Setting up groups

Each group is a logical collection of monitored entities in BMC Helix Operations Management. The Groups functionality allows you to filter and group impacted devices based on an entity selection criteria and events based on the event selection criteria. You can use the selection query to define filters in a meaningful way so that it groups the impacted devices and matching events logically. Groups can be associated with authorization profiles if required. For example, all VMs in a particular region can be filtered and grouped, or all Windows or Linux hosts that must be monitored by a specific operator can be filtered and grouped. Groups created in BMC Helix Operations Management can be published as a service model, which can be viewed in BMC Discovery and BMC Helix AIOps consoles. There is no limit to the number of groups that you can create. However, as a best practice, keep this list manageable.

You can use groups to view details, such as group impact summary, group impact status, top three impacted groups, list of devices in each group, total number of devices, list of events on the devices, severity of each event, default priority of each event, host name, and event message, and quickly perform event actions.

You can specify groups as objects in authorization profiles.

Groups as service models

To learn more about modeling and publishing groups as services, see Service-Modeling and Publishing-groups-as-service-models.

To create a group

In BMC Helix Operations Management, navigate to the Configuration > Groups page.
Click Create.
In the Group Information area, add the following information:
- A unique group name
- (Optional) Description for the group
In the Selection Query area, specify the selection criteria for the group.
Add one or both the following criteria:
- Entity selection criteria: The group is formed based on the entity type that you want to group together.
  When you click in the box, you are prompted to make a selection. Each time you make a selection, you are progressively prompted to make another selection. Refer to the following image to understand how to use the entity selection criteria:
  
  (Optional) After you select the criteria, click Preview to view the total devices that match the criteria that you selected.
  For example, by using the Agent Operating system criterion, you can group together all PATROL Agents that have the same operating system.
  The following options are available:
  - Agent Tag
    For this option, make sure that the maximum value does not exceed 255 characters in length.
  - Agent Host Name
  - Agent Operating system
  - Device Name
  - Device IP Address
- Event selection criteria: The group is formed based on the events that are ingested.
  When you click in the box, you are prompted to make a selection. Each time you make a selection, you are progressively prompted to make another selection. Refer to the following image to understand how to use the event selection criteria:
  
  (Optional) After you select the criteria, click Preview to view the total events on the devices that match the criteria that you selected. The event count result is a sum of all unique events matching from both entity selection criteria and event selection criteria.
  Example 1: To group together entities that have events with Critical severity, use the following event selection criterion:
  Severity equals Critical
  Example 2: To group together entities that fetch events of only the Event class, use the following event selection criterion:
  Class equals Events
  In this case, the group does not fetch Alarm or PATROL events.
In the Table Views area, select a table view from the list.
By default, the Basic Information table view is selected.
(Optional) In the Authorization Profile area, select one or more authorization profiles from the list. Associate one or more authorization profiles from the list
(Optional) Select Publish as Service to publish the group as a service model. The published group can be viewed as a service in BMC Discovery and the unpublished group is available only in BMC Helix Operations Management.
The Publish as Service check box is enabled only if you have added valid entity selection criteria.
For more information on publishing groups as service models, see Publishing groups as service models.
Click Save.
You can see the group on the Groups page.
You can see the events fetched for the group on the Monitoring > Groups page.

To edit a group

In BMC Helix Operations Management, navigate to the Configuration > Groups page.
Perform one of the following steps:
- Select a group Select the group and click Edit.
- From a group action menu, select Edit.
Edit the group and save the changes.

To copy a group

In BMC Helix Operations Management, navigate to the Configuration > Groups page.
Click the action menu of the group that you want to copy and select Copy.
The Create Group page is displayed with the configurations of the copied group.
Modify and save the configurations according to your requirements to create a new group quickly.

To view the list of groups

In BMC Helix Operations Management, navigate to the Configuration > Groups page to view the list of groups.

By default, the groups are sorted by the last updated time. To sort on a different column, click the column heading.

To search for groups

On the Configuration > Groups page, search for groups by typing one or more characters. Groups that contain the matching search string either in the name, description, selection query, or authorization profile are listed in the results.

For example, typing 'operator' in the search box lists all the groups containing the search string in any of these fields: name, description, selection query, or authorization profile.

To delete a group

In BMC Helix Operations Management, navigate to the Configuration > Groups page and perform one of the following actions:

Select one or more groups, click Delete, and click OK.
From the group action menu, select Delete, and click OK.