Servers folder overview

Using the Servers folder, you can perform various management tasks on the servers.

Before you can perform other tasks in BMC Server Automation, you must populate the Servers folder with the servers you want to manage, either by adding individual servers or by importing servers in bulk. After you add servers to the Servers folder, you must install agents on those servers. For information about adding servers and installing agents, see Installing one or more agents using the BMC Server Automation Console.

After populating the Servers folder, you must organize servers into a structure that matches your needs. BMC Server Automation lets you perform many actions on server groups, so a well-designed server structure can enhance productivity. For more information about structuring server groups, see Server organization concepts.

Many of the capabilities of BMC Server Automation are based on properties that change from server to server. See Properties and servers for an explanation of how properties are used in conjunction with servers.

Occasionally, you might want to remove a server from the system. For example, a server may become obsolete, or you may want to repurpose a server by installing a different operating system and different applications on the same physical hardware. To do this, you must decommission the server, as described in Decommissioning a server.

You can use the Servers folder to browse the contents of each server, including the server objects that reside on each server. For more information, see Server browse options.

Primarily, you manage server objects by performing jobs on them (see Managing jobs), but BMC Server Automation also provides some capabilities for managing individual server objects, such as the ability to start and stop Windows services. For more information, see Server objects - management concepts.

The Servers folder lets you launch a script or executable program on a server. For more information, see Executing custom commands.