Configuring attributes

You can configure the attributes that get populated as asset data. These attributes can come from Tanium or a configured source entity. These attributes become the columns that you can include in your reports.

Asset solution content

When Asset is installed, solution content is also installed. Some of this solution content is similar to the content packs that were imported when you installed Tanium. Asset includes solution content. Some of this solution content is similar to the content packs that are included with Tanium Core Platform. In most cases, the Asset version of the content adds attributes or improves the information beyond the existing sensor. For example, the Asset CPU sensor includes columns for speed, cores, and processors, but the CPU sensor from the Core Content content pack contains one column. The Asset custom content is hidden on the Administration > Content > Sensors page.

View and edit default asset attributes

By default, Asset imports about 70 common attributes from Tanium sensors. To view the list of default attributes, go to the Asset menu and click Inventory Management > Attributes.

You can group the attributes by the table in the Asset database or the entity type (for Tanium attributes, the entity types match the sensor names).
To sort a column, click the column header.
To filter the list, use the Filter Items field.
To customize the columns that are displayed and column order, click Customize Columns. For example, to view the column name returned from a sensor, select Source Attribute. You can add or remove columns, and then click and drag the columns to change the order.
To copy a CSV version of the data listed in the table to the clipboard, click Copy.
To edit an individual attribute, expand the section and click Edit .

Normalized attributes

The Installed Applications table contains fields for Normalized Name and Normalized Vendor. Normalized values resolve variants on a vendor or software name. For example, the following vendor values: CompanyName, Inc. , CompanyName Inc, and CompanyName LLC, are resolved to CompanyName for the Normalized Vendor column.

Normalization occurs after data load. If values are in the Name or Vendor columns, a normalized value is also calculated.

Configure additional Tanium attributes

You can import attributes from Tanium sensor data. For example, you might choose to import additional critical configuration information from other Tanium products, solutions, or custom content.

Important considerations for attributes

Remember that each attribute you add increases the number of saved questions that are asked during the data import process. Each new attribute also adds columns and data to the Asset database.
Add sensors that return a single line when possible.
Before you add a new attribute, determine the storage method. Using the automatic evaluation of storage method sometimes results in a single-row sensor being seen as a multiple-row sensor, which is less efficient and can have unforeseen connotations when reporting.
Avoid adding attributes that change often, especially attributes that return a large amount of data.
Consider how frequently Asset inventories your environment. If the attribute data becomes stale before the next scheduled import, it might not be a beneficial attribute to add.
Gather data that you need more frequently than the scheduled import process with Interact or a saved question.

Add attributes

This task makes changes to the Asset database. Review and verify carefully.

From the Asset menu, click Inventory Management > Attributes > Add Attribute. If you enabled custom sources, click Inventory Management > Attributes > Add Attribute > Add Existing Attribute.
Search for and select the sensors from which you want to add attributes. To view all of the Asset solution content, you can search for Asset in this sensor list.
(Optional) To change the data type, display name, or storage method for an attribute, expand the section for the attribute and click Settings .
Select the attributes that you want to import. Click Add.
If you are adding an attribute from a parameterized sensor, indicate the values that you want to pass to the parameters. You can also choose how to store the data that gets returned in the database. If you set the storage method for data to be automatically evaluated at load time, this selection adds time to the load process. Click Next. Click Create and verify that the changes are correct.
If you are not adding an attribute from a parameterized sensor, click Add Attribute.

After the database updates finish, you can see the new attribute in the main list of attributes in Pending state. The new attribute stays in pending state until the next time the Tanium source import job runs, and data gets populated in the database. To run this job immediately, see View schedule and run import. When populated, the attribute displays in Ready state. You can add attributes that are in Ready state to custom reports.

Configure external attributes

You can also import attributes from an external data source.

Before you begin

If you are importing data into Tanium from an external data source, configure the import first. Configuring the source defines which database tables to import and how to correlate the data with the ci_item table in the Asset database. See Configuring sources.

Add external attributes

From the Asset menu, click Inventory Management > Attributes > Add Attribute. If you enabled custom sources, click Inventory Management > Attributes > Add Attribute > Add Existing Attribute.
In the Source section, select the data source that you configured. You can search for and select the field that you want to add as an attribute.

