What is User Access?

In BarTender 2019 and later, you can use the Administration Console to select which users and groups have access to certain aspects of the license as well as managing and using the license itself.

You can control User Access in four different locations.

Where is User Access located and what does it control?

User Access can be controlled in four different locations, and each location controls a different aspect of your license. This allows full control over who can access what where. This section tells you how to find each section and what each section controls.

Setting User Access requires you have permissions to administer the license itself. By default, this is allowed only on the computer where the license is hosted. If you are not certain where the license is hosted, please see How to find the BarTender License Server on your network in BarTender 2019

Controlling who can administer the license

Server access is used to control who can administer a license. To find this setting, please do the following:

1. Open the Administration Console on an account that has permission to administer the license.
2. Click on Licensing and allow the license list to populate.
3. At the bottom of this section, click on the Server Access section to expand it.

By default, the only group allowed to the Administrators group locally to the licence host's computer.

By configuring server access, you can limit who can

• Activate a license
• Deactivate a license
• Move a license
• Change permissions or add a new User Access rule

Limiting access here can also limit where all the changes in the other sections can be made from, controlling who has access to administer the license and from where.

Controlling who can print to certain printer seats with Printer Pools

Managing User Access to specific Printer Pools allows you to configure who can

• use a particular partition of the license, including the printer seats belonging to that partition. This does not control access to specific printers.

To locate Printer Pool user access, please do the following:

1. Open the Administration Console on a computer that has permission to manage the license
2. Open the Licensing section on the left-hand menu if it is collapsed
3. Click License Setup
4. At the top of the dialog, select the Printer Pools tab
5. Locate the name of your license host on the list, if there's more than one.
6. Click on the host name to open the license information.

Each individual Printer Pool has its own User Access controls. To view a specific Printer Pool's User Access controls, please do the following:

1. Click on the Printer Pool's name to expand the Printer Pool information
2. Click on User Access Control to expand the section.

For more information on what Printer Pools, please see this support article: What are Printer Pools? Printer Pools are set individually, allowing full control over each Pool created. By default, the default Pool is set to allow everyone from everywhere connected to this license to use it.

Controlling who can connect to and use a License

By setting User Access controls on a License, you can control who can

• connect to this license
• print using this license

To find the User settings, please do the following:

1. Open the Administration Console on an account that has permission to administer the license.
2. Click Expand the Licensing section if needed
3. Click License Setup
4. Locate the name of your license host on the list, if there's more than one.
5. Click on the host name to open the license information.
6. Click on User Access Control to expand the section

Controlling who can print to certain printers with Printer Groups

Managing User Access to Printer groups can limit

• who can use a specific printer
• the location from which a user or group can utilize a printer

Note: A user cannot use a denied printer regardless of license status.

To learn more about Printer Groups and where to find them, please see this support article: What are Printer Groups?.

To locate the User Access controls, please do the following:

1. Open the Administration Console on an account that has permission to administer the license.
2. Click Expand the Licensing section if needed
3. Click on Printer Usage
4. At the top, click the Permissions tab.
5. Locate the name of your license host on the list, if there's more than one.
6. Click on the host name to open the printer usage configurations.

Each Printer Group can have its own User Access settings, allowing full control over each. To locate each Group's settings, please also do the following:

1. Click on a Printer Group name to expand the Group settings
2. Click User Access control to expand this section

By default, the User Access setting for the default Printer Group is to allow everyone connected to this license to use all printers that are not in the Blocked group.

Anything in the Blocked Printer Group is automatically denied. User Access to this group cannot be changed.

Setting User Access controls

Regardless of which location where you wish to set User Access controls, the interface is the same across the board. Both the current settings and the new rules dialog box will look and behave the same.

Any rule listed as Denied will supersede any rules listed as Allow.

Current settings

Each section will have different default User Access controls as listed in the introductory sections above but each section looks generally the same. Here's a rundown of what the section entails

• At the top, a description of what these Controls control. In this screenshot, this rule controls who is allowed to use the license as a whole.
• "Add a new rule." Click this button to add a new rule to the list
• Current rules table. Each row on the table is a new rule
  • Action column - either Allow or Deny. What the rule will enforce.
  • Who - who this rule applies to. You can list groups, individual users, or leave it general. Everyone means that this rule applies to everyone.
  • From - a domain or a computer where this rule applies.
• Pencil icon. Click this button to edit the rule
• Red X icon. Click this button to delete the rule.

Creating and modifying User Access rules

Whether adding a new rule or modifying an existing one, the Access Control dialog is the same:

Each section in this dialog matches a column in the current settings table. On this dialog you can set a rule to allow or deny a user or group of users to perform a certain action with the license.

Here are a few examples of how you can configure this dialog to set some User Access rules using the License Use User Access control as an example:

Limiting by user or group

Let's say for example, I want anyone in group Guests to be denied access to my license. Setting Denied for the action and then the group or the user in the Who section. The From section will automatically fill in Everywhere:

You can change the From section to either be Everywhere or selecting the third option to filter by host, domain, or IP.

Limiting by computer or domain

Let's say I wanted to allow anyone to access this license as long as they were in a certain set of host names (computer names). The same can be applied to domain names and IP addresses. Set the Action as Allow and modify the settings in the From section. The Who section will be automatically filled in as everyone:

By using the "is any of" option, you can enter a list of host names separated by semicolons to have a range of computers where this license can be accessed.

You can further narrow down the rule by choosing options in the Who section or leaving it as Everyone.

Combining rules

Using the above sections as our example, here's our result:

I've removed the default rule of Allow Everyone Everwhere to limit exactly who can use this license and from where. In this ruleset, everyone from PC1, PC2, and PC3 can use this license unless they also belong to the SAMVM\Guests group.

By combining rules like this, you can control who has access to what with a series of allows or denies for all aspects of your license and for printing.