Grouping Devices, Ports and Data Center

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You can create your own logical grouping of devices, ports and data center to enable efficient update and management of your device and data center. For example, you can create a device group that includes devices with a particular module. If you later want to configure a feature related specifically to that module, you use the device group that you created to push the configuration change to all of the devices contained in the group.

Types of Groups

You can use groups to filter views of devices and their associated alarms, control which network topology to view, and perform bulk operations (such as configuration changes and software updates) on sets of devices. Grouping not only saves you time when configuring multiple devices, but it also ensures that configuration settings are applied consistently across your network.

Prime Infrastructure provides the following types of grouping:

• Device type groups—Device type groups are device type-based and are not rule-based. The device type groups are not used for network topology maps.
• User defined groups—Create your own device-based groups. Device groups are mixed groups which can have dynamic rules and/or manually added members.
• Location groups—Create location-based groups. For example, if you have devices that reside in different time zones, you can create location groups based on geographic regions so that the devices in one group can have a different time zone setting from the devices in another group.
• Port groups—Create port groups to simplify monitoring and configuring ports.

In smaller deployments where all devices can be configured with the same settings, you may only need to create one general device group. This setup allows you to configure settings for the group, and then apply those settings consistently across all of your devices.

Related Topics

• Creating Device Groups
• Using Location Groups
• Creating Location Groups
• Creating Groups of Ports

Accessing Device/Location Groups through Virtual Domains

You can control users access to device groups through virtual domains. For role-based access control (RBAC), you need to create sites and virtual domains. See Related Topics for more details on how to add groups, network devices and users to virtual domains.

You can associate device/location groups to a particular virtual domain and control the user access by assigning the access privilege. If you login to Prime Infrastructure with the user name assigned to a particular virtual domain, you can manipulate only the groups associated to that virtual domain. The parent group and other groups that manage the devices associated to the virtual domain can only be viewed and cannot be manipulated.

Related Topics

• Adding Groups to Virtual Domains
• Adding Network Devices to Virtual Domains
• Adding Users to Virtual Domains

Creating Device Groups

Before you create a device group, make sure that you understand the unique properties that you want the group to contain. For example, you may want to set up two device groups that have different authentication settings or different time zone settings.

Note While there is no limit to the number of rules that you can specify for a dynamic group, as the number of rules increases, the group update performance could become slower.

To create a device group, follow these steps:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Network Devices or Inventory > Group Management > Network Device Groups.

Step 2 In the Device Groups pane on the left, perform one of the following tasks:

• Click the expand icon next to User Defined and click Add SubGroup.
• Click the add icon and choose Create User Defined Group form the drop-down list.

Step 3 Enter the group name and group description, and select a parent group, if applicable.

Step 4 To add devices to a group dynamically,

a. In the Add Devices Dynamically group box, specify the rules that you want to apply to the devices in the group.

b. Click Preview to view the devices that are automatically added to the group based on the specified rule and the manually added devices.

You can create a rule using the UDF labels defined in Administration > Settings > System Settings > User Defined Field.

If you want to group devices having specific range of IP addresses, mention the range in square brackets. For example:

• IPv4—10.[101-155].[1-255].[1-255] and 10.126.170.[1-180]
• IPv6—2014::5217:[0000-ffff]:fe22:[1e40-1f41]

Step 5 To add devices to a group manually,

a. In the Add Devices Manually group box, click Add.

b. Choose the devices that you want to assign to the group.

Step 6 Click Save to add the device group with the settings that you specified.

The device group that you created appears under the user-defined groups.

Related Topics

• Types of Groups
• Using Location Groups
• Creating Location Groups
• Creating Groups of Ports
• Searching Device Groups

Using Location Groups

Location groups allow you to group devices by location. You can create a hierarchy of location groups (such as theater, country, region, campus, building, and floor) by adding devices manually or by adding devices dynamically.

A device should appear in one location group only, though a higher level “parent” group will also contain that device. For example, a device that belongs to a building location group might also indirectly belong to the parent campus group.

By default, the top location of the hierarchy is the All Locations group. All devices that have not been assigned to a location appear under the Unassigned group under All Locations.

Related Topics

• Types of Groups
• Using Location Groups
• Creating Location Groups
• Creating Groups of Ports

Creating Location Groups

To create a location group, follow these steps:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Group Management > Network Device Groups or Inventory > Device Management > Network Devices.

Step 2 In the Device Groups pane on the left, perform one of the following tasks:

• Click the expand icon next to Location and click Add SubGroup.
• Click the add icon and choose Create Location Group form the drop-down list.

Step 3 In the Device Groups pane on the left, click the expand icon next to Location and click Add SubGroup.

