TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Datamining Tools - Link Metadata & Behaviour Tab
- Important Companion Concepts
- Options
- Link Metadata & Behaviour – Canonical Rules
- Link Metadata & Behaviour – Frequently Asked Questions
Datamining Tools - Link Metadata & Behaviour Tab
Link Metadata & Behaviour is a tab in the Datamining Report Ribbon. It allows link-level metadata that is normally hidden to be surfaced directly onto a report.
These options affect how links between module items are resolved, displayed, and interpreted in the report output.
Selected options are saved with the Datamining Report when it is saved. The values of those options are evaluated fresh each time the report is run.
Important Companion Concepts
Understanding Links
Links in ManagementStudio represent relationships between items in the five primary modules:
- Applications
- Users
- Devices
- Mailboxes
- Bespoke Items
Examples of links include:
- User → Application (a user uses an application)
- Application → Device (an application is installed on a device)
- User → Application → Device (a user uses an application on a specific device)
Only these five primary modules support link-based relationships in this tab.
Other relationship concepts exist in ManagementStudio, such as Deployment Unit membership and Dependencies, but these are not considered links for the purposes of this reporting tab.
Links support a Last Used Date, which is refreshed by connectors that provide usage data.
Links can be:
- Simple links – connect two primary modules (e.g. User–App)
- Complex links – connect three primary modules (e.g. User–App–Device)
A fully populated complex link can express:
“John last used Adobe Reader 11 on Laptop LT0001 at 10am last Monday.”
By default, ManagementStudio attempts to deduplicate links that describe the same logical relationship.
For example, if a user has ten User–App–Device links to the same device, a User–Device report will normally show that relationship once. Some options in this tab disable that deduplication.
Understanding Connectors
Connectors are used by ManagementStudio to import data automatically from external systems.
Examples include:
- Active Directory
- MECM (SCCM)
- Entra (Azure AD)
- Intune
- SysTrack
- ServiceNow
Generic connectors are also available for:
- SQL Server, Dataverse, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Access
- REST APIs
- File-based imports
Connectors commonly apply metadata to links, which can later be surfaced and filtered using this tab.
Options
Include Link ID
Adds the unique Link ID as a column in the report.
Including the Link ID disables link deduplication and causes each row to represent a single physical link record.
This applies to both simple and complex links.
Include Link Tags
Adds metadata tags associated with each link.
Tags commonly identify which connectors created or confirmed the relationship (e.g. Intune, SCCM, AD).
When deduplication is enabled, tags are aggregated and de-duplicated into a single cell. Tag ordering is not deterministic.
When deduplication is disabled, tags are correctly attributed to each individual link record.
Include Link Status
Adds link-level status information to the report.
This reflects the status of the link itself (e.g. Linked or Rejected), not the status of the application.
Include App Rationalisation Status
Adds the rationalisation status of the application to the report:
- Accepted
- Rejected
- Pending
- Rationalised
Include All Apps (All Statuses)
Includes applications from all rationalisation statuses in the report.
The default behaviour across ManagementStudio is to include only Accepted applications.
Show Pre-Rationalised Apps
Displays the original application that a user or device was linked to prior to rationalisation.
This is sometimes referred to as an As-Is view, while the default behaviour represents the To-Be view.
This option is mutually exclusive with Include All Apps.
Include Device Affinity
Adds device affinity information indicating whether a device is Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary for a user.
Affinity is calculated using frequency and recency of usage.
Include Last Used Date
Adds the Last Used Date associated with the link.
Include Last Modified By
Adds the name of the account that most recently modified the link.
This is typically the connector that created or updated the link.
Include Archived / Deleted Links
By default, links involving archived or deleted items are excluded from reports.
Enabling this option includes those links and adds a boolean column indicating whether one or more items in the link are archived or deleted.
This flag is true if either side of the link is archived or deleted.
Use Cached Link Data
Enables the use of cached link metadata.
Link caching is configured globally in the Admin section and is used to improve performance when processing large volumes of links.
Cached data may be stale. Cache expiry is controlled by an administrator-defined timer (commonly three hours).
Link Metadata & Behaviour – Canonical Rules
- Link Metadata & Behaviour options apply to link relationships, not module items.
- Options are saved with the report but evaluated fresh on each run.
- Link deduplication is enabled by default for links.
- Including the Link ID disables link deduplication.
- When deduplication is disabled, each row represents a single physical link.
- Link Tags are aggregated only when deduplication is enabled.
- Archived or deleted links are excluded by default.
- Cached link data may return stale results.
Link Metadata & Behaviour – Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I only see one link when I expect many?
Link deduplication is enabled by default. Enable Include Link ID to see every physical link record.
Why did my report suddenly show many more rows?
Including the Link ID disables deduplication, causing each physical link to be shown as a separate row.
Why are Link Tags grouped together?
When deduplication is enabled, Link Tags are aggregated into a single cell for the deduplicated link.
Why don’t I see rejected or non-accepted applications?
By default, only Accepted applications are included. Enable Include All Apps to see all rationalisation statuses.
Why does my report show old or unexpected link data?
Cached link data may be enabled. Cached results can be stale until the cache expires or is refreshed.
Why did archived items reappear in my report?
Include Archived / Deleted Links allows links involving archived or deleted items to be displayed.
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