Create a Custom Group and Group Rules

How to Use Groups and Group Rules to Organize Devices › Create a Custom Group and Group Rules

Create a Custom Group and Group Rules

This scenario involves creating a custom group for end-user switches only. Factory (out-of-the-box) device collections do not exist for specific switches in Data Aggregator. Instead, there is a factory device collection for all switches, named "All Switches". Since your uplink interfaces have significant performance impact in your network, you want to monitor these specific switches for uplink interfaces separately for better troubleshooting.

You first create a custom monitored group in CA Performance Center. Upon synchronization, Data Aggregator creates a corresponding device collection for use in device monitoring.

Add rules to your custom group so that the corresponding the device collection is kept up-to-date with discovered end-user switches. Newly discovered devices that meet rule specifications are added to device collections. Similarly, if they do not meet rule requirements or they are no longer monitored, devices are not included or removed. For this scenario, we assume all of your end-user switches are easily identifiable with the word "EndUser" at the end of their descriptions.

Follow these steps:

Open a REST client editor that has a connection to the CA Performance Center web server.
Set the Content-type to application/xml.
Provide a valid Username and Password in the request header for a user account that has Administrator access to CA Performance Center.
Enter the Body text in a REST client and modify the attributes as needed:

Group Name

Specifies a name for the group. For this scenario, type the name My End-User Switches.

Note: Do not use the following special characters in group names: /&\,%.

Group Tree Path

Specifies the path where the monitored group is created. Type the path All Groups/Collections, which is required for the device collection to show up in the Data Aggregator administration UI.

Rules

Specifies the rules that will automatically group the devices. In this case, create a rule that groups the end user switches that have the value "EndUser" at the end of their descriptions.

type

Indicates the type of group.

inherit

Indicates whether the group includes child items of group members. In this case, set the "inherit" attribute to true so that the device interfaces become group members when the devices are added to the group.

Example:
```
<GroupTree path="/All Groups/Collections">
 <Group inherit="true" name="My End-User Switches" desc="" type="user group">
  <Rules allowDeletes="true" saveRules="true">
   <Rule add="Device" name="Add Devices">
    <Match>
     <Compare readOnly="true" using="MEMBER_OF">
      <Property name="ItemID" type="Device"/>
      <Value reference="/All Groups">1</Value>
     </Compare>
     <Compare readOnly="false" using="LIKE">
      <Property name="DisplayName" type="Device"/>
      <ValueList>
       <Value>EndUser</Value>
      </ValueList>
     </Compare>
    </Match>
   </Rule>
  </Rules>
 </Group>
</GroupTree>
```
POST the following URL:
```
POST http://pc_hostname:8181/pc/center/webservice/groups/false/true
```
pc_hostname:8181

Specifies the CA Performance Center host name. (8181 is the required port.)

The 'false' and 'true' values refer to the following parameters:

useIds

Indicates that the groupId parameter is used to identify the group. In this example, the XML does not contain a group ID, so the value is 'false'.

allowDeletes

Enables deletion of the group that you are creating.

The My End-User Switches device collection is created. After synchronization, Data Aggregator adds all discovered end-user switches automatically to the My End-User Switches device collection.

Next, verify that the group was created.