Asset automatically converts values in the database based on the following type mapping:

SQL data type	Asset data type
BIGINT	BIGINT
DATE	DATEONLY
DATETIME, TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE	DATE
BIT, BOOLEAN, TINYINT	BOOLEAN
STRING, CHARACTER VARYING (255), VARCHAR (255)	STRING
FLOAT, DOUBLE PRECISION	FLOAT
INT, INTEGER, SMALLINT	INTEGER
CHAR, NCHAR, NVARCHAR, TEXT, VARCHAR	TEXT

Click Create and verify that the changes are correct.
This step makes changes to the Asset database. Review and verify carefully.

After the database updates finish, you can see the new attribute in the main list of attributes in Pending state. The new attribute stays in pending state until the next time the External database job runs, and data gets populated in the database. To run this job immediately, see View schedule and run import. When populated, the attribute displays in Ready state. You can add attributes that are in Ready state to custom reports.

Configure custom attributes

If you enabled custom sources, you can add custom attributes to the ci_item table in the Asset database that you can update using the Asset API. Custom attributes are also available to add to views.

Before you begin

Enable custom sources in the Asset settings. For detailed steps, see Enable custom sources.

Add custom attributes

From the Asset menu, click Inventory Management > Attributes > Add Attribute > Create Custom Attribute.
Specify the Display Name for the attribute.
Specify the Data Type for the attribute. For more information about Asset data types, see Asset data types.
(Optional) Clear the Enabled selection if you do not want to enable the attribute.
Click Save.
This step makes changes to the Asset database. Review and verify carefully.

After the database updates finish, you can see the new attribute on the Entities and Attributes page. Custom attributes are grouped with the Asset Custom entity and show in the Asset table section with the Custom source.

Schedule and run View Asset data imports

The import asset data schedule is managed by Tanium Cloud and determines how often Asset pulls data from Tanium or an external data source to save in the Asset database. This database is used to provide information for offline assets.

View schedule and run import

From the Asset menu, click Inventory Management > Schedules. The Import Schedules tab shows the schedule.
Click Run Now to override the schedule and have Asset immediately pull source data into the Asset database.
If you have any attributes that are in Pending state, you can watch the attributes change to Ready state on the Inventory Management > Attributes page. You can add attributes that are in Ready state to custom reports.

If you want to change the import schedule, update the asset source. See Configuring sources.

View imports

On the Asset Overview page in the Activity section, you can view a timeline of the recent imports and exports.

The timeline contains each import, with one of the following statuses:

: Scheduled
: Successful
: Error

Set user permissions on computers

In addition to the Asset user roles that control access to Asset reports and settings as a whole, you can define more detailed permissions on computers that are based on individual attribute values. For example, you can create permissions that assign a user group permission to access information about only Windows or only macOS operating system assets. If a user belongs to multiple user groups, the permissions for all the user groups are combined with an AND operator.

Before you begin, you must have a user group to which you want to assign the Asset permissions. See Tanium Core Platform User Guide: Managing user groups. For the users in this user group to access Asset, they also must have an Asset user role assigned. See User role requirements.

From the Asset Overview page, click Settings . Click the Permissions tab.
Click Create Permissions.
In the User Groups list, select the user group to which you want to assign Asset permissions.
Add a condition. This list of attributes is from the ci_item table of the Asset database.
For example, to assign the selected user group permission to view only Windows assets, set the values to OS Platform contains Windows.
Click Apply to create each condition.
Click Create.

Delete attributes

To delete an attribute, you must disable the attribute, then remove references.

Disable the attribute.
1. From the Asset menu, click Inventory Management > Attributes.
2. Click Edit next to the attribute that you want to disable.
3. Clear the Enabled setting. Click Save.
Remove references to the attribute from all reports, views, permissions, and ServiceNow destinations.
1. Click Delete next to the attribute that you want to remove.
2. A list of known locations where the attribute is used is displayed. Click the link for each item, and edit the item to remove the use of the attribute.
3. Click Refresh to list the remaining references.
After you remove the references, type the name of the attribute to confirm its deletion. Click Delete Attribute.

The attribute is deleted from the Asset database on the next load of data from the data source.