Table Of Contents

Managing Collector Groups

Understanding Collector Group Rules

IPM Group Administration Process

Understanding Group Administration Page

Working with User-Defined Collector Groups

Creating User-Defined Collector Groups

Setting Collector Group Properties

Defining Collector Group Rules

Assigning Collector Group Membership

Viewing the Collector Group Summary

Editing a User-Defined Collector Group

Deleting User-Defined Collector Groups

Viewing User-Defined Collector Groups

Viewing Collector Group Details

Viewing Membership Details

Refreshing User-Defined Collector Group Membership

Operation-Based Collector Groups (System-Defined)

Managing Collector Groups

---

Grouping collectors provide convenience to you in associating together a group of collectors. The collector groups are defined based on a set of criteria such as operation name, operation type, source address, target address. The collector groups are managed in a hierarchical fashion that supports subgroups.

This section contains the following topics:

•Understanding Collector Group Rules

•IPM Group Administration Process

•Understanding Group Administration Page

•Working with User-Defined Collector Groups

•Operation-Based Collector Groups (System-Defined)

Understanding Collector Group Rules

Every group is defined by a set of rules. A rule set contains a Boolean combination of individual rule expressions.

Rules are created to filter the devices that you want to include to the group, and to filter out those that you do not want in the group.

While determining which devices belong to a group, Group Management compares device information to the rule. If the information on a device satisfies all the requirements of the rule, it is placed in the group.

The devices are filtered based on the data present in the IPM Inventory database.

One or more rule expressions can be applied to form a rule.

Each rule expression contains the following:

object type.variable operator value

Table 6-1 lists the various operators that can be used to create grouping rules to group Collectors.

Table 6-1 Understanding Collector Group Rules

Field/Button	Description
OR, AND, EXCLUDE	Logical operators. •OR—Include objects that fulfill the requirements of either rule. •AND—Include only objects that fulfill the requirements of both rules. •EXCLUDE—Do not include these objects. The Rule Text field appears only after a rule expression is added.
Object Type	Type of object (device) that is used to form a group.
Variable	Collector components, based on which you can define the group. For more information, see IPM Collector Components.
Operator	Operator to be used in the rule. The list of possible operators changes based on the Variable selected. When using the equals operator the rule is case-sensitive.
Value	Value of the rule expression. The possible values depend upon the variable and operator selected. Depending on the operator selected, the value may be free-from text or a list of values. The wildcard characters are not supported.
Add Rule Expression	Used to add the rule expression to the group rules.
Rule Text	Displays the rule.
Check Syntax	Verifies that the rule syntax is correct. Use this button if you have entered the rules manually.
View Parent Rules	Used to view the parent group rules. All parent group rules apply to the subgroups.

IPM Collector Components

Table 6-2 lists the available group attributes that you can use for defining the User-Defined groups.

Table 6-2 IPM Collector Components

Component Type	Description
Source Address	Device IP address.
Target Address	Device IP address.
Operation Type	All IP SLA operations available for IPM
Operation Name	Name of an user-defined operation.

IPM Group Administration Process

The IPM Group Administration depends on the IPMOGSServer and CMFOGSServer processes. If these processes are not running, then an error message appears:

object type.variable operator value

Error in communicating with Group Administration Server.

You can resolve this error by starting the IPMOGSServer process.

You can start this process using Common Services > Server > Admin > Processes. In the Process Management page, select the IPMOGSServer and click Start.

Understanding Group Administration Page

This section explains the various tasks that you can perform on the Group Administration page.

Table 6-3 lists the Fields and buttons available in the Group Administration page.

Table 6-3 Group Administration Page

Field/Buttons	Description
Group Selector	Hierarchical display of all available groups.
Group Info	Displays the following collector group information: •Group Name—The name of the group you selected. •Type—The type of objects in the selected group. •Description—A text description of the group. •Created By—The person who created the group. •Last Modified By—The last person to modify the group settings.
Create	Starts the Group Creation Wizard for creating a group, as described in the Creating User-Defined Collector Groups.
Edit	Starts the Group Edit Wizard for editing an existing group, as described in the Editing a User-Defined Collector Group.
Details	Opens the Properties: Details page, as described in the Viewing Collector Group Details and Viewing Membership Details.
Refresh	Refreshes a group's membership, as described in the Refreshing User-Defined Collector Group Membership.
Delete	Deletes a group, as described in the Deleting User-Defined Collector Groups.