Step 4 Enter the group name and group description, and select a parent group, if applicable.

Step 5 From the Group Type drop-down list, choose the type of group such as Default, Campus, Building, Outdoor Area or Indoor Area, so that the same hierarchy gets reflected in the site maps.

If you select Default, the group will not be visible in the site maps.

Make sure that you follow a proper hierarchy while creating sub groups. For example, you can not choose the group type to be floor area for a sub group, when the group type of its parent is Campus.

Step 6 Check the Geographical location check box, to associate a physical location to the location group.

Step 7 Enter your location in the Civic Location field. You can also choose a location by clicking View Map.

The GPS (Lat./ Long) field gets automatically populated with the coordinates based on the selected location.

Step 8 In the Add Devices Dynamically group box, specify the rules that you want to apply to the devices in the group.

Step 9 In the Add Devices Manually group box, choose the devices that you want to assign to the group.

Step 10 Click Preview to view the devices that are automatically added to the group based on the specified rule and the manually added devices.

Step 11 Click Save to add the device group with the settings that you specified.

Related Topics

• Types of Groups
• Creating Device Groups
• Using Location Groups
• Creating Groups of Ports
• Importing Location Groups Using CSV File
• Exporting Location Groups as CSV File

Editing User Defined and Location Groups

You can change the parent group, add devices, and modify device rules using the edit option.

To edit a group follow these steps:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Group Management > Network Device Groups.

Step 2 In the Device Groups pane on the left, click the name of the group you want to edit.

Step 3 Click Edit and modify the details.

When you are editing a location group, you can change the group type to Campus, if:

• The group type is Default.
• The group does not have any subgroups.

Step 4 Click Preview to view the updated device details.

Step 5 Click Save to save the updated device details.

Duplicating User Defined and Location Groups

You can duplicate a group using the Duplicate Group option in quick view. The duplicated group contains all of the values entered by the user in the UI for a group. The populated group name will have a prefix of ‘CopyOf’ by default. You can change the name, if required.

If you duplicate a child group, a copy of child group is created under the same parent group.

To duplicate a group follow these steps:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Group Management > Network Device Groups.

Step 2 In the Device Groups pane on the left, click the icon next to the name of the group you want to duplicate.

Step 3 Click Duplicate Group and update the device details.

Step 4 Click Preview to view the updated device details.

Step 5 Click Save to save the updated device details.

Device Accessibility in Parent-Child Device and Location Groups

The device inheritance in parent-child user defined and location groups are as follows:

• User Defined Group—When you create a child group under a parent device group, the devices accessible to the child group depend on how you add device to the group:

– If both parent and child groups are created dynamically, the child group can access the devices available in the parent group only.

– If the parent group is created by adding devices manually and the child group is a dynamically created, the child group is not limited to the devices available in the parent group.

– In dynamically added groups the child group “inherits” its devices from the parent device group.

• Location Group—The parent group is a superset of all the child groups and inherits the child group devices.

Hiding Empty Groups

A device or port group might be empty if:

• The group does not have any sub groups and/or members.
• No devices match the rules that you specified while adding dynamically.

By default, Prime Infrastructure displays empty groups. If you do not want to display empty groups, choose Administration > Settings > System Settings >Inventory > Grouping, then uncheck Display groups with no members check box.

Note We recommend that you don’t uncheck this check box when there are more number of groups and devices, because this will reduce the performance of the Prime Infrastructure.

Creating Groups of Ports

Creating a port group helps you simplify monitoring and configuration tasks. For example, you might want to create a port group that contains all WAN ports so that you can easily monitor these key ports. By default, port groups are based on interface type.

Note While there is no limit on the number of rules that you can specify for a dynamic group, as the number of rules increases, the group update performance could become slower.

To create a port group follow these steps:

Step 1 Choose I nventory > Group Management > Port Groups.

Step 2 In the Port Groups pane on the left, mouse hover the expand icon next to the User Defined group and click Add SubGroup.

Step 3 Enter the name, description, and parent group if applicable.

Step 4 Add ports to the group Manually or dynamically:

• Manually—Click Add under Add Ports Manually. The ports of the selected device is displayed. Choose the ports for adding to the group based on your needs.
• Dynamically—You must specify rules to which ports must comply before they are added to this port group, under Add Ports Dynamically.You do not add ports to dynamic groups. Prime Infrastructure adds ports that match the specified rules to the dynamic group.

Step 5 Click Save.

Creating Device Context or Group Context Port Groups

The Device Context Selection option enables you to group ports for a specific device group.

To create a port group for a specific device or group:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Group Management > Port Groups.

Step 2 In the Port Groups pane on the left, mouse hover the information icon next to the User Defined group and click Add SubGroup.

