The User record
Summarize
Summary of The User Record
User records in the ServiceNow AI Platform establish a connection between individual users and the ServiceNow instance. Each user record includes credentials such as a user name and password, along with personal information like contact details and job title. These records are stored in the Users [sysuser] table.
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Key Features
- Roles: Define access to applications and features. It's recommended to assign roles to groups for efficient user administration.
- Groups: Collections of users sharing common roles. Assigning users to groups automatically grants them associated roles.
- Delegates: Users can act on behalf of others, inheriting their permissions.
- Skills: Link users to their training and expertise areas through skill management.
- Subscriptions: Control access to purchased subscriptions for users.
- User Preferences: Users can customize UI settings and notification preferences.
- Date and Time Formatting: Users can set their preferred date and time formats within their user records.
- System and Guest Users: Automated processes may update records via system or guest users, affecting fields like Last Login and Failed Login Attempts.
Key Outcomes
By managing user records effectively, ServiceNow customers can streamline access control and personalize the user experience. Understanding the roles, groups, and preferences associated with user records enables better administration and enhances user engagement with the platform.
Learn about user records and their use within the ServiceNow AI Platform.
User account records
User records establish a relationship between an individual and your ServiceNow instance. User records consist of a user name, a password, and information relating to the individual, such as contact information, location, and job title.
User records are stored in the Users [sys_user] table.
Related records
User records are associated with records on several other tables to control permissions, preferences, and other features.
- Roles
- Roles control access to features and capabilities in applications and modules. For more information on roles, see Managing roles. Note:
When possible, simplify user administration by assigning roles to groups. Create groups that contain all the roles necessary for specific personas, and then assign users to those groups.
- Groups
- A group is a set of users who share a common purpose. Users assigned to groups are automatically assigned to all roles associated with that group. For more details, see Creating groups and Managing roles.
- Delegates
- In addition to role and group assignments, users can be assigned as delegates, giving them permission to act with the same permissions as a delegator user. See Delegating roles for more information on delegation.
- Skills
- Use skill management to associate users with their areas of training and expertise. For more information on skill management, see Skill Management.
- Subscriptions
- Administrators use subscriptions to control which users have access to purchased subscriptions on their instances. Details on subscription management can be found at Subscription Management.
- User preferences
- User accounts are also connected with user preferences. Users can save personalized preferences to configure many UI features, as well as preferences regarding the notifications they receive. Details on administering user preferences are found at User preferences.
Date and time formatting
You can set your preferred date and time formatting through the User record. If you don't specify a preference in these fields, the system applies default formatting.
The Date format field appears in the User record by default and can be modified without specific permissions. However, the Time format field must be added to the User record by revealing additional form fields. For instructions on showing or hiding form fields, see Configuring the form layout. If you can't modify form fields, contact your organization's user administrator to update your time format preferences.
The Date and time format field in extends the options you select in the Date format and Time format fields of your User record. For more information, see User preferences. Timezone settings automatically sync between the User record and your preferences.
System and guest users
Some automated processes use the system or guest user to apply and track changes to records. As a result, some records may show that they were last updated by system or guest.
For example, when a user logs in for the first time in a day, some fields on that user's record are updated by the system user, such as Last login and Last login time. If a user has a failed login attempt or is locked out, some fields on that user's record are updated by the guest user, such as Failed Login Attempts or Locked Out.
If a record was last updated by the system or by guest users, identify the fields that were updated by enabling auditing for the table and viewing the audit history set. For more information, see Configuring auditing for a table and Knowing about History sets.