XPRESSO

Group Administration

This topic provides Group related information and tasks that are exclusive to Group Administrators.

See "Group Members/Membership" for Group-related information and tasks which are relevant to all Group roles.
See "System Administrator Tasks" for Group-related information and tasks which are relevant to the System Administrator.

NOTE 1:
When the System Administrator creates a new Group in XPRESSO, they must specify the Group Administrator for the Group. This is usually assigned to the User who requested the creation of the new Group. The Group Administrator has the option to add other users to the Group Administrator role as required. The Group must contain at least one Group Administrator.
NOTE 2:
As part of assigning a Group Admin to a new Group, XPRESSO automatically uses the email address of the designated Group Admin for all subsequent requests to join that Group. If a Group has multiple Group Admins, requests to join that Group is emailed to every Group Admin to allow for distributed management of group functions.
NOTE 3:
Although the System Administrator is responsible for creating new Groups (and deleting them), the Group Admin performs most other Group management functions for the Group (any exceptions are noted in the procedures that require the System Admin to perform).

About Group Administration

Group Administrators are responsible for the upkeep of their Groups to ensure smooth day-to-day operations, the resources needed by Group members are in a sane/usable state, and to make sure the Group preferences and Group permissions (permitted actions) are configured appropriately so they meet the operational requirements for the Group.

The prime activities that Group Administrator is responsible for in XPRESSO include:

Managing and maintaining the XPRESSO Group infrastructure:
Adding and inviting users to a Group.
Group Maintenance activities: Changing a members role | Removing members from a Group | Updating a Group's profile.
Changing the status of a Group: Enabling a Group | Disabling a Group| Placing into Maintenance.
Requesting the LaaS lab resources used by a Group and managing those resources: Enabling | Disabling.
Checking Group History.
Customizing and maintaining the Group Permissions to grant or revoke the execution of a specific action for all members in a specific Membership role.

NOTE:
Group Admins should be aware that XPRESSO honors the permissions you have in each Group you manage in tandem with the Membership role used to log into XPRESSO. For example, if you log into XPRESSO as a Privilege Member, then switched to a group where you have a Group Admin role to perform a group management function, XPRESSO honors the Group Admin permission settings in the Group you are currently "operating in"; not your current login Membership role. If you back out of that Group (or switch Groups), your permissions will switch to the Membership role you hold in the new group.

Defining and maintaining "Group Preferences" for the Group.

See "Other Group Admin Tasks" for other exclusive Group Admin role actions/tasks.

CAUTION!
Each Group must have at least one Group Admin to manage the Group management functions. If you are the last Group Admin and want to permanently leave an active Group, you need to associate another Group Admin to the group. If the group is no longer active with no members actively using the group resources, make a request to the System Admin to have the group disabled.

Best Practices for Creating and Maintaining Groups

The initial setup and ongoing maintenance of XPRESSO Groups will simplify and reduce much of the mundane activities for members who are using the system on a regular basis.

Consider the following best practices/suggestions for managing Groups in XPRESSO:

Limit the numbers of users in each Group to a practical limit where the Group preferences and permitted User actions are meeting the majority of users needs. If you find you are experiencing conflicting Group preference or permission needs, consider creating separate/smaller Groups so they can be customized appropriately.
Make sure you assign the proper Membership role to new users that is indicative of the actions they will typically perform with XPRESSO. Consider breaking down your Group members to more finite roles (Member | Privilege Member) instead of assigning all users to the same Membership role to avoid potential security issues or operational problems.
When requesting a Group to be created, choose a meaningful name for the group (choose a location-based name or what-the-test-is-for type name). Over time, a large number of Groups will accumulate and having functional names will assist users with locating Group-specific information.
You may receive a request to grant a user the permissions to execute a specific action which they are not permitted to do. You have two options to meet their requirements:
- Promote them to a different Membership role.
- Change the permissions for the action they require for their Membership role. Carefully consider the implications as this grants all Users in the Group with the same permissions. If you see a trend with this request, this may indicate that all Members in that role should be allowed to perform that action.
- Perform routine maintenance with your Groups to update your Groups Preferences on an ongoing basis to ensure they are optimized to meet the Groups needs.

Adding Users to a Group

Group administrators can add Users to a Public Group when they receive a request to do so. Group administrators can also proactively add users to a Group without requiring a user to formally request membership beforehand.

