Setting up groups for monitoring

Types of groups

Groups in Infrastructure Management are of two types:

• Groups created manually using the Create Group option. They are of two types: static groups and rule-based groups.

  Static groups

  Rule-based groups

  Static groups are groups that are created by manually adding existing devices or monitor instances. You have to manually pick and add a device or monitor instance to form a static group. For information about creating a static group, see Creating-editing-and-deleting-static-groups.

  You can create rule-based groups that automatically update content based on a given rule. A rule is a combination of a pattern match on a device or monitor name, and on a condition (Equals, Contains, Starts with, Ends with). For example, an organization has offices in three different locations—Chicago, Perth, and Copenhagen—and the devices have names based on the location of each office. If devices in Perth have names starting with "PERTH," you can create a group that consists of only those devices that belong to the Perth office. Using  rule-based groups, you can create a rule with the name pattern match *PERTH** on devices. All devices that match *PERTH** are consolidated in one rule-based group. When new devices are added or existing devices are removed from the Perth office, they are automatically added or removed from the rule-based group. For information about creating a rule-based group, see Creating-editing-and-deleting-rule-based-groups.

• Groups synchronized from Infrastructure Management that are created by configuring servers in monitoring policies from the TrueSight console or by using the Infrastructure Management administrator console.

  A word about groups in automatically discovered applications

  (App Visibility Manager integration) If an automatically discovered application includes a load balancing server or cluster to distribute operations among several servers with the same business need, App Visibility Manager creates a group for the application servers.The groups are dynamically created with application discovery and they are not editable, nor do they appear on the Groups page of the TrueSight console.

Best practices for creating monitor groups

• 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, BMC recommends a maximum of 254, the number of addresses in a length-24 class-C subnet.
• Avoid creating a large number of monitor groups. Unnecessary monitor groups add overhead to the system and clutter the Groups page on the TrueSight console making the solution unnecessarily difficult to use. You can refer to the results of scalability testing to identify the required number of monitor groups.
• Limit the number of users who can create monitor groups. You can configure the authorization profiles to allow only tenant administrators and a limited number of lead operators to create monitor groups.

• Organize monitor groups in a logical structure:
  • Define and document your strategy to organize monitor groups before you start creating them. Have a logical plan and follow it.
  • Organize by application. Include devices and monitor instances that support a business application in a monitor group or a set of parent-child monitor groups for the specific application.
  • Organize by technology. For example, place devices and monitor instances related to databases into an appropriate monitor group for DBAs.
  • Do not include unrelated and dissimilar devices or monitor instances into the same monitor groups or monitor group hierarchy.
• Do not create monitor groups that might not be used frequently. If you create a monitor group for temporary purposes, delete it as soon as you are finished using it.
• Do not create duplicate monitor groups, that is, monitor groups that contain the same or some of the same objects for the same purposes.
• Provide meaningful names for monitor groups so that they are easily understood.

• Share monitor groups across users to avoid creation of multiple monitor groups that contain the same objects for the same purposes. You can configure sharing of monitor groups from the authorization profiles.

• Use server configuration in a monitoring policy to automatically create monitor groups and add devices to them.
• Leverage rule-based monitor groups to automate the assignment of devices and monitor instances to monitor groups.

Viewing groups in the TrueSight console

1. Log on to the TrueSight console and select Configuration > Groups.
   The Group Configuration page displays the count for both the manual groups and the synchronized groups present in Infrastructure Management as shown in the following figure.

   

2. Click the Manual tab.

   Displays all the groups that are manually created from the TrueSight console as shown in the following figure.

   
   

   Note

   • Groups created in the administrator console cannot be viewed from the TrueSight console, and vice versa.
   • On the Manual Groups tab, static groups are indicated by regular font and rule-based groups are indicated by italicized font as highlighted in the previous figure.

   
   

3. Click the Synchronized tab.

4. From the Select Component list, select an Infrastructure Management component to display the groups that have been synchronized from the selected component as shown in the following figure.
   

   Note

   • The Select Component list is applicable only if the Presentation Server has two or more Infrastructure Management Servers registered with it.
   • If the Presentation Server has only one Infrastructure Management Server registered with it, when you click the Synchronized tab the page directly displays the list of all the groups that have been synchronized from the Infrastructure Management Server.

5. Click a group name to view details of that group. When you click a group name, the group details are displayed as shown in the following figure:

   
   

   The fields displayed in the group details page are described in the following table:

   Detail	Description
   Description	Description specified when the group was created
   Type	A group can be of two types: static and rule-based.
   Parent Groups	Parent groups that the group belongs to
   Child Groups	Child groups to which the group is a parent of
   Assigned devices	Devices that are a part of the group. These devices are added to the group when it is being created.
   Assigned Monitor Instances	Monitor instances that are a part of the group. These monitor instances are added to the group when it is being created.

6. You can edit the group by clicking the action menu  next to the group name. For more details see Creating-editing-and-deleting-static-groups and Creating-editing-and-deleting-rule-based-groups.

   Note

   You can edit only manual groups.

7. You can also add a group by clicking the action menu  next to Group Configuration.

   Note

    You can add or update only manual groups.