Creating machine groups

Machine/virtual object groups are used to organize managed machines and virtual objects into small logical groups. There are default groups available from VCM when it is deployed (more details are in the There's More... section).

Getting ready

As an administrator, you must have some idea of which machine you should put together. You can use this concept and create machine groups as per your requirement.

How to do it...

Once you have a basic understanding of what you want to achieve with the group, log in to the VCM console and follow the steps detailed shortly.

We will create a machine group that will include all the machines that are a part of the Study.local Active Directory group, and it will keep on adding machines as soon as a new machine is added to VCM from the same domain.

1. Go to Administration | Machines Manager | Machine/Virtual Object Group | All Machines and click on Add Group.
   
2. Provide a name and proper description, and click on Next.
3. Set Membership Type as Dynamic or Static.
4. In our case, we are going ahead with Dynamic, so click on Finish on the next page to complete the wizard.
5. Follow step 1 again, but this time, go to the machine group we just created. Click on the group and then click on Filters. This is where we will define the criteria to add machines to this group.
6. Under Filters, click on Add Filter.
7. Provide a meaningful name and description, and click on Next.
8. Now, all the details we collected from vCenter, vCloud, and all the managed machines are available here to filter.
9. Your imagination is the limit for creating filters, and you can use all the information you can gather from VCM. In our case, we have selected Machines as the data type; this is where your experience and expectations will meet together to make the exact machine group you want.
   
10. Select Basic under Rule Type.
11. Now, add your condition, such as Domain Name='STUDY'.
    
12. Click on Next, and then click on Finish to close the wizard.
13. Now, go to the machine group, and a refresh will give you all the machines that are a part of the STUDY domain.
    

How it works...

When you work with managed machines, you can create static groups, where members are selected manually, or dynamic groups, where filters dynamically determine membership. Machines can belong to multiple groups.

You set the active machine group on the main toolbar, and you can define a machine filter with the options to the right of the textbox, as shown in this screenshot. A machine group filter further limits the selected machine group.

In all nodes except those in the Administration slider, an active machine group limits the displayed data to the managed machines defined in the selected machine group.

There's more...

This is the list of default groups created with an installation of VCM:

Dynamic groups

In dynamic groups, we define single or multiple filters, and based on the filters, the group is populated. If we are defining multiple filters, then a logical AND operation is performed on them.

Your imagination is the limit, considering the amount of data you have in VCM and all that of it is available to play with while creating filters for groups.

Static groups

In static groups, we define the members when we create the group, and then, we need to update them as and when required. There are no filters associated with them.

The best use case is creating a static group for all the vCenter Server instances, as we won't be adding members on a daily basis, and if we add anyone, we can add them manually.