Managing locations

OT-BASE lets you specify the physical location of a given asset. For this purpose, OT-BASE maintains a definition of locations that you can access and edit in INVENTORY/LOCATIONS.

Required access rights

In order to be able to manage location data, you must be a member of a group witht the permission to modify master data.

The location inventory

The location inventory can be accessed under INVENTORY/LOCATIONS. It features a tree structure where you can expand and collapse nodes that contain sub-nodes. You can select a specific location by clicking on it.

Details for the location that you have selected are shown in the details pane to the right of the tree. This is where you can edit location data.

The location tree

Locations are organized in a hierarchical way in OT-BASE. This allows you to model your geo-spatial universe using the granularity that provides the most value. For example, you could use the following hierarchy levels:

• Continents
• Countries
• Counties
• Cities
• Sites
• Buildings
• Floors
• Rooms
• Cabinets

Certainly if you are using OT-BASE only to manage assets of a single site, you may want to start with buildings as the top hierarchy level.

Note that OT-BASE doesn't force you to use a predetermined schematic for coding locations. It doesn't "know" or expect that a particular location or sub-location is a building, or cabinet. This gives you ultimate freedom in choosing the hierarchy levels that make most sense for your use cases.

The good thing is that you can re-arrange your location hierarchy later without having to re-enter data. You can arrange the tree by adding new locations, and by moving locations to different parts of the tree using drag-and-drop. As an example, if you started out with one site and later want to bring in an additional site, you can simply define your two sites and move the buildings etc. of the first site into the folder for that site.

Marking a location or sub-location as a reference location (see below) will make it show in boldface. Usually this is used to highlight sites, but can also be used e.g. for buildings if you manage only one site.

Location IDs and location names

In general the location tree is built using location names that you can assign in a way that makes most sense for your users. The most important aspect of the location tree is that it allows you to map location IDs, as assigned in OT-BASE Asset Discovery, can easily be transformed into something that makes sense to the average user right away.

Location IDs are flat (or at least they don't use a hierarchy coding that would be obvious to every user), and can be mapped to any hierarchy level in the tree. This is done by editing location data in the details pane (see below) where you can assing a particular location ID to the given location, or via the REST API.

If that location ID matches a location ID assigned in OT-BASE Asset Discovery, the respective devices will then automatically be "moved" to that location.

The location details pane

In the location details pane you find the following fields:

ID
Location ID. This field is usually set in OT-BASE Asset Discovery. Specifying a location ID used in Asset Discovery will make the respective devices show up in this location.

Name
Location name.

Description
Description of the location.

Reference Location
This checkbox determines if the location acts as a reference location in the tree segment. A reference location will be highlighted in the location tree. In vulnerability profiles, hardware product profiles, software product profiles etc. devices are grouped by reference locations. The most comman usage of reference locations is to make each site (plant, factory) a reference location.

Address
Street address of the location. You can check the street address by clicking on the globe icon right to the field, which will try to open the address in Google Maps.

GPS
GPS coordinates of the location in lat/long format. In order to obtain the lat/long data for your location, go to Google Maps and pinpoint your location (for example by using the street address). Then do a right click to open the context menu. In the context menü, the lat/long data will be shown as the first item. Click on the entry to copy the information to the clipboard. -- You can check the GPS coordinates by clicking on the globe icon right to the field, which will try to open the location in Google Maps.

Company
Name of the company that owns the location, if applicable. You may use this field to identify that this location is owned by a particular company, such as a subsidiary.

Map
Floor plan of the location, or other map type, such as geographical map, where you can highlight the exact placement of sub-locations. The use of maps is explained below.

Picture
Picture of the location.

Webcam
Webcam monitoring the location. You can check the link of a webcam that you specify by clicking on the button right to the field.

Files
Any files that are attached to the location. These files will be displayed in the location profile, from where they can be downloaded.

Extended fields
Below the file box, any extended (user-defined) fields will be displayed that have been defined for locations. In the example above, there is one extended field "Seismic classification". Extended fields can be defined in INVENTORY/EXTENDED.

Editing location details

In order to edit location data, click on the "Edit" button at the bottom of the location details pane. You may have to scroll down in order to see the button.

When you are done with your editing, save changes by clicking on "Save".

Using maps

The map feature allows you to graphically document the location of cabinets, rooms, buildings, sites etc. on an appropriate map. This is extremely useful for orienting staff members and contractors who are not intimately familiar with location identifiers and descriptions.

In order to use this feature, you first need to make sure that you have defined sub-locations for a given location. (If not, this can be done in a matter of seconds by clicking the "Add" button on top of the location tree.) If sub-locations are defined, a small arrow appers left to the location name, indicating that you can expand and collapse the location.

Maps can be Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) or bitmaps (PNG, JPG etc.). Bitmaps can be particularly helpful at the cabinet level, where you can identify various cabinets in a photo that you (or a maintenance specialist on site) can take with a smartphone in a matter of minutes.

In order to load your map, click on "Edit" at the bottom of the location detail pane. Then use right-click on the map field. After having loaded your map, you can place your sub-locations on the map with right-click.

After selecting "Place hotspot", a menu appears that lets you pick a sub-location that you want to place. Select the sub-location with left-click.

You can move the sub-location on the map with drag-and-drop. Continue this process until you have placed all sub-locations. Note that you can zoom in and out with the control wheel, and pan by clicking on the map and holding the mouse key pressed.

Don't forget to click "Save" (at the bottom of the pane) when you're done with your editing.

 

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