IMPORTANT:
Before Group Admins can add a user to a Group, new Users must login into XPRESSO at least once so they can be registered in the system. Their user name then appears in the list of registered users and the Group Admin can then add them to the appropriate working group.

To add users to a Private group, the Group Administrator must proactively invite a user to the Group; users cannot request to join a Private group using the XPRESSO dashboard as Private groups are only visible to System Admins from XPRESSO dashboard.

When users are added to a Group (either Public or Private), they receive both an notification and an email from XPRESSO to inform them they have been added to a Group.

NOTE 1:
The System Administrator is responsible for Creating Groups.
NOTE 2:
When you add users to a Group, you also set their Membership role (Member | Privilege Member | Group Admin) as part of the group enrollment process.
NOTE 3:
For security and operational reasons, users cannot have two concurrent (different) Member roles in the same Group. You do have the option to have a different Membership role in different Groups.

To Add Users to a Group:

This procedure covers adding Users to either a Public Group (after you receive a request to do so), or to a Private Group (which is by invitation only):

From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.
Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays all the Groups you currently belong to.
Click on the Group of interest that you want to add or invite a member to. The Group Details page opens showing Overview information.
Click Users→Members from the Left Menu bar. A list of all current Group Members that belong to the Group appears.
Click the Add Member(s) to Group button located on the top-right side of the Group Details page. The Add User to Group form appears.
Select a User from the pull-down menu to add a user to the Group.
Assign a Membership role to the user by clicking the appropriate radio button.
Click the Add User to Group button to save your changes.

NOTE:
New Group members receive both an notification within XPRESSO and an email to inform them they have been added to a Group.

Group Maintenance Activities

This information outlines the ongoing Group maintenance tasks performed by the Group Administrator that applies to Group members who currently belong to a Group or for changes required to an existing Group profile.

Changing a Members Role

Users may request to change their current Membership role to a higher-level role in order to perform additional actions with XPRESSO. You can quickly change their role for example, from a Membership role to a Privilege Membership role or vise versa.

Removing Members from a Group

When you remove a member from a Group, they are automatically moved to the default Guest Group.

NOTE 1:
Users that are no longer with Cisco are automatically removed from XPRESSO.
NOTE 2:
When you remove a member from a Group, this change only affects the current Group they are being removed from and does not affect any other Groups they may belong to.

To Change a Member's Role or to Remove a Member from a Group:

From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.
Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays all the Groups you currently belong to.
Click on the Group of interest that you want to modify. The Group Details page opens showing Overview information.
Click Users→Members from the Left Menu bar. A list of all Group Members that belong to the current Group appears.
As required:

To change a Membership role in a Group:
- Click the appropriate role checkbox to promote or demote the user.
- Click the Save button.
To remove a member from the Group:
- Click the Remove floating action button located on the right side of the Group details page. A Warning message appears.
- Enter a description in the Reason field. This information is retained in the Group History file.
- Click the Leave button to complete the action.

Updating an Existing Group Profile

There are two reasons you may need to update an existing Group Profile:

To manage the Group category details:
- To toggle if the Group is a Public Group or Private Group.
- For Public Groups, to toggle if Guest Access is Allowed or Denied for the Group. When enabled, users may set that group as their active group; this gives them the transient role of "Guest". When disabled, Users cannot set that Group as their active group but can see the Group resource details.
To update the support email address for the person(s) who would be the point-of-contact in the event users were having Group-related issues.

To Edit an Existing Group Profile:

From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.
Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays all the Groups you currently belong to.
Click on the Group of interest that you want to modify the profile for. The Overview page displays the current Group Profile.
As required, edit the existing Group Profile to change/update the following parameters:
- Group Status: Click the appropriate configuration state radio button: Enabled | Maintenance | Disabled to change the Group status and click Save. A Warning message appears.
  - Enter a description in the Reason field. This information is retained in the Group History file.
  - Click the Update button to complete the action.
NOTE:
See the sub-topic below for parameter details (including Cautionary information).
- Group Visibility: Public | Private.
- Guest Accessibility: Enable Guest Access | Disable Guest Access.
- Support Mailer: Enter/update the email address used for the destination address for all subsequent requests to join that Group.
NOTE:
If you need to back out from any changes made, you can revert to the last previous "saved" settings by clicking the Reset button (this button appears when a change is made).
Click the Save Changes button.

