Inheriting settings from a group

When you open the Disable Functions window from the Administration Utility, you can enable or disable functions not only for a group but also for a user who is a member of the group.

Initially, by default, a member of a group inherits the group's setting for an enabled or disabled function. For example, if Export Session is Enabled in the group's profile, then in the member's profile Export Session is set to Inherited (Enabled).

However, if you explicitly change the member's setting to Enabled or Disabled instead of Inherited, then the member's setting becomes independent of the group's setting (does not change when the group's setting changes). For example, if you disable Export Session for a group, but for User1 of the group you set Export Session to Enabled or Disabled, then User1's setting for Export Session is independent of the group's setting, and does not change when the group's setting changes.

To make a member's setting once more be dependent on the group's setting, change the member's setting to Inherited.

To minimize the administrative problem of having to modify many individual user profiles, you should:

1. Decide whether most users will have a function enabled or disabled.
2. In the group's profile, use the more common setting for the function (enabled or disabled).
3. After you have configured all the settings for the group, add new users to the group. Each new user initially inherits the group's settings.
4. Modify the profiles of users who need a setting different from the group's setting by changing the value from Inherited to Enabled or Disabled.

If you are using an LDAP server for storing configuration information, a user can be a member of only one group. If you select Inherited for a function, whatever is set for that group is applied to the user.

If you are using the Z and I Emulator for Web configuration server, a user can be a member of multiple groups. If you select Inherited, and all the groups to which the user is a member of have the function disabled, then the function is disabled for the user also. However, as depicted in the following figure, if at least one those groups has the function enabled, then the function is enabled for the user.

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