK .

The import should then commence and your alias will be populated with a list of items and values for those items.