Using Import/Export for Access Control
Exporting Access Control Objects
Access control related objects are exported in XML format and should not be edited manually.
To export access control related objects:
1 From the System Administrator window, click File > Export > Access Control Objects
2 In the resulting window specify a path and file name, then click OK.
Exporting User-Group Associations
User-Group Associations are exported in human-readable format and (unlike exported Access Control Objects) can be edited manually.
To export User-Group Associations:
1 From the System Administrator window, click File > Export > User Group Associations
2 In the resulting window specify a path and file name, then click OK.
Editing User-Group Associations
User-Group Associations are exported to a user-editable .xls spreadsheet file. The structure is similar to exported VPE data.
There is a sheetIndex sheet which has logical and Excel names columns. The logical name is a path to the group and the Excel name is an internal name of an Excel sheet. Due to length and character set limitations, the actual group path is not used directly as a sheet name.
Each group is represented by a sheet with the login IDs of currently-associated members.
To find a group, switch to sheetIndex, click on a target group path (paths in the logical name column are hyperlinks) and the sheet with its members is selected automatically.
To add a member to a group, type the login name.
To delete a member from a group, select the whole row and click Delete from the menu.
Note: When editing associations by adding or removing login IDs, take into account that:
• A user added into a subgroup is automatically added to all parent groups in the group's path.
• A user deleted from a group must also be deleted from any sub-groups. For example, if “user1” is a member of a parent group and a child group and you delete it from the parent, you must also delete it from the child group. Failing to delete the user from both groups will cause an error upon import.
An entire sheet can also be deleted in a workbook so that all existing users are preserved upon import (i.e., a group will be skipped).
Importing Access Control Objects
To import access-control related objects:
1 From the System Administrator window, click File > Import > Access Control Objects
2 In the resulting window, navigate to the desired Access Control Object export file (these always have an "aco.xml" extension), then click OK.
The permissions and attribute definitions in the current system are replaced with those from the .xml file.
Groups and hierarchy, group permissions, and group attributes are synced by the group's path and reflect the exported data.
The four system-defined groups will not be deleted even if their definitions are removed from the .xml file:
• All Users (all_users)
• System Admins (administrators)
• VPE Admins (vpe_administrators)
• Super Users (super_user)
Only the associated permissions and group attributes for these groups will be updated.
You do not need to "Publish Changes" after importing.
If any Access Control-related windows are open in the System Administrator Toolset, they are updated to reflect new data.
Importing User-Group Associations
To import User-Group Associations:
1 From the System Administrator window, click File > Import > User Group Associations
2 In the resulting window, navigate to the desired User-Group Association export file (this will have a ".xls" extension), then click OK.
Upon import the all_users group is skipped so that no users can be added to or deleted from it.
You do not need to "Publish Changes" after importing.
If any Access Control-related windows are open in the System Administrator Toolset, they are updated to reflect new data.
Both imports automatically save imported data, so there is no need to publish changes in the System Administrator Tool UI. If an Access Control-related window is opened in the System Administrator Tool it is updated to show new data.