Device groups

Using device groups in WhatsUp Gold helps you to:

• Organize devices into easy to browse and selectable groups.
• Administrative groups for reporting purposes.
• Group devices by partner/client/department.
• Quickly find and diagnose problems within your network environment.
• Much more...

In addition to creating a number of dynamic groups automatically, the application also allows you to create as many device groups as needed to organize your network in a way that is meaningful to you and to fit your specific monitoring needs.

All devices discovered on your network are placed into a single dynamic group named 'All devices' by default. Additional groups are created automatically when SQL queries search for devices based on user-specified criteria during discovery. These are referred to as dynamic groups because group membership can change automatically based on the data WhatsUp Gold receives from the devices therein.

There are two types of dynamic groups that exist in WhatsUp Gold: Layer 2 dynamic groups and WhatsUp Gold dynamic groups . These advanced dynamic groups do not have customizable maps available, but allow you to specify rules for dynamic membership of devices in the group.

For Layer 2 dynamic groups, you may assign user rights and specify membership based on device properties such as Role, Name or IP, and choose to include connected devices. For WhatsUp Gold dynamic groups, user access is not configurable and membership is determined with a rule builder which can access status, properties, and configurations such as assigned credential types.

WhatsUp Gold also creates a static group each time you perform a discovery scan which contains every device found during that scan.

• You can manage device group properties (MY NETWORK + Groups ) for a selected device or selected group, by using the device actions menu () from the Group Picker (). Only users that have permissions to access the selected device group option (administrator and others with specific device Group Write permissions) can manage the selected device group. For more information, see About user rights.

  To edit a device group:

  1. Select any device and then click the Groups tab (MY NETWORK + Groups ).

     A group for the selected device is highlighted in the device picker.

  2. Click the 'actions' menu and choose an operation (Edit Group, Copy Group, ...)
     Note: You can also modify device groups from the Device and Groups page Map tab by right-clicking, then clicking Edit.

  Understanding device group properties

  • Device Group Name. Enter a new device group name.
  • Description. Enter a short description of the device group.
  • Device Group access rights. Select the user name for which you want to change access rights.
  • Device Group Access Rights for. Select the access rights you want to apply to the selected group. For more information, see Understanding device group access rights.
  • Copy changes to all sub Device Groups recursively for. Click the check box to propagate the selected device group access rights' to all sub device groups.