Custom Groups Configuration

Contents

This page reviews the Custom Groups feature.

1.0 About Custom Groups

Custom Groups are collections of host group or service group objects at the user interface level. This feature provides a more streamlined navigation and organization of monitors when using the Status and Event Console applications. The current monitor status (e.g. Critical, Warning) gets bubbled-up to the top from the host groups and service groups members. Custom Groups allow for more freedom to group business functions, locations, or infrastructure setup (e.g. workstations, servers, services) and make them more user accessible, this can be very useful if you have a certain batch of servers attached to an array of servers. And, custom group are more useful from the system manager's perspective too, as the administrator does not have to worry about the problem on the segment he doesn't administer.

The Custom Groups feature is developed using JavaScript and provides a graphical user interface for ease of use and is managed through an administrator (admin) using the GroundWork Administration page. These groups are integrated into the Status and Event Console applications and are available to all users independent of their membership. View restrictions by membership for host and service groups will be honored by the custom groups so that if a custom group includes only host groups that are not visible through a user then the custom group won't be displayed in Status. A host group or service group can be a member of multiple custom groups.

In the image below, the top level Custom Group is named Virtualization in which there are three categories of virtualization connections, Docker, VMware and NetApp. Within each of these connection types there is one or more Custom Groups and then the actual configured Host Groups (in this case). The second image displays the Custom Groups in the Status application.

We recreate the example shown here in a sequence of steps below.

Figure: Custom Groups example


Figure: Custom Groups in Status (Virtualization > VMware)

2.0 Creating Custom Groups

2.1 Create all group levels

We start by creating all Custom Groups with equal hierarchy. Our image shows that we've created Custom Groups for Virtualization, NetApp, VMware, Docker, NetAppNetwork, Colo, VMware Network, VMwareStorage, and DockerQA is being created.

1. Log into GroundWork Monitor as an administrator (e.g. admin/admin).
2. Select GroundWork Administration > Custom Groups. Any existing groups will be displayed.
3. Click on the CG+ icon to add a new category.
4. Fill in the new category details clicking Add after each. The Name must be unique and the Description field describes the node category.
   
   Figure: New category details
   

2.2 Organize Custom Groups memberships (first level)

Then you can start organizing the Custom Groups group membership. The image below shows the first level Virtualization category and the addition of the group members NetApp, VMware, and Docker as the second level. In our example, we use the dialog box to select group membership, you can also drag-and-drop the graphical symbols to build a groups hierarchy.  

1. Left-click on a Custom Groups name.
2. Select Edit and enter the category detail for Description and check the groups to include in the Group Membership.
3. Click Update to save the category details.
   
   Figure: Defining category details including membership
   

2.3 Organize Custom Groups memberships (second level)

Here we continue with the process only this time we're adding the membership to the second level categories. In the image below we show the NetApp category and the group member selections NetAppNetwork and Colo.

1. Left-click on a Custom Groups name.
2. Select Edit and enter the category detail for Description and check the groups to include in the Group Membership.
3. Click Update to save the category details. You would do the same for the categories VMware and Docker.
   
   Figure: Defining category details including membership
   

2.4 Add Host Groups

The last step in our example is to add the actual Host Groups to the Custom Groups. The system will display all system Host Groups and Service Groups.

1. First let's click the box next to the HG+ icon so that we can view the added Host Groups.
2. Then we edit the third level groups to designate their memberships. Left-click on the VMwareStorage Custom Group to add the category details including the group membership selections, don't forget to select Update.
3. You would do the same for the categories VMwareNetwork, Colo, NetAppNetwork, and DockerQA. Our final setup should then look like the second image below.
   
   Figure: Defining category details including membership
   
   
   Figure: Custom Groups example
   

3.0 Managing Custom Groups

3.1 Remove a Custom Groups

There are three options for removing Custom Groups which are outlined here. To remove a custom group, left-click on a custom group node, select Delete, and choose one of the following:

Once a Custom Group is deleted is cannot be restored, you would need to recreate.

• Delete - Group - This will remove the node and any thing attached to it, (e.g. If you choose this option for the Docker node, it will be removed along with its children DockerQA).
• Delete - Group and make children root nodes - This option removes the nodes and make any children roots, (e.g. If you choose this option for the NetApp node, it will be removed and its children Colo and NetAppNetork will move to the root level).
• Delete - Group and attach children to parent - This option removes the node and adds any children to the parent, (e.g. If you select this option for the VMware node, it will be removed and its children VMwareNetwork and VMwareStorage will be moved under the parent Virtualization).
• Additionally, the Other option when selected for a node will detach the node from its existing location and move it along with any children to the root level.
  
  Figure: Custom Groups delete options
  
  
  Figure: Viewing deletions