Working with User-Defined Collector Groups

These are collector groups created by the user based on a set of criteria such as operation name, operation type, source address, and target address.

For example, if you want to create a location-based collector groups, you must select the devices used by that location and define the collector groups based on the criteria mentioned above.

You can perform the following tasks on user-defined collector groups:

•Creating User-Defined Collector Groups

•Editing a User-Defined Collector Group

•Deleting User-Defined Collector Groups

•Viewing User-Defined Collector Groups

•Refreshing User-Defined Collector Group Membership

Creating User-Defined Collector Groups

IPM provides a single wizard-based approach that leads you through the procedure to create multiple user-defined collector groups. This wizard process involves the following four steps:

1. Setting Collector Group Properties

2. Defining Collector Group Rules

3. Assigning Collector Group Membership

4. Viewing the Collector Group Summary

You must complete all the four tasks in this sequence to create collector groups. If you exit the wizard at any stage using Cancel, the details you have specified will be lost and the collector groups will not be created.

Setting Collector Group Properties

In this step, you can enter the group properties such as name and description, copy the attributes from another group, change the parent group, and modify the parent group and membership update details, if required.

To set the collector group properties:

---

Step 1 Go to LMS Portal and select Internetwork Performance Monitor > Collector Management > Group Administration.

The Group Administration page appears.

Step 2 Select the required group from the Group Selector pane.

For example:

•If you want to create a group, select the User Defined Group folder from the Group Selector pane.

•If you want to create a subgroup, select the required collector group under the User Defined Groups folder.

Step 3 Click Create.

The Properties page appears.

Step 4 Specify the collector group name and description in the Group Name and Description fields.

The Group Name must be unique within the parent group. However, you can specify the same name in some other groups.

For example, if you already have a group named `MyGroup' in a group named `Views' under User-Defined Groups, you cannot use the same name for another subgroup in the group `Views'. However, you can use the name 'MyGroup' for the subgroup of another group in User-Defined Groups.

After entering the group name and description, you can either copy the attributes of an existing group to the new group or proceed to Step 5.

To copy the attributes of an existing group to the new group, do the following:

a. Click Select Group.

The Replicate Attributes window appears.

b. Select the required collector group from the User Defined Groups folder.

c. Click OK.

All attributes except the group name are copied to the new group.

The parent group you have selected for the group does not change even if you are copying attributes from a group that belongs to a different parent group.

To change the parent group, do the following:

a. Click Change Parent.

The Select Parent window appears.

b. Select the required group.

c. Click OK.

The Properties page appears with the new parent group.

Step 5 Select the Membership Update and Visibility Scope for the group.

For more information, see Table 6-4.

Step 6 Click Next.

The Rules page appears.

Table 6-4 Setting Collector Group Properties

Field	Description
Group Name	Name of the group you are creating.
Copy Attributes from Group	Copy the attributes of an existing group to your new group using Select Group.
Parent Group	Parent group of the group you are creating. You can change the parent group using Change Parent.
Description	Text description of the group.
Membership Update	Group Membership is updated. •Automatic: Updates whenever the group is accessed. •Only Upon User Request: Click Refresh.
Visibility Scope	•Private Groups: Visible only to users who created the group. •Public: Visible to all users.

---

Defining Collector Group Rules

In this step, you can define the rules for the collector groups. This rule determines the contents and the collectors to be included in the collector group.

Using this rule, you can add the collectors based on the variables such as operation name, operation type, source address, and target address. You can use one or a combination of variables while defining the rule. The collectors that satisfy the rule will be added to the collector group.

If you have created the collector group copying the attributes of another group, the rules specified for that group appears in the Rule Text field. You can retain these and add more rules, or delete these rules and create a new set of rules.

---

Note All rules assigned to a parent group also apply to any of its subgroups.

---

In the Rules page, you can either enter the rules directly in the Rule Text field or select the components of the rule from the Rule Expression fields and define a rule.

Table 6-5 lists the various Fields and Buttons available in the Rules page.

