ActivTrak ActivConnect Quick Start Guide

Tyler Winn

February 23, 2021 07:56

ActivTrak will set up your instance of ActivTrak ActivConnect in a hosted Google Cloud Account. This process usually takes less than 24 hours. We will then send your credentials to access your account for your use.

Note: You can query up to 1TB of data per month (the equivalent of 3.2GB records) which is more than enough for most customers.

Accessing ActivTrak ActivConnect

Once your Google Cloud account is setup, there are three ways you can access ActivConnect:

Use one of ActivTrak ActivConnect Pre-Built Templates for PowerBI or Tableau to jumpstart your analysis.
Use Google BigQuery Console to access your data via SQL queries.
Use a BI / Data tool of your choice to access ActivConnect and create your reports from scratch.

Below are the instructions for each of the three approaches listed.

Use one of the ActivTrakActivConnect Templates to jumpstart your analysis

Our analysis templates contain a robust set of reports in the areas of Activity & Application Usage, Productivity, Collaboration & Knowledge Management, and Compliance & Risk Management.

Download ActivTrak ActivConnect Tableau Setup Guide
Download ActivTrak ActivConnect Power BI Setup Guide

Use Google BigQuery Console to access your data via SQL queries

Follow the instructions below to access ActivConnect via BigQuery Console:

Once your Google Cloud account is set up, you can verify access to your data in the ActivTrak ActivConnect instance in BigQuery by clicking on the URL below:
https://console.cloud.google.com/
This will prompt you to log in using your Google Account credentials that end with "activtrak.us".
Once you are logged in, you will see your data instance on the left-hand side of the Google BigQuery Console (called ‘activtrak-us):

4. Query your activity data within the BigQuery console using SQL statements that access your account’s logs table within the activtrak-us. The prototypical SQL query statement should look like the select statement below. Note that youraccountnumber should be replaced with your six-digit ActivTrak account number.

Use this sample query limited to 100 rows to test you can access your data.

Select * from `activtrak-us.youraccountnumber.logs`

limit 100;

For reference as you start exploring your activity data, you can access a Data Dictionary describing the available fields and a Sample Data Output in the Appendix of this document.

Use a BI / Data Visualization tool of your choice to access ActivConnect and create your reports from scratch

Follow the instructions for each tool below to access ActivConnect using a BigQuery connection:

Connect using Tableau: https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/examples_googlebigquery.htm
Connect using PowerBI: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-connect-bigquery
Connect using Google Data Studio: https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/visualize-data-studio
Connect using Looker: https://docs.looker.com/setup-and-management/database-config/google-bigquery
Connect using Sisense: https://documentation.sisense.com/7-1/managing-data/connectors/google-big-query.htm
Connect using Qlik: https://help.qlik.com/en-US/connectors/Subsystems/ODBC_connector_help/Content/Connectors_ODBC/GoogleBigQuery/Create-GBQ-Connection.htm
Connect using Domo: https://knowledge.domo.com/Connect/Connecting_to_Data_with_Connectors/Configuring_Each_Connector/Connectors_for_IT/Google_BigQuery_Connector
Connect using CData/Birst: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/bigquery-jdbc-birst.rst
Connect using Google Sheets: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9077536?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Connect using MS Excel: https://cloud.google.com/community/tutorials/bigquery-from-excel

Select the ‘activtrak-com’ project.
Select the dataset with your six-digit account number.
Select the ‘logs’ table within your dataset.
Query your activity data and start creating reports.
For reference as you start exploring your activity data, you can access a Data Dictionary describing the available fields in the Appendix of this document.

Data Dictionary

The following table describes each of the columns available in ActivTrak ActivConnect. Each record (row) represents an activity entry.

Field Name	Column	Description
Activity Time (UTC)	time	System activity DateTime in UTC time zone
Computer	computer	Computer name. Comes from the operating system.
Duration (sec)	duration	Activity duration in seconds.
Email	email	Flag to denote if the log entry is associated with an alarm that triggered an email (0 = no email notification was sent, 1 = email notification was sent)
Executable	executable	Name of the app running, usually in its raw format. E.g. Slack.exe
IP Address	ip	Private IP address
Log Description	log_description	Friendly name of the app or site running. Almost always the same as "executable" but in Proper Case.
Log Url	log_url	Url for website-related activity, otherwise it will be null.
Logon Domain	logondomain	Active Directory domain attached computers will show the domain name here. If not attached to a domain, the computername will be shown. Macs almost always show computername and Google Chrome agents will not show anything. Comes from operating system.
Popup	popup	Flag to denote if the log entry is associated with an alarm that triggered a popup in the user's screen (0 = popup notification didn't fire, 1 = popup notification fired)
Primary Domain	primarydomain	Often the same as the local system name, though not always. if the computer is attached to an Active Directory domain, that domain name will show up here. If not, it's typical for Windows machines to use "WORKGROUPS", Chrome agents to use "Google". Macs typically don't show anything related to the primary domain. Comes from the operating system.
Productivity	productivity	Productivity. Available values are Undefined, Productive, Unproductive. Passive time is defined in the Title bar field.
Public IP Address	publicip	The public IP address is the IP address that can be accessed over the Internet
Screenshot	screenshot	Flag to denote if the log entry is associated with an alarm that triggered a screenshot capture (0 = screenshot was not captured, 1 = screenshot was captured)
Terminate	terminate	Flag to denote if the log entry is associated with an alarm that triggered an application termination (0 = no application termination occurred, 1 = originating application was terminated)
Title Bar	titlebar	Name of the title bar of the active window.
User	user	Friendly user name. E.g. First Last. Comes from the operating system.
User (Raw)	userraw	Simple login name. Often first initial, last name. Comes from the operating system.
User Alias	useralias	Comes from ActivTrak, and not the operating system. User Aliases are used to combine multiple user logins in our graphs and reports as well as provide a "friendly name" in case the "userraw" and "user" fields are ambiguous.
Webhook	webhook	Flag to denote if the log entry is associated with an alarm that triggered a webhook sent (0 = no webhook sent, 1 = webhook was sent)
Category	category	Activity category specified in the ActivTrak application.

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