Step 3 Enter the name, description, and parent group if applicable.

Step 4 Click the Device Selection drop-down arrow.

Step 5 For creating port groups in device context:

• Click the Device radio button and select any one of the devices from the list of devices displayed.
• Adding Port Manually—Click Add under Add Ports Manually. The ports of the selected device is displayed. Choose the ports for adding to the group based on your needs.
  Adding Port Dynamically—Specify the rules to which ports of the selected device must comply before they are added to this port group. You do not add ports to dynamic groups. Prime Infrastructure adds ports that match the specified rules to the dynamic group
• Click Preview to view the ports that are automatically added based on the specified rule and the manually added ports, and click Save.

Step 6 For creating port groups in Device Group context:

• Click the Device Group radio button and select any one of the device groups from the list of device and location groups displayed.
• Adding Port manually—Click Add under Add Ports Manually. The ports of the selected device is displayed. Choose the ports for adding to the group based on your needs.
  Adding Port Dynamically—Specify the rules to which ports of the selected device must comply before they are added to this port group. You do not add ports to dynamic groups. Prime Infrastructure adds ports that match the specified rules to the dynamic group
• Click Preview to view the ports that are automatically added based on the specified rule and the manually added ports, and click Save.

Understanding System Defined Port Groups

Prime Infrastructure supports four types of system defined port groups. As and when new devices are added to the system, the ports of the devices are automatically assigned to the respective groups.

• Trunk Ports—Ports that are connected to a Cisco device or other network devices (Switch/Router/Firewall/Third party devices) and operating on “Trunk” mode in which they carry traffic for all VLANs.
• Link Ports—Ports that are connected to another Cisco device or other network devices and are operating on “VLAN” mode and are assigned to a VLAN.
• Access Ports—Ports that are connected to an end host, IP phone, servers, Access Points (AP) or video end points and operating on “Access” mode in which they carry traffic for only one particular VLAN.
• Unconnected Ports—Ports are unconnected if any or all of the below are valid:

– Not connected to any device.

– Operational status is down.

– Administrative status is down.

Note The ports in this group can not be deleted and neither can this group be created as a sub group. If the status of a port goes down, it is automatically added to Unconnected Port group.

Adding Access Points (AP) to Device Group or Location Group

You can add AP under the Device or Location group.

To Add AP to device group:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Group Management > Network Device Groups.

Step 2 In the Device Groups pane on the left, mouse hover the expand icon next to a User Defined or Location and click Add SubGroup.

Step 3 Enter the name, description, and parent group if applicable.

Step 4 Add APs in one of the following ways:

• Manually—Click Add under Add Devices Manually and select APs to be added to the group, based on your need.
• Dynamically—Specify rules to which APs must comply before they are added to this port group. You do not add APs to dynamic groups. Prime Infrastructure adds APs that match the specified rules to the dynamic group.

If you select any type of location group other than Default, the APs will not be added dynamically.

Step 5 Click Preview to view the APs s that are automatically added to the group based on the specified rule and the manually added APs.

Step 6 Click Save.

If the group has 'Unified AP' or 'Third Party AP' as its member, a new tab is added in the right hand table in the Device Work Center, to display the APs.

Creating Customized Port Groups

You can create a customized, user-defined port group that contains devices or interfaces on which you want to apply configuration changes in one operation.

To create a customized port group follow these steps:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Group Management > Port Groups.

Step 2 In the Device Groups pane on the left, mouse hover the expand icon next to the User Defined and click Add SubGroup.

Leave the default Parent Group text box entry as User Defined.

Step 3 Enter a group name and description, then add ports manually or dynamically:

• Manually—Click Add under Add Ports Manually. The ports of the selected device is displayed. Choose the ports for adding to the group based on your needs.
• Dynamically—You must specify rules to which ports must comply before they are added to this port group. You do not add ports to dynamic groups. Prime Infrastructure adds ports that match the specified rules to the dynamic group.

The port group that you created appears under the User Defined folder.

Step 4 Click Save.

Grouping Integration with Data Center

In addition to the out-of-box groups for data center and cluster, you can create multiple user-defined groups for VMs and hosts.

To create user defined Hosts and VMs groups, follow these steps:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Compute Devices > User Defined Hosts and VMs.

Step 2 Hover your mouse over the expand icon and click Add SubGroup.

Step 3 Enter the group name and group description, and select a parent group, if applicable.

Step 4 In the Add Devices Dynamically pane, specify the rules that you want to apply to the devices in the group.

Step 5 In the Add Devices Manually pane, choose the devices that you want to assign to the group.

Step 6 Click Preview to view the devices that are automatically added to the group based on the specified rule and the manually added devices.

Step 7 Click Save to add the device group with the settings that you specified.