Table 6-5 Defining Collector Group Rules

Field/Buttons	Description
OR, AND, EXCLUDE	Logical operators. •OR—Include objects that fulfill the requirements of either rule. •AND—Include only objects that fulfill the requirements of both rules. •EXCLUDE—Do not include these objects. The Rule Text field appears only after a rule expression is added.
Object Type	Type of object (Collector) that is used to form a group. All IPM rule expressions begin with the same Object Type, IPM:Collector Management: Collector.
Variable	Collector attributes, based on which you can define the group. For more information, see IPM Collector Components.
Operator	Operator to be used in the rule. The list of possible operators change based on the Variable selected. When using the Equals operator, the rule is case sensitive.
Value	Value of the rule expression. The possible values depend upon the variable and operator selected. Depending on the operator selected, the value may be free-form text or a list of values. The wildcard characters are not supported.
Add Rule Expression	Used to add the rule expression to the group rules.
Rule Text	Displays the rule.
Check Syntax	Verifies that the rule syntax is correct. Use this button if you have entered the rules manually.
View Parent Rules	Used to view the parent group rules. All parent group rules apply to the subgroups.

For group rule restrictions and examples, see Understanding Collector Group Rules.

To define the collector group rules:

---

Step 1 Select the Object Type from the drop-down list.

Step 2 Select the required variables from the Variable drop-down list. You can select one or a combination of variables.

The variables available are Operation Name, Operation Type, Source Address, and Target Address.

For more information, see Table 6-5.

Step 3 Select the Boolean operator from the Operator drop-down list.

The Boolean operators change based on the variable you have selected.

For more information, see Table 6-5.

Step 4 Specify the Value for the variable you have selected.

Step 5 Click Add Rule Expression.

The IPM Group Administration creates the rule based on the parameters you specified and adds it to the rules already present in the Rules Text field. You can use the same procedure to add more rules.

If you want to delete a rule expression, you have to select the complete expression including the logical operator and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Step 6 Click Check Syntax to validate the rules expression syntax.

If the Syntax is correct, a confirmation message appears, The rule syntax is valid. If the Syntax is incorrect, an error message appears with syntax error messages along with the line and column number.

Step 7 Click View Parent Rules to view the parent and group rules.

Step 8 Click Next.

The Membership page appears.

---

Assigning Collector Group Membership

The Membership page allows you to create a highly customized user-defined collector group. This page lists the collectors in two panes, namely Objects From Parent Group and Objects Matching Membership.

•Objects From Parent Group—Lists the collectors in the parent group.

•Objects Matching Membership—Lists the collectors that satisfy the rule defined by you. You can add or delete collectors from this pane. You can also add collectors from the parent group to create the collector group.

To assign collector group membership:

---

Step 1 Select the required collectors from the Objects From Parent Group pane.

Step 2 Click Add.

The selected collectors are added to the Objects Matching Membership pane.

Step 3 Click Next.

The Summary page appears with the User-Defined Group properties.

---

To remove collectors from the group:

---

Step 1 Select the required collectors from Objects Matching Membership pane.

Step 2 Click Remove.

The selected collectors are removed from the Objects Matching Membership pane and added to the Objects From Parent Group pane.

Step 3 Click Next.

The Summary page appears with the summary of the user-defined collector group.

---

Viewing the Collector Group Summary

The final step is the Summary page that displays the new group's definition as in Table 6-6.

Table 6-6 Understanding Collector Group Summary

Field	Description
Group Name	Name of the group you are creating.
Description	Text description of the group.
Parent Group	Parent group of the group you are creating. You can change the parent group using Change Parent. You can select only IPM User-Defined groups.
Membership Update	Updates group membership. Membership updates can be automatic (updated every time the group is accessed) or upon the user's request only (updated only when you click Refresh).
Rules	Rules used to filter group membership.
Visibility Scope	Describes if the group is visible for public (all users) or private (only for the group owner).

To view the collector group summary:

---

Step 1 Click Finish to complete the procedure for creating collector groups.

A confirmation message appears.

Step 2 Click OK.

You can view the newly created user-defined collector group in the Group Selector pane.

Or

Click Back to modify the group properties.

---

Editing a User-Defined Collector Group

You can edit all attributes that are defined while creating a group except for the Parent Group attribute.

The workflow for editing a user-defined collector group involves the same steps as Creating User-Defined Collector Groups.

---

Note You can click Finish at any point in the workflow.

---

Deleting User-Defined Collector Groups

You can use the Delete option to delete the user-defined collector groups. During the deletion process, only collector group is deleted not the associated collectors. You cannot delete the system-defined collector groups.

To delete the user-defined collector groups:

---

Step 1 Go to LMS Portal and select Internetwork Performance Monitor > Collector Management > Group Administration.

The Group Administration page appears.

