Using NightWatchman group hierarchies
Managing power policies in the NightWatchman console
The NightWatchman console lets you use the Location and Organization group hierarchies to apply power policies across your network. You can also interact with the hierarchies to perform immediate tasks and control how the power policies are applied.
The power policy used by a computer is set according to its position in the NightWatchman group hierarchies. You fine tune the way this works with, Inheritance, overriding and precedence. The Location and Organization group hierarchies help to model real world scenarios. In Organization versus Location, you can learn how these are mapped to known situations.
Using NightWatchman console you can:
Inheritance, overriding and precedence
Group hierarchies provide for the inheritance and overriding of power policies. A group, at any level in the hierarchy, can have a power policy applied to it which is inherited by all the groups it contains. A locally applied group power policy overrides any inherited power policy for it and all the groups it contains.
A given computer resides in both a building and a department bringing it under the influence of both the Location and Organization group hierarchies. Power policies can be applied to both hierarchies. In this case, the power policy coming from the Organization group hierarchy takes precedence but you can override this default for a specific Location group.
Tier Names
The Location group hierarchy is constructed of 5 tiers which use the following names in NightWatchman reports:
Region
Country
State
City
Building (clients reside here)
The Organization group hierarchy is constructed of 5 tiers which use the following names in NightWatchman reports:
Company
Subsidiary
Division
Business Unit
Department (clients reside here)
Note
The tier names, as they appear in reports, can be changed by editing values in the SQL table tbAFR_Lookup_TierLevel. Do not modify any other part of this table except for the tier names.
Organisation versus Location
It is worthwhile taking a moment to consider how the Organization and Location group hierarchies are used and why you would want to specify a preference for one over the other.
The Organization group hierarchy is used to define policy according to business use. In this way, you set up behaviors for users in specific departments. For example, you can typify the behavior of the sales department as being different from the marketing department and define different policies for each that then get applied to the appropriate department.
The Location group hierarchy is used to define policy according to where a machine physically resides. In the previous example, the power policy is specifically designed for an office renovation. Perhaps the power policy specifies that the machines in the building are all shut down at 10PM on a Friday and not awoken until 9AM on a Monday. In this case you would want to allow the extraordinary circumstance of a particular building being renovated over a weekend to take precedence over any behaviors defined for the departments contained in that building.
NightWatchman reports report time in state, power consumption, CO2 emissions, costs and savings. Typically the location group structure is used for reporting and the organization group structure used for applying power policies, however both structures can be used for reporting and for policies.
Applying power policies
To apply an existing power policy to a group in either the Organization or Location hierarchies:
In the NightWatchman Clients section, select the group from the Organization or Location hierarchies you want to apply the power policy to.
Right-click the group to display the context menu.
Select the power policy from the Apply Power Policy sub-menu.
Once the power policy is applied, the icon for the group changes to include a red star. This helps to locate the nodes in the hierarchy where power policies are applied.
A power policy applied to a particular group cascades down to all the groups it contains in the hierarchy, unless another power policy is applied lower down the hierarchy. See inheritance, overriding and precedence for further details.
Computers retrieve their assigned power policies on their next policy refresh cycle. By default, this is 25 hours but can be re-configured on the NightWatchman client. Click here for a more detailed step-through.
Note
The NightWatchman Console also shows computers that have versions earlier than 5.5 of the NightWatchman Client installed. It also shows computers that have the WakeUp Agent installed but no NightWatchman Client.In both these cases, power policies are not applied to those computers.
You must have NightWatchman Client version 5.5 or later installed on the computer for it to receive policy updates. If you are unsure about the NightWatchman Client version for a particular computer, right-click and check its properties.
Overriding organization groups
To override the power policies in the Organization group hierarchy with those from the Location group hierarchy:
In the Clients section, select the group in the Location Group hierarchy that you want to take precedence over the Organization group hierarchy.
Right-click the group to display the context menu and select the Properties menu item.
In the Properties dialog on the Power Policy tab, check the Override organization group priority for this group only checkbox.
Applying tariffs
To apply an existing NightWatchman tariff to a group in the location hierarchy:
In the Clients section, select the group from the Location hierarchy you want to apply the tariff to.
Right-click on the group to display the context menu.
Select the tariff from the Apply Tariff sub-menu.
Once the tariff is applied, the icon for the group will change to include a green T. This helps to locate the nodes in the hierarchy where the tariffs are applied.
A Tariff applied to a particular group will cascade down to all the groups inside in the hierarchy, unless another tariff is applied lower down. See inheritance, overriding and precedence for further details.
Tariffs are used by reports to calculate energy costs and CO2 emissions from energy used.
On-demand wake ups
To perform an on-demand wake up for a group in or a particular computer:
In the Clients section, select the group or computer you want to wake up from either the Organization or Location hierarchies.
Right-click the group or computer.
Select On-demand wakeup from the context menu.
Viewing properties
To view properties for a group or computer in the NightWatchman Group hierarchies:
In the Clients section, select the group or computer from the Organization or Location group hierarchies you want to view the properties for.
Right-click the group or computer to display the context menu.
Select Properties.