Group a set of devices together to run a task on them

Last Modified

Wed Nov 30 21:42 GMT 2016

Description

This article describe how to group together a a set of devices for mass deploying of scripts to reset admin account passwords when needed, like group all the Windows Servers Class that controls authentication.

Environment

Since all these devices do not share a common element to build a filter, one needs to be created.

Solution

Set up the field to use in the filter:

  1. Go to Administration > Custom Device Property.
  2. Add a text type field.
  3. Provide a Property name.
  4. Select how you would like to apply this new custom device property.
  5. Save your new Custom Device Property

Set the property in the devices. Note: You could use a default value or follow this procedure for setting all devices that are Server – Windows and using a value of either True or False

  1. Open the All device view.
  2. Select reset filter to clear previous filters used.
  3. Use the filter Server – Windows from your drop down option.
  4. Select each device you would like to set the Custom Device Property.
  5. In the top of All Devices, select the Custom Device Properties option to change your value for authentication controller.
  6. Do the same for the remaining device to set the opposites value.

The value is now set such that groups’ devices separately based off the value provided. In this case, the value is true when the Server Windows is considered an authentication controller, and false if it is not.

A policy should be put in for all new Windows Server that are discovered to set this value. Once this has been completed, you can create a filter you will use to allow for a task to be run on this group of devices. The filter criteria should look like this.

Device | Custom Device Property | <Property Name> | Equal To | <Value>

Having this grouping when no other common element between devices exist allows for a less complicated filter. When you keep to the policy to add value for the Custom Device Property, devices will fall into the filter allow you to do anything you need. For example, run a task, set a feature in a rule or add it to a dashboard.