Creating management groups

To create a management group:

1. Navigate to the Settings→Permissions→Management groups page.
2. Click the Add button to display the Add management group popup.
3. Enter a suitable Name for the management group. For example Devices.
4. Add a Description, it's a good idea to use a description that provides an outline of the rules that are used to populate the management group. For example Device Computer Name Contains ACME.
5. To add each rule:
   1. Click on the + button. The first one is already added, all you need to do is fill out the parts of the rule.
   2. First you select the rule name using the left dropdown menu. For example, Device Computer Name.
   3. You then select the condition. For example Contains.
   4. To complete the rule you then set the value. For example ACME.
6. Repeat step 5 for each rule you want to define.
7. When you have more than one rule added you can:
   1. Use the gripper icon at the right-hand end of the rule to change the order the rules are applied by dragging the rule to a new place in the list.
   2. Change the conjunction operator at the left-hand end of the rule to select between AND and OR.
8. When you have finished adding the rules you need to decide whether you want the management group membership to be evaluated immediately on adding the management group. If you are just adding one management group it makes sense to check the Evaluate rules immediately checkbox. If you are adding a number of management groups it may be a good idea to leave the checkbox unchecked for all of them except for the last one.
9. If you check Evaluate rules immediately and there is more than one inventory repository an additional control will be displayed prompting you to select which repository you want to evaluate the management group rules against.
10. When you've finished making all the settings click the Add button to add the management group definition.

The management group will be added to the Management groups table.

If you selected to evaluate rules immediately the rules you set for the management group will be evaluated against the selected inventory repository.

To check how many devices are in the management group click on the management group name link in the Name column.

The picture opposite shows the details for the Devices management group showing that it contains 11 devices.

Once the management group rules have been evaluated, you should then be able to check the devices in Explorer contained in the group using the Explorer→Devices→Table page. The picture opposite shows the devices table with the Management group filter set to Devices.

Editing management groups

To edit an existing management group:

1. Navigate to the Settings→Permissions→Management groups page.
2. In the Management groups table, locate the management group you want to edit and check the checkbox at the left hand end of its row.
3. Click the Edit button to display the Edit management group popup for the selected management group.
4. Here you can edit the Name, Description and Rules that define the management group.
5. When you've finished editing, before you click the Save button you can check the Evaluate rules immediately checkbox, this will enable any modifications you've made to the rules take effect right away. If you don't check the box the rules won's be run and you'll be able to evaluate the management groups later.

Deleting management groups

To delete an existing management group:

1. Navigate to the Settings→Permissions→Management groups page.
2. In the Management groups table, locate the management group you want to delete and check the checkbox at the left hand end of its row.
3. Click the Delete button. This displays the Delete management group popup.
4. Here you are asked in you want to proceed with the delete process. Click the Yes, delete management group button to confirm the deletion or No to cancel.

Evaluating management group membership

You can select to evaluate the management groups at any time. Doing this will process 

1. Navigate to the Settings→Permissions→Management groups page.
2. Click the Evaluate button.
3. If there is only one inventory repository the evaluation will be queued immediately. If there is more than one inventory repository the Evaluate management groups popup will be displayed and you will need to select a Repository then click the Evaluate button before the evaluation is queued.
4. When an evaluation is queued you will see a Management Group Evaluation action appear on the Settings→Monitoring→Process log page. From there you can view the progress of the evaluation.
5. When this action has run then applications will reflect any changes that have been made to the management group memberships.