PRTG Manual: Device Groups
If your network contains a lot of devices, it can be helpful to organize your devices into smaller groups that can be viewed and managed separately. By default, UVexplorer provides many built-in device groups that represent common types of devices found on a network, such as ‘All Devices’, ’All Core Devices’, ‘All SNMP Devices’, ‘Switches’, ‘Printers’, etc. UVexplorer also provides built-in device groups for subnets, VLANs, wireless devices, and virtual devices. After selecting a device group on the left, you can then select the ‘Devices’ tab at the bottom to view a list of devices in the group, and all of the inventory information for each device. After selecting a device group on the left, you can also select the ‘Map’ tab at the bottom to view a topology map showing all the devices in the group and how they are connected.
While many of the device groups you will need are already provided by UVexplorer, you can also create custom device groups to represent collections of devices that are interesting and useful to you. For example, you could create a device group named ‘Servers’ that contains all of the server devices in your network. Or, you might create a device group named ‘Firewalls’ that contains all of the firewall devices in your network. By grouping related devices together, you can more easily view and otherwise manage those devices.
Device groups can be organized into folders, much like files can be organized into folders in a file system. By default, all device groups are in a folder named ‘Device Groups’, but additional folders can be created as needed. Each device group is in exactly one folder. Folders are organized into a hierarchy, with folders containing other folders to any number of levels. If you have a lot of device groups, folders can be very helpful in keeping them organized.
By default, all device groups are contained in a folder named ‘Device Groups’. Additional folders can be created by right-clicking on the parent folder, and selecting ‘Add Folder’. This will display a form that lets you enter a name for the new folder. A folder’s name cannot be empty. The new folder will be created in the specified parent folder.
To change the properties of a folder, do one of the following:
▪Double-click on the folder
▪Right-click on the folder, and select ‘Edit’ from the context menu
Both of these operations will display a form that lets you modify the name of the folder. A folder’s name cannot be empty.
To delete a folder, right-click on the folder and select ‘Delete’ from the context menu. This operation cannot be reversed, and deleting a folder will delete all folders and device groups contained within the folder, so make sure you really want to delete the folder. If you want to preserve the contents of the folder, move the folder’s contents to another folder before deleting it.
Moving Folders and Device Groups
To move a device group or folder to a different folder, simply click on the group or folder to be moved, and drag it to the folder you want to move it to.
To create a new device group, right-click on the folder that will contain the new group, and select ‘Add Device Group’ from the context menu. This will display the Device Group Editor, which lets you configure the new device group. See Device Group Editor for more details.
To change the properties of a device group, do one of the following:
▪Double-click on the device group
▪Right-click on the device group, and select ‘Edit’ from the context menu
Both of these operations will display the Device Group Editor, which lets you modify the properties of an existing device group. See Device Group Editor for more details.
To delete a device group, right-click on the group and select ‘Delete’ from the context menu. This operation cannot be reversed, so make sure you really want to delete the group.
Adding and Removing Devices To/From a Static Device Group
For static device groups, you manually add and remove devices to/from the group. There are several ways to add and remove group devices.
Here are the different ways you can add devices to a static device group:
▪Right-click on the device group in the Device Groups hierarchy, and select ‘Add Devices’ from the context menu.
▪Right-click on the device group’s connectivity map, and select ‘Add Devices’ from the context menu.
▪Right-click on the device group’s connectivity map, and select either ‘Add Connected’ or ‘Add Associated’ from the context menu. To perform these operations on all devices on the map, right-click on the map background (i.e., not a device). To perform these operations on a single device, right-click on the device.
Here are the different ways you can remove devices from a static device group:
▪Right-click on the device group in the Device Groups hierarchy, and select ‘Remove Devices’ from the context menu
▪Right-click on the device group’s connectivity map, and select ‘Remove Devices’ from the context menu
▪Right-click on the device group’s connectivity map, and select either ‘Remove Connected’ or ‘Remove Associated’ from the context menu. To perform these operations on all devices on the map, right-click on the map background (i.e., not a device). To perform these operations on a single device, right-click on the device.
▪Select one or more devices on the device group’s connectivity map, right-click on one of the selected devices, and select ‘Remove Selected’ from the context menu.
▪Select one or more devices on the device group’s connectivity map, press the DELETE key on your keyboard.
