Settings features

Instructions, product packs, Instruction sets and permissions

Tachyon lets you investigate your network using questions and actions, which are collectively known as Instructions.

You can load Instructions into Tachyon, either individually or via a Product Pack, which is essentially a zip file containing one or more Instructions. Tachyon comes with a range of pre-framed questions and actions in the form of product packs, providing extensive out-of-the-box capabilities that can be extended as new and updated product packs are made available.

Tachyon permissions for the Instructions are handled using Instruction sets. You create Instruction sets, then define roles which specify particular permissions on those sets and then assign the roles to users. Each Instruction is only allowed to reside in one Instruction Set, which associates it with a role and thereby the users that have that role and can run the Instruction. The roles have associated Management groups that determine the devices that users with the role have access to.

When Instructions are loaded into Tachyon they are placed in the default Unassigned Instruction Set, so you must move them into previously created Instruction sets before they can be run.

Connectors

Connectors are used to connect to other 1E and third party systems and populate repositories. When more than one connector to different data sources are used, the information from those different data sources is de-duplicated and normalized into a single cohesive view that is then stored in a repository. In this way you can use the data from different sources to augment each other and build a better picture of "what's out there?". For example, you can sync inventory data from Configuration Manager into an inventory repository, which will fetch information about your Windows devices. You could then augment that with inventory data synced from Tachyon which could include information about non-Windows devices where the Tachyon client has been installed. 

Repositories

Repositories are used by applications to process and store information. For example the Patch Success application uses both an inventory and a BI repository to process the information needed to report on how successful patching is in your enterprise. Normally a connector is used to connect a data source to an appropriate repository.

Device Tags

Device Tags are generally associated with Explorer and can be used when setting coverage to target Instructions to particular devices, but they can also be used to define Management Groups optionally used by all applications.

Device Tags must be defined by a Full Administrator before they can be used to tag devices or used to set the coverage of Instructions.

This is done from the Settings→Configuration→Custom properties→ Device Tags page, which can be viewed by users with the Full Administrator role.

Software Tags

Using Software Tags allows you to create custom labels and associate them with the software titles you have deployed in your estate.

You can do this from the Settings→Configuration→Custom properties→ Software Tags page, which can be viewed by users with the Full Administrator role.

Using Software Tags allows you to create custom labels and associate them with the software titles you have deployed in your estate. An administrator with either the Full Administrator or Group Administrator role can set Software Tags in their environment, they can also create Management Groups based on the tag name and value. For details about configuring Tachyon users, Roles, and Management Groups refer to the Permissions Menu pages.

In short, you can work with Software tags by:

1. Creating your Software Tag.
2. Associating the new tag with a software title.
3. Creating a Management Group based on the Software Tag name and Tag value rules (This step can be run anytime before evaluation).
4. Evaluating the new Management Group by running a Basic Inventory Consolidation.

If an administrator adds or modifies Software Tags or associations, they will have to run the Management Group evaluation report again to see the updated devices reflected in Inventory.

Schedules

Schedules can be created to execute specific operations on repositories in Tachyon so that they are kept up to date with their data sources and processing. These operations include:

• Syncing data sources to repositories using connectors
• Processing the BI data cube.

Repository schedules are different to Instruction schedules that can be set in Explorer.

Consumers, Applications, Components and Providers

There are pages in the Settings application for each of these. They are described in the following table:

Information pages

Information on your Tachyon license is available, as well as the ability to re-activate it following an update.

You can view information on the Tachyon system information for the Consumer, Coordinator, Background channel, Core and Switch.

Monitoring log files

The monitoring pages let you view how Tachyon is performing its tasks. Four key log pages are provided:

Defining users and roles

Tachyon users or groups can be added from AD. They can be assigned roles that determine what aspects of Tachyon they can access. Custom roles can be created that let you associate particular permissions on particular Instruction sets for particular management groups.

Management groups

Management groups use inventory-based rules to define groups of particular devices, they are implemented in SLA and then made available to Tachyon applications and other consumers. After a management group is defined, each time the inventory is updated the device membership of the groups is re-evaluated by applying the management group's rules to the new inventory.

Custom roles can be created that tie particular Instruction sets to particular management groups. This means you can not only set the permissions for users to access the Instructions in specific Instructions sets, you can also determine which devices they can target using those Instructions.

Once defined, management groups can then be used to set the coverage for Instructions in Explorer and also which devices can be targeted by particular users. Management groups are also used by the Patch success and Guaranteed state applications to determine which devices are being targeted.

Uploading Instructions into Tachyon and creating Instruction sets

You determine the capabilities of Explorer by uploading Instructions from product packs into Tachyon. Product packs are either provided with the release or downloaded from the Tachyon Exchange. Once the Instructions have been uploaded into Tachyon you then need to put them into Instruction sets. The Instruction sets can then be associated with custom roles to determine the permissions applied to the Instructions. The custom roles are then applied to users to determine which Instructions each user has access to.