Manage Device Groups

This section explains the following:

Manage Device Groups

This chapter provides information about managing device groups.

About Device Groups

Device groups are created automatically. After device discovery, you can find device groups based on the device type, irrespective of their states. Only licensed devices which you have deployed in your network appear in the groups. No empty groups or groups with no devices appear in the Device Group pane.

Grouping devices helps you to display data for a single device, or for a group. You can create customized groups to monitor information that you are interested in. You can view the grouping structure as a list or tree view in the Device Group pane. The Device Group pane is available in the Inventory, Conference Diagnostics (as a filter), Endpoint Diagnostics, and Alarms and Events pages. You can select devices or endpoints from the groups you are interested in, to check inventory details. You can also select devices for polling from the Device Group Selector in the Polling Parameters page. See Device Group Selector for information.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance supports groups in a hierarchical fashion. Each child group is a subgroup of a parent group, and its group membership will be a subset of its immediate parent group. For an object to belong to a group, it must satisfy the immediate group rules and the parent group rules.

You can also create groups manually on any page where the group selector (tree view) is available.

Grouping is used to filter:

  • Devices on the Inventory Management page

  • Reports

  • Conferences on the Conference Diagnostics page

  • Endpoints on the Endpoint Diagnostics page

  • Alarms and events on alarm and event browser pages

  • Dashlets on the landing page

Devices in Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance are grouped into:

  • System-defined groups—defined by the system based on the device type. System-defined groups are always dynamic, and cannot be deleted or edited.

    Predefined groups—defined by system based on endpoint groups. Predefined groups are always dynamic, and cannot be deleted or edited. The following predefined groups are available:

    • Audio IP Phones

    • Desktop Video

    • Immersive Telepresence

    • IP Phones

    • Mobile Endpoints

    • Multipurpose Telepresence

    • Personal Communicators

    • Personal Telepresence

    • Soft Clients

    • Telepresence Endpoints

    • Unknown

      To know the devices that belong to each group, rest your mouse over the quick view icon of that group, and then click on Rules.

  • User-defined groups—Can be either of the following:

    • Static—Devices are added to these groups without a defined set of rules. After the group is created, you can manually add devices to it. Devices for which you cannot easily set a rule fall into this group. Only static user-defined groups are synchronized from Device Group to the Device Selector pane in the Polling Parameters page. Static groups created within dynamic groups are also not synchronized.

    • Dynamic—Devices are added to dynamic groups during group access, based on a set of rules or attributes (for example, device type, device model, hostname, and so on) that you define. You can use group properties to define the rules, and the group is updated when the group rule is met.


      Note

      The amount of time it takes to create a user-defined dynamic group depends on the number of members within the group.

For user-defined dynamic and static groups, you can add subgroups, edit groups, delete groups, and duplicate groups, using the quick view. For dynamic groups, when you create or add a dynamic subgroup, it automatically inherits the parent group rule.

To launch the quick view, rest your mouse over the device group and click on the quick view icon. The Quick View details for user-defined groups are as follows.

Table 1. Quick View Details for User-Defined Groups

Field

Description

Name

Name of the device.

Description

Description of the device.

Type

Type of the device.

Group Type

Displays the group type: Dynamic or static.

Number of Members

Displays the total number of members in the group.

Number of SubGroups

Displays the number of subgroups (children) in the group. You can add any number of subgroups to a group.

Number of Rules

Displays the number of rules set for the group.

Note 

To know the details of the rules, hover the mouse over Number of Rules and click on the quick view icon.

Add SubGroup

  1. Click Add SubGroup.

  2. In the Create SubGroup window, enter details for the sub group.

  3. Click Save.

You can create a static group within a dynamic group and vice versa. When you create a static subgroup, it does not inherit any rules from the parent dynamic group. Static subgroups are independent groups created at any hierarchy.

For dynamic groups, when you create a dynamic subgroup, it automatically inherits the parent group rule.

Edit Group

  1. Click Edit Group.

  2. In the Edit Group window, edit the required fields.

  3. Click Save.

    You can edit the group name and description, and select a parent group.

Delete Group

  1. Click Delete Group.

  2. In the confirmation message box, click OK.

Duplicate Group

  1. Click Duplicate Group.

  2. In the Duplicate Group window, enter details for the group.

  3. Click Save.

When you perform a Duplicate Group for a dynamic group, the rule properties are copied to the new group.

Create Groups

To create a group:

Procedure

Step 1

Click the icon at the right of the Device Group pane.
Step 2

Click Create Group.

Step 3

In the Create Group window, enter the group name and description.
Step 4

Select the group type Static or Dynamic.

Step 5

For Dynamic Group, set the rule by selecting Match as All or Match as Any and selecting a suitable combination of criteria from the drop-down list.

You can set more than one rule by clicking +. New rows are added.
Step 6

Click Save.

Add Devices to a Group

To add a device to a group:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Device Inventory > Inventory Management.

For Cisco Prime Collaboration Release 11.5 and later

Choose Inventory > Inventory Management

Step 2

Select the managed devices from the Current Inventory table.

Step 3

Click the right arrow on the Current Inventory pane.

Step 4

Select Add To Group.

Step 5

In the Add To Group window, select the group you are interested in from the Select Group drop-down list, and click Save.

Note 

You can add or delete devices to a user-defined static group only. You cannot add devices to a user-defined dynamic group.

Remove Devices from a Group

To remove a device:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Device Inventory > Inventory Management.

For Cisco Prime Collaboration Release 11.5 and later

Choose Inventory > Inventory Management

Step 2

From the Inventory Management page, select the managed devices from the Current Inventory table.

Step 3

Click the right arrow on the Current Inventory pane.

Step 4

Select Remove From Group.

Step 5

From the confirmation message box, click OK.

Device Group Selector

The device group selector provides a way to filter devices. It is available on the Polling Parameters page; choose (Assurance Administration > Polling Settings) to select groups for polling.

For Cisco Prime Collaboration Release 11.5 and later

Choose Alarm & Report Administration > Polling Settings to select groups for polling.