The User record
Summarize
Summary of The User Record
User records in the ServiceNow AI Platform create a link between individuals and the ServiceNow instance, containing essential information such as user name, password, contact details, location, and job title. These records are stored in the Users [sysuser] table.
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Key Features
- Roles: Manage access to features and capabilities by assigning roles to users. It is recommended to simplify administration by assigning roles to groups.
- Groups: Users can be organized into groups, inheriting all roles associated with the group.
- Delegates: Designate users as delegates to allow them to act with the same permissions as another user.
- Skills: Manage and associate user skills to reflect training and expertise.
- Subscriptions: Control user access to purchased subscriptions through subscription management.
- User Preferences: Users can save personalized settings for UI features and notifications.
- System and Guest Users: Automated processes may update user records through system or guest users, affecting fields like last login and locked out status. Auditing can help track these changes.
Key Outcomes
By effectively managing user records, ServiceNow customers can streamline user administration, enhance security through controlled access, and provide a tailored user experience. Understanding the relationship between user records, roles, groups, and preferences enables organizations to optimize their ServiceNow instance for better performance and user satisfaction.
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.
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.