How do Consumers work?
Consumers do not have to be purpose-built programs. API testing tools are also considered Consumers. A Python or PowerShell script can also be a Consumer.
Tachyon uses the concept of a Consumer to differentiate the various pieces of software accessing it. It also limits 3rd party software in its use of Tachyon (for example, by defining how many simultaneous instructions a given Consumer can issue) or define where responses to instructions should be offloaded to.
A Consumer is identified by its name and this name has to match between the license, its registration in Tachyon and each API call made. Consumer names are not case sensitive, so "MyConsumer" is considered the same as "MyCoNsUmEr". You can think of a Consumer name as an identifier, a passport if you will, that gains a piece of software access to Tachyon Consumer API. As an example, let's assume that you wish to have your own consumer and you want to call it "ScriptRunner". This means that your license file has to have a Consumer entry with the name="ScriptRunner", you have to register "ScriptRunner" as a Consumer in Tachyon and enable it, and you will have to add X-Tachyon-Consumer header field with the value of "ScriptRunner" to every API call you make using your chosen tool. Don't worry if this sounds complex, we will go through each of these elements on this page.
Many pieces of software can introduce themselves as the same consumer, for instance you can have a set of scripts using the same Consumer. Be aware that all software using the same Consumer shares that Consumer's limits and settings that are set inside Tachyon.
A Consumer must fulfill a number of prerequisites to access Tachyon. Consumers must be:
Licensed - Tachyon comes with a number of Consumers, like Explorer and Settings, that are already licensed. Any software wishing to access Tachyon must also be present in the license. The Consumer name used in the license must match the name you register with Tachyon using either Settings application or Consumer API directly.
Registered with Tachyon - a number of system Consumers are registered when installing Tachyon. All other Consumers can be registered after installing Tachyon using Settings web application or using an API call. The name of the Consumer you use here must match the name you have in your license. Note that if a piece of software wishes to register a Consumer, it doesn't have to be a Consumer itself. Permissions, will be checked as usual, read Registering a new Consumer for details.
Enabled - a setting present in the license entry for the consumer and on a Consumer registered with Tachyon.
When all three prerequisites are met, the Consumer is allowed to access Tachyon. The API call will be subject to permissions assigned using Tachyon Role Based Access Control (RBAC) to the Principal making the call.
Consumers and licensing
Consumers must be present in the license file and be enabled.
Look in your license file for an entry like the one below (where [your consumer name here] is the name of your consumer):
Sample Consumer entry in the license file
<Consumer name="[your consumer name here]" enable="on"> </Consumer>
If you cannot find this entry, please contact 1E Support and ask for an updated license file.
The feature containing your Consumer might look something like this:
Consumer feature in a license file
<Feature name="Customer A Consumer">
<Consumer name="MyConsumer" enable="on"> </Consumer>
</Feature>Note
The consumer must have enable set to equal "on".