Step 2 Select the group for which you want to view details from the Group Selector pane.

Step 3 Click Delete.

A confirmation message appears.

Step 4 Click OK.

---

Viewing User-Defined Collector Groups

This section explains how to view the group and membership details and refresh the same.

•Viewing Collector Group Details

•Viewing Membership Details

•Refreshing User-Defined Collector Group Membership

Viewing Collector Group Details

The Property Details page displays the group details.

To view the collector group details:

---

Step 1 Go to LMS Portal and select Internetwork Performance Monitor > Collector Management > Group Administration.

The Group Administration page appears.

Step 2 Select the group for which you want to view details from the Group Selector pane.

Step 3 Click Details.

The Property Details page appears. For more information, see Table 6-7.

Table 6-7 Viewing Collector Group Details

Field/Button	Description
Group Name	Name of the group you are viewing.
Parent Group	Parent group of the group you are viewing.
Type	Type of the objects that belong to the group.
Description	Text description of the group.
Membership Update	How group membership is updated.
Created By	Person who created the group. This also displays the time when it was created.
Last Modified By	Last person to modify the group. This also displays the time when it was modified.
Rules	Rules used to filter group membership.
Visibility Scope	Indicates whether the group is Public (visible to all users) or Private (visible only for the group owner).
View Parent Rules	Allows you to view the parent group rules. All parent group rules apply to the subgroups.
Membership Details	Allows you to view the membership details.
Cancel	Takes you back to the Group Administration page.

---

Viewing Membership Details

The Property Details page allows you to view a list of the objects that belong to a group.

To view the membership details:

---

Step 1 Go to LMS Portal and select Internetwork Performance Monitor > Collector Management > Group Administration.

The Group Administration page appears.

Step 2 Select the group for which you want to view details from the Group Selector pane.

Step 3 Click Details.

The Property Details page appears.

Step 4 Click Membership Details.

The Membership Details page appears. For more information, see Table 6-8.

Table 6-8 Viewing Membership Details

Field/Button	Description
Name	Name of the device.
Object Type	Type of object.
Property Details	Takes you back to the Property Details page.
Cancel	Takes you back to the Group Administration page.

---

Refreshing User-Defined Collector Group Membership

Refreshing a group's membership forces the group to recompute its membership by reevaluating its rules and obtaining membership information from the data available.

To refresh the membership of the group:

---

Step 1 Go to LMS Portal and select Internetwork Performance Monitor > Collector Management > Group Administration.

The Group Administration page appears.

Step 2 Select the group for which you want to view details from the Group Selector pane.

Step 3 Click Refresh to refresh the membership of the selected group.

The Refresh Group Confirmation dialog box appears.

Step 4 Click OK.

A message appears that the selected group membership has been refreshed.

Or

Click Cancel to return to the Group Administration page.

---

Operation-Based Collector Groups (System-Defined)

The operation-based collector groups are predefined groups available with IPM by default. They are also referred as system-defined collector groups.

The various operation-based collector groups available are Echo, Path Echo, UDP Echo, ICMP Jitter, UDP Jitter, Call Setup Post Dial Delay, Gatekeeper Registration Delay, RTP, DNS, DHCP, HTTP, FTP, DLSW, TCP Connect, Ethernet Jitter, Ethernet Ping, Ethernet Jitter Auto IP SLA and Ethernet Ping Auto IP SLA.

You can perform the following tasks on operation-based collector groups:

•Viewing Operation-Based Collector Details

•Refreshing Operation-Based Collector Groups

To view the details of an operation-based collector group:

---

Step 1 Go to LMS Portal and select Internetwork Performance Monitor > Collector Management > Group Administration.

The Group Administration page appears.

Step 2 Select the default operation name from the Group Selector pane for which you want to view the collector group details.

Step 3 Click Details.

The system-defined collector group details appear.

Step 4 Click Membership Details to know the membership details of this system-defined collector group.

The Membership Details page appear.

---

To refresh the membership of an operation-based group:

---

Step 1 Go to LMS Portal and select Internetwork Performance Monitor > Collector Management > Group Administration.

The Group Administration page appears.

Step 2 Select the group for which you want to view details from the Group Selector pane.

Step 3 Click Refresh to refresh the membership of the selected group.

The Refresh Group Confirmation dialog box appears.

Step 4 Click OK.

A message appears that the selected group membership has been refreshed.

Or

Click Cancel to return to the Group Administration page.

---