Creating groups

A group is a collection of monitored resources that you define. To make information easier to find and manage, you can create groups that correspond to real-world relationships (such as by city, a specific department, or the type of resource, etc.). There is no limit on the number of groups you can define.

Groups can also provide a means of access control. As you set up user views, reports, and events, you can filter access by using groups.

You select individual devices, applications, and interfaces added to the Infrastructure Management Database, and combine them into a single unit (group) for management purposes.

Before creating a group, add all corresponding devices, interfaces, and applications to the Infrastructure Management Database, and complete at least one polling cycle.

Avoid creating a single group with hundreds or thousands of devices. Not only does this reduce the usefulness of the group, it can also hamper the performance of Probable Cause Analysis if the group is used as a filter. When creating a group that encompasses a large number of devices, it is best to create it from smaller groups that have real meaning in terms of function, dependency, or topological relationships. For example, if you are grouping devices according to network topology, Infrastructure Management recommends a maximum of 254, the number of addresses in a length-24 class-C subnet.

The following topics describe the ways in which you can create groups:

• Adding a group
• Working with Dynamic Groups or Rule-based Groups
• Applying rules to dynamic groups
• Displaying groups
• Creating a group of existing groups
• Creating a group based on rules