Custom Groups

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Overview

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 (e.g., 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.

Figure: Custom groups example


Figure: Custom groups in status (Virtualization > VMware)

Steps

1. Log into GroundWork Monitor as an Administrator, (e.g., admin/admin).
2. Select GroundWork Administration > Custom Groups.
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.
5. Then you can start organizing the Custom Groups group memberships. You can use the dialog box to select group membership or drag-and-drop the graphical symbols to build a groups hierarchy.
   • Left-click on a Custom Groups name.
   • Select Edit, enter the category detail for the Description, and check the groups to include in the Group Membership.
   • Click Update to save the category details.
6. Next, add the actual host groups to the custom groups. The system will display all system host groups and service groups.
   • First click the box next to the HG+ icon to view the added host groups.
   • And edit the last level to designate the membership, left-click on a Custom Group to add the category details and the group membership, select Update.

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