Creating and Managing Groups in ActivTrak

ActivTrak's Group feature is useful for viewing a specific team's data, allowing managers to view their team's data, creating alarms for specific users or groups, and website blocking.

There are 3 group sources:

1. The ActivTrak App

2. Active Directory

3. Azure AD

These group sources are indicated by the group's icon, as reflected in the screenshot below.

Throughout the ActivTrak app, some pages may replace the group source icon to show its type. The three type categories are:

1. User Group

2. Computer Group

3. Mixed Group

These group types are indicated by the group type icon, as reflected in the screenshot below.

Learn about:

• Creating new ActivTrak groups
• Uploading new ActivTrak groups
• Active Directory groups
• Azure AD groups
• Managing & Deleting Groups in ActivTrak

Creating new ActivTrak groups

ActivTrak groups can be created in two ways. An Admin or Configurator can navigate to Settings> Users & Groups > Groups and click the "Create Group" button to be presented with two options: New Group or Upload Group, as reflected in the screenshot below.

When "New Group" is selected, a prompt to name the group will appear, as reflected in the screenshot below.

Once a name is added, click the green "Add Members" button.

Next, select the box to the left of a user name to include them in this group. The search bar helps you find specific users quickly, as reflected in the screenshot below.

To switch from users to a list of computers, Click COMPUTERS in the upper right corner. Select the box to the left of a computer name to include the computers that should be included in this group. The search bar helps you find specific computers quickly, as reflected in the screenshot below.

Note: Groups do not require both users and computers, but they must have computers if the group will be used for website blocking.

After selecting users and computers to include in your group, click "Next" to view a preview of the group. If everything looks correct, click the green "Create" button to complete the process. In the screenshot example below, the new group includes one user and one computer.

The newly created group will now appear on the Groups page.

Uploading new ActivTrak groups

Another method available to create new groups in ActivTrak is uploading groups. To upload groups, an Admin or Configurator can navigate to Settings > Users & Groups > Groups, click "Create Group", then select the green "Upload Group" button under the "Upload Groups" column, as reflected in the screenshot below.

This enables the upload of a CSV file. The process, as well as which column headers are required for a successful group upload, is explained in full detail here.

Note: The CSV upload can only create new groups and assign users to groups. You cannot modify or delete existing groups or group assignments; these must be done from the Groups page within the app.

Once complete, File Results will display how many groups and assignments were successful, if any were duplicates, or if there were any errors, as reflected in the screenshot below.

Active Directory groups

Active Directory groups, if enabled, will import groups from your traditional on-prem Active Directory once the ActivTrak Agent is installed. To enable Active Directory Groups, click the gear icon on the Groups page (Settings > Users & Groups > Groups), as shown in the screenshot below.

Only global security groups are imported. They are read-only, cannot be deleted, and can only be disabled/enabled as a whole, not individually. Any edits made to the Active Directory groups will sync to ActivTrak periodically. Restarting an Agent will force Active Directory groups to sync.

The ActivTrak Agent performs an LDAP query upon the service start to see if the signed-in user is a member of any Active Directory global security groups. If it detects membership, it will pull in that group's membership information in order to populate that group with any users that are also located within ActivTrak, as those other users' Agents will also be performing their own LDAP queries.

Disabling Active Directory Groups

Sometimes the configuration of Active Directory groups does not align with how your organization wants to analyze employee productivity data. Disabling the Active Directory groups will prevent those misaligned groups from appearing within ActivTrak filters or reports. This allows Admins to focus on the groups that do align with how they like to analyze the rich workforce analytics available in ActivTrak. To disable Active Directory groups, click the gear icon on the Groups page (Settings > Users & Groups > Groups), and select "Disable Active Directory Grops", as shown in the screenshot below.

Azure AD groups

Groups from Azure AD can be imported to ActivTrak through an integration available to customers on a paid plan. The integration attempts to link Azure AD user profiles to their ActivTrak Agent data, then adds the linked users to groups. Only groups that are part of the defined ActivTrak parent group and with linked users are created in ActivTrak.

To learn more about ActivTrak's Azure AD integration, click here. 

Managing & Deleting Groups in ActivTrak

Admin and Configurators can manage groups by accessing the Groups Page (Settings > Users & Groups > Groups). Here all groups are viewable.

• The triangular filter icon can adjust which groups to display based on Source & Type.
• The gear icon enables/disables Active Directory groups.
• The search bar allows Admins to quickly find a particular group out of 100s of groups or all groups where a user or computer is a member, as shown in the screenshot below.

Deleting Groups

To delete a single ActivTrak group, click the three-dot icon to the far right of its row, and click "Delete".

To delete groups in bulk, select the box next to each group you wish to delete, then click the "Delete" button at the top, as shown in the screenshot below. Note: Deleting groups does not delete the users or computers within them.

Note: From the Groups Page, you can only delete ActivTrak groups. The deletion of Azure AD groups is synced through Azure AD, and the deletion of individual Active Directory groups is not possible (they can only be enabled/disabled as a whole).

Editing Groups

ActivTrak groups can be edited by clicking anywhere in their row, which brings up a Group Details page, as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Group Details page, you can

• Rename a group by clicking the pencil icon next to a group name 
• Add more users or computers to a group by clicking "Add Member" in the top left 
• Remove members in bulk by placing a checkmark next to multiple users or computers and clicking the "Remove Member" button.
• Remove an individual member by clicking the three-dot menu to the right of a row 

Downloading Groups

To download all of your groups and users (both grouped and ungrouped) in a single file, click "Download" and select "Download CSV", as shown in the screenshot below.

The downloaded CSV contains the following fields:

Note: Users and Computers can appear multiple times if they belong to multiple groups. The export also contains groups with no users or computers (member fields are blank), as well as users or computers unassigned to groups (group fields left blank).

Learn more:

• Upload Groups and Assignments in Bulk
• Admin Setup and Configuration Guide: Automated User Management via Azure AD
• Contact Support