Changing the Configuration State of a Group

Depending on your operational requirements or if you experience any local issues/problems, you may need to temporarily change the configuration state of a Group. This allows you to place the Group into Maintenance or a Disable state to halt all operation within the Group.

Group Admins can place a Group into Maintenance and re-establish the Group presence. Group Admins can also Disable a Group but only a System Administrator can re-establish the Group presence.

When a Group is placed into a Maintenance or Disable state, Group Members who have the group selected as their active group are automatically dropped to the default Guest Group. Once the group is re-enabled, members can switch back to this group using the "Switch Groups" button on the Main Navigation Bar to make it their active group again.

XPRESSO uses the following configuration states for Groups:

Enabled: The Group is open for use by all Group members.
Maintenance: No members can set this Group as their currently active group. When a Group Admin places a Group into maintenance, all current Group members are moved to the Guest group except for the Group Administrator. A Group Administrator can re-enable a disabled group. Placing a Group into maintenance is the preferred method if you are experiencing a local issue/problem and need to temporarily change a Group status so you can deal with it.
Disabled: No members can set this Group as their currently active group. When a Group Admin disables a Group, all current Group members are moved to the Guest group including the Group Admin; only the System Administrator can re-enable a disabled group. Disabling a Group is the preferred method if the current testing cycle has wrapped up but you want to retain/reactivate the Group at a future date but for a different testing scenario.

Requesting and Managing LaaS Lab Resources

XPRESSO supports LaaS-NG integrations allowing you to run scripts on lab infrastructure services. LaaS Instances are registered at the system level by the System Admin. When registered, XPRESSO is notified by LaaS of all active domains that are registered in the corresponding LaaS Instance.

A Group can request access to multiple LaaS domains; domains can be shared by multiple Groups.

How to Request LaaS Lab Resources

The Group Admin sends a request to the System Admin if a Group requires LaaS equipment resources The request specifies the Group specific LaaS instance and the LaaS domain. See the procedure below for details.

The System Administrator upon receipt of the request, verifies if the requested LaaS Instance is already registered, and if so, associates the group to the requested domain. If the instance is not registered, they contact the Group Admin for further information to register the LaaS Instance.

When the LaaS Instance is added, and the domain is associated to the Group, the Group Administrator request is accepted.

NOTE:
You can request that multiple LaaS Domain be assigned to a single Group; you can then manage these resources by Enabling | Disabling them as required.

To Request or Manage LaaS Lab Resources used by a Group:

From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.
Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Groups page displays all the Groups you currently belong to.
Click on the Group of interest that you want to request or manage LaaS lab resources for. The Group Details page opens showing Overview information.
Click Current_Group_Name→LaaS from the Left Menu bar. All configured LaaS Instances displays.
As required:

To Request a LaaS Instance for a Group:
- Click the Request LaaS Instance button located on the top-right side of the Group Details page. The Request LaaS for group Name_of_Group appears.
- Fill in the required fields.
- Click the Send Request button to complete the action.
To manage LaaS lab resources used by a Group:
- Click the appropriate floating Action button (Enable | Disable) located on the right side of the Group Details pages.
NOTE 1:
The Floating Action buttons do not appear on the Group Details page until the System Administrator has added LaaS lab resources to the Group.
NOTE 2:
The System Administrator can also delete a LaaS Instance.

Viewing Group History

History information provides a time and date record (log) of significant changes made at a Group level such as indicating when members were added/deleted from a Group, Group status changes, or changes made to Group Preferences.

This information is helpful in the event the Group Administrator needs to confirm a previous Group preference setting or to determine when a change was made when debugging a Group-related problem. Also see "History Tracking" for other reasons why history tracking matters.

To Check the History of a Group:

From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.
Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays all the Groups you currently belong to.
Click on the Group of interest that you want to view the Group History for. The Group Details page opens showing Overview information.
Click More→History from the Left Menu bar. The Group's history events displays.
As required, click on an event for history details.

NOTE 1:
You can control the verbosity of history details by clicking (or de-selecting) each Event button.
NOTE 2:
You can also access the metadata associated with each change made by clicking the metadata icon button (this button is visible when you click the Event button).