Ownership Administration

To change an entity in a connected workgroups environment, the workgroup must have ownership of that entity. When taking ownership of an object the user selects the length of time in which no other workgroup can take ownership. This length of time is called a lease. At the end of a lease the current owner maintains ownership until another user requests ownership of that object. If the lease is expired, the requesting workgroup takes ownership of that object.

Release Availability

The Ownership feature is available in certain editions of Vault. Refer to the following table to see if your edition supports this feature.
  2012 2013 2014
Autodesk Vault Basic    
Autodesk Vault Workgroup    
Autodesk Vault Collaboration
Autodesk Vault Professional

There are two types of ownership in a connected workgroup environment, ownership of specific entities (i.e., files, folders, items, change orders, and custom objets), and ownership of administrative objects.

When performing an edit operation on an entity that is not owned by your workgroup, but for which the lease has expired for the owning workgroup, ownership is transferred automatically and the edit operation succeeds. If the databases are not in sync, however, ownership is still transferred but the edit operation is canceled.

Note: Ownership of Administrative objects is not transferred automatically. They must be managed manually.

Refer to Manage Ownership for more information on changing ownership for files, folders, items, change orders, and custom objects.

About Administrative Ownership

Note: This feature is available in Autodesk Vault Collaboration and Professional editions.

Administrators can control the length of the lease time over administrative objects in a workgroup setting. An administrative object is any component of the vaulting system which grants a user control over how a vault is set up for access and how users interact with it.

Administrative Objects

There are two levels for administrating objects: vault level administration and global level administration.

Vault Level Administration

Vault level administration allows the administrator to determine the length of lease on these objects.

Note: For more information on setting up replication for your environment, refer to the Vault Server Help.
  • Files
  • Visualization
  • Behaviors
  • Items
  • Change Orders
  • Custom Objects

Global Level Administration

Global level administration allows the administrator to determine the length of lease on these objects:

  • Users
  • Groups
  • Roles and Permissions
  • Change Order Routing Definitions
  • Job Server Management
  • Publishing to Sharepoint

The Lock Icon

To obtain control of any vault or global objects, the administrator must select the lock icon in the lower left corner of the Vault Settings or Global Settings dialog. The workgroup of an administrator must have administrative control of the object to access control of an object lease.

Note: If no lock is visible then replication is not enabled on the server.
Lock Status Meaning

Closed

Workgroup of the administrator does not have ownership of the administrative object.

Open

Workgroup of the administrator has ownership of the administrative object.

No Lock

Replication not enabled on the server.

Before you can determine the lease length on individual administrative objects, you must first claim administrative ownership for the workgroup.

Access the Administrative Ownership Dialog

  1. Click Tools  Administration Vault Settings.
  2. Click the Administrative Ownership Lock icon in the lower left corner of the Vault Settings dialog. The Administrative Ownership dialog is displayed.

Refreshing Administrative Ownership Details

It is a good practice to verify the Administrative Ownership status amongst the workgroups before attempting to modify a lease. You can perform a refresh to make sure that all of the data displayed is the most current.

  • On the Administrative Ownership dialog, click Refresh to update the current owner information and leased until fields so that the most current information is available. 

Assign Ownership to a Different Workgroup

Note: If the Lease duration drop-down menu is not enabled and the Update button is disabled, your workgroup is not the owner of the administrative object. You cannot make any changes until the lease expires or the controlling workgroup releases the lease.
  1. On the Administrative Ownership dialog, select the workgroup to which you want to assign ownership from the Assign to workgroup drop-down menu.
    Note: The Assign to workgroup drop-down menu will only list the workgroups with the replicated vault.
  2. Click Update to commit the change. If it is not your workgroup to which you have assigned ownership, the Update button is disabled until the lease for that workgroup has expired.

Change the Lease Duration

If your workgroup has control of the administrative object, you can specify the length of lease for the object.

  1. On the Administrative Ownership dialog, enter the length of the lease period (for which the workgroup should have ownership) by using the combination of input box and drop-down menu.

    The default lease duration is zero or whichever amount is set as default by your administrator.

  2. Click Update to reset the lease duration to the specified length of time.

Release Administrative Ownership

When a workgroup is finished with administrating objects, ownership can be released (even if the lease has not expired) so that another workgroup can acquire administrative control if necessary.

  1. On the Administrative Ownership dialog, either set the lease to zero so that another workgroup can acquire ownership when needed, or select a workgroup to which to transfer ownership.
  2. Click Update. This sets the lease period to zero and frees up the lease.
    3. Note: Ownership of Administrative objects is not transferred automatically; the ownership must be managed manually.

Change Administrative Ownership

To make changes to Users, Groups, Roles, Permissions, ECO definitions or Job Server the user will need Administrative Ownership.

You can obtain ownership for your workgroup only if the lease has expired at the owner. If your workgroup is the current owner, you can assign ownership to any other workgroup whether lease has expired or not.

  1. Launch the Autodesk Data Management Console.
  2. From the pull down menu select Tools Administration.
  3. If the icon is shown then the current workgroup has ownership. If not click the button to take ownership.
  4. If the current workgroup was the owner and the lease has expired click the refresh button.
  5. If a different workgroup had ownership select the workgroup to assign ownership and the lease length and click update
Note: It could take up to one minute to show the new ownership in the dialog box.

Change Default Ownership Setting for Files, Folders, Items, Change Orders, and Custom Objects

You can configure the default setting for the length of an ownership for newly entities in a vault.

  1. Launch the Autodesk Data Management Console.
  2. From the pull down menu select Tools Administration.
  3. Select the Advance Settings tab.
  4. Under Ownership Lease click the Settings button.

Zero is the default setting for ownership lease for all entities (files, folders, items, change orders, and custom objects). This means that as soon as an entity is created and added to a Vault, the creator has ownership with a lease that has already expired. This is also the default value on the Manage Ownership dialog, for all entities and Administrative objects.

Note: By setting the default ownership to a low value, entities are available for any other workgroup to take ownership immediately.
Parent topic: Client